🎯 Why implement this flow?
Abandoned Checkout is an automation that automatically follows up on WhatsApp with customers who left the purchase funnel without completing their order.
Concretely: a customer fills their cart, starts checkout, then leaves the page without buying. A few minutes later, they receive a personalized WhatsApp message that addresses their remaining hesitations and guides them through to completing their order.
Abandoned checkout represents a significant share of lost sales for an e-commerce business. WhatsApp helps recover part of these opportunities through:
🏄♀️ A conversational approach: you answer instantly the questions or hesitations blocking the purchase.
✨ A personalized experience: each follow-up adapts to the customer's needs, unlike a generic email.
⚡ Unmatched speed: the average response time on WhatsApp is 7 minutes, versus 18 hours by email.
Observed results 📈
15% more abandoned checkouts recovered on average via WhatsApp, on top of email automations.
7 min average response time on WhatsApp, versus 18 hours by email.
⚙️ Setting Up the Flow
Go to Flow > Library > Abandoned Cart.
Add the template to your workspace.
Customize the messages to match your tone and brand image.
👉 Need help using the template library? See Using the Template Library.
🔌 Triggering the Flow
3 methods exist depending on your tech stack. Choose the one that matches your e-commerce/CRM tool.
1️⃣ You use Shopify → Native integration
WAX connects directly to Shopify. The flow triggers automatically as soon as a cart is abandoned, with no additional technical setup.
2️⃣ You use Klaviyo → Native integration (simplified webhook)
WAX offers a native integration with Klaviyo that simplifies webhook setup: Klaviyo detects the cart abandonment and automatically sends the data to WAX to trigger the WhatsApp conversation.
👉 Detailed guide: How to Trigger a WhatsApp Conversation from Klaviyo
3️⃣ You use another CRM → via a WAX Webhook
If you don't use Shopify or Klaviyo, you can trigger this flow from any CRM or database, as long as it can send a webhook request. Concretely, here's what happens:
Your CRM detects an abandoned cart.
It sends the customer's data (phone number, first name, products, cart amount…) to WAX via a webhook.
Receiving this automatically triggers the Abandoned Checkout flow in WAX.
The personalized WhatsApp message is sent immediately to the customer, with the received variables (first name, product...).
👉 To set up this webhook step by step (creation, JSON Body, error handling, retrieving variables), see How to Use Webhooks in My Flow.
👀 Concrete Examples
👀 Concrete Examples
💡 Tips & Best Practices
📞 Collect the phone number by making this step mandatory in your checkout funnel, no number, no flow possible.
🕦 Send the message as early as possible. The abandoned checkout conversion curve isn't linear: the earlier you interact after the purchase intent, the higher your conversion.
👀 Recommended sequence to maximize conversion:
Delay | Channel |
30 min | |
1h | 1st email |
15h | WhatsApp follow-up (within the 24h window) |
24h | 2nd email |
48h | 3rd email |
📦 Keep the "Shipping and Payment" button visible. It's the most-clicked button among our customers: it removes a major purchase barrier.
💸 Add a discount in the follow-up. An attractive offer in the follow-up message noticeably increases the conversion rate.
🖼️ Use visual media to make the interaction more engaging. Include the variable 🔗
priciest_product_image_url(Shopify), which automatically displays:🛍️ the most expensive product in the cart; or
📦 in case of a price tie, the image of one of the cart's products.
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