# What is Cart Abandonment?

What is Cart Abandonment? A customer added an item to the cart but didn't complete the purchase. Average: 70-75%. One of the biggest opportunities.

## How it works in practice

750 out of 1,000 are 'almost customers.' A 10% recovery equals 75 additional purchases with no extra advertising.

## Related metrics

- Abandoned Cart Email — the main tool
- Retargeting — advertising to abandoners
- Checkout Optimization — where abandonment happens
- BOFU — cart abandoners are BOFU

## Common misconception

'Everyone abandons — it's normal.' True that it's common, but not true that it can't be improved. 15-25% can be recovered.

## How to fix it

High abandonment? (1) a surprise shipping cost appearing only at checkout — reason #1, (2) mandatory account creation — a 30% drop, (3) more than 3 steps.

## Real-world example

An electronics store found that a $14 shipping fee only appeared at checkout. Adding it to the product page dropped abandonment from 73% to 61%.

## Where to start

Build an abandoned cart flow from day one: email 1 (1 hour) + email 2 (24 hours) + email 3 (72 hours + coupon).

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Category: Analytics · From the [Jimmy OS KPI Glossary](https://jimmy-os.com/glossary/kpi.md) · Source page: https://jimmy-os.com/glossary/kpi/cart-abandonment