Most abandoned carts are not decisions. Someone got distracted, the page was slow, or they meant to come back later. A reminder catches some of them. The question is what the follow-up teaches.
Here is the sequence we shipped in StoreFlux, and the part I am not sure about.
The sequence
Three emails, measured from the cart going quiet. The defaults are one hour, 24 hours, and 72 hours. The sweep checks each cart before it sends, and it stops the moment the shopper completes an order, so nobody gets a reminder about a purchase they already made. Each stage is recorded, so re-running the sweep does not send the same stage twice.
Where the discount goes
The discount can only be issued on the third email. It also needs two things to be true: the store has the include-coupon setting on, and the Coupons module is enabled for that tenant. If either is off, the third email goes out without a code.
We put it last on purpose. A discount in the first email tells people the price drops if they wait a day. That is a lesson we did not want to teach.
The other side
I can see the argument against us. For some shoppers, a cart from three days ago is a second chance, and a discount is what gets them to finish. Holding the discount until the end may mean the offer arrives after the shopper has already moved on, while the people who would have bought anyway get nothing extra.
I do not think there is a clean answer. That is why this is a discussion post, not a feature announcement.
Questions
Does a recovery discount train shoppers to abandon carts on purpose? If it does, where would you draw the line: no discount at all, a discount only for returning customers, or a smaller one at the end? What has actually worked or failed on your own store?
Tell me in the comments. I would rather hear a strong disagreement than a polite nod.
