Send one helpful reminder, perhaps a second, only to shoppers whose consent you can show, with the items, the full cost and a person to ask. CASL applies to cart emails, and nothing here is legal advice.

Carts left full

Every online store has them: carts that never became orders, listed in the dashboard with a total that looks like money left on the table.

Most ecommerce platforms now offer to email those shoppers automatically, and plugins add the feature where it is missing.

Done well, a reminder is a small courtesy that helps someone finish what they started. Done badly, it is three emails and a discount code sent to somebody who never agreed to hear from you.

The difference lies in who receives it, how many arrive and what they say.

Why shoppers leave

The third is the one a reminder can genuinely fix. A shopper stuck on a question is often one answer away from ordering, and a reminder that offers the answer is help rather than pressure.

Who you can actually email

A store only knows who left a cart if they typed an email address or were logged in. Most carts belong to anonymous visitors and stay anonymous.

So these are really abandoned checkout emails. They reach shoppers who got as far as entering an address and then stopped.

Some tools capture an address the moment it is typed, before anything is submitted. Emailing someone on that basis is the hardest case to justify, and it unsettles shoppers.

What CASL asks

A cart reminder encourages a purchase, so under Canada's anti-spam law it is generally treated as a commercial electronic message. It needs consent, must identify your business, and must carry an unsubscribe that works.

The clearest consent is express: an unticked box at the email step, worded plainly, which the shopper ticks.

Someone who has bought from you within the last two years counts as having implied consent, and an enquiry counts for six months.

Whether leaving a cart counts as an enquiry is not settled, so it is safer not to rely on it.

Order confirmations and receipts are a different category, and a reminder about an order not yet placed is not one of them.

The above is a general outline of the law, not legal advice for your store.

When a reminder is welcome

A reminder is welcome when it saves the shopper effort: the cart is waiting, nothing needs re-entering, and there is a person to ask.

It is welcome when the purchase is considered rather than impulsive, such as equipment, furniture or anything with options, where people genuinely pause to think.

And it is welcome from a store the shopper already knows. From a store they visited once, the same email can feel like being followed home.

How many to send

One, sent a few hours later or the next morning, does most of the work. A second, a day or two after, is the limit for most shoppers. Then stop.

Stop at once if they order, including by phone or in the store. A reminder about a cart the customer has already paid for tells them the store does not know its own orders.

A worked example

A restaurant supply store sells online to restaurants, caterers and serious home cooks: ranges, mixers, shelving, and smallwares by the case.

It switched on its platform's reminder sequence with the default settings: three emails over a week, a discount code in the last, sent to every address typed at checkout.

Trade customers who had built a cart online and then phoned the order through to the counter received all three. Two asked to be removed from everything, and one asked what permission the store had to email them at all.

The store rebuilt it. An unticked box at the email step now asks permission, and one reminder goes out the next morning, from the store's name, with the items, the delivery charge and the number for the counter.

It invites questions about the things that stall equipment purchases: voltage, gas type, door widths, delivery to a back lane. There is no discount, and reminders stop for any account that has ordered since, by any route.

What to say

Use a plain subject line that says what it is, such as your cart is saved.

Show the items with their photographs and prices, the delivery cost to the shopper's postal code, and a button that restores the cart exactly as it was.

Then the useful part: a line inviting questions, with a phone number and an email address answered by someone who knows the products.

Leave out countdown timers, warnings that stock is running low unless it truly is, and any tone suggesting the shopper did something wrong.

Discounts in the reminder

Many reminder tools put a discount code in the second or third email by default. It may win back an order now and then, and it teaches regular customers to leave carts on purpose and wait.

On thin margins, that discount can cost more than the sale was worth. Keep discounts for specific cases you choose, not for every cart.

Fix the reasons first

Reminders treat the symptom. If carts are abandoned at the shipping step, the shipping cost is arriving too late; show it on the product page or in the cart.

If they are abandoned at account creation, offer guest checkout. If they are abandoned on phones, go through the checkout on a phone yourself and fix what you find.

Each of those helps every shopper, including the anonymous ones no reminder can reach.

The counter-case

A small store with a handful of abandoned checkouts a month may do better with a personal note from the owner to the shoppers it recognises, sent with consent, than with any automation.

A store without consent in place should not send reminders until it has fixed that.

Where reminders do suit, send one or two helpful ones, to shoppers whose consent you can show.

Setting it up

  1. Add an unticked consent box at the email step.
  2. Turn off any discount in the default sequence.
  3. Limit reminders to one or two.
  4. Stop reminders once any order arrives.
  5. Show the full cost, delivery included.
  6. Add a phone number and a real reply address.
  7. Check where carts are abandoned each month.

Step one comes first because everything else depends on it. A well-written reminder sent without consent is still a message the shopper never agreed to receive.

The shipping cost that sends many shoppers away is the subject of free shipping thresholds.

Frequently asked questions

Does CASL apply to abandoned cart emails?

Generally yes. A reminder encourages a purchase, so it needs consent, your business's name and contact details, and an unsubscribe that works. Treat this as general information.

What consent covers a cart reminder?

Express consent from an unticked box the shopper ticks is clearest. A purchase within the last two years implies consent; an abandoned cart alone is uncertain.

How many reminders should a store send?

One, a few hours later or the next morning, and at most a second a day or two after. Stop immediately if the customer orders by any route.

What should a cart reminder say?

A plain subject, the items with photographs and prices, the delivery cost, a button that restores the cart, and a phone number answered by someone who knows the products.

Should reminders include a discount code?

Rarely. Automatic discounts teach regular customers to abandon carts and wait, and on thin margins they can cost more than the sale was worth.

What reduces abandoned carts in the first place?

Showing shipping costs early, offering guest checkout and making the checkout work properly on phones. Those help every shopper, including the anonymous ones no email can reach.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Cart reminders running on default settings?

Ask us to review the sequence and the checkout. We will check the consent box, timing and wording.

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