Recover abandoned checkouts
Understand when a checkout counts as abandoned, send a recovery email by hand from the dashboard, or let a workflow send it automatically.
An abandoned checkout is a visitor who typed their email into a checkout and left without paying. Zanfia keeps their checkout saved and lets you bring them back with a single email, either by hand or automatically. When you finish, you will know where abandoned checkouts show up and how both recovery paths work.
What counts as abandoned
A checkout session becomes abandoned after a few minutes without activity on the page. Only sessions with a captured email matter for recovery: without an address there is nobody to write to. The same person on the same checkout is counted at most once per day, so a visitor who comes back and leaves again does not trigger a second recovery. A recovery email is skipped when the visitor has meanwhile resumed the checkout or completed the purchase, and a completed purchase also removes the cart from the recoverable list.
Send a recovery email by hand
Open the Operations view
Go to the dashboard and switch the view to Operations (/dashboard?view=operations). The
Checkouts section lists the recoverable carts from the last 7 days: visitors who reached the
form or the payment step and left an email. Each row shows the name or email, the product, how far
they got (left at form or left at payment) and when.
Preview the email
Click Recover on a row. The Recovery email window shows the exact email the customer will receive: the recipient under To:, the Subject: (Your order from … is waiting, with your name) and the body with a link back to the saved checkout. Click into the email to edit the subject or the text before sending.
Send
Click Send email. A message confirms Recovery email sent - the customer got a link back to the checkout. The row now shows when the email was sent and offers Send again. If the cart was bought or resumed in the meantime, the window says so instead of sending.
Send recovery emails automatically
Create the ready-made workflow
Open Workflows (/workflows), open the menu next to New workflow and choose Recover
abandoned checkouts. The recipe creates a workflow that waits 15 minutes after a visitor
abandons a checkout, then emails their saved checkout link. Workflows are available on every plan.
Review and publish
The workflow starts with the Checkout abandoned trigger and contains a Recovery email with
the subject You left {{ productName }} waiting and a body that uses {{ firstName }}, {{ productName }} and {{ checkoutUrl }}. Edit the text as you like, then publish the workflow.
Until it is published it does not recover anything; the dashboard reminds you about an inactive
recovery workflow.
The automatic email is checked once more right before sending: a visitor who has already finished the purchase or come back to the checkout is not emailed.
What the customer gets
The link in either email opens the visitor's saved checkout with their details already filled in, so they can pay in one step. Once they pay, the order appears under Transactions like any other, and the cart disappears from the Operations list.
Good to know
The two paths are independent: the manual button from the dashboard sends one email to one
visitor when you decide; the workflow handles every abandonment on its own. You can use both. A
checkout's own Analytics view (/checkouts/<id>/analytics) lists its sessions, including the
ones marked Abandoned.
Was this article helpful?

