Cart Recovery Automation

Cart Recovery Automation

On average, 60-70% of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout is completed. IPTVbp includes a built-in cart recovery system that automatically emails customers who leave items in their cart, bringing a significant portion of them back to complete their purchase.

How Cart Recovery Works

1. A visitor adds a product to their cart and enters their email (either at cart or during checkout).
2. If they leave without completing the purchase, the cart is marked as abandoned after a configurable timeout (default: 30 minutes of inactivity).
3. IPTVbp's cron job detects the abandoned cart and schedules recovery emails.
4. Recovery emails are sent at configurable intervals with a direct link back to the customer's cart.
5. When the customer clicks the link, their cart is restored and they can complete checkout.

Setting Up Cart Recovery

Go to Settings > Cart > Recovery to configure:

Enable/Disable

Toggle cart recovery on or off. When disabled, no abandoned cart emails are sent.

Timing

Configure when recovery emails are sent:

Email	Default Timing	Purpose
Email 1	30 minutes after abandonment	Quick reminder while interest is high
Email 2	24 hours after abandonment	Follow-up for those who got distracted
Email 3	72 hours after abandonment	Final attempt, often includes incentive

You can adjust these intervals or disable any of the three emails individually.

Email Content

Each recovery email is customisable:

• Subject line: Use personalisation tokens like {customer_name} and {product_name}.
• Body: Markdown-supported content with a built-in cart recovery button.
• Incentive: Optionally include a discount code in the second or third email.

Discount Incentive Strategy

A common and effective pattern:

• Email 1 (30 min): Simple reminder, no discount. "You left something in your cart."
• Email 2 (24 hours): Mention scarcity or urgency. "Your cart is waiting -- but items may sell out."
• Email 3 (72 hours): Include a discount code. "Here is 10% off to complete your order: COMEBACK10."

This approach avoids giving away discounts too early while still recovering customers who need an extra push.

Recovery Email Templates

IPTVbp provides default templates that work well out of the box. Here is what a typical Email 1 looks like:

Subject: You left something in your cart at {store_name}

Body:

Hi {customer_name},

It looks like you were about to grab {product_name} but did not complete your order.

No worries -- your cart is saved and ready for you.

Complete Your Order

If you have questions or need help, just reply to this email.

Cheers, {store_name} Team

Personalisation Tokens

Available tokens for email subjects and bodies:

Token	Value
{customer_name}	Customer's name (or "there" if unknown)
{customer_email}	Customer's email
{product_name}	Name of the first product in cart
{cart_total}	Total cart value formatted with currency
{recovery_link}	Direct link to restore the cart
{store_name}	Your store name
{discount_code}	Discount code (if configured)

Cart Expiry

Carts that are not recovered expire after a configurable period (default: 7 days). Once expired:

• The cart data is archived.
• Recovery emails stop.
• The customer would need to start a new cart.

Configure at Settings > Cart > Expiry.

Analytics

The cart recovery dashboard (Analytics > Cart Recovery) shows:

• Carts created: Total carts started in the period.
• Carts abandoned: Number that were abandoned.
• Recovery emails sent: Broken down by Email 1, 2, 3.
• Carts recovered: Number of abandoned carts that were completed after a recovery email.
• Recovery rate: Percentage of abandoned carts recovered (industry average is 5-15%).
• Revenue recovered: Total value of recovered carts.

Optimisation Tips

• Capture email early: Ask for the email address when adding to cart (not just at checkout). IPTVbp's cart system collects the email at add-to-cart time.
• Send Email 1 quickly: The 30-minute window catches customers while they still remember your service.
• Keep it short: Recovery emails should be 2-3 sentences, not a marketing essay.
• Mobile-friendly: Most customers will open recovery emails on their phone. Keep the design simple.
• Test subject lines: Try different approaches (question vs. statement vs. urgency) and track open rates.
• Do not over-discount: Only use discount codes in the third email, and keep them modest (5-10%).

Technical Details

Cart recovery runs on two cron jobs:

1. Process Abandoned Carts -- runs every 30 minutes. Identifies carts that have been inactive past the threshold and marks them as abandoned.
2. Send Cart Recovery Emails -- runs every 30 minutes. Checks for abandoned carts that are due for a recovery email and sends them.

Both cron jobs run on the backend server and log their activity for troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting

Recovery emails not sending:

• Check that cart recovery is enabled in settings.
• Verify SMTP/email settings are configured correctly.
• Check the cron job logs for errors.
• Ensure the customer provided an email address (anonymous carts cannot receive recovery emails).

Recovery link not working:

• Verify your store domain is correctly configured.
• If using a custom domain, ensure the recovery URL uses the custom domain, not the platform URL.
• Check that the cart has not expired.