Cart abandonment is when a shopper adds something to their cart and leaves without completing the purchase.

The number everyone quotes

The Baymard Institute maintains a running average of published cart abandonment studies.
As of its 22 September 2025 update, the documented average was 70.22%
(Baymard Institute). That is
a mean of many studies across many store types, not a benchmark for your store, and
Baymard is clear about that.

Two things it does not tell you. It does not say how many of those shoppers were ever
going to buy, because adding to cart is also how people check delivery cost and save
things for later. And it does not say why they left, which is the only part you can act
on.

The reasons, sorted by what you can do

Not really abandonment. Browsing, price-checking, saving for later.
Chasing these costs money and annoys people.

Cost surprises. Delivery charges, taxes or fees that appear at the last
step. Fixed by showing them earlier, not by a message afterwards.

Checkout friction. Forced account creation, too many fields, a payment
method they do not have. Fixed in the checkout.

An unanswered question. Will this fit. Does it arrive before Saturday.
Can I return it. Is it in stock in the other colour. This is the group a conversation can
actually recover, because the blocker is missing information and the customer is still
present.

Why that last group is the interesting one

The shopper with a question is at the moment of highest intent and highest doubt. If
they can ask and get a correct answer in seconds, some of them buy. If they have to find a
contact page, send an email and wait, almost none do. Roughly half of consumers expect a
reply within an hour
(Twilio
consumer preferences report, vendor data), and a shopper mid-checkout is far less
patient than that.

Note what answering well requires. “Does it arrive before Saturday” is a shipping-rate
lookup for their address. “Is it in stock in black” is an inventory read. Neither is in a
FAQ document. A tool that can only retrieve text will not recover these. See
RAG for why.

Recovery messages, honestly

Abandoned-cart messages on WhatsApp work, and they are marketing messages, so they cost
money per send and they can get your number blocked if they are unwelcome. Two rules worth
keeping. Send to people who opted in, and send one. The second and third reminder earn
blocks more reliably than orders. See
WhatsApp message templates.

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