What's a good abandoned cart recovery rate and how do I improve mine?

Industry average abandoned cart rate is approximately 68–70% — meaning for every 100 people who add to cart, roughly 68 don't buy. Your job is to recover as many of those as possible through email and SMS flows.

• Recovery rate benchmarks: A well-structured abandoned cart flow recovers 5–15% of abandoned carts. Top operators with strong sequences and offer incentives hit 15–20%. Below 5% usually indicates either a broken email setup or emails going to spam.
• The 3-email sequence that works: Email 1 at 1 hour — soft reminder, no discount, emphasize the product benefits and scarcity of stock. Email 2 at 24 hours — add social proof (a specific testimonial) and gentle urgency ("your cart expires soon"). Email 3 at 72 hours — introduce a small incentive (10% off or free shipping) as a final nudge.
• SMS beats email for recovery rates: If you've captured a phone number, an SMS at the 1-hour mark typically outperforms the email equivalent by 2–3×. Open rates for SMS are 90%+. Use a tool like Postscript or Klaviyo SMS alongside email flows.
• Check for spam issues: If your recovery rate is below 3%, test whether your emails are landing in promotions or spam folders by sending a test from your Klaviyo account to a Gmail and checking the tab. Deliverability issues are silent revenue destroyers.