Why are active carts not showing as abandoned?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Active carts reflect shoppers adding items, while “abandoned checkouts” only occur after someone starts checkout (enters name/email) and leaves before paying. Without an email captured, no abandoned checkout email can be sent.

Likely cause: visitors are not reaching the checkout step, so carts remain “active” but don’t become abandoned checkouts. Low traffic also means you shouldn’t expect many orders or abandoned checkouts.

Recommended actions:

  • Confirm the Abandoned Checkout flow is enabled (Shopify help link provided).
  • Run a test: start checkout with name/email, abandon, and verify the abandoned email is received; then click it and complete the order to confirm the flow works.
  • If traffic is healthy but conversions are low, assess trust factors (reviews/testimonials, professional look/feel) and ensure shipping costs and delivery times are clear to avoid surprise fees late in checkout.

Status: Guidance provided; no confirmation of resolution from the original poster.

Summarized with AI on January 25. AI used: gpt-5.
1

I got active carts, but no abandoned carts right after

2

If someone adds something to the cart it would be an active cart. If they start the checkout process (enter email, name) and then disappear before completing purchase, it would be an abandoned checkout. Ie if an email isn’t entered, there’s no way to send an abandoned checkout “complete order” email.

you can check here to make sure you have abandoned checkout flow enabled, but it’s likely the case that they aren’t getting to the abandoned checkout point. It’s not unusual for people to add stuff to a cart and no do anything to complete purchase, but if you have lots of these and nobody is purchasing, need to look at possible reasons why.

  • start an order (enter name and email) and then abandon the cart and see if you get an email.

  • if that works, click the email and then complete the order to make sure that works. (You can cancel it then)

  • if all that works and you have lots of site visitors (don’t expect an order or abandoned check it with 25 visitors) then look at what would drive folks not to complete an order.

  • lack of trust (do you have reviews, testimonials)

  • does the site look and feel legit

  • are shipping costs and delivery time clear vs a surprise at end of checkout? (You’d have abandoned carts if they made it this far)

hope helps GLTU

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