Abandoned Cart - Part 1: Create an abandoned cart email template

In this article, we will explain how to create and personalize an abandoned cart email template.

We have created a series of articles to help you automatically send an abandoned cart email to your customers: 

Before you start

⚙️ Step 1: Create your abandoned cart email template

💡 Good to know
The settings of your email template (subject line, preview text, From email, etc.) will be applied everytime it is sent through your Abandoned Cart workflow.

To create your abandoned cart email template:

  1. Go to Campaigns > Templates.
  2. Select if you want to create a new email template or use the default abandoned cart template:
    • Click New Template to create a new email template.
    • Select the Default template - Detailed Abandoned Cart_# email template to update it.
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  3. Configure the settings just like a regular email template.
    Note: you can personalize the email subject line and the preview text using contact attributes.
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  4. Click Next Step.

🎨 Step 2: Design your abandoned cart email template

As with any marketing email, abandoned cart emails should include a header with the company name and logo, footer with the physical address of the company, contact information, copyright information, link to your privacy policy, and most importantly – an unsubscribe option.

To design your email template:

  1. If you created a new template, select the editor you want to use (New Drag & Drop Editor or Classic Drag & Drop Editor).
  2. Design your template by dragging and dropping content blocks into your template layout to add and format text, images, buttons and other design elements.
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For best practices and examples of abandoned cart emails, you can check out this Sendinblue blog article.

🖋️ Step 3: Personalize your abandoned cart email template

A great email design is important, but abandoned cart emails should also be personalized to the shopper you are sending the email to by including the products that were left in their cart and addressing them by name.

In order to populate the emails sent with these data, you must insert placeholders for contact attributes and abandoned cart data in your template.

Placeholders for contact attributes

You can personalize your abandoned cart email template using contact attributes stored within your Sendinblue contact list. Each attribute describe a type of information you save about your contacts, such as their name, email address, phone number, gender, etc. Personalizing your email template by inserting placeholders for contact attributes will allow the data to be replaced by your shopper's name, favourite colour, or any other useful information.

In our examples below, we have included a personalization of the contact's first name using the placeholder {{ contact.FIRSTNAME }}.

New Drag & Drop Editor Classic Drag & Drop Editor
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For more information on personalizing emails using contact attributes, read Personalize your email with contact attributes.

Placeholders for abandoned cart data

To insert data about the shopper's abandoned products and cart (name, size, price, etc.), you must insert the corresponding placeholders in your email template. 

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The placeholders for abandoned cart data are pre-determined based on the method you used for creating your track events:

  • If your track events were automatically created using a Sendinblue plugin, the placeholders are standardized.
  • If you or a developer created your track events manually, you must create your own list of available placeholders for use in your email template. These placeholders will be defined by the structure of your track event and the name of your array. By default, Sendinblue's array is named "items".

List of standardized placeholders for abandoned cart data

Here is the list of the main standardized placeholders that you can insert in your email template if your track events were automatically created using a Sendinblue plugin:

Item data  Insert this placeholder
in your template
Item name {{ item.name }}
Item SKU  {{ item.sku }}
Item category {{ item.category }}
Item ID {{ item.id }}
Item variant ID {{ item.variant_id }}
Item variant name {{ item.variant_name }}
Item price {{ item.price }}
Item quantity  {{ item.quantity }}
Item URL  {{ item.url }}
Item image {{ item.image }}
Cart data  Insert this placeholder
in your template
Affiliation {{ params.affiliation }}
Date {{ params.date }}
Subtotal {{ params.subtotal }}
Discount {{ params.discount }}
Shipping {{ params.shipping }}
Total before tax {{ params.total_before_tax }}
Tax {{ params.tax }}
Total  {{ params.total }}
Note: for WooCommerce, use {{ params.revenue }} instead.
Currency  {{ params.currency }}
URL to view cart {{ params.url }}

Placeholders for product images

To insert data about the shopper's abandoned products and cart (name, size, price, etc.), you must insert the corresponding placeholders in your email template. 

In the New Drag & Drop Editor

To insert product images in your email template using the Drag & Drop Editor (New):

  1. Drag and drop a design block that contains space for an image into your email template.
  2. Click the image block to open the image settings.
  3. In the Insert from URL field, insert the appropriate abandoned cart placeholder for the product image.
    2021-08-24_11-45-36.png

In the Classic Drag & Drop Editor

To insert product images in your email template using the Drag & Drop Editor (Classic):

  1. Drag and drop a design block that contains space for an image into your email template.
  2. Click the image block to open the image settings.
  3. In the From URL fied, insert the appropriate abandoned cart placeholder for the product image.
    RAC_step_2_image_6.png

Placeholders for product or cart links

You can insert the abandoned cart placeholder for the products or cart URL as you would with any other URL in your email template.

In the New Drag & Drop Editor

To add a link to an image using the Drag & Drop Editor (New):

  1. Drag and drop a design block that contains space for an image into your email template.
  2. Click the link icon below the image.
  3. In the Link target field of the image settings, insert the appropriate abandoned cart placeholder to make the image clickable.
  4. Click Update.
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To add a link to text using the Drag & Drop Editor (New):

  1. Highlight the text you want to turn into an URL.
  2. Click the link icon.
  3. In the URL field of the image settings, insert the appropriate product URL placeholder.
  4. Click Insertmceclip9.png

In the Classic Drag & Drop Editor

To add a link to an image using the Drag & Drop Editor (Classic):

  1. Drag and drop a design block that contains space for an image into your email template.
  2. Click the image space to open the image settings.
  3. In the Link field of the image settings, insert the appropriate abandoned cart placeholder to make the image clickable.2021-08-24_11-56-58.png

To add a link to text using the Drag & Drop Editor (Classic):

  1. Highlight the text you want to turn into an URL.
  2. Click the link icon.
  3. In the URL field of the image settings, insert the appropriate product URL placeholder.
    2021-08-24_12-12-43.png

🧐 Step 4: Display and interpret abandoned cart data

💡 Good to know
Our Dynamic list option is now called Repeat block and is available in both Drag & Drop editors.

After adding your placeholders in your email template, you must enable the Repeat block feature for each section that contains a placeholder to ensure that your email template can display multiple products and interpret data sent by your website to Sendinblue.

In the New Drag & Drop Editor

To display and interpret your abandoned cart data using the Drag & Drop Editor (New):

  1. Hover over the block that contains placeholders for abandoned cart data
  2. Click the Repeat block icon
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  3. In the Repeat block popup window, enter the following information:
    • In the Repeat for field, input the plural version of your variable, e.g. for the section containing the placeholder {{ item.name }} enter items. If you have connected your website to Sendinblue using one of our plugins, the name of the variable array is items by default.
    • In the Variable alias field, input the first word in your placeholder, e.g. for the section containing {{ item.name }} enter item. If you have connected your website to Sendinblue using one of our plugins, the name of the variable array is item by default.
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  4. If necessary, set a limit for the number of items displayed in your email in the Limit field.
  5. Click Add Loop.

If you are not using a Sendinblue plugin or if you are using other transactional parameters, you can find this information in your event logs. Learn how to find this data in our article Customize your emails using transactional parameters.

In the Classic Drag & Drop Editor

To display and interpret your abandoned cart data using the Drag & Drop Editor (Classic):

  1. Select a block that contains placeholders for abandoned cart data
  2. Click the Repeat block feature in the settings column
  3. Below the Repeat block feature, in the Variable names and What parameter contains the concerned attributes? fields, enter the following information:
    • variable: the first word in your placeholder, e.g. for the section containing {{ item.name }} the variable is item. If you have connected your website to Sendinblue using one of our plugins, the name of the variable array is item by default.
    • parameter: the plural version of your variable, e.g. for the section containing the placeholder {{ item.name }} the parameter is items. If you have connected your website to Sendinblue using one of our plugins, the name of the variable array is items by default.
  4. If necessary, set a limit for the number of items displayed in your email in the Limit field.
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If you are not using a Sendinblue plugin or if you are using other transactional parameters, you can find this information in your event logs. Learn how to find this data in our article Customize your emails using transactional parameters.

To learn more about the Repeat block feature, read Repeat a block of items in your emails.

✅ Step 5: Activate the email template

Once you are done creating your abandoned cart email template, click Save & Activate.

You will now be able to select it in your Abandoned Cart workflow.

⏩ What's next?