Building a Recovery Campaign

This guide walks you through creating a complete abandoned cart recovery campaign in Mautic. The campaign sends three timed emails to customers who abandon their carts and stops automatically when the customer completes their purchase.

Overview

The campaign you will build has the following structure:

Email 1 – Sent 1 hour after abandonment. A gentle reminder about the items left behind.
Email 2 – Sent 24 hours after abandonment. Creates urgency and optionally includes the coupon code.
Email 3 – Sent 72 hours after abandonment. A final reminder with the discount offer.

Between each email, a condition checks whether the customer has already recovered their cart. If they have, the campaign stops sending emails.

Step 1: Create a Segment

First, create a Mautic segment that captures contacts with abandoned carts.

In Mautic, go to Segments and click New.
Name the segment something clear, such as “Abandoned Cart Contacts”.
Click the Filters tab.
Add a filter: Tags – includes – abandoned_cart (or whatever tag name you configured in the plugin).
Save the segment.

Mautic will automatically add contacts to this segment when the plugin applies the abandoned cart tag. Alternatively, if you configured a Segment ID in the plugin settings, you can use that segment instead.

Step 2: Create the Email Templates

Create three email templates in Mautic. Go to Channels > Emails and click New. Choose Template Email for each one.

Email 1: Gentle Reminder (1 hour)

Subject line example: “You left something behind!”

In the email body, remind the customer about their cart and include a prominent recovery link. Use these Mautic tokens:

Recovery link: {contactfield=mautic_woo_recovery_url} – Use this as the href for a “Complete Your Order” button.
Cart data: {contactfield=mautic_woo_cart_data} – The raw JSON data for the cart. You can reference this if you want to display cart details in the email.

Example button HTML for the email builder:

<a href="{contactfield=mautic_woo_recovery_url}" style="background:#0073aa; color:#fff; padding:12px 24px; text-decoration:none; border-radius:4px;">Complete Your Order</a>

Email 2: Urgency + Coupon (24 hours)

Subject line example: “Your cart is waiting – here is a special offer”

In this email, create more urgency and introduce the discount coupon if you have coupon generation enabled. Use these tokens:

Recovery link: {contactfield=mautic_woo_recovery_url}
Coupon code: {contactfield=mautic_woo_coupon_code}

Example text: “We have saved your cart for you. Use code {contactfield=mautic_woo_coupon_code} for 10% off, or click the button below to return to checkout with the discount applied automatically.”

Email 3: Final Reminder (72 hours)

Subject line example: “Last chance to save on your order”

This is your final email. Emphasize that the items may sell out or that the discount is about to expire. Include the same recovery link and coupon code tokens as Email 2.

Step 3: Build the Campaign

Now connect everything in a Mautic campaign.

Go to Campaigns in Mautic and click New.
Name the campaign, for example “Abandoned Cart Recovery”.
For the Contact Source, choose Contact Segments and select the “Abandoned Cart Contacts” segment you created in Step 1.
Build the campaign flow as described below.

Campaign Flow

Here is the step-by-step campaign structure to build in the campaign builder:

Wait 1 hour – Add a “Wait” action set to 1 hour after the contact enters the campaign.
Check for recovery – Add a Condition of type “Contact tags”. Set it to check if the contact has the recovered_cart tag. If yes, the contact exits the campaign (no more emails). If no, continue to the next step.
Send Email 1 – On the “no” path of the condition, add a “Send Email” action and select your first email template (the gentle reminder).
Wait 23 hours – Add another “Wait” action. This brings the total to 24 hours after abandonment.
Check for recovery – Add another “Contact tags” condition checking for the recovered_cart tag. If yes, exit. If no, continue.
Send Email 2 – On the “no” path, send the second email template (urgency + coupon).
Wait 48 hours – Add a “Wait” action. This brings the total to 72 hours after abandonment.
Check for recovery – Add a final “Contact tags” condition checking for the recovered_cart tag. If yes, exit. If no, continue.
Send Email 3 – On the “no” path, send the third email template (final reminder).

Step 4: Publish and Test

Before publishing the campaign, test it with a real abandoned cart:

Make sure the Abandoned Cart module is enabled in the plugin settings and your Mautic connection is working.
Go to your store’s checkout page and enter a test email address. Add items to the cart but do not complete the purchase.
Wait for the abandonment timeout to pass and the cron to run (or manually trigger WP-Cron).
Check the test contact in Mautic. Verify that the abandoned_cart tag is applied, the mautic_woo_recovery_url field has a URL, and the mautic_woo_coupon_code field has a code (if coupons are enabled).
Click the recovery URL to confirm it restores the cart and redirects to checkout.
Complete a test order to confirm the recovered_cart tag is applied and the cart data fields are cleared.

Once you have verified everything works, publish the campaign in Mautic to make it live.

Tips for Better Results

Keep Email 1 short and friendly. Many customers simply got distracted. A brief reminder is often enough to bring them back.
Save the coupon for Email 2 or 3. Offering a discount in the first email trains customers to abandon carts on purpose. Hold the incentive for the follow-up.
Use a clear call-to-action button. Make the recovery link a large, visible button rather than a plain text link.
Monitor your Sync Log. Check the Tools tab in the plugin settings to see sync activity and catch any errors early.
Review your campaign reports. Mautic tracks open rates, click rates, and conversions. Use this data to refine your subject lines, timing, and email content.