How to Use Mailchimp to Recover Abandoned Carts

The short answer: connect a supported store, build a flow from scratch on the Abandons cart trigger, set the wait time and a segment filter, add a Send email step with the cart template, test it, and turn it on. On Essentials a flow holds up to 4 steps, enough for one cart email and a reminder; branching and a holdout split need Standard (automation flows).

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The job is narrow and worth doing well: a shopper puts something in the cart, leaves at checkout, and gets a reminder that links straight back to that cart. Everything below follows Mailchimp's help centre. For the plans and prices, see the Mailchimp glossary entry.

Check these three things:

1. What the extra plan level costs you. For example, 2,000 contacts sit in the 1,501 to 2,500 tier: $45 a month on Essentials or $60 on Standard, on the pricing page checked on 24 October 2026. The $60 - $45 = $15 difference buys conditional splits, percentage splits and up to 200 steps per flow.
2. That your store supports the trigger. Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Adobe Commerce and PrestaShop support Mailchimp's e-commerce features; BigCommerce does not support abandoned cart automation (store connection). In Mailchimp, the Integrations page lists Abandoned cart email among each integration's features when it is supported.
3. How you will know it worked. Note your store's checkout completion rate for the last month. On Standard, a percentage split can send part of the traffic down a path with no email, which gives you a comparison you can trust more than the flow's own revenue line.

Building the flow

Connect the store first

Connecting is free on Free and paid accounts alike; Shopify uses the Mailchimp for Shopify app, WooCommerce its own plugin, and a custom store can use the Marketing API 3.0 (store connection). Without a connected and supported store, or a custom API 3.0 integration, there is no abandoned cart trigger to choose (abandoned cart article).

Set the trigger

1. Click the Automations icon, then Build from scratch.
2. Name the flow and choose the audience.
3. Click Choose a trigger, then Shopping Activity, then Abandons cart, or Abandons cart with specific products if only some products justify a reminder.
4. Pick the store, and in Customer Cart Contains choose Any Products or Specific Products.
5. Set the Abandoned Cart Wait Time in hours, days or weeks.
6. To limit who enters, click Filter who can enter this flow and use up to 10 segment conditions. Then Save Trigger.

All six come from the abandoned cart article. Two limits are easy to miss there: this trigger cannot be combined with another one in the same flow, and flow triggers only react to events that happen after the flow is switched on (automation flows).

Add the cart email

Drag the Send email action into the map, or use the plus icon. In the pop-up, rename the email and edit To & From, Subject, Schedule and Tracking, then click Select a Template. Mailchimp adds a Cart content block with the shopper's items and a Button block that links back to their cart; keep both, then edit the rest and click Save and return to flow (abandoned cart article).

Add a second touch, if your plan allows it

A Time delay rule followed by a second Send email step makes a two-email sequence within Essentials' 4 steps. On Standard, a conditional split with up to 5 conditions can send a different message to first-time and returning customers, and a percentage split can hold part of the traffic back as a control (automation flows).

Let Intuit AI write it, if your account qualifies

Mailchimp's Recover abandoned carts flow template can generate a fully designed, on-brand email from your brand kit with Intuit AI: under Automations, open Flow templates, choose an AI-powered flow, select the audience and store, and click Continue (Intuit AI flows). The AI drafts the email; a person reads it before the flow is turned on, checking the discount, the tone and every product claim. The conditions are strict: Standard or higher, English only, a beta, and a primary account address in the United States. For an EU-registered business the step does not exist yet, so write the email by hand.

Test, then turn it on

Send yourself the email through a test cart in your own store, then click Continue and Turn On. Once a flow is active, Mailchimp asks you to pause it before editing (automation flows).

Who receives the first email, and the law on it

Mailchimp sends the abandoned cart email to any contact who abandons a cart; further Send email steps reach only subscribed contacts, and the rest pass through the flow without receiving them (abandoned cart article). In the EU that first email is where the law decides. Article 13(1) of the ePrivacy Directive allows email for direct marketing only with prior consent, and Article 13(2) makes an exception only for customers whose details were obtained in the context of a sale, for the seller's own similar products (consolidated text on EUR-Lex). The Dutch regulator ACM applies the same rule and expects you to be able to prove consent (ACM). Whether a cart reminder to a shopper who never subscribed counts as direct marketing is a question for your counsel; the simple fix is a filter on the trigger that admits subscribed contacts only.

What the help centre warns about

• One trigger per flow. The abandoned cart trigger cannot share a flow with another trigger.
• No retroactive entries. Carts abandoned before the flow was active never enter it.
• SMS has its own rules. Abandoned cart SMS needs an approved SMS Marketing program, double opt-in on the connected audience, updated terms and privacy policy, and only 1 message per cart within 48 hours (abandoned cart article).
• Unsupported stores. On BigCommerce the trigger is not available at all.

The help article on connecting a store opens with a figure: users who set up the abandoned cart automation earn an average of $619 in extra revenue a month (store connection). A vendor's average across its customers is a sales argument, not a forecast for your shop. Your checkout rate before and after, or the percentage split, is the number to trust.

FAQ

Can the flow send more than one SMS per cart?

No. Mailchimp allows 1 SMS per abandoned cart, sent within 48 hours of the contact entering the flow, per its abandoned cart article. Email steps have no such limit beyond your plan's step count.

Why did someone who never subscribed get the cart email?

Because Mailchimp sends the first abandoned cart email to any contact who abandons a cart, and only later email steps are limited to subscribed contacts. Add a segment filter on the trigger if you want subscribers only.

Which stores can use the trigger?

Supported integrations such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, Adobe Commerce and PrestaShop, or a custom Marketing API 3.0 store; BigCommerce cannot, per the store connection article. The Integrations page in your account shows whether Abandoned cart email is listed for yours.