Abandoned cart: why Australian shoppers leave and how to stop it

You check your store in the morning and the numbers don't add up. Forty people put something in their cart yesterday. Twelve bought. The other 28 left with their products still sitting there.

That's an abandoned cart, and it's normal. About seven in ten online shopping carts never become an order: the Baymard Institute puts the average at 70.22%, across 50 studies. Plenty of those shoppers were one answer away from buying.

Matey builds AI chatbots for Australian online stores, so the questions shoppers ask right before they buy are our day job. This guide covers what an abandoned cart is, why Aussie shoppers leave, how to stop them leaving, how to win them back, and the Spam Act catch on cart emails that guides written overseas skip. If you're weighing up a chatbot for your store, start with AI chatbot for ecommerce.

What does abandoned cart mean?

An abandoned cart is an online shopping cart that a shopper puts products into, then leaves without buying. The products sit there, the sale doesn't happen, and the store usually never finds out why.

It happens everywhere: on Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and every other store platform. People add things to compare them, to save them for later, or to see the total. Some come back. Most don't.

What is the difference between an abandoned cart and an abandoned checkout?

An abandoned cart has products in it, but the shopper never started checkout. An abandoned checkout is one where they started checkout, usually typed their email address, and stopped before paying.

Shopify, for example, counts a checkout as abandoned once it's still unfinished 10 minutes after the shopper typed their email address. Other platforms draw the line in much the same place.

The difference matters because of what you can do next. You can only send a reminder for an abandoned checkout, and only if the shopper typed their email and agreed to hear from you. Everyone who left at the cart is gone, unless you stop them leaving.

How many people abandon their carts?

About 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned. The Baymard Institute, a research firm that studies online checkouts, averages 50 studies of cart abandonment and gets 70.22% (Baymard Institute). So for every 10 carts started, about three become orders.

Australian numbers are rougher. A 2023 survey by courier company CouriersPlease found 88% of Australian online shoppers had abandoned a cart, and 63% of them blamed expensive shipping (Dynamic Business). It didn't say how many people it asked, so take it as a rough guide.

Your own number matters more than anyone's average, and it's a simple sum.

How do you calculate your cart abandonment rate?

Your cart abandonment rate is the share of carts that never become orders: divide orders by carts started, take that from 1, and multiply by 100. A store with 400 carts started and 120 orders in a month has a cart abandonment rate of 70%.

Use the abandoned cart calculator below to work out yours, and what those carts are worth.

Abandoned cart calculator

1. Carts started in a month

2. Orders that month

3. Average order

$

Your cart abandonment rate

70%

Left in abandoned carts each month

$26,600

Carts abandoned each month

280

Left in abandoned carts each year

$319,200

Win back 1 in 10 of those carts and that's $2,660 more a month.

How to use the abandoned cart calculator:

1. Carts started in a month. In Shopify, open Analytics, then Reports, and find Conversion rate breakdown: use Sessions with cart additions. On other platforms, use the add to cart number in your store's analytics.
2. Orders that month. Count orders from the same month, so both numbers cover the same shoppers.
3. Average order, in dollars. Your store platform shows it on its main dashboard.
4. Read the answer. It shows your cart abandonment rate, how many carts were left each month, and what was in them each month and each year.
5. Look at the last line. It's what winning back one in ten of those carts is worth to you every month.

The money left in carts is an estimate, because it assumes each abandoned cart was worth an average order. It's usually close enough to show whether fixing it is worth a weekend.

Why do Australian shoppers abandon their carts?

Australian shoppers abandon their carts for the same reasons as shoppers everywhere, plus a few that bite harder here: shipping across a big country, slow delivery to the regions, and payment options Aussies expect to see.

In the Baymard Institute's 2026 survey of 1,083 US online shoppers, 42% of people who left a checkout were just browsing or weren't ready to buy. The rest gave these reasons, and could pick more than one (Baymard Institute):

It's a US survey, and Australian shoppers say the same thing first: expensive shipping topped the CouriersPlease survey too. Read the last column again. Most of those reasons are a question the shopper couldn't get answered at the moment they had it.

The Australian extras:

• Shipping to the regions. Shipping to WA, the NT, Tassie, and the bush often costs more and takes longer. If a shopper in Kalgoorlie only finds out at the last step of checkout, that's the "extra costs" reason. Australia Post's 2026 eCommerce Report found 69% of online shoppers want a range of delivery options at checkout, and 26% expect same-day or next-day delivery when it's urgent.
• The total price. Under Australian Consumer Law, if you show a price in parts, you also have to show the total as one figure, including taxes and unavoidable fees, at least as prominently. If a fee will apply, say so at the start, not at the last step (ACCC). From 1 July 2027, a new law also makes businesses show mandatory per-transaction fees, like booking or service fees, right next to the base price (Clayton Utz).
• Card surcharges. Since 1 October 2026, businesses can't add a surcharge for paying by Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or eftpos cards (ACCC). If your checkout still adds one, take it off.
• Buy now, pay later. Almost a third of Australians used buy now, pay later in a year, and over 40% of 18 to 39 year olds, in the Reserve Bank's 2022 survey of how Australians pay (RBA). If your shoppers skew young, show Afterpay or Zip before checkout, not just at it.

How do you reduce cart abandonment before shoppers leave?

You reduce cart abandonment by answering the shopper's question while they're still on your site: show the full cost early, say when it'll arrive, make returns easy to find, take the payments Aussies use, and let them check out as a guest. Reminder emails come second, because they only reach people who left an email address.

The fixes, in the order we'd do them on a small store:

1. Show shipping before checkout. A shipping table or postcode box on the product page and in the cart, or a free shipping threshold in your announcement bar.
2. Say when it'll arrive. Delivery times by state, on the product page, in days.
3. Put returns one tap from the cart. In plain words: how many days, what condition, who pays postage.
4. Answer questions on the spot. Sizing, stock, shipping to WA, Afterpay, which of two products. An AI chatbot that knows your catalogue and policies answers in seconds, at 9pm on a Sunday, while the shopper still has their card out.
5. Let them check out as a guest. Offer an account after they've paid, not before.
6. Take the payments people use. Cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, and buy now, pay later like Afterpay or Zip.
7. Show you're a real business. Your ABN, an Australian phone number or address, and reviews from real customers.
8. Fix checkout on a phone. Big buttons, autofill, and no pop-ups in the way.

How does a chatbot stop abandoned carts?

A chatbot stops abandoned carts by answering the question that would have made the shopper leave, while they're still on the page. That's what a matey does on Australian online stores: it answers from the store's own products, prices, stock, shipping, and returns rules, at any hour, and adds products to the cart when the shopper asks.

A reminder email is the after-the-fact fix. It lands hours or a day later, and only if the shopper typed their email in. A chat answers at the moment of doubt, and it doesn't need anyone's email address to do it.

Here's a matey on a made-up outdoor store on a Sunday afternoon, with the shop closed. A family wants a first camping kit for $700:

It searches the range, adds up the kit, offers a cheaper way, says shipping's free, and puts the tent and stove in the cart when asked. Real builds work the same way. Here's a case study from an outdoor gear store with 7,300 products, live stock, and gear hire.

How do you recover an abandoned cart?

You recover an abandoned cart with a reminder: an email or text to shoppers who gave their details and agreed to hear from you, with the products, the total, and one link straight back to their cart. Most store platforms and email tools send them automatically.

A three-step reminder sequence works for most small stores:

1. An hour or so later: a plain reminder with the product photos and a link back. No discount.
2. About a day later: answer the likely question. Shipping cost and times, returns, sizing.
3. Three to seven days later: a last nudge. Some stores add free shipping here. Don't do it every time, or regulars learn to wait for it.

Shopify's built-in abandoned checkout reminder waits 10 hours by default, and you can change the timing in Shopify Flow.

What makes an abandoned cart email work:

• The products, with photos and prices, and the total including shipping.
• One button back to the full cart.
• The answer to the question that probably stopped them.
• A reply that reaches a person, not a no-reply address.

Are abandoned cart emails legal in Australia?

Yes, if the shopper agreed to hear from you. In Australia, an abandoned cart email that encourages someone to buy is a commercial electronic message under the Spam Act 2003. It needs consent, it has to say who sent it with your contact details, and it needs a working unsubscribe link that you honour within five working days (ACMA).

Consent is the catch. Guides written overseas are about Europe's GDPR or the US CAN-SPAM Act, and neither is the rule here.

• Typing an email at checkout isn't clearly consent. It isn't settled in Australia that leaving your details in an abandoned cart lets a business infer consent, as law firm Clayton Utz points out.
• Pre-ticked boxes don't count. The ACMA's statement of expectations says not to use them, and not to infer consent from a one-off purchase.
• The safe way is an unticked box early in checkout, like "Email me about my order and offers", that the shopper ticks themselves. Keep a record of who ticked it. Clayton Utz notes that a box on the last step misses every shopper who left before it.
• Check your store's settings. Shopify's abandoned checkout reminder only goes to shoppers subscribed to email marketing by default, and it can be switched to all customers. Leave it on subscribers.

The ACMA does act on this. In 2024, Outdoor Supacentre, trading as 4WD Supacentre, paid a $302,500 penalty for 83,273 marketing texts (ACMA). The ACMA's investigation report found 76,994 of them went to people who had left their details in an abandoned cart. The same year, Luxottica, which owns OPSM, paid $1,512,500 for spam breaches, including messages sent through an abandoned cart reminder tool (ACMA).

A chat on your site works differently. It answers the shopper while they're there and asking, so no email address comes into it.

How do you find what's causing your abandoned carts?

Run the Matey cart test. Pick up your phone, open your own store as a shopper would, and try these seven things:

1. Add a product and find the shipping cost. Count the taps.
2. Find the delivery time to a WA or Tassie postcode.
3. Find your returns policy from the cart.
4. Check out as a guest, without making an account.
5. Count the payment options on the payment step.
6. Ask a question at 9pm, by chat, email, or your contact form, and time the answer.
7. Leave a checkout with your email in it. See what arrives, when, and whether you ever ticked a box to allow it.

Anything that took more than a few taps, or got no answer that night, is where to start.

Want to see a chatbot answer your shoppers before they leave? Try a matey on the homepage.