What happens after a checkout is abandoned

A checkout goes quiet

Your store sends ACR each checkout as it is created and updated. A Shopify store does this through the Growth Dept ACR app; any other store posts the same events to its campaign’s trigger URL.

When a checkout has had no activity for the abandonment window, 30 minutes unless you change it, ACR marks it abandoned. Nothing is sent yet. First ACR works out who the shopper is: it matches them by your store’s own customer id, then by email address, then by phone number, so the same person is not treated as three leads.

One campaign picks it up

Every campaign listening for abandoned checkouts is checked in the order you set. The first one that accepts the shopper starts a run, and the others never see them. A campaign accepts a shopper only when all of these pass:

• its start conditions, such as a minimum cart total;
• its dispatch limit, if you set one;
• its cooldown, 30 days by default, so the same shopper is not chased again too soon;
• the consent check, which is on by default;
• your store’s suppression list;
• the countries the campaign allows for calls and texts.

A shopper that no campaign accepts is skipped, and the reason goes into their history in Leads. That history is the first place to look when someone asks why a shopper was not contacted.

The run follows its sequence

A run is a schedule of steps: calls, texts and emails, each a set delay after the one before. The recommended sequence starts with a call, a text five minutes later and an email an hour after that, then two more rounds over the following days.

Each step is checked again just before it runs. Has the shopper bought? Opted out? Asked for a person? Is it inside their allowed hours, in their own time zone, with their state’s rules and today’s holidays applied? A step that falls outside the hours waits for the next allowed time; a step whose shopper has bought is cancelled.

The shopper answers

Replies and call outcomes sort the run as positive, undecided or negative. Each has its own follow-up sequence: a positive reply might get a reminder text with the link a couple of hours later, an undecided one a call the next day. Negative replies get no follow-up unless you turn one on.

Some replies are not for the agent at all. You choose which requests go to a person, such as a refund, a complaint or a privacy request. ACR pauses outreach to that shopper and sends the conversation to your team by email or Slack.

The order ends it

When the shopper’s order arrives, every step still waiting is cancelled. The order is then matched to the campaign that earned it, which a separate post explains.

The order event matters as much as the checkout. A store that sends checkouts but not orders would keep reaching out to people who already paid, so both are part of every setup.