Walkthrough: Creating an abandoned cart automation

Step 1: Create and name your custom automation
Create a new custom automation.

1. In the top navigation bar, click the Automations tab.
2. On the Automations page, hover your mouse over New, and click Custom automation.You are automatically redirected to the Automations page.
3. On the Automations page, in the left pane, click Edit.
   
4. In the New automation field, enter a name for your automation and click Save.

Step 2: Define the trigger that activates the automation
Define a trigger then add steps that follow when the trigger condition is met.

1. Click Select your trigger. The Select a Trigger window appears.
2. In the Select a Trigger dialog, click Website Engagement in the left menu.
   
   
3. Click the arrow beside the When someone adds any product to their cart trigger.
4. In the Trigger only once? drop-down list, select the No - Trigger every time someone adds a product option. This is the best option because you want your abandoned cart automation to get triggered every time a user drops items in their cart, not just the first time.
   
   
5. In the Website field, specify the websites that you want the automation to be triggered on, and then, click Save .
   

Step 3: Specify the wait time
Give the customer time to browse your website and complete the purchase.

Every time a customer adds an item to their cart, the automation sequence is initiated. However, there is no point in sending an email message immediately; you must give the customer time to browse your website, add more items to their cart, and complete their purchase.

1. On the Automations page, click the + symbol below the action.
   
   

2. In the Select action dialog, click Conditional/Control steps and then click Wait a specific time interval.
   
   
   

3. In the Wait a specific time interval dialog, specify the amount of time you expect the customer to need in minutes, hours, days, or months.
   Note: 45 - 60 minutes is probably the optimum waiting time. This gives customers enough time to browse your site for other items and move forward with the purchase. If they have not purchased anything by then, they might need a reminder.
   

4. Click Save.

Step 4: Check if a purchase was made
Filter your customers and check if any purchase was made.

Now that your customers have had time to buy the items they added to their cart, you can split them up, based on whether they purchased any items or not.

1. On the Automations page, click the + symbol below the Wait control step.
   
   
2. In the Select action dialog, click Conditional/Control steps and then click Filter (If condition/Else).
   
3. In the Filter (If condition / Else) dialog, in the Apply this set of filters to field, select the mailing list that this set of filters applies to. In this case, it is the list that the new subscribers signed up to.
4. Click Add a condition and a row of drop-down fields are displayed. 
5. In the first drop-down field, select the Purchased a Product option.
6. In the second drop-down field, select the is false option. This is because in the abandoned cart automation, you are only interested in the customers who did not make a purchase.
7. If you want to know if the customer did not purchase a particular product, in the third drop-down field, enter the product code. If you are interested in every product, leave the third drop-down field.
8. On the right side of the Filter (if condition/Else) dialog, click the time symbol.
   You now have extra options to help you define a time span for the condition to take place.

9. Set an appropriate time span, for example, 45 minutes.

10. Click Save. Your filter is ready and separates customers into two groups: those who bought something during the time period, and those who did not, by asking the question Did the customer make a purchase in the last XX minutes, yes or no?

Step 5: Send an email to the correct group of customers
Send an email to customers who did not complete a purchase in the time span you specified.

Now you must set up the email message and specify that it is only sent to the customers who did not complete a purchase in the time span you specified.

1. On the Automations page, click the + symbol below the Yes condition.
   
   In the Select action dialog, click Actions.
2.  Click Then send email campaign.
3. In the Then send email campaign dialog, create the-up email by entering all the appropriate values.
   
   
   • Subject line - The title of the email message.
   • "From" name - The address that the email message is sent from.
   • Add the content that suits you - Create a new email content or select one from an existing campaign.
   • Emails per day - The number of email messages sent by this action every day.
     
4. Click Save. You have now created the Abandoned cart automation. You can go back and add more steps or do things differently if you want to. For instance, you can choose to send a discount as a thank you to the people who purchased a product by adding an action under the Yes side of your condition.
5. To activate the automation, in the My Automation Workflows list, set the toggle switch to Active.