When you set up Markopolo, you'll see three recovery campaign templates: browse abandonment, cart abandonment, and checkout abandonment. Each targets a different point in the shopping journey. This article explains what each one is, what the data says about them, and which to prioritize first.
The three abandonment types
Browse abandonment A shopper views one or more product pages but never adds anything to their cart. They're in discovery mode — interested enough to click, but not yet committed to a purchase.
Cart abandonment A shopper adds at least one item to their cart but leaves before starting checkout. They've expressed clear product intent but something stopped them — price, distraction, or indecision.
Checkout abandonment A shopper starts the checkout process — enters shipping details, reaches payment — but doesn't complete the order. This is the highest-intent abandonment of the three.
The numbers
Research from the Baymard Institute, aggregated across dozens of studies, puts the average cart abandonment rate at around 70% — meaning roughly 7 out of every 10 shoppers who add something to a cart don't complete the purchase.
Checkout abandonment is a subset of that: nearly 17% of customers leave specifically at the checkout stage, making it a high-value and highly recoverable segment.
Browse abandonment is the largest pool by volume — most visitors never make it to the cart — but also the lowest intent.
Which to start with
Start with cart abandonment.
It's the best balance of volume, intent, and ease of recovery. The shopper has already told you which products they want. You have product data to personalize your messages. And they're close enough to a purchase decision that a well-timed reminder or small incentive is often enough to convert.
Add checkout abandonment second.
These shoppers are your warmest leads. They got as far as entering their details and still didn't finish. Unexpected extra costs like shipping fees and taxes are the leading trigger for checkout drop-off — a message that addresses this directly (free shipping, a discount, reassurance on returns) tends to convert well. Recovery rates here are typically higher than cart abandonment but the audience is smaller.
Add browse abandonment last.
Browse abandonment gives you the largest audience but the lowest purchase intent. A significant share of abandoners at this stage — over 40% — were simply browsing with no immediate intent to buy. Recovery messages for this segment work best when they focus on brand re-engagement, bestsellers, or social proof rather than cart-specific urgency. Because there's no product data from the cart, personalization is limited to what the shopper viewed.
Summary
| Browse abandonment | Cart abandonment | Checkout abandonment |
Shopper intent | Low–medium | Medium–high | High |
Audience size | Largest | Large | Smallest |
Product data available | Viewed items only | Cart items | Cart + partial checkout data |
Typical recovery difficulty | Harder | Moderate | Easiest |
Recommended order | 3rd | Start here | 2nd |
Tip: You don't need to choose one — all three can run simultaneously as separate campaigns. But if you're setting up for the first time with limited bandwidth, cart abandonment gives you the fastest path to measurable recovered revenue.