How Recovery of Abandoned Cart Works? Details of the Steps Followed

This documentation provides a detailed explanation of how the recovery of abandoned carts works with the ELEX WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Recovery with Dynamic Coupons plugin. We will explore various scenarios and the steps involved in recovering abandoned carts both with and without recovery emails.

The ELEX WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Recovery with Dynamic Coupons plugin helps recover abandoned carts and encourages customers to complete their purchases. It offers the ability to send recovery emails to customers who have abandoned their carts and provides options for tracking and managing abandoned cart records.

Scenarios and Steps

Let’s explore the various scenarios and the steps involved in recovering abandoned carts both with and without recovery emails.

Scenario 1: User Visits the Site Via the Abandoned Cart Recovery Email Link

• The user receives an Abandoned Cart Recovery Email and clicks on the link.
• The plugin recognizes the user’s email and restores the cart items from the abandoned cart record.
• If the user completes the checkout, an order is created.
• The plugin checks if the checkout was done via the recovery email. If yes:
• The plugin verifies if the items in the order are present in the abandoned cart record.
• The abandoned cart record is marked as “Bonus Recovered” if additional items are found, “Partially Recovered” if not all items are found, or “Fully Recovered” if all items are found.

Scenario 2: User Completes Checkout Without the Abandoned Cart Recovery Email Although an Abandoned Cart Record Exists or a Recovery Email was Sent

• The user adds items to the cart and completes the checkout process.
• The plugin checks if the checkout was done via an Abandoned cart recovery email sent to the customer. If not:
• The plugin checks if there is any active abandoned cart record. If yes
• The plugin verifies if the items in the order are part of the abandoned cart record. If yes:
• The abandoned cart record is marked as “Bonus Recovered” if additional items are found, “Partially Recovered” if not all items are found, or “Fully Recovered” if all items are found.

Scenario 3: User Completes Checkout For an Active Abandoned Cart, But A Recovery Email Was Not Sent

• The user visits the site and completes the checkout process manually (not via a recovery email).
• The plugin checks if there is an existing active abandoned cart record for the same user. If yes:
• The plugin checks if the user has checked out using a sent recovery email. If not:
• The plugin checks if recovery emails have been sent for that particular cart. If not: The order will be marked as “Manual Checkout”. 

Scenario 4: The Cart is Considered Abandoned but no Existing Active Abandoned Cart Record is Found

• The user visits the site, either via the Abandoned Cart Recovery Email link or directly.
• If the user comes from the checkout link in the recovery email, and the abandoned cart items are not present, the cart items from the abandoned cart record associated with the email are restored.
• If the user doesn’t complete the checkout and the session ends or the user is idle for a configured abandoned time, the cart is considered abandoned.
• If no existing active abandoned cart record is found, a new abandoned cart record is created and the database gets updated.
• Configured abandoned cart email(s) are triggered for the active abandoned record(s).

Scenario 5: An Existing Abandoned cart Record Is Found but the items in the cart are not the part of existing active abandoned cart record

• The user visits the site, either via the Abandoned Cart Recovery Email link or directly.
• The cart items from the abandoned cart record associated with the email are restored. (Note: this happens only when the user visits the checkout page/site via the recovery email.) 
• If the user doesn’t complete the checkout and the session ends or the user is idle for a configured abandoned time, the cart is considered abandoned.
• If an existing active abandoned cart record is found, the plugin checks whether the items in the cart are part of an existing abandoned cart record. If not the existing abandoned cart record is expired, and a new abandoned cart record is created.
• Configured abandoned cart email(s) is triggered for the latest created active abandoned record(s).

Scenario 6: The User Makes Changes to the Cart Page and an Active Abandoned Cart Record is Found

• The user visits the site, either via the Abandoned Cart Recovery Email link or directly.
• The cart items from the abandoned cart record associated with the email are restored. (Note: this happens only when the user visits the checkout page/site via the recovery email.) 
• If the user doesn’t complete the checkout and the session ends or the user is idle for a configured abandoned time, the cart is considered abandoned.
• If an existing active abandoned cart record is found, the plugin checks whether the items in the cart are part of an existing abandoned cart record. If yes:
• The plugin checks for changes in cart items or quantities. If any changes are detected:
• The plugin checks if the defined abandoned cart time has passed. If yes:
• A new abandoned cart is created, and the existing abandoned cart is expired.
• Abandoned cart email(s) is triggered for the latest active abandoned record(s).

This is how the ELEX WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Recovery with Dynamic Coupons plugin determines the flow of abandoned shopping carts in an efficient and effective manner.

How to Track Associated Discount Coupons When a Cart Is Updated or Expired?

Let’s take a look at a few scenarios to explain the coupon association process for abandoned carts.

Case 1. Discount coupon is associated with all the products in the abandoned cart email.

When you add a dynamically generated coupon/WooCommerce coupon to an abandoned cart email template, there is an option to associate the dynamic coupon to the products in that particular cart. If this option is enabled, the discount will be applied to all the products based on the items and quantities, as soon as a customer proceeds to checkout.

Case 2. Discount coupon is associated with some of the products in the abandoned cart email.

We will assume that the discount coupon is associated with the products present in the abandoned cart email, and the user added or removed a few items in the cart and checked out before the cart could be updated (before an hour because that is the abandonment time we have set as an example. In this case (bonus or partial recovery), the discount coupon will only be applied to the products added to the cart before updation(partial discount). 

Case 3. Discount coupon is not associated with the products in the cart.

If the discount coupon isn’t associated with the products in the cart, the discount will apply to all the products present in the cart at the time of checkout.

To know more about the plugin, check out the product page. To know how to set up the plugin from scratch, you can go through the product documentation.

For any other queries, feel free to contact the ELEX support team.