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Use casesMay 20, 2026

Checkout Links for Abandoned Cart Recovery

Replace 'return to cart' with one-tap-to-pay. Pre-loaded items, applied discount, recipient pre-fill — straight into your abandoned cart flow.

Most abandoned cart sequences are good at the email part — subject line, copy, timing. They’re not as good at the link part. The default “return to your cart” URL drops the customer back on a cart page, where they review items they already chose, and then go to checkout. The original abandonment risk is still there.

A Checkout Link puts the customer one tap from “Pay now.” Same items, same discount, no detour.

The flow

  1. Customer abandons a cart.
  2. Your ESP (Klaviyo, Omnisend, Shopify, Postscript) sends the recovery email at 1h, 24h, 72h.
  3. Each email’s CTA is a Checkout Link, not a “return to cart” link.
  4. Customer taps — Shopify checkout opens with their cart pre-loaded, recovery discount applied, and (where you’ve passed the merge tags) name, email, and shipping pre-filled.

You can A/B-test subject lines all year. The single biggest lever in abandoned cart recovery is what happens after the click. A “return to cart” link surfaces a page the customer already navigated past. A checkout-first link removes that page from the funnel entirely.

Cart contents, discount, recipient — all per-recipient

Per-recipient Checkout Links can encode:

  • The exact items the customer abandoned (no guesswork; no substitutions unless you want them).
  • The discount as the campaign requires — 10%, free shipping, free gift, threshold-based.
  • The customer’s identity for pre-fill via Klaviyo/Omnisend merge tags appended as URL parameters.

Set it up

Install Checkout Links — 7-day free trial. Build a link template, drop it into your ESP’s abandoned cart flow, ship.

For more depth see: Abandoned cart email examples and the abandoned cart recovery playbook.

Related: Checkout Links for Klaviyo, Checkout Links for SMS.

Frequently asked

Does this replace Klaviyo / Omnisend / Shopify's native abandoned cart flow?

No — it sits inside it. Klaviyo (or whichever ESP) still sends the email; Checkout Links just provides a better recovery URL than the default 'return to cart' link.

How does the discount stay invisible?

Cart-line and delivery discounts are applied via Shopify Functions when the link opens. The customer sees the final discounted price at checkout, without a code field anywhere in the flow.

Will the abandoner still see their original cart items?

Yes — you can build the recovery link to mirror the abandoned cart exactly, or to substitute a curated alternative if certain items are out of stock.

How much lift should I expect?

It varies. Removing the 'return to cart' page step alone typically lifts recovered checkouts by 5-15% in our customers' data, more if you also bake in a recovery discount that previously required a code.