70,19%: that is the average basket abandonment rate in e-commerce according to the Baymard Institute. For every 10 customers who add a product to their basket, 7 never complete the purchase. For a shop turning over 10 000€ a month, that is potentially 23 000€ of lost sales. The good news is that a large share of those baskets can be recovered with the right approach.
Why do customers abandon their basket, and what puts them off most often?
The eight main reasons for basket abandonment, ranked by frequency: unexpected delivery charges (48% of cases), being forced to create an account (26%), a checkout process that takes too long (22%), doubts about payment security (18%), delivery times that are too long (16%), a slow site or a technical bug (14%), an unsatisfactory returns policy (12%), and too few payment options (9%). Every one of those is fixable. Understanding why your customers leave is the first step: install Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity (heatmaps plus session recordings) to see exactly where they get stuck in your funnel.
A quick survey can also reveal the reasons behind abandonment. A post-visit pop-up asking "Why didn't you complete your purchase?" with three or four preset answers gives you qualitative data straight from potential customers. Combining analytics with a survey lets you prioritise the fixes that matter most without guessing.
Causes of abandonment by type of problem:
How do you optimise your checkout to cut basket abandonment?
An optimised checkout follows five fundamental rules. Rule 1: three steps maximum (details, delivery, payment). Every extra step cuts conversions by 10%. Rule 2: never force registration, guest checkout is essential (26% of abandonments are caused by having to create an account). Rule 3: show delivery charges from the product page onwards, not only at the checkout. Rule 4: offer Apple Pay and Google Pay (30% less friction on mobile). Rule 5: optimise for mobile, because 67% of abandonments happen on a smartphone.
The checkout improvement people often skip: the progress bar. Show clearly which step the customer is on and how many remain ("Step 2 of 3, delivery"). This one change reduces the anxiety of not knowing how long the process will take, and cuts mid-checkout abandonment by 15 to 25%.
The micro-commitment technique: ask for the email address first (an ultra-simple step 1), then the delivery details, then payment. Once a customer has entered their email they are psychologically committed and 40% less likely to abandon, and you have their email for a reminder even if they do not buy.
Payment methods you need to maximise conversions:
Which email sequence recovers abandoned baskets?
Email reminders are the most profitable way to recover abandoned baskets. On average they bring back 5 to 10% of them. The ideal sequence is three emails. Email 1 (1h after abandonment): a friendly reminder with the product image and a direct link back to the basket, 45% open rate, 8 to 10% conversion. Email 2 (24h later): gentle urgency with the product's benefits and customer reviews, 4 to 6% conversion. Email 3 (72h later): a 10% discount code valid for 24 hours, 3 to 5% conversion. Do not offer the discount too early, or customers will learn to abandon on purpose to get it.
Recovery rates per email in a well tuned sequence:
| Timing | Open rate | Conversion rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email 1 | 1h later | 45% | 8 to 10% |
| Email 2 | 24h later | 30% | 4 to 6% |
| Email 3 | 72h later | 25% | 3 to 5% |
How do you use paid retargeting to win back visitors who abandoned?
Paid retargeting complements the email sequence by reaching visitors you cannot identify, the ones who left no email address. On Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram), build a custom audience of people who reached your payment page but never reached the confirmation page, then show them the exact product that was in their basket. On Google Display, reminder banners appear on partner sites. Recommended budget: 5 to 10€ a day to begin with. Average return on basket retargeting: 4 to 10×. Combine it with an exit-intent pop-up, which detects when a visitor is about to leave and shows a last-chance offer, converting 3 to 5%.
The ideal anti-abandonment combination:
This combination recovers 15 to 22% of abandoned baskets on average, depending on the sector, which is a return of 10 to 20× on the ads budget spent on retargeting.
Frequently asked questions about recovering abandoned baskets
What is the average basket abandonment rate in France?
The average sits between 69 and 72% depending on the sector. Mobile runs higher (around 80%) than desktop (around 65%). With all the improvements described here, a realistic target is to get below 60%. Anything under 55% is excellent.
Is free delivery essential for an online shop?
Not necessarily on every order, but a free delivery threshold is close to essential, because hidden charges account for 48% of abandonments. Set that threshold 20 to 30% above your average basket to encourage upselling (if your average basket is 40€, set free delivery at 50€). An alternative if you cannot offer free delivery: show the real delivery cost very early in the journey, right from the product page through a shipping calculator, and offer discounted collection-point delivery as the headline option. Complete transparency removes the nasty surprise at the checkout, which is the leading cause of abandonment.
Do you need complex technology to set up abandoned basket emails?
No. Tools such as Klaviyo, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue) and Mailchimp offer automated abandoned basket sequences with native Shopify and WooCommerce integrations, and they can be configured in a few hours. If your site is custom built, a light integration is enough.
How do you check whether your basket reminders actually work?
The best indicator is your "recovery rate": orders generated by basket reminder emails divided by the total number of abandoned baskets. A rate of 5 to 10% is normal. If yours is below 3%, the likely causes are: an email sent too late (wait no more than an hour for the first one), a first subject line that is too salesy (prefer something like "Oops, you left something behind"), a broken link back to the basket, or emails landing in spam (check your deliverability score with Mail-Tester). A real ConvertiLab example: an organic cosmetics shop had a 74% abandonment rate and no reminders at all. After putting the 3-email sequence plus Meta Ads retargeting in place (an 8€ daily budget), it now recovers 12% of abandoned baskets, worth 2 1490€ of extra revenue every month, with no change to its traffic or its products.
