The Formula Behind a Typical Cart Abandonment Rate

What is cart abandonment rate?

For most online stores, cart abandonment rate is the percentage of shopping carts created that never turn into a completed purchase in the same period. A cart counts as abandoned once it has at least one item added and no completed order follows it, regardless of whether the shopper ever reached the checkout page or left before getting there. The rate is reported as a single number, but it blends two very different moments of loss, leaving the cart on a product page and leaving partway through checkout, so reading it next to checkout abandonment separately matters.

What is the cart abandonment rate formula?

Cart abandonment rate equals the number of carts created minus the number of completed purchases, divided by the number of carts created.

cart abandonment rate = (carts created - completed purchases) / carts created x 100

A store with 1,000 carts created and 280 completed purchases in the same month has a cart abandonment rate of 72%.

What counts as a cart in the calculation?

A cart counts as created the moment a session adds its first item, and a store has to decide upfront whether a returning visitor who reopens an old cart with items still in it counts as a new cart or a continuation of the original one. Counting every reopened cart as a brand new one inflates the cart total and lowers the reported abandonment rate without any real change in shopper behavior, so the cutoff needs to be defined once and applied the same way every month. Guest carts and logged-in carts should use the same counting rule, since splitting them by login state produces two abandonment rates that cannot be compared to each other or combined honestly.

What is the difference between cart abandonment and checkout abandonment?

Cart abandonment measures every cart that did not convert, counted from the moment an item was added, while checkout abandonment measures only the narrower group of carts that reached the checkout page and still did not convert.

checkout abandonment rate = (checkouts started - completed purchases) / checkouts started x 100

On the same 1,000-cart month, if 350 of those carts reached checkout and 280 completed, checkout abandonment is 20%, next to a cart abandonment rate of 72% measured from a much larger starting group.

The two numbers describe different stages of the same funnel: cart abandonment includes shoppers who never intended to buy that session, while checkout abandonment isolates the shoppers who committed to buying and still stopped.

What causes cart abandonment?

Unexpected costs revealed at checkout, such as shipping fees or taxes not shown earlier, are one of the most common triggers, since a shopper who priced an item at one number and sees a higher total right before paying often leaves rather than accepting the change. A checkout flow that requires account creation before payment, a payment method the shopper does not use, a slow page during the payment step and a lack of visible security signals all push shoppers out of the flow at the same point. Some abandoned carts are not lost sales at all; a shopper price-checking or saving items for later never intended to complete the purchase that session.

How do you measure cart recovery?

Cart recovery rate is the share of abandoned carts that later convert, most often through a follow-up email, an SMS reminder or a saved cart the shopper returns to on their own.

cart recovery rate = recovered carts / abandoned carts x 100

On the 720 abandoned carts from the worked example, if 65 of them later completed a purchase within the recovery window, the recovery rate is 65 / 720, or about 9.03%. Set a fixed recovery window, such as 7 or 14 days, and use the same window every month, since a longer window always recovers more carts without a real improvement in the recovery process itself.

What is the average cart abandonment rate?

Baymard Institute's compiled data across 50 individual studies puts the average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate at 70.22%, in a page last updated September 22, 2025 (baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate). That figure blends studies with different definitions of a cart, different industries and different measurement windows, so treat it as a rough industry-wide reference point rather than a target for a specific store. Compare your own cart abandonment rate against your own trailing months first, since a store's product mix, price point and checkout design all move the number more than the calendar does.

How does Flowsery help track cart abandonment?

Flowsery's goal and event tracking can mark cart creation and purchase completion as goals, so the counts feeding the cart abandonment rate formula come from the same event stream as the rest of a team's conversion rate reporting. Session replay flags rage clicks, dead clicks and JavaScript errors automatically, which surfaces a broken checkout step as a specific issue instead of a vague spike in the abandonment number. Revenue pulled directly from Stripe, Paddle, Polar and Lemon Squeezy confirms which abandoned carts actually represent lost revenue against your average order value.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good cart abandonment rate?

There is no single target rate, since the number moves with product price point, industry and checkout design. Baymard Institute's average across 50 studies is 70.22%, last updated September 22, 2025, and that figure works best as a rough reference point, not a benchmark to hit exactly.

Does cart abandonment rate include people who were never going to buy?

Yes, cart abandonment rate counts every cart created that did not convert, including shoppers who were price-checking or saving items for later with no intent to purchase that session. Checkout abandonment is the narrower metric that isolates shoppers who had already committed to the purchase flow.

Why is my checkout abandonment rate so much lower than my cart abandonment rate?

Checkout abandonment is measured only against carts that reached the checkout page, a much smaller group than every cart created, so its denominator excludes shoppers who left before ever starting checkout. A store can post 72% cart abandonment and 20% checkout abandonment in the same month, from the same underlying carts.

What is the biggest cause of cart abandonment?

Unexpected costs revealed at checkout, such as shipping or tax appearing for the first time right before payment, are among the most common triggers. Forced account creation, a missing preferred payment method, and a slow or broken payment step also push shoppers out of the flow.

How do you calculate cart recovery rate?

Cart recovery rate divides the number of previously abandoned carts that later converted by the total number of abandoned carts, using a fixed recovery window such as 7 or 14 days. Keeping the window fixed matters, since a longer window always recovers more carts without any real improvement in the recovery process.

Should cart abandonment be measured the same way for guest and logged-in checkouts?

Yes, using one consistent rule for when a cart counts as created keeps the rate comparable across guest and logged-in shoppers. Splitting them by login state and applying different counting rules produces two numbers that cannot be combined or compared honestly.

How does Flowsery track the data behind cart abandonment rate?

Flowsery's goal and event tracking marks cart creation and purchase completion as goals, so the numbers feeding the formula come from the same event stream as the rest of a team's reporting. Session replay flags rage clicks, dead clicks and JavaScript errors automatically, turning a vague spike in abandonment into a specific broken checkout step. Revenue pulled directly from Stripe, Paddle, Polar and Lemon Squeezy confirms which of those abandoned carts actually represent lost revenue.

Does reopening a saved cart count as a new abandoned cart?

A store has to decide upfront whether a returning visitor who reopens an old cart with items still in it counts as a new cart or a continuation of the original one, then apply that same cutoff every month. Counting every reopened cart as brand new inflates the cart total and lowers the reported abandonment rate without any real change in shopper behavior.

What time period should cart abandonment rate be measured over?

Cart abandonment rate is calculated from carts created and completed purchases in the same period, most often a month. In the post's worked example, 1,000 carts created and 280 completed purchases in that same month land at a 72% cart abandonment rate. Comparing your own rate against your own trailing months matters more than picking an exact calendar cutoff.

Which payment platforms confirm lost revenue from abandoned carts?

Flowsery pulls revenue directly from Stripe, Paddle, Polar and Lemon Squeezy, which confirms which abandoned carts in the tracking data actually represent lost revenue. That revenue figure gets checked against average order value, so a store sees the real dollar impact instead of just a percentage.