How Browse Abandonment, Added to Cart, and Checkout Started flows work together
A lot of store owners feel unsure how Browse Abandonment, Added to Cart, and Checkout Started flows actually relate. Are they three separate audiences? Do you need a flow for each one?
Here's the short answer: if you're under roughly $500K a year, you likely only need two of these flows, not three. Once you see why, a lot of the confusion clears up.
Start with two flows
Under that $500K mark, you likely only need two abandonment flows:
- Browse Abandonment for anyone who viewed a product but didn't check out
- Checkout Started for anyone who reached checkout but didn't finish
Each flow excludes anyone who went further. So nobody triggers both during the same visit.
What is Added to Cart
Here's the part that trips people up: Added to Cart isn't its own audience. It's part of Browse Abandonment.
The Added to Cart audience are a part of the Browse Abandonment audience that tapped the add to cart button on the product page.
Think of it as one group inside a bigger group, not two side-by-side groups. The Added to Cart audience sits entirely inside the Browse Abandonment audience. There's no separate audience of cart-adders floating outside that bigger group.
This is also why splitting Added to Cart into its own flow can look like it's generating new revenue when it isn't. A separate flow just divides the same audience into two flows. Worth knowing before AI or anyone leads you to believe you were missing out on an audience or revenue.
When to add an Added to Cart flow
None of this means the flow is useless. It's about when to split the audiences for more refined messaging.
A Browse Abandonment email reminds the shopper about a product they viewed. An Added to Cart email reminds shoppers about the product they tapped the add to cart button. There's only a subtle difference in the messaging between the two flows to address the extra step towards checkout.
In my experience, early stage stores, roughly up to $500K a year rarely need the different messaging. An advanced Browse Abandonment flow customized for new vs repeat customers already optimizes revenue. That's not an industry rule, just an observation from the accounts I've worked with over the years.
The real question isn't "am I missing a flow?" It's "would splitting the audience increase revenue from what an optimized Browse Abandonment is already sending?"
There's another distinction worth knowing here too. Browse Abandonment and Added to Cart only reach cookied visitors already in your Klaviyo account. No contact details are entered at either step, it's a behavior-based trigger from existing profiles. Checkout Started is different. It reaches both known and brand new contacts, since the flow triggers once someone enters their contact details on the checkout page.
One shopper, one flow.
With 3 abandoned flows a shopper still only enters one flow, based on the furthest point they reached:
- Viewed product → Browse Abandonment only
- Tapped add to cart button → Added to Cart only
- Reached checkout → Checkout Started only
Next Steps
When considering adding an Added to Cart flow, first check that your Browse Abandonment flow is meeting or exceeding benchmarks. Then ask what would actually move the needle. For some stores, that's optimizing the Browse Abandonment flow. For others, it's adding the Added to Cart flow. Either way, you're choosing on purpose now.
Do you want to learn more about optimzing your email marketing?
You'll find tutorials in The Inner Circle and Reliable Revenue where I coach Shopify store owners how to get predictable and reliable revenue with step-by-step, proven email marketing strategies.