Heads up: this set of best practices assumes that you’re already familiar with journeys in general and with the Shopify checkout started trigger in particular. Before you begin, it might be helpful to check out the following:
Checkout started Journey best practices
The Checkout started trigger, exclusively available for Shopify customers, can be used to message your subscribers who have shown the greatest intent to purchase, helping you to maximize revenue.
What is the checkout started trigger?
Subscribers enter a Shopify checkout started trigger after they have started a Checkout in Shopify.
This trigger also lets you include the {{subscriber.cartLink}} personalization in messages. The {{subscriber.cartLink}} personalization adds a dynamic URL that subscribers can click on to return to their Checkout page. Note that the Checkout page will include all information the subscriber added before the subscriber left, including their contact details, shipping information, and coupon codes, minimizing friction and improving conversion rates.
{{subscriber.cartLink}} dynamic link works best for brands on Shopify. If your brand isn’t on Shopify, you can still use this dynamic link, but your subscribers may not see their saved shopping cart when they click the link., For example, they may not see their saved cart if they open the link on a different device or in a different browser from when they originally added items to their cart. See Use Cart URL personalizations in journey messages for more information.Best practices for using the Shopify checkout started trigger
For best results, you’ll want to choose and use only one of the following abandoned checkout journeys:
Option 1: Message subscribers shortly after they abandon
This setup will filter subscribers out of your cart abandoner if they abandoned their checkout after adding a product to their cart. The benefit of this is that you can send messages shortly after a subscriber abandons their checkout. This option is great for converting subscribers who may have been on the fence about purchasing the item or got distracted before completing the purchase. Option 1 is a great choice if you are not already running a Cart Abandonment journey.
Option 1 involves creating two separate journeys:
- Journey 1: Create an Added to Cart journey that checks for and messages subscribers who added a product to their cart, but not if they either abandoned their cart or completed a purchase. When subscribers reach the end of this journey, they enter into journey 2 below.
- Journey 2: Create a Shopify checkout started journey that only sends messages to subscribers who abandoned their checkout, and who also haven’t completed a purchase 50 minutes after the initial abandonment. Note that this second journey will not message subscribers who have completed a purchase since beginning the abandoned checkout journey.
Option 2: Message subscribers 24 hours after they abandon their checkout
If you’re already sending a basic cart abandonment message 30-60 minutes after cart abandonment with no purchase, then use this option.
- Journey 1: Create a new checkout journey that checks for and messages subscribers who have not completed a purchase 24 hours after abandoning their Shopify Checkout. Note that this journey will not message subscribers who have completed a purchase since beginning the Shopify abandoned checkout journey.
Make sure to include the 24 hour wait step to prevent subscribers from receiving multiple messages (cart abandonment message and checkout abandonment message, in this case) within a short window.