Cart Recovery
Abandoned Cart vs. Abandoned Checkout
An abandoned cart means a shopper added items and left before starting checkout. An abandoned checkout means they started checkout and left before paying. In Klaviyo the Started Checkout event has a link that restores across devices, and the Added to Cart event has no native saved-cart link.
October 31, 2026
An abandoned cart means a shopper added items and left before starting checkout. An abandoned checkout means they started checkout and left before paying. The distinction decides what your email can link to, which is why it matters more than it first appears.
How do they compare?
| Abandoned cart | Abandoned checkout | |
|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo event | Added to Cart | Started Checkout |
| Native link to the saved items | None | checkout_url, which restores across devices |
| Usual destination | /cart, a product page or a hand-built permalink |
Shopify's checkout |
| What the shopper sees on another device | An empty cart or a product page, unless you've added something | Their items on the payment form |
| Has the shopper typed an email on this visit? | Not necessarily | Yes |
Why does the difference matter for the email link?
Take a shopper who starts on a laptop and opens your email on a phone. If they'd reached checkout, the link restores their items on the phone and all is well. If they'd only added to cart, a /cart link opens the phone's own empty cart, and they have to rebuild the order from memory. That's cross-device cart abandonment, and it mainly affects cart flows.
A 2022 Klaviyo community thread describes this gap in Added to Cart emails. The accepted fix was a custom permalink that took "a fair bit of custom coding".
Is the checkout link enough?
For shoppers who started checkout, usually yes. It restores the items and puts them one step from paying. It does land on a payment form, which suits someone who was about to pay and gives less room to someone who wants to change their mind about a quantity or look around.
The checkout link can't help cart abandoners, because they never started a checkout. No checkout_url exists for them.
Which one has more upside?
Without measuring it on your own store, it's hard to say. Klaviyo's 2026 benchmark report gives $6.77 of attributed revenue per recipient for abandoned cart emails, which doesn't separate out what would have sold anyway. A holdout gets closer to the answer.
What does reOtter cover?
reOtter's cart recovery page is for cart emails only. Abandoned checkout is out of scope, because Shopify's checkout link already restores across devices and lands on a payment form. In your Added to Cart flow you change the button link. When reOtter holds that shopper's cart and knows who clicked, the cart goes back into the real Shopify cart on the device they're using, as described under cart restoration.
Key takeaways
- Cart abandoners added items but never started checkout, and checkout abandoners started checkout but never paid.
- Started Checkout has a link that restores across devices, and Added to Cart has no native saved-cart link.
- Leave your checkout flow alone, and spend your attention on where the Added to Cart button goes.
See how reOtter restores the cart → Abandoned cart recovery
Frequently asked questions
- Should I run both an abandoned cart flow and an abandoned checkout flow?
- Many Klaviyo brands run both, because they catch shoppers at different points. Set the filters so someone who starts checkout leaves the cart flow and doesn't get both messages at once. Check that your exits behave as you expect in a test.
- Do abandoned checkout emails work across devices?
- Yes. Shopify's checkout link restores across devices, and Klaviyo's Started Checkout event carries it as checkout_url. The shopper lands on the payment form rather than a shopping page.
- Do abandoned cart emails work across devices?
- Sending works, but the click needs help. Klaviyo's Added to Cart event has no native saved-cart link, so a /cart link shows whatever that device has, which is often nothing. Brands add a permalink or a cart recovery page to close that gap.
- Does reOtter's cart recovery page replace my abandoned checkout flow?
- No. Shopify's checkout link already restores across devices, so reOtter leaves that flow alone. The cart recovery page is for Added to Cart flows.