Automations and abandoned cart

An automation sends emails on its own when something happens: a new contact, a purchase, a new tag, or a visitor who leaves your checkout without paying. You set it up once, and it runs for every contact.

Automations use the sender of your campaigns: connect and verify your sending domain first, as shown in Send an email campaign. Only your Subscribed contacts receive the emails.

Create an automation

1. In the left menu, open Marketing > Automations, then click New automation.

2. Pick a template, or Start from scratch for an empty flow:

   • Welcome: one email to each new contact.
   • Review request: one email 7 days after a purchase.
   • Upsell: one email 3 days after a purchase, then a reminder 3 days later to those who didn’t click it.
   • Abandoned cart: one email to a visitor who left your checkout, then a second one a day later if they still haven’t bought.

   

   The automation opens in the builder. It starts Inactive: nothing is sent yet.

3. In When it starts, at the top of the flow, choose the trigger:

   • New contact: a purchase, a free download or a form in one of your funnels. A contact you import or add by hand doesn’t start it. Each contact goes through it once.
   • After a purchase: each paid order.
   • Tag added: when a tag is put on a contact, by you or by Shoplit. Pick the tag in the menu below. Each contact goes through it once.
   • Abandoned cart: a visitor who left your checkout. See the next section.

4. Build the flow with the Blocks on the right: drag a block into the flow, or click a block, then a + in the flow. You can also click a + first and pick the block there.

   • Email: sends an email.
   • Wait: waits a number of minutes, hours or days.
   • Condition: checks the contact (has the tag, does not have the tag, opened the email, clicked the email, is a buyer or spent more than (EUR)) and splits the flow into Yes and No.
   • Add tag and Remove tag: change the contact’s tags.
   • End: stops the flow.

   

   Point at a block to Duplicate or Delete it, or drag it by its handle to move it. Condition and End blocks can’t be duplicated, and a Condition block has no handle, so it can’t be moved.

5. On each Email block, click Edit email, write the Subject and the text, then click Done. Personalize and the AI field work like in a campaign. Send me a test sends the email to the address of your account.

6. Turn the switch at the top right to Active, then click Save.

   

Done keeps your changes in the builder: they’re saved for good when you click Save. Cancel closes the email without keeping what you just changed in it. Send me a test and the Tracking button of an email save the automation too. If saving fails, Could not save. Try again. shows next to Save: nothing was saved and no test was sent, so try again. Later, the switch in the Status column of Automations turns an automation on or off right away.

Send reminders to visitors who leave your checkout

A visitor who types their email at checkout and leaves without paying can get your reminders, but only if they agreed to it themselves.

1. Create an automation with the Abandoned cart template, or choose Abandoned cart in When it starts.

2. In the box under the trigger, Send … after the cart is abandoned, choose when the first email goes out, for example after 1 hour. It goes up to 7 days. To write later than that, add a Wait block after the first email.

3. If the builder shows Cart recovery needs checkout capture, click Turn it on. It’s saved right away. Your checkout will ask for first name, last name and email once step 4 is done. You can also turn it on in Settings > Email Marketing: in the Abandoned cart capture card, tick Ask for first name, last name and email on my checkout (needed for cart recovery).

   

4. In Settings > Email Marketing, tick Show a marketing consent checkbox on my checkout and choose Unchecked (opt-in). See Collect emails and find your contacts.

5. Back in your automation, turn it Active and click Save.

When everything is set, the builder says Checkout capture is on. under the trigger.

Only visitors who tick the box get reminders

Emailing someone who didn’t buy needs their active consent. Only the visitors who tick the consent box themselves at checkout get your reminders. With no box, or with a pre-checked box (Pre-checked (opt-out)), no reminder goes out and the first name, last name and email fields stay hidden at checkout. If capture is on, the builder then warns you under the trigger, No recovery email will go out yet, with an Open settings link. While capture is off, it shows the Turn it on box of step 3 instead. The Unchecked (opt-in) mode also applies to your buyers: only those who tick the box are subscribed.

A visitor who ticked the box is added to your contacts as Subscribed when their first reminder is due. A visitor who buys before that gets no reminder.

Sending limit

The emails of your automations count toward your monthly sending limit, shared with your campaigns. When you reach it, your automations stop sending until the next month, and the emails planned in between aren’t sent later. See Send an email campaign.

Related articles

• Collect emails and find your contacts
• Organize your contacts with tags
• Send an email campaign