From 70% incomplete to 30% closed: Abandoned cart recovery through WhatsApp

What if the biggest revenue killer in your Shopify store wasn't traffic but the customers who almost bought? This case study discusses how an e-commerce store succeeded in reducing cart abandonment with SayOne’s abandoned cart recovery flow.

Executive Summary

A mid-sized e-commerce store built on Shopify and dealing in fashion and accessories observed high store traffic. Even though many shoppers added products to the cart, they never completed checkouts, despite Shopify’s checkout emails. SayOne solved the store’s challenges by building a recovery flow using Klaviyo and Shopify. They observed a significant reduction in cart abandonment and revenue growth.

Challenges

With Shopify’s native recovery setup, the e-commerce store experienced the following challenges. High cart abandonment rate The store saw a cart abandonment rate of over 70%, which led to significant lost revenue. While the majority were mobile shoppers, they frequently abandoned due to small screens, complex checkout forms, or simple distractions.

Over-reliance on native tools

Shopify’s built-in abandoned checkout email feature only sends a single generic reminder one hour after abandonment. The lack of personalization and follow-up sequence kept recovery rates very low.

Low engagement

Even when email reminders were sent, the open rates were limited to 20-50%, leading to 2-5% click through rates and minimal conversions.

Revenue leakage

Despite healthy site traffic, solid conversion on completed checkouts, and attractive products, the high volume of abandoned carts translated into significant monthly revenue leakage.

The Solution

We addressed these challenges by integrating Shopify with Klaviyo and WhatsApp to trigger personalized recovery conversations in real time. The system solved the challenges in the following ways:-

Multi-step sequence

Instead of a single generic email, the store now runs a structured 3-4 touch sequence across email and WhatsApp. The layers include immediate gentle reminders, mid-term urgency-building messages with social proof, and final incentive-driven messages for re-engagement.

Omnichannel

Replaced low-visibility emails with WhatsApp as the main high-engagement channel, for first and follow-up, shifting to instant and conversational messaging.

Broader reach

The flow now captures and triggers on both "Added to Cart" and "Started Checkout" events, reaching anonymous browsers.

Personalized messaging

Every message is personalized by including dynamic cart items, images, tailored offers, and a friendly tone.

Smarter segmentation

High-value carts now receive premium offers automatically, while low-engagement users getlow-intensive follow-ups.

The implementation was completed in three weeks, during which we overcame the following challenges:

• WhatsApp required pre-approved templates, and delays in approval risked disrupting flows, which we overcame by submitting templates early and ensuring opt-in compliance for WhatsApp.
• We avoided saturating customers with duplicate messages by implementing branching logic in Klaviyo and monitoring unified analytics.
• Occasional lags in Shopify event syncing to Klaviyo were solved by monitoring sync frequency and adding buffer delays to prevent premature messaging.

Results

The abandoned cart recovery flow generated the following results post-implementation:

Recovered revenue

Recovered revenue from abandoned carts increased by 35%, directly contributing to incremental sales without increasing ad spend or acquisition costs.

Decrease in cart abandonment

The flow captured 30% of previously lost carts, meaning the store converted roughly one in every three to four abandonments into revenue.

Faster checkout

Average time from abandonment to purchase reduced from days to under 30 minutes, owing to the real-time messages.

Improved open rates

By using WhatsApp as the primary platform, the recovery open rates jumped from 15% via email to 90% on WhatsApp.

Reduced discount dependence

Discount usage in recovery flows dropped by 29% as personalized conversations resolved doubts without immediately relying on price reductions.

Improved repeat purchase rate

Repeat purchase rate increased by 16% as post-purchase WhatsApp engagement strengthened trust and encouraged future buying behavior.

Key Learnings

• Timing is an important factor in abandoned cart recovery, as sending a WhatsApp message within 30 minutes of cart abandonment resulted in higher conversions.

• Syncing Shopify cart data with Klaviyo and WhatsApp API needed careful mapping of events to avoid delayed or duplicated messages.

• The recovery flows should align with seasonal promotions, loyalty programs, and retargeting campaigns to maximize revenue.

Looking Ahead

With the increase in purchases, the e-commerce store is now expanding the WhatsApp channel into the post-purchase phase to drive higher customer lifetime value.

If you are struggling with similar cart abandonment challenges on Shopify, contact us to implement a Klaviyo abandoned cart flow enhanced with WhatsApp.