How to recover abandoned carts with push notifications

Over 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout, making cart abandonment one of the biggest leaks in the e-commerce funnel. And yet, the potential sales volume waiting to be recovered is enormous.

In this blog post, we’ll explore how to send abandoned cart push notifications — fast, personalized, and proven to re-engage mobile shoppers and recover lost sales.

P.S. With Pushwoosh, it’s simple to automate these recovery flows across multiple channels and reduce cart abandonment while boosting sales. And we’ll show you how — dive in.

Why are push notifications the best way to recover abandoned carts?

Because they engage fast. The Pushwoosh study shows that in e-commerce & retail, push notifications achieve higher CTRs and stronger opt-in rates than many entertainment industries, especially on Android. This means potential buyers actually see and act on them. Immediacy is critical here: a cart reminder push lands directly on the lock screen, prompting mobile users to return and complete their purchase while their high purchase intent is still fresh.

Moreover, push notifications are most effective when they’re part of an omnichannel abandoned cart recovery strategy. If a user isn’t reachable via push or ignores it, you can seamlessly follow up with abandoned cart emails, SMS, WhatsApp, or in-app messages — cross-channel fallback ensures potential customers slip away in the buyer’s journey.

Before you start: Maximize opt-ins

No abandoned cart campaign can succeed if your audience doesn’t see your messages. That’s why your push notifications opt-in rate is the foundation of the abandoned cart strategy.

If your opt-in rate is below the benchmark, it’s worth a quick fix before launching recovery flows. To secure opt-in, request permissions after a positive in-app action (like signing in or adding a first item to cart) and use a pre-permission screen to explain the benefits (exclusive deals, delivery updates, back-in-stock alerts).

Source: Zara

Even a small improvement in your opt-in rate means more abandoned cart notifications delivered — and less lost revenue from shoppers abandoning their carts.

Step 1. Set the workflow with the right triggers & timing

An abandoned cart recovery campaign starts with the right event trigger:

The setup is simple but effective: If a shopper adds an item to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase within a set period, the recovery communication begins.

Acting quickly is key, so don’t miss the critical window when purchase intent is still fresh. Delays of more than a few hours significantly reduce the chance of recovery.

The best practice is to send:

• 1st reminder: within 1 hour → a simple reminder while the abandoned product is top of mind.
• 2nd reminder: within 24 hours → create urgency with incentives like a coupon code.
• 3rd reminder: within 3 days → final push, possibly with a promo or alternative suggestion.

Here’s how this automated flow can look in Pushwoosh Customer Journey Builder, with event-based triggers and time delays:

Step 2. Identify intent & segment for better push performance

Not all abandoned carts carry the same intent. Some potential customers genuinely plan to buy but drop off during the checkout process, while others use their cart as a temporary wishlist or a comparison board. To recover lost sales effectively, you need to treat these groups differently.

Here’s how you can build these segments based on behavior:

High-intent abandoners

Target users who have at least one abandoned product in their cart without completing a purchase AND have viewed a checkout page or have a history as repeat customers:

Wishlist users

Target users who have several items in the cart without completing a purchase AND haven’t seen a checkout page or don’t have a purchase history:

Once segmented, you can run separate automated communication flows (as shown in Step 1) but tailor the message style:

This way, your abandoned cart push notifications feel relevant and realistic, boosting conversion rates instead of sounding like generic blasts.

Step 3. Master personalized copy

The content of your abandoned cart push notifications matters as much as the timing. Here’s how you can make your cart recovery reminders more personal (and powerful):

Mention the exact item left in the cart

Not sure how to do it? Pushwoosh’s Dynamic content + Rich media features are here to help you automatically insert any data you need — product names, favorite items, sizes, colors, even product images — so every reminder feels relevant to potential buyers.

Offer a promo code — auto-applied

Motivate price-sensitive buyers with a coupon code automatically applied in their cart, making it effortless to complete the purchase.

For one-time unique discounts, you can use Connected content to insert promo codes generated by your backend service.

Create urgency with highly relevant alerts

Source: Temu

Send messages when the price of an abandoned product changes, stock runs low, or when the item is back in stock.

These events occur outside the app, so this is where API-based entry comes in handy: it allows you to send notifications to users interested in the item at the exact moment the event is triggered in your internal systems.

Step 4. Enable сross-сhannel fallback

As we already mentioned, push notifications are only one part of a strong abandoned cart recovery strategy. To maximize conversions, it’s best to combine push with other channels, such as email, in-app messaging, WhatsApp, or SMS.

Here’s what an omnichannel abandoned cart recovery flow can look like in Pushwoosh.

If your push notifications aren’t opened within a set time, the flow automatically continues with a follow-up on another channel. This way, every shopper gets reminded on the channel they’re most likely to engage with, without duplicate messages.

Step 5. Test & optimize for maximum conversions

Don’t rely solely on best practices — trust your customers. Their clicks will tell you what drives the best conversion rate.

To understand what works best for your specific audience, run A/B/n tests across every element of your abandoned cart recovery flow, for example:

• Message copy: playful vs. urgent
• Offers: free shipping vs. discount code
• Timing: 1 hour vs. 3 hours after cart abandonment
• Channels: push vs. email
• Frequency: two reminders vs. three reminders

Once tests are live, track performance — CTRs, conversions, recovered revenue — and feed those insights back into your campaigns for optimization.

The key to maximizing results is continuous adjustment, not a one-time setup.

Reduce abandoned carts with Pushwoosh

Abandoned cart push notifications are one of the most effective ways to recover lost sales. With Pushwoosh, you can automate the entire flow, personalize messages with customer data, and combine push notifications with other channels for a powerful, omnichannel abandoned cart recovery strategy that boosts sales.