Cart Abandonment: What Strategy Should You Use in HubSpot?

Summarize this article

Every day, millions of shopping carts are abandoned online. According to the independent research firm Baymard Institute, nearly 70% of orders are left pending before the purchase is completed. Lack of time, unexpected shipping costs, complicated checkout, hesitation… Whatever the reason, cart abandonment is a fact of life across B2B and B2C e-commerce. It is both a real challenge for online retailers and a huge growth opportunity. As a HubSpot Diamond Partner agency, Synolia walks you through the key points of abandoned carts and how to handle them in HubSpot.

Cart abandonment: a definition

Cart abandonment is a major challenge for online retailers. Yet, paradoxically, it is also a valuable opportunity. It is important to understand why customers leave their cart behind and how to use that insight to improve your sales. An effective strategy to recover abandoned carts can turn a potential loss into a completed sale. That is why every online retailer should make this strategic lever part of its marketing mix.

Key cart abandonment figures

7 out of 10 orders

Yes! Around 70% of orders that are started never get completed. For half of the customers surveyed by the Baymard Institute for its “Reasons for abandonment” study, unexpected extra costs (shipping, customs duties, taxes…) are the main reason for cart abandonment on e-commerce sites. But there are many other reasons:

• Mandatory account creation;
• Unsuitable delivery times and/or options;
• Website outage or technical issue;
• Looking for a better price elsewhere, or just “window shopping”;
• The purchase needs approval from someone else (common in B2B).

It is also worth remembering that cart abandonment can simply come down to circumstances. No payment method at hand when placing the order, an unexpected interruption (a crying baby, a call from a customer, a meeting starting…), the need for one last moment of reflection before buying… Many unpredictable circumstances can lead to an abandoned cart.

Another specific factor: timing. Cart abandonment peaks between the 7th and the 26th of the month. According to SaleCycle, this is simply linked to paychecks, which arrive at the end of the month. Put that way, it makes sense.

85% abandonment on mobile

According to Hotjar, a behavior analytics tool, 85% of shoppers abandon their cart when they are on mobile. That is the highest rate of any device (80% on tablets).

$18 billion

According to a Forrester study, cart abandonment reportedly costs online retailers more than $18 billion every year. That figure keeps growing as e-commerce and mobile sales expand.

Why abandoned cart reminders matter

The figure is striking, so it is worth repeating: 70% of people abandon their online cart! That high rate means you almost certainly have a number of customers with pending carts to follow up with. Following up with cart abandoners means sending them a sequence of one or more emails to remind them that a cart is waiting. Ideally with a reminder of the products they added, still in stock!

According to Klaviyo, a marketing automation platform built for e-commerce sites, the abandoned cart flow is the one automation you cannot do without. And for good reason: it generates more revenue than any other automation. In its “2026 benchmark report”, Klaviyo reports that automated abandoned cart flows bring in an average of $4.48 in revenue per recipient (4 to 10 times more than standard one-off campaigns).

When and on which channel should you follow up with cart abandoners?

To make reminder emails even more effective, AI can now predict the best send time and personalize recommended products, increasing revenue per recipient by 15% on average.

What is more, brands that add a reminder text message (SMS) 24 hours after the abandoned cart email see their overall recovery rate jump by 20%.

Implementing an abandoned cart strategy in HubSpot

Implementing an abandoned cart strategy in HubSpot calls for a methodical approach. HubSpot, a complete CRM solution with advanced marketing automation features, lets you set up custom workflows to manage abandoned carts. To do so, you need to integrate the data required to personalize your emails and maximize the chances that carts get completed.

Retrieving the products added to the cart

The key to a successful abandoned cart email is your ability to personalize it with a reminder of the products added to the cart. A simple “your cart is waiting” line, with no visuals and no reminder of what your customer wants to buy, is not enough.

To retrieve the data you need to build the email and the automation that triggers it, you have several options.

1. Native marketplace connector

These connectors are designed to provide smooth, simplified integration between HubSpot and e-commerce platforms such as Magento or Adobe Commerce. For Shopify, HubSpot goes even further, with its own connector and dedicated product display features in marketing emails.

2. Building a private app

If, after reviewing the connectors available on the market, you have not found the app you need, you can build your own connector to meet your specific needs.

You can then push a deal into HubSpot (corresponding to the web order) with line items (for example model, color and size in fashion) associated with a contact and/or a company, in the case of B2B e-commerce. In that deal, you include a deal property holding the HTML code of your abandoned cart, populated by your data feeds.

Abandoned cart email design and offer

The cart reminder marketing email should be clean and put the cart contents front and center. Photo, description, quantity… Follow up with cart abandoners with a detailed reminder of their pending order to encourage them to complete the purchase as quickly as possible.

So should the abandoned cart reminder email show product prices or not? Françoise Le Deist, CRM consultant and marketing automation expert, shares her view.

Setting up the send automation

Depending on the integration in place, the abandoned cart information sits either on the Contact object or on the Deal object in HubSpot. You will then need to adapt your workflow so it is triggered from the right object in HubSpot.

If the information is stored on the deal, you will base your automation on deals whose deal stage is “abandoned cart”. You can choose to wait an hour before sending your first cart reminder email.

Legitimate interest or marketing email?

At Synolia, our clients regularly ask us about the GDPR. And for good reason: this European regulation has a real impact on how companies can reach out to contacts. Can an abandoned cart email be considered a legitimate interest email, or is it a marketing email? Our CTO, Cédric Mourizard, shares his expert view on the subject.

Turn abandoned carts into a reliable, lasting source of revenue

Whether you choose native connectors or custom solutions to retrieve order information from your e-commerce site, what matters is personalizing your emails. Integrating abandoned cart data and building effective campaigns are essential to remind customers of their pending purchases and encourage them to complete their orders. Remember to test different approaches and keep a close eye on performance to optimize your campaigns.

Ultimately, a relevant abandoned cart recovery strategy goes beyond a simple reminder. A good strategy is one that directly encourages customers to complete their orders by offering an experience that is as smooth as it is engaging. So never underestimate the power of this practice in your marketing automation strategy. Adopting best practices and using the right tools gives you what you need to turn abandoned carts into a reliable and growing source of revenue.

Want to learn more about cart abandonment in HubSpot? Need a HubSpot integrator? Looking for HubSpot training? Contact Synolia!

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