TL;DR

• Most people who start a checkout never finish it. That’s a sale you’ve already earned the attention for.
• Capture the email first with a two-step checkout, so you can follow up.
• Wait, check, then remind: wait 20 minutes, check the purchase tag, send a friendly nudge if they haven’t bought.
• Tags do the thinking: “Purchased [Offer]” and “Abandoned Cart [Offer]” tell your CRM what to do next.
• No code needed. I build mine in Tekmatix, or let AI build it. Grab the prompt.

What’s in this post

1. Why people abandon your checkout
2. How an abandoned cart workflow works
3. How to set up an abandoned cart workflow in 6 steps
4. What to say in your abandoned cart email
5. Let AI build it for you
6. FAQs

Full disclosure: I’m the founder of Tekmatix, the platform I run my whole business on, so yes, I’m a little biased. The ideas below work in any decent CRM. I’ll just show you exactly how I do it in mine.

Why people abandon your checkout

You know that heartbreaking moment when someone clicks “buy now”… and then disappears?

They typed in their name. Their email. They were ready. And then, POOF. No payment. No cha-ching. No sale.

It happens far more than you think. The Baymard Institute puts the average online cart abandonment rate at around 70%. That means most of the people who get as far as your checkout page are ghosting you right there.

Usually it isn’t because they changed their mind. The kids needed something. The phone rang. They went to find their credit card. The cat set itself on fire. Life happened.

Abandoned carts aren’t the problem. Not having a follow-up system is.

How an abandoned cart workflow works

With just ONE 20-minute workflow, you can:

• Capture the almost-buyer’s name and email
• Wait 20 minutes (give them time to find their credit card)
• Check if they completed their purchase
• If YES, end the workflow
• If NO, send them a friendly follow-up email (or SMS or voice note)
• Win them back with a reminder and a link

How I do it in Tekmatix: my checkouts are two-step order forms. Step one asks for name and email, so the contact is created in my CRM before they ever see the payment fields. That’s what makes the follow-up possible.

How to set up an abandoned cart workflow in 6 steps

1. Use a checkout that captures the email first

If your checkout only collects details at the moment of payment, you have nobody to follow up. A two-step checkout (contact details first, payment second) fixes that.

How I do it in Tekmatix: I build the checkout as a two-step order form inside my funnel, with the product added to it. Here’s how I automate purchases and opt-ins in Tekmatix.

2. Create your two tags

Tags are how you tell your CRM exactly what’s happened and what to do next. You need two for each offer:

• “Purchased [Your Offer]”, added the moment payment goes through
• “Abandoned Cart [Your Offer]”, added when someone starts the checkout but doesn’t buy

How I do it in Tekmatix: my purchase workflow adds the “Purchased” tag automatically when a payment comes in, so every other workflow can check it.

3. Set the trigger

The workflow starts when someone completes the first step of your checkout (they’ve given you their name and email).

How I do it in Tekmatix: I create a new workflow and choose the checkout’s first step as the trigger, filtered to that one offer.

4. Add a wait step

Give them 20 minutes. Plenty of people come back on their own, and you don’t want to email someone who is literally typing in their card number.

5. Check whether they bought

Add an if/else step that checks for the “Purchased [Your Offer]” tag. If it’s there, end the workflow. If it isn’t, add the “Abandoned Cart [Your Offer]” tag and move on to the reminder.

How I do it in Tekmatix: it’s a drag-and-drop if/else branch in the workflow builder. I also set the workflow to remove people the moment they purchase, so nobody gets a reminder after they’ve paid.

6. Send a friendly reminder

Send a short, helpful email with a button straight back to the checkout. You can add a second reminder a day later, and an SMS if they’ve given you permission to text them.

How I do it in Tekmatix: the emails use my master email template, so they look on-brand without me designing anything.

What to say in your abandoned cart email

No guilt trips. No “you forgot something!!!” in capitals. Just a helpful, human nudge:

• Remind them what they were getting and the result it gives them
• Answer the most likely question or worry (timing, access, refunds, who it’s for)
• Give one clear button straight back to the checkout
• Make it easy to reply if they have a question

Not using Ask AI yet? Here’s what Ask AI can do inside Tekmatix.

Let AI build it for you

Here’s the bit I love. I don’t even build these myself anymore. When my AI built my last 3-step funnel, it created the checkout, the fulfilment workflow AND the abandoned cart workflow, then left it all in draft for me to check. It’s one of the 20 human jobs AI did for me this week.

Connect your AI (GrokBot, Claude or ChatGPT) to your Tekmatix account (here’s how to connect your AI to Tekmatix), then copy this prompt:

Go into my Tekmatix account and build an abandoned cart workflow for [your offer] on [checkout or funnel name].

1. Check the checkout is a two-step order form that collects name and email before payment. If it isn't, tell me what needs changing.
2. Make sure a "Purchased [your offer]" tag is added when a payment goes through, and create an "Abandoned Cart [your offer]" tag.
3. Create a workflow triggered when someone completes step one of that checkout. Wait [20 minutes], then check for the "Purchased" tag. If they've bought, end the workflow. If not, add the "Abandoned Cart" tag.
4. Write [number] short, friendly reminder emails using my master email template and my tone of voice ([describe it]). Remind them what they get, answer the question "[common question]", and include a button back to the checkout. Space them [timing] apart.
5. Remove anyone from the workflow the moment they purchase.
6. Leave everything in draft. Show me the workflow and every email for approval before anything goes live.

Legends Lab members get every funnel, checkout and automation prompt I use, plus done-for-you workflows and templates, inside the Legends Lab.

Want to go deeper?

• Workflows That Wow: Top 10 Automated Workflows Every Business Should Have
• Funnels on Fire: Create Your Own Fabulous Funnel
• Email Automation Mastery: Automated Email Sequences That Sell While You Sleep

Abandoned cart recovery is one part of a bigger follow-up system. Read how to stop leaving money on the table with automated follow-ups, and set up your welcome email sequence for everyone who opts in.

FAQs

What is an abandoned cart workflow?

An abandoned cart workflow is an automation that notices when someone starts your checkout (for example, enters their name and email) but doesn't complete the payment, waits a short time, checks whether they bought, and if not, sends them a friendly reminder with a link back to the checkout.

How long should I wait before sending an abandoned cart email?

Start with a short wait of around 20 minutes to an hour for the first reminder, so it arrives while they still remember why they wanted it. You can add a second reminder a day or so later, and test the timings to see what works for your audience.

How does the workflow know if someone has already bought?

Use tags. When a payment goes through, a purchase workflow adds a tag such as "Purchased [Your Offer]". The abandoned cart workflow checks for that tag after the wait step. If it's there, the workflow ends. If not, the reminder goes out.

What should an abandoned cart email say?

Keep it short, friendly and helpful. Remind them what they were getting and why it helps, answer the most likely question or objection, and give one clear button straight back to the checkout. No guilt trips, and an easy way to ask you a question.

Can I send abandoned cart reminders by SMS?

Yes, as long as the person has given you permission to contact them by text. In a platform like Tekmatix you can add an SMS step to the same workflow, so the email and the text both stop as soon as they buy.

Do I need a developer to build an abandoned cart workflow?

No. In Tekmatix it's a drag-and-drop workflow with a trigger, a wait step, an if/else check and an email. You can build it yourself in about 20 minutes, or ask your connected AI to build it for you and approve it before it goes live.

Stop letting almost-buyers walk away

You did the hard work of getting them to your checkout. One 20-minute workflow makes sure you don’t lose them at the final step. Build it once in Tekmatix and it works for you on every sale, forever.

Sarah x