Abandoned Checkout Email Benchmarks

TL;DR: Abandoned checkout email benchmarks measure shoppers who started checkout and left before buying. That is not the same job as abandoned cart. Klaviyo’s common pre-built “cart” flow often uses Checkout Started. A labeled 21-brand panel puts checkout median RPR at $2.57 versus cart $1.82. Separate the triggers before you average the dollars.

Introduction

Founders ask for “abandoned cart benchmarks” while staring at Shopify’s Abandoned checkouts tab. Those are different stages. Mix them and you will underbuild the Added to Cart layer, over-message people who already started checkout, or grade a Checkout Started flow against a census that never split the triggers.

The full cluster map lives in the email marketing guide.

Abandoned checkout email benchmarks are planning numbers for automations fired after checkout starts and no order lands. Cart recovery lives in abandoned cart email benchmarks. Earlier intent lives in browse abandonment email benchmarks. Broader campaign-versus-flow ladders live in email marketing benchmarks by industry. Channel tradeoffs live in SMS marketing vs email benchmarks.

• Stripe defines cart abandonment as leaving before checkout starts, and checkout abandonment as leaving after checkout starts (Stripe).
• Baymard’s average documented cart abandonment rate remains near 70.22% across 50 studies (Baymard). That is a cart-to-order leak, not a checkout-email RPR.
• Klaviyo’s help docs say the most common pre-built abandoned cart flow uses Started Checkout, while Shopify Added to Cart is a separate flow that needs behavioral tracking (Klaviyo; Klaviyo Shopify Added to Cart).
• A labeled Top Growth panel of 21 DTC brands (July 2025 to June 2026) puts abandoned checkout at median $2.57 RPR and 1.42% conversion, versus abandoned cart $1.82 and 1.32% (Top Growth).
• Klaviyo Community operators report checkout revenue outperforming cart near 2:1 to 3.5:1 when both flows run (Klaviyo Community).
• There is no public dataset for a Klaviyo 143K-style abandoned-checkout-only census split from Added to Cart. Omnisend’s public automation table also has no separate checkout row.

What Abandoned Checkout Email Benchmarks Are

Abandoned checkout email benchmarks are labeled performance ranges for automated messages sent after a shopper starts checkout and does not place an order, usually reported as click rate, placed-order or conversion rate, and revenue per recipient from a named sample that separates Checkout Started from Added to Cart.

They are not a synonym for abandoned cart email benchmarks. Stripe’s definitions make the stage fork explicit: cart abandonment ends before checkout begins; checkout abandonment happens inside the purchase flow (Stripe). Shopify’s admin language (“abandoned checkouts”) tracks the later stage. Klaviyo’s product language often labels a Started Checkout flow as “abandoned cart,” which is why founders think they already have cart coverage when they only cover checkout.

On r/Klaviyo, operators who audited hundreds of accounts still find brands that “think they have cart abandonment, but it’s actually checkout abandonment.” That language is the demand signal. The job of this page is to keep the trigger label attached to every dollar figure.

Why Abandoned Checkout Email Benchmarks Matter

Abandoned checkout email benchmarks matter because checkout starters are the highest-intent unpaid contacts most stores already identify. Conflate them with cart adders and you either miss the earlier layer or spam the later one with the wrong delay, offer, and deep link.

• Stage diagnosis beats a blended leak. Stripe’s formulas keep the math separate: cart abandonment = (add-to-cart sessions − checkout-initiated sessions) ÷ add-to-cart sessions; checkout abandonment = (checkout-initiated − order-confirmed) ÷ checkout-initiated (Stripe). One blended 70% number cannot tell you which stage is broken.
• Checkout friction is structural. Baymard still puts average cart abandonment near 70.22%, with 42% of US shoppers abandoning because they were just browsing. Among remaining reasons, 40% cite extra costs, 18% forced account creation, and 17% a too-long checkout (Baymard). Email can recover some of that. Form design recovers more. Baymard estimates about 35.26% conversion lift from solvable checkout issues on large sites.
• Naming errors hide missing flows. Klaviyo’s help center states that the most common abandoned cart template triggers on Started Checkout, and that Shopify Added to Cart is a separate library flow (Klaviyo; Klaviyo). If you never enabled behavioral tracking, your “cart” flow is a checkout flow.
• Separated flows show different economics. In Top Growth’s 21-brand panel, abandoned checkout posts the highest median conversion (1.42%) and highest median RPR ($2.57) of the core conversion flows they publish, rising to $9.96 at the top quartile across 13 brands with a live checkout flow (Top Growth).
• Operators already see the revenue skew. In a closed Klaviyo Community thread, one merchant corrected to 3.5:1 checkout-to-cart revenue with similar send volume; an agency answer put the average near 2:1, with checkout ahead for about 80% of clients (Klaviyo Community). Treat those as anecdotes, not a census.

Source: Editorial framework synthesizing Stripe stage definitions with Klaviyo Started Checkout vs Added to Cart help docs. https://stripe.com/resources/more/cart-abandonment-vs-checkout-abandonment · https://help.klaviyo.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002779411

How Abandoned Checkout Email Benchmarks Work

Abandoned checkout email benchmarks work when you lock the trigger first, then compare like with like. Use Stripe for stage math. Use Klaviyo help for event names. Use a labeled panel that separates checkout from cart for dollars. Use the large Klaviyo and Omnisend cart tables as siblings, not as fake checkout cells.

Trigger and metric grammar

Layer	What it measures	Typical email trigger	Published planning figures
Cart abandonment (stage)	Added to cart, never started checkout	Shopify Added to Cart (behavioral tracking on)	Top Growth cart median RPR $1.82 / CVR 1.32% (n=20)
Checkout abandonment (stage)	Started checkout, no order	Shopify Checkout Started / Started Checkout	Top Growth checkout median RPR $2.57 / CVR 1.42% (n=13)
Combined cart-to-order leak	Carts that never become orders	Often mislabeled “cart” flows	Baymard average 70.22%
ESP “abandoned cart” census	Flows labeled abandoned cart in platform reports	Frequently Started Checkout in practice	Klaviyo 143K: RPR $3.65, placed-order 3.33%
Omnisend Abandoned cart row	Automation type in ecommerce table	Platform automation taxonomy (no checkout split)	$3.59/email, 1.72% conversion

Do not put Baymard’s 70.22% next to Top Growth’s 1.42% as if they were peers. One is a funnel leak. The other is an email-recipient conversion rate inside a small managed panel.

Labeled RPR: checkout vs cart (Top Growth panel)

Top Growth publishes first-party Klaviyo flow reporting for 21 DTC brands over July 2025 to June 2026 (2.17M core conversion emails). Abandoned checkout (present in 13 brands) median RPR is $2.57, top quartile $9.96. Abandoned cart (20 brands) median RPR is $1.82, top quartile $4.13. Median conversion is 1.42% versus 1.32%. Median click is higher on cart (4.35%) than checkout (3.11%), which fits a wider, earlier audience (Top Growth).

Read the caveats with the numbers. The panel is small. Clients are agency-managed. Attribution is Klaviyo’s. Revenue per recipient carries price point. This is still the cleanest public table we found that separates the two flow types instead of mashing them.

Source: Top Growth Marketing, Email Flow Benchmarks for DTC Ecommerce, updated August 30, 2026 (window July 2025 to June 2026). https://topgrowthmarketing.com/dtc-ecommerce-benchmarks/email-flow-benchmarks/

Source: Top Growth Marketing, Email Flow Benchmarks for DTC Ecommerce, updated August 30, 2026. https://topgrowthmarketing.com/dtc-ecommerce-benchmarks/email-flow-benchmarks/

What the large ESP cart tables still mean

Klaviyo’s May 2024 abandoned cart report (2023 performance across 143,000+ flows) still matters as the big platform scorecard for flows labeled abandoned cart: average RPR $3.65, top 10% $28.89, placed-order 3.33% / 7.69%, click 6.25% / 13.33% (Klaviyo). That report does not publish a separate Checkout Started versus Added to Cart split. Omnisend’s 2025 automation table lists Abandoned cart at $3.59 per email and 1.72% conversion, with no abandoned-checkout row (Omnisend). Use those figures for cart-labeled siblings and for our abandoned cart email benchmarks spoke. Do not relabel them as a checkout-only census.

Community revenue ratios (anecdotes)

When both flows run with similar delivery volume, operators often see checkout revenue beat cart. The Klaviyo Community thread that asked for ratios landed on roughly 2:1 agency-wide and 3.5:1 for one merchant who corrected their own numbers (Klaviyo Community). Smaller stores under about $500K annual sales were more likely to see cart win in that agency answer. Keep the anecdote label. Do not chart a fake national 2:1 law.

Opens after Mail Privacy Protection

Prefer click, placed-order, and RPR. Apple Mail Privacy Protection can inflate opens, so treat open rate as directional only (email marketing benchmarks by industry; how iOS privacy changes affected performance marketing).

What this page refuses

There is no public dataset for one official abandoned-checkout placed-order and RPR table across every Klaviyo account, split cleanly from Added to Cart inside the 143K report. There is also no public dataset for an Omnisend Abandoned checkout row separate from Abandoned cart. Agency universal checkout-abandonment bands (often 20%-50%) and “3x to 5x more revenue from running both” claims stay out of the charts unless a primary census appears. feat. does not invent a proprietary checkout recovery rate here.

How to Use Abandoned Checkout Email Benchmarks

Using abandoned checkout email benchmarks means naming the Shopify or Klaviyo event before you set a dollar goal. Confirm whether your live flow fires on Checkout Started or Added to Cart. Run both with filters so checkout supersedes cart. Then compare your RPR to a labeled panel, not to Baymard’s 70.22%.

1. Audit the trigger. Open the flow trigger. If it is Checkout Started / Started Checkout, you have checkout recovery. If it is Added to Cart, you have cart recovery. Rename the flow so finance stops arguing about the wrong sibling.
2. Enable the missing layer. On Shopify, turn on Klaviyo behavioral tracking for Added to Cart if you only have Checkout Started today (Klaviyo). Build browse separately if product pages are your main surface (browse abandonment email benchmarks).
3. Filter overlaps. Cart should skip profiles that Started Checkout or Placed Order since joining the flow. Checkout should skip Placed Order. Browse should lose to both. Community audits still catch competing abandonment emails as a top failure mode.
4. Deep-link the right surface. Checkout emails should return people to the checkout session when the platform allows it. Cart emails should rebuild the cart. Do not paste the same product block into both and hope.
5. Set faster delays on checkout. Operators commonly wait about 30 to 60 minutes on checkout and longer on cart because checkout intent is hotter. Test your own AOV and category. Do not treat a blog delay as a law.
6. Score RPR and placed-order, not opens. Use Top Growth’s labeled medians ($2.57 checkout / $1.82 cart) as a small-panel planning center. Use Klaviyo’s $3.65 / 3.33% cart-labeled census as the large sibling. Prefer SMS only with consent for the hottest checkouts (SMS vs email benchmarks).
7. Fix checkout UX in parallel. If Baymard’s cost, account, and form reasons dominate your exit surveys, email is a bandage. Guest checkout, fewer fields, and early shipping honesty still move the stage rate.

Frequently Asked Questions

These answers restate the Checkout Started versus Added to Cart fork, the labeled Top Growth RPR split, and the refusal of a fake Klaviyo checkout-only census so a founder can quote the right stage without renaming cart dollars as checkout dollars.

Q: What are good abandoned checkout email benchmarks in 2026? A: Use a labeled panel that separates checkout from cart. Top Growth’s 21-brand DTC sample puts abandoned checkout at median $2.57 RPR and 1.42% conversion (n=13), versus cart $1.82 and 1.32% (n=20). Treat large Klaviyo $3.65 / 3.33% figures as cart-labeled siblings unless your report splits triggers.

Q: What is the difference between abandoned checkout and abandoned cart? A: Cart abandonment is add-to-cart without starting checkout. Checkout abandonment is checkout started without an order. Stripe publishes that stage fork and the matching formulas. In Klaviyo on Shopify, Checkout Started and Added to Cart are different metrics and should be different flows.

Q: Is Klaviyo’s abandoned cart flow really a checkout flow? A: Often yes. Klaviyo’s help docs say the most common pre-built abandoned cart flow uses Started Checkout, while Added to Cart is a separate Shopify flow that needs behavioral tracking. Audit the trigger name before you benchmark.

Q: What RPR should I expect from abandoned checkout emails? A: In Top Growth’s managed panel, median abandoned checkout RPR is $2.57 and top quartile is $9.96. That is not a universal census. Klaviyo’s public $3.65 average is for flows labeled abandoned cart across 143K+ flows and is not a checkout-only cell.

Q: Do I need both abandoned cart and abandoned checkout emails? A: Yes if you can identify both events. Checkout covers high-intent starters. Cart covers adders who never reach checkout. Filters must stop double sends. Community audits still find stores that only run Checkout Started and believe cart is covered.

Conclusion

Abandoned checkout email benchmarks only work when the trigger is honest. Checkout Started is not Added to Cart. Stripe’s stage math, Klaviyo’s help docs, and a labeled $2.57 versus $1.82 RPR split all point the same way: separate the flows, then score the dollars.

If affiliates should sell the product those recovering shoppers almost bought, browse the feat. marketplace for co-branded storefront inventory builders can list.