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5 Best Woocommerce Abandoned Cart Plugins: A Detailed Comparison (Free and Premium)

Editorial Team
October 4, 2024
5 Best Woocommerce Abandoned Cart Plugins: A Detailed Comparison (Free and Premium)

Are you looking for a reliable WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin? 

According to the Baymard Institute, almost 70% of people abandon their cart in the middle for various reasons. 

However, with follow-up emails, you can recover a large chunk of these lost sales. 

Unfortunately, WooCommerce doesn’t have built-in features to track cart abandonment or send recovery notifications. 

For this, you will need an abandoned WooCommerce cart plugin. 

In this blog, we will share a list of the top 5 WooCommerce abandoned carts plugins, along with key features and pricing. 

Let's jump in!

Overview of Top 5 WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Plugin Comparison 

Short on time?

Check out this quick comparison of the top WooCommerce abandoned cart plugins at a glance 👇

TopicFunnelkit AutomationsRetainfulWooCommerce Cart Abandonment RecoveryAbandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce
Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce
Cart abandonment tracking 
Follow-up email automation
Visual builder
Email A/B testing 
SMS notification
Dynamic discount coupon
Exit Intent popup for cart recovery 
Cart recovery push notification 
In-depth analytics 
Control from the WordPress dashboard 
Free version
Premium pricing $99.50 / year$228/ year.N/A$149 / Yearly$79/ Year

Why Do People Abandon Carts in the Middle? 

You might wonder why someone would add items to their cart only to abandon it midway. Well, there are many reasons. Here are some of the common reasons why people abandon the cart: 

Why people abandon their cart
  • High shipping costs

Unexpected or excessive shipping fees can significantly deter customers at checkout. When shoppers see a total that’s much higher than anticipated due to shipping costs, they often abandon their carts in search of better deals elsewhere. 

  • Unexpected taxes and fees

High taxes, hidden charges, or any other unexpected fees can catch customers off guard, leading them to leave their carts without completing the purchase. This is extremely common, especially if the taxes and fees are too high. 

  • Account creation required

About 24% of customers abandon their carts because they are asked to create an account before completing their purchase. Asking for account creation during checkout complicates the process and hinders shoppers' buying momentum, resulting in cart abandonment. 

  • Complicated checkout Process

Around 17% of people abandon their carts due to lengthy or unclear checkout procedures. If customers are required to fill out extensive forms or encounter unclear instructions, they may get frustrated and opt to leave rather than complete their purchase. 

  • Limited payment options

Another common reason for cart abandonment is that customers can’t find their preferred payment methods. Whether it’s credit cards, local payment options, or Buy Now Pay Later, etc., if users can’t find a payment option that's convenient for them, they may leave at the last minute without completing the purchase. 

  • Change of mind 

Shoppers may change their minds about a purchase, leading them to leave their carts behind. Sometimes, they can also get distracted by a phone call, a notification, or simply a shift in priorities. Such distractions can also result in cart abandonment.

  • Website performance issues

Slow-loading pages or technical glitches can frustrate users and cause them to abandon their carts. If customers experience delays or errors while shopping, they are more likely to lose patience and leave the site, leaving the order in the middle. 

Along with the mentioned reasons, factors like sudden changes in the order, declined credit cards, or unsatisfactory return policy can also lead to cart abandonment. 

Now you know why people abandoned their carts. While you can reduce the cart abandonment rate, and we will talk about this later in the blog, it’s also important that you put effort into recovering the lost carts. 

Why, you ask?

Well, to save up the money and effort it took the customer to come to your site and get to the checkout process. 

Now, one can think, is it even possible to get the customers who left to come back and complete the purchase? 

The good news is it's absolutely possible. 

You can recover lost carts using different methods. Find out more details in the next section. 

Can You Recover Abandoned Carts in WooCommerce? 

Recovering abandoned carts is not only possible but also a crucial strategy for boosting WooCommerce sales. 

Here are some methods that you can use to recover abandoned carts

  • Email reminders

Sending follow-up emails to remind customers about their abandoned carts can be highly effective. With email notifications, you can get 10.7% of abandoned carts to complete their purchase.

  • SMS Notifications

Like emails, you can also utilize SMS notifications to remind customers about their abandoned carts, which can be a powerful tool. According to TextMagic, SMS messages have a staggering 98% open rate, making it a highly effective way to reach potential customers. 

  • Incentives and discounts

Offering discounts or incentives can motivate customers to complete their purchases. A study by Omnisend found that cart abandonment emails with discounts have a 14% higher conversion rate compared to those without. Even a small discount can sway customers back to finalize their order.

  • Utilizing exit-intent popups

Implementing exit-intent popups can capture customers' attention just before they leave the site. According to OptinMonster, exit-intent popups can increase conversions by up to 15%. Offering a last-minute discount or capturing their email for follow-up can be very effective.

  • Web and app push notifications

Integrating push notifications allows you to send real-time reminders to customers who have abandoned their carts. This method can effectively re-engage users and remind them of their pending purchases, leading to a higher recovery rate.

These are some effective ways you can use to recover abandoned carts. However, you'll need a WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin to put these strategies into action.

Move to the next section to find out the things you need to look for in an effective WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin. 

Key Features to Look For in a WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Plugin

Accurate abandoned cart tracking

Ensure the plugin offers robust cart tracking capabilities.

It should allow you to set up when a cart is considered abandoned when to exclude customers from cart abandonment tracking, if the order was placed days ago, and so on. 

Email and SMS Notifications

The ability to send automated email and SMS notifications to remind customers about their abandoned carts is crucial.

Look for plugins that support email and SMS marketing, so you don’t need to rely on separate add-ons. 

Enhanced visual email builder

To get the most out of email reminder notifications, you need to create visually stunning emails.

For this, make sure your WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin has a user-friendly, drag-and-drop visual builder, essential for designing attractive and professional-looking emails. 

Dynamic discount coupon options

The plugin should allow you to create dynamic discounts based on customer behavior or cart value.

Offering personalized incentives can significantly increase the chances of recovering abandoned carts and converting potential customers into buyers.

Email A/B testing 

The plugin should have the feature to split-test your abandoned cart recovery email campaigns.

The ability to try out different email subject lines, preview text, content, discount, etc., helps you to identify exactly what resonates best with your audience. 

Integration with exit-intent popup plugins

Ensure compatibility with exit-intent popup plugins to capture potential customers who are about to leave your site.

This integration allows you to combine strategies, such as offering last-minute discounts or capturing emails, to enhance your cart recovery efforts.

Integration with web push notification platforms

Look for plugins that integrate with web push notification platforms.

These allow you to send web push notifications on your browser and app to people who abandoned their carts, reminding them to complete the purchase.

In-depth analytics

Look for a plugin that provides detailed analytics and reporting features. These should include metrics like recoverable cart, items ordered, date of cart abandonment, etc. 

You should also have access to recovered cart details and lost cart details, which will give you a complete picture of how your marketing campaigns are performing. 

Control from WordPress Dashboard

A seamless integration with your WordPress dashboard is important for managing settings, monitoring performance, and making adjustments on the fly.

This centralized control ensures you can easily access all necessary functionalities without leaving your website.

By choosing a WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin that incorporates these features, you can effectively minimize cart abandonment and maximize your sales potential.

5 WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Plugin 

We have put together a list of the best 5 WooCommerce abandoned cart plugins along with key features. Have a look.

1. FunnelKit Automations 

5 Best Woocommerce Abandoned Cart Plugins: A Detailed Comparison (Free and Premium)

FunnelKit Automations is a marketing CRM that helps you capture cart abandonment and recover lost sales through follow-up notifications, all managed directly from your WordPress dashboard. 

With this marketing automation tool, you can send both email and SMS notifications to get the customers to complete the abandoned cart. You can easily use the prebuilt recipes of FunnelKit Automations to send automated emails to users with or without a discount to recover them. 

As per the emails, you also get prebuilt beautiful email templates that are ready to use and easily customizable. 

In addition to email and SMS notifications, you can also incorporate exit intent pop-ups and web push notifications to recover abandoned carts. 

The best part? There is no limit to the number of cart abandonments you can track. Plus, you can send unlimited emails to unlimited contacts to skyrocket your abandoned cart recovery rate. 

Along with abandoned cart recovery, you can also send custom order notification emails, win-back emails, follow-up emails, product review emails, birthday emails, and anniversary emails to communicate with your customers and boost sales effectively.

Key features of this WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin:

  • Accurate cart abandonment tracking: Tracks cart abandonment perfectly. You can set the wait period, cool period, and lost period. You can also show a GDPR consent notice to users to inform them that you will email them if they abandon the cart. 
  • Email and SMS notification: Send unlimited emails with all the packages of FunnelKit Automations. You can also send an SMS notification using Twilio and BulkGate. 
  • Visual Email Builder: Use FunnelKit’s new visual builder to create visually stunning emails. You can add dynamic or store discount coupons using a coupon block in your email. Plus, you get a merge tag to dynamically add customer and abandoned cart information in your email to make it more personalized. You can also add a cart recovery link, allowing users to go to the checkout page with prepopulated abandoned items to complete the order quickly. 
  • Dynamic discount: This powerful tool allows you to create a dynamic discount coupon code. Add customer information to the coupon code to make it personalized. Plus, you can also add a conditional discount code. For instance, offer 10% off to complete the purchase only for people who had a product worth $300 on their cart.
  • Email split testing: Funnelkit Automations lets you A/B test your abandoned cart recovery emails. You can set up up to 3 different variants with different email subject lines and body content. 
  • Integration with exit intent popup: FunnelKit Automations is integrated with OptinMonster, a powerful lead-generation tool that reminds users to complete abandoned carts with an e4it intent popup. You can also offer a discount on a popup as an incentive to get them to complete the purchase. 
  • Integration with Web Push Notification Platforms:  FunnelKit Automations is perfectly integrated with the web push notification platform PushEngage to help recover abandoned carts with browser and app notifications. 
  • In-depth analytics: You get in-depth analytics of recoverable carts, recovered carts, and lost carts with customer details, as well as order details. Plus, for all the abandoned cart automations, you get sent rate, open rate, click rate, revenue, and so on.  
  • Control from WordPress dashboard: Every feature we have listed so far about FunnelKit automation can be controlled from the WordPress dashboard.
  • Pricing: A free version of FunnelKit Automations is available, which is good enough to track abandoned carts and send emails. The premium plans of this product start at $99.50 / year

2. Retainful

retainful - one of the best WooCommerce abandoend cart plugin

Retainful is an email marketing tool that supports abandoned cart recovery as well. It helps you to capture email addresses and grow your email list with sign-up forms & popups.

You can use either Javascript or PHP for your cart tracking engine. While it has a good enough WordPress plugin, you need to log in to the Retainful app dashboard to create, control, and monitor the abandoned cart recovery campaigns. 

Key Features of Retainful:

  • Cart Abandonment Tracking: Retainful tracks cart abandonment and lets you monitor which customers left without completing a purchase, allowing you to send follow-up reminders. But, you can’t set the wait, cool, and lost periods.
  • Email and SMS Notifications: Retainful enables sending a series of automated cart recovery emails to recover lost sales. However, it does not offer SMS notifications by default.
  • Visual Email Builder: You get a drag-and-drop email builder with this plugin. It also comes with many prebuilt email templates that are easily customizable.
  • Dynamic discount: You can generate dynamic coupons and add the code to your abandoned cart emails. 
  • Email A/B testing: You can A/B test your email subject line, content, CTA, etc, with this powerful WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin. 
  • Integration with Exit Intent Popups: Retainful doesn’t integrate with any e4it intent popup plugin. The plugin has a built-in feature of exit intent popups to capture customer email. 
  • Web Push Notifications: Retainful does not have built-in web push notification capabilities, so this feature is absent.
  • In-Depth Analytics: Retainful provides insights into your abandoned cart recovery rate and performance. It includes recoverable abandoned carts, order total, total revenue, etc. 
  • Control from WordPress Dashboard: You can manage all your abandoned cart recovery settings from the WordPress dashboard. However, you can’t control the email campaigns or view the analytics. 
  • Pricing: A free version is available with essential features. Premium starts at $19/month, costing around $228/ year. 

3. WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery

WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery plugin

WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery is a highly effective plugin designed to recover abandoned carts in WooCommerce stores.

This tool automatically captures abandoned carts and sends reminder emails to customers, encouraging them to complete their purchases.

Whether customers are logged in or checking out as guests, their carts are tracked and recovery emails are triggered. With customizable email templates, you can tailor the messaging to suit your brand’s voice and offer incentives like discount codes to boost conversions. 

Note: While this plugin is totally free, the features are also pretty limited compared to the premium plugins. 

Key Features of WooCommerce Cart Abandonment Recovery:

  • Cart abandonment tracking: This plugin tracks abandoned carts and sends recovery emails to logged-in and guest users. You can define how long the first reminder email should be sent after the cart is abandoned. This can range from minutes to hours.
  • Email and SMS Notifications: The plugin focuses primarily on sending automated recovery emails. By default, it does not support SMS notifications.
  • Visual Email Builder: The email builder allows for the customization of content but does not include a visual drag-and-drop email builder. You can customize emails using a text-based editor within limits.
  • Dynamic discount: You can include static coupon codes in recovery emails, but it doesn’t support creating dynamic, personalized discount codes for each customer.
  • Email A/B testing:  This WooCommerce cart abandonment recovery plugin doesn’t have any built-in split testing for emails. 
  • Integration with Exit Intent Popups: The plugin does not natively integrate with e4it intent popup tools, so this feature is not available.
  • Web Push Notifications: This plugin does not support Web push notifications, so you’ll have to rely solely on email for cart recovery.
  • In-Depth Analytics: Provides basic analytics on abandoned carts and email performance. It shows recovery rates and customer behavior but lacks advanced reporting features.
  • Control from WordPress Dashboard: You can manage everything from your WordPress dashboard with a simple, easy-to-use interface.
  • Pricing: This plugin is entirely free, and no premium plans are available.

4. Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce

Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce by Par Tyche Softwares

Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce by Par Tyche Softwares is another good freemium plugin that can recover abandoned carts. This tool checks if the cart is abandoned by the guest client or logged-in user and then sends personalized email reminder notifications. 

This tool supports three kinds of abandoned cart recovery notifications: Email, SMS, and Facebook. So, if your audience is highly active on Facebook/Meta, then this is a good pick for you. 

Here are the key features of Abandoned Cart Lite For WooCommerce 

  • Cart abandonment tracking: This plugin tracks cart abandonment efficiently. You can configure the waiting period before a cart is considered abandoned, and the plugin provides GDPR compliance by showing a consent notice to users.
  • Email and SMS notifications: Automatically send customizable email notifications to customers to recover abandoned carts. You can send SMS notifications using the premium version of this plugin. 
  • Visual Email Builder: Abandoned Cart Lite offers a straightforward email setup. Although it doesn’t have an advanced visual email builder, it allows you to create effective recovery emails with essential merge tags for personalizing the content.
  • Dynamic discount coupons: You can generate dynamic discount coupon codes and add those to your abandoned cart emails. 
  • Email split testing: This tool doesn’t have an A/B testing feature for emails. You can send multiple reminders without testing different versions.
  • Exit intent popups: This plugin doesn’t integrate with exit-intent popup platforms, focusing on email follow-ups as its main cart recovery strategy.
  • Web push notification:  No built-in feature or integration to implement web push notification for abandoned cart recovery. 
  • In-depth analytics: You get a basic overview of abandoned carts and recoveries. Though not as detailed as some premium plugins, the plugin shows recoverable and recovered carts.
  • Control from WordPress dashboard: Manage everything right from your WordPress dashboard, from tracking abandoned carts to scheduling follow-up emails.
  • Pricing: A basic free version is available. The premium version costs $149 / Yearly. 

5. Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce

This Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce plugin by Addify

This Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce plugin by Addify is a paid plugin that helps you recover abandoned carts and pending orders to improve your store's revenue.

With this plugin, you can schedule multiple follow-up emails at specific intervals. Plus, you can include coupons in the emails to improve conversion rates. You can also track your recovery performance using the extension’s built-in analytic dashboard.

Here are the key features of Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce

  • Cart abandonment tracking: With this tool, you can enable abandoned cart functionality, set the abandonment time, and auto-delete abandoned carts from the listing.
  • Email and SMS notifications: Supports follow-up emails. You can create multiple email templates and schedule them to be sent automatically. But does not support SMS notification. 
  • Visual Email Builder:  You can customize the email content, but it doesn’t come with a visual builder.
  • Dynamic discount coupons: This plugin enables the creation of dynamic discount coupons, which can be seamlessly integrated into your emails.
  • Email split testing:  You can not split test your emails with this abandoned cart plugin. 
  • Exit intent popups:  It doesn't integrate with any exit intent pop-up plugin. However, it gives the option to pre-capture guest email using a modal popup. 
  • In-depth analytics:  This tool provides in-depth analytics in the form of abandoned carts, pending orders, and their recovery details for the last 30 days. You also get an email log and customer order details. 
  • Control from the WordPress dashboard: You can control everything right from the WordPress dashboard. 
  • Pricing:  No free version of this plugin is available. The premium costs  $79/ Year. 

Expert Recommendations: Best WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Plugin Winner 

Our experts declare FunnelKit Automations the winner.

The answer is simple: it ticks all the boxes of an ideal and complete WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin.

To begin with, it gives you control over how and when to track cart abandonment. You can also set up multiple types of notifications. In addition, you can add personalization to grab the users' attention effectively.

Not to limit this, you can also offer dynamic, time-sensitive discounts to create a sense of urgency (FOMO) among users and incentivize them to complete their purchases.

Plus, at the same price, you can manage all your email marketing needs, such as order notifications, win-back campaigns, product recommendations, and more. You can even send broadcast emails to share newsletters, updates, and sales.

So, according to our experts, FunnelKit Automations is the best WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin because it’s a comprehensive tool that focuses on the overall growth of your online store while expertly handling abandoned cart recovery.

Now that you know which plugin to choose, move to the next section to find out the best practices you need to know to ensure the plugin brings you maximum results. 

8 Best Practices to Maximize the Potential of an Abandoned Cart Recovery Plugin

1. Optimize the timing of recovery Emails

Timing is crucial when sending abandoned cart follow-up emails. Make sure to send your first recovery email within 1-3 hours of the cart being abandoned. This quick response keeps your brand fresh in the customer's mind. 

Follow up with a second email at 24 hours and a final reminder after 48 hours to maximize recovery chances without spamming.

🔔 Note: Always include a recovery link in your emails, enabling users to access a pre-populated checkout page with a single click to complete their purchase.

2. A/B test your emails

A/B testing is key to optimizing your abandoned cart strategy. 

Test different subject lines, email formats, call-to-action buttons, and even the tone of your messaging. You can also try different discounts, like maybe a 5% discount in one email and free shipping in another.  

By analyzing which version performs better, you’ll continuously improve your results and boost recovery rates.

3. Leverage exit-intent popups

Exit-intent popups detect when a customer is about to leave your site and provide a last-minute reminder to complete their purchase. 

You can offer different incentives like discounts or free shipping to encourage them to finish checking out.

4. Use the power of push notification 

Web and app push notifications allow you to reach customers even when they’ve left your site. 

By sending timely alerts directly to their device (browser or app), you can remind them of their abandoned cart and encourage them to return. 

5. Personalize your emails

Personalized emails perform much better than generic ones. 

Address customers by name, include images of the products they left behind, and even suggest related items based on their browsing history. 

A personal touch helps build a connection and can motivate shoppers to finalize their purchase.

6. Incorporate dynamic discount coupons

Adding a time-sensitive discount to your recovery emails can be the final push a customer needs. 

Dynamic coupons create unique codes for each user, ensuring they feel special while preventing abuse of the discount. Make sure these discounts have an expiration date to create urgency.

7. Recover more with SMS notifications

SMS notifications have higher open rates than emails, making them a valuable tool for recovering abandoned carts. 

Along with emails, send timely reminders via SMS as well. Keep these messages brief but personalized, and include a link for easy checkout.

8. Analyze & continuously optimize your strategy

Regularly review the performance of your cart recovery campaigns. 

Analyze metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, and recovery percentages to understand what’s working and what’s not. 

Adjust your timing, messaging, and incentives based on the data for continuous improvement.

Now that you know how to recover abandoned carts, it's important to remember that prevention is better than cure, right? 

That's why, in the next section, we will share some tips on how to reduce cart abandonment in your WooCommerce store.

4 Tips to Reduce Cart Abandonment in WooCommerce 

While we can always rely on a WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin like FunnelKit Automations to recover abandoned carts, it's essential to take proactive measures. 

Follow these steps to minimize the abandoned cart rate.

  1. User-friendly conversion-optimized checkout page

As people tend to abandon carts because of complex, lengthy checkout, it’s highly recommended to use a simple, user-friendly checkout page. You can use either a one-page checkout or a multi-page checkout. 

  • In the case of multi-step checkout, make sure to include the multi-step preview for the important fields so that when people are on the second or third step, they can quickly scan the input values and change them if they want. 

Either way, make sure to make the checkout form validation process smooth and user-friendly for an optimized checkout process.

  1. Offer maximum payment options 

Make sure all your target customers find their convenient payment method on the checkout page.  WooCommerce, by default, offers only three options: Direct bank transfer, check payments, and cash on delivery. 

Don’t limit your store's payment options to these. Make sure to include all the popular credit cards, debit cards, buy now pay later (BNPL), local payment gateways, etc. 

You can check out our blog on Stripe integration with WooCommerce to find more details on how to add payments to WooCOmmerce checkout. 

  1. Ensure fast and secure checkout

Always check the speed of your website, especially the checkout page. Make sure it loads super fast and doesn’t frustrate the shopper or cause them to leave. 

Always use an SSL certificate on your WooCommerce store to signal the users that your website is safe for them to share their personal and payment information.

  1. Enable guest checkout 

Make sure to enable guest checkout on your WooCommerce store to ensure you don’t lose customers who leave cause they don’t have the time or simply don't want to create an account during checkout. 

With WooCommerce, you can automatically create an account with guest checkout and share the credentials via email if you want.

Find more details about WooCommerce guest checkout in our blog. 

Utilize the Best WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Plugin and Boost Sales Today! 

A great WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin will open new avenues for you to boost your sales by encouraging potential customers who have almost converted to return and complete their purchases.

With well-timed reminders featuring solid, enticing content and offers, you can easily recover lost carts. And when it comes to reminders, the more options you have, the better.

That’s why experts recommend FunnelKit Automations as the number one abandoned cart recovery plugin for WooCommerce store owners. 

While all the listed plugins get the job done, FunnelKit Automations stands out as a complete marketing automation tool. 

It lets you send various types of reminders - emails to SMS to web push notifications. One of these methods is to engage customers and prompt them to return and place their orders.

And don’t forget the powerful dynamic discount coupon feature, along with the versatile drag-and-drop email builder with personalization options. This is a perfect combination for maximizing cart recovery through email marketing.

With a WooCommerce abandoned cart plugin like FunnelKit Automations, the task becomes easier than ever, as you can control everything directly from your WordPress dashboard.

So, get FunnelKit Automations today and recover those lost carts to boost your sales!

Author: Editorial Team
The Editorial Team at FunnelKit (formerly WooFunnels) is a passionate group of writers and copy editors. We create well-researched posts on topics such as WordPress automation, sales funnels, online course creation, and more. We aim to deliver content that is interesting and actionable.
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