Most people who add something to a cart don't buy it that visit. They get interrupted, they compare prices, they mean to come back. A gentle reminder recovers a meaningful share of those sales – and it's the cheapest revenue in your store, because the shopper already chose the product.

## Turn it on

Open **Settings → Modules** and enable **Abandoned Carts**. A **Carts** entry appears in your sidebar.

## What the Carts page shows

| Metric | What it means |
|--------|---------------|
| **Active Carts** | Shoppers with something in their cart right now |
| **Abandoned Carts** | Carts that were left behind and are awaiting recovery |
| **Recovery Rate** | The share of abandoned carts that turned into orders, and how much that's worth |

Below the metrics you'll find the carts themselves, so you can see exactly what people are leaving behind. Patterns show up fast – a product that's abandoned far more often than others usually has a price, photo, or shipping-cost problem worth investigating.

## Reminder emails

Abandoned carts trigger a **cart abandonment reminder** email to shoppers who left an address behind. You can edit its wording in **Email Automation** – see [Email notifications & automation](/help/account/email-notifications).

A cart counts as abandoned once it's been idle for a while – roughly half a day – and stays recoverable for about a week before it goes stale.

> **Tip:** Keep the reminder short and friendly. "You left something behind" with a picture of the product and a link back to the cart outperforms a hard sell almost every time.

## Hold stock at checkout

The same module has a **Stock hold** setting, which solves a different problem: two shoppers racing for the last unit.

When it's on, reaching checkout reserves the stock in that cart so a second shopper can't buy the same low-stock unit while payment is going through. The hold releases automatically when it expires.

| Setting | What it does |
|---------|--------------|
| **Hold stock at checkout** | Turns reservations on. With it off, two shoppers could check out the same last unit. |
| **Hold duration** | How long the reservation lasts. The default is 30 minutes, and it also defines the activity window behind the Active Carts count. |

> **Tip:** Don't set the hold too long. Held stock is stock nobody else can buy, so an hour-long hold on a popular item quietly costs you sales.

## FAQ

### Why are my abandoned cart numbers so high?

Abandonment rates well above half are completely normal across e-commerce. Watch the trend and your recovery rate rather than the raw number.

### Do all abandoned carts get an email?

Only carts where the shopper left an email address – usually because they signed in or started checkout. Anonymous carts show in the list but can't be emailed.

### What's the most common reason people abandon?

Unexpected costs at checkout. If your abandonment spikes at the shipping step, look at [Set up shipping methods](/help/shipping/shipping-methods) and consider a [free shipping threshold](/help/shipping/free-shipping).

### Does the stock hold apply to every product?

It applies to carts that reach checkout, and it matters most for low-stock items where two buyers could collide. See [Manage inventory](/help/products/manage-inventory).

## What's next

- Bring shoppers back with [Send newsletters & grow subscribers](/help/marketing/newsletters-and-subscribers).
- Raise cart value with [Cart recommendations](/help/marketing/cart-recommendations).
- Edit the reminder wording in [Email notifications & automation](/help/account/email-notifications).