Abandoned Cart Emails Not Converting? Check Your Trigger First
You’ve got an abandoned cart flow. It’s live, it’s been running for months, and you can see it sending. But when you actually look at what it’s bringing in, the number is nowhere near what everyone says abandoned cart should be doing.
Before you touch a single word of copy or redesign a single email, there’s one setting worth checking first, because it’s the one that quietly decides who your flow ever reaches in the first place.
Quick answer: Most underperforming abandoned cart flows aren’t a copy problem, they’re a trigger problem. Klaviyo‘s default abandoned cart flow fires on the Checkout Started event, which only captures people who’ve already entered their email at checkout. It completely misses everyone who added something to their cart and left before ever reaching that page, often your single biggest pool of interested traffic.
What’s the difference between Checkout Started and Added to Cart in Klaviyo?
Klaviyo, the email and SMS platform most Shopify brands run their automation through, tracks shopper behaviour through a handful of specific events, and two of them matter enormously here.
Checkout Started fires once someone has entered their email and moved into the checkout flow itself. Added to Cart fires much earlier, the moment a product actually lands in someone’s cart, regardless of whether they ever go near checkout. Klaviyo‘s own flow library builds the default abandoned cart flow around Checkout Started, precisely because it’s the higher-intent signal. But higher intent also means a smaller, later slice of your traffic.
Almost 70% of shopping carts get abandoned before checkout is ever reached. A flow that only triggers on Checkout Started structurally cannot reach the browsers who never got that far.
Why does my abandoned cart flow only capture a fraction of my traffic?
Picture your funnel as four stages: someone browses a product, adds it to cart, starts checkout, then places an order. Each stage drops off people from the one before it. A flow triggered on Checkout Started only ever sees the people who made it to stage three.
Everyone who added a product to their cart and closed the tab, got distracted, or decided to think about it overnight, never triggers that flow at all. They’re not unsubscribed, unengaged, or a lost cause. They just never had a chance to enter your automation in the first place, because the trigger was set one stage too late to catch them.
Is Added to Cart always the better trigger, then?
Not automatically, and this is where a lot of DIY setups overcorrect. Added to Cart casts a much wider net, but it also captures people with genuinely lower intent, someone idly browsing who adds something out of curiosity rather than real buying interest. Checkout Started is a smaller pool, but a warmer one.
Klaviyo‘s own guidance, and what we do on every account we manage, is to run both as two separate flows rather than picking one. An Added to Cart flow catches the casual browsers earlier and more gently. A Checkout Started flow catches the highest-intent group with a firmer nudge. Run together with the right filter (excluding anyone who’s already progressed to checkout from the Added to Cart flow, so nobody gets both at once), they cover the whole funnel instead of one slice of it.
How do I check which trigger my current flow is using?
Open the flow in Klaviyo and click into the trigger itself. It’ll show plainly whether it’s set to Started Checkout or Added to Cart. If you’ve only ever had one abandoned cart flow running since the store launched, there’s a good chance it’s the Checkout Started default that came pre-built, quietly leaving your Added to Cart traffic completely uncontacted this whole time.
This is exactly the kind of gap that shows up in our 7 signs a Klaviyo account is underperforming: abandoned cart sending, technically live, technically working, and still barely making a dent in revenue because it was only ever built to catch a fraction of the people leaving without buying.
What if both flows are set up and it’s still not converting?
If you’ve genuinely got both triggers running and the numbers are still flat, the issue usually shifts from trigger to plumbing. Worth checking: whether the events are actually firing (visible under Analytics inside Klaviyo), whether there’s a delay between the event happening and Klaviyo registering it, and whether your Shopify integration is passing through cleanly in the first place. A flow with the right trigger but broken event tracking behind it looks identical to a flow with the wrong trigger from the outside, silent, and it takes someone actually in the account to tell the two apart.
That’s the exact kind of diagnostic a Klaviyo audit is built for, going stage by stage through what’s actually firing versus what looks like it should be.
Does the timing of the emails matter as much as the trigger?
Somewhat, but it’s the second question, not the first. A Checkout Started flow can typically start faster, within the hour, because intent is already high. An Added to Cart flow usually wants a slightly longer runway, giving the browser a bit more space before the first nudge, since they’re earlier in the decision. But neither timing choice matters if the trigger itself never catches the person to begin with. Fix the trigger, then tune the timing.
Key takeaways
- Klaviyo‘s default abandoned cart flow triggers on Checkout Started, which only reaches people who’ve already entered their email at checkout.
- Added to Cart triggers earlier and catches the much bigger group of browsers who never reach checkout at all.
- The strongest setup runs both as separate flows, filtered so nobody receives both at once.
- If both triggers are live and it’s still flat, the next thing to check is whether the underlying events are firing cleanly, not the trigger choice itself.
- Get the trigger right before touching copy, design or timing. None of that matters if the flow never fires for most of your traffic.
FAQ
Which trigger should I use if I can only run one flow?
Checkout Started is the safer single choice, since it’s higher intent and less likely to feel like a stretch in your messaging. But running both, properly filtered, consistently outperforms picking just one.
Will adding an Added to Cart flow annoy people who already get a Checkout Started email?
Not if it’s filtered correctly. Add a condition excluding anyone who’s already started checkout from the Added to Cart flow, so each person only ever enters one path.
How long after Added to Cart should the first email send?
Generally a little later than a Checkout Started flow, often a few hours rather than immediately, since intent is lower and a hard sell too early can feel pushy.
My abandoned cart flow shows as live but barely sends anything. Is that a trigger issue?
It could be, but check whether the underlying event itself is firing first. A live flow with a correct trigger and broken event tracking behind it looks exactly the same from the outside.
Can I check my current trigger myself without a developer?
Yes. Open the flow, click the trigger, and it will show you plainly which metric it’s set to. No code required, just knowing where to look.
If you’re not sure whether your abandoned cart flow is catching the traffic it should be, or you’d rather someone experienced went through it properly, a Mini Klaviyo Audit is the fastest way to find out: a 15-minute personalised video walk-through of your account, delivered in 3 business days.
Jess x
