Abandoned Carts [Support Thread]

Abandoned Carts v1.0.0: automatic abandoned-cart reminder emails, including One Page Checkout guests, for Zen Cart 1.5.8 through 3.0.0, as an encapsulated plugin

GitHub: https://github.com/dbltoe/Abandoned_Carts

Download: https://github.com/dbltoe/Abandoned_Carts/releases/tag/v1.0.0 (also free at https://myzencartzone.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=37)

Zen Cart: 1.5.8a, 2.0.x, 2.1.0, 2.2.x, 2.3.x and 3.0.0, one package

PHP: 7.4 through 8.5

License: GPL-2.0

What it does

About seven in ten online carts are left behind. Abandoned Carts emails the shopper shortly after they leave, including what they left, the cart total, and a Return to Your Cart button that restores the cart exactly as it was, options and all. Once the scheduler is set up, you don't have to send anything by hand.

- It reaches guests. With One Page Checkout's guest checkout, a guest's cart never reaches the database the way a customer's does, so Recover Cart Sales can't see them. Abandoned Carts records the guest as soon as they click Save on their contact details. Works with OPC 2.3.6 and later, including 2.7.0, and nothing in OPC is changed. Without OPC, reminders go to customers with an account.

- It waits, then stops. The reminder goes out after the number of hours you set following the shopper's last change to the cart, not while they're still clicking around (it checks Who's Online). It stops the moment they order (any payment path, including PayPal's IPN), empty the cart, or unsubscribe.

- It checks again before every send: cart too old, address unsubscribed, already ordered, your guest and newsletter-only settings, and a minimum cart value.

- Return to Your Cart restores the same products, quantities and options, text options and checkboxes included, at today's prices. Nobody is ever logged in by the link.

- One-click unsubscribe in every email, plus the List-Unsubscribe headers (RFC 8058) that Gmail and Yahoo use for their own Unsubscribe button, and your store's postal address for CAN-SPAM. The unsubscribe list stores a one-way hash, never the address.

- Customers > Abandoned Carts in the admin: every recorded cart with its items and history, the scheduler's health, a Send Due Reminders Now button, and what reminders were recovered in the last 30 days.

- Privacy: carts are recorded only once the shopper can be emailed, and cart records, guest emails included, are deleted after the days you set. For the EU, UK, and Canada, there's an E-Mail Only Newsletter Subscribers? setting.

- The reminder is previewable in the free Preview Email plugin, built by the same code that sends it.

Encapsulated. One folder under zc_plugins/, installed from Plugin Manager. No core or template file is changed.

Installing

1. Upload zc_plugins/AbandonedCarts/ so it lands at <store root>/zc_plugins/AbandonedCarts/v1.0.0/.

2. Admin > Modules > Plugin Manager > Abandoned Carts > Install.

3. Set up the scheduler (below). Nothing is sent until it runs.

4. Look over Configuration > Abandoned Carts. The defaults (one reminder 1 hour after the last change, carts up to 7 days old, records kept 30 days) are a good start.

The scheduler

Zen Cart has no scheduler of its own, so reminders go out from an address that a cron job opens every 15 minutes. Customers > Abandoned Carts shows the exact address for your store (Scheduler Setup) and when it last ran. In cPanel's Cron Jobs: Minute \*/15, and \* for Hour, Day, Month and Weekday, with a command like:

```

curl -fsSL "https://www.example.com/index.php?main_page=abandoned_carts_cron&key=YOUR-KEY" >/dev/null

```

Any outside cron service that opens a web address works too. Send Due Reminders Now on the admin page runs it on demand, and it's safe to run anytime.

Recover Cart Sales

Abandoned Carts can run beside Recover Cart Sales. Recover Cart Sales sends by hand to customers with an account; Abandoned Carts sends automatically and reaches guests too. If you use both, be careful not to email the same customer from each.

The full documentation (readme.html) is inside the plugin and linked from the Plugin Manager panel: configuration, who gets a reminder, OPC guests, the email, privacy and the law, customizing, translating, upgrading, uninstalling and troubleshooting.

More with Abandoned Carts Pro

For stores that want more, there's a paid add-on, Abandoned Carts Pro, from myzencartzone.com. It turns the one reminder into a series of up to three, each with its own timing and wording, adds a single-use coupon to the one you choose, and reports what each reminder brought back. The free plugin stays complete on its own, and everything above is free.

Reporting a problem

Please include your Zen Cart and PHP versions, your checkout (standard or One Page Checkout), and what you saw. If reminders aren't going out, check when Customers > Abandoned Carts says the scheduler last ran, then click Send Due Reminders Now to view its report. For anything else, look in logs/ for a myDEBUG- file from that moment and attach it.

Federal CAN-SPAM generally permits marketing email without prior opt in, but requires accurate sender info and subject, an appropriate ad disclosure, a postal address and a easy unsubscribe method in the US

You cannot auto send them in Australia, nor Canada. Possible, but super tricky for the European Union & UK.

Additionally, "registering a guest" is not ok.

Thanks for the careful read. Abandoned Carts v1.0.2 is out today with the changes below: https://github.com/dbltoe/Abandoned_Carts/releases/tag/v1.0.2

CAN-SPAM. Every reminder already carried the store's postal address, a one-click unsubscribe (plus the List-Unsubscribe headers Gmail and Yahoo use) and an accurate sender and subject. What it didn't have was a line identifying it as an advertisement. v1.0.2 adds "This email is an advertisement from (your store)." to every reminder.

Australia, Canada, the EU and the UK. Agreed, the defaults are written for US stores. v1.0.2 adds an opt-in for the rest: Ask Guests Before Reminding? puts an "Email me a reminder if I leave items in my cart." checkbox in One Page Checkout's contact details, never ticked for the guest, and only guests who tick it are recorded and reminded. With E-Mail Only Newsletter Subscribers? on as well, customers are reminded only if they subscribed. The readme now lists Australia beside the EU, UK and Canada.

Guests. Nothing registers an account. When a One Page Checkout guest saves their contact details, the plugin keeps their email and cart in its own table so it can send the reminder. You found a real gap, though: with E-Mail Guests? turned off it still kept that record, even though it never emailed it. As of v1.0.2, nothing is kept about a shopper the settings say can't be emailed, and records already kept that way are deleted at the next scheduler run.

Upgrade in Plugin Manager as usual. The new setting arrives switched off, so nothing changes for a store until it turns it on.

Well, looks like we cannot like posts any longer =(

so 👍

Thanks, Melanie. Your review made v1.0.2 better.

dbltoe:

Thanks, Melanie. Your review made v1.0.2 better.

Might need a check that STORE_NAME_ADDRESS is populated for the email. It won't be included if it's not populated in the admin.

Good catch, Melanie, and you're right. In v1.0.2, if Configuration > My Store > Store Address and Phone were empty, the reminder went out without the address, and nothing indicated that. The README mentioned it, but nothing checked.

v1.0.3 fixes that: https://github.com/dbltoe/Abandoned_Carts/releases/tag/v1.0.3

- No address, no reminder. While Store Address and Phone are empty, the scheduler holds every reminder instead of sending it without a postal address.

- The sample text counts as empty. A fresh Zen Cart install ships that setting as "Store Name / Address / Country / Phone". That isn't blank, so v1.0.2 would have printed it on the email. v1.0.3 holds reminders for that too.

- It tells you. Customers > Abandoned Carts shows a "Reminders are on hold" warning, and the scheduler report (Send Due Reminders Now) says the same with the number held.

- Nothing is lost. Held carts stay open, and their reminders go out on the first scheduler run after the address is filled in (unless the cart has aged past Don't Remind About Carts Older Than by then).

If your address is already filled in, nothing changes. Upgrade in Plugin Manager; there are no settings or data changes.

Thanks again. That's two releases your reviews have improved.