5 best-performing abandoned cart email subject lines (2025 data)
An effective abandoned shopping cart email must do three things:
- Get delivered to the customer’s inbox (deliverability).
- Get opened.
- Recover lost sales.
Drawing from over 7 million abandoned cart emails sent, we've helped hundreds of fast-growing ecommerce brands across multiple industries craft subject lines that bring shoppers back to complete their purchases, regardless of their previous recovery rates.
For the past few years, we've been testing countless approaches to abandoned cart email subject lines, and discovered what truly works in getting customers to open these crucial emails.
Whether you're just starting to set up abandoned cart email flows or looking to optimize your existing recovery program, this guide will help you boost your conversion rates by showing you how to write subject lines that get noticed and drive action.
So, in this post we’ll outline the best abandoned cart email subject lines based on open rate and conversion rate, and show you how to run these as A/B tests inside Rejoiner to increase the amount of revenue your abandoned cart campaigns generate.
Before we start, let's look at some stats about abandoned cart email subject lines.
Abandoned cart email subject line stats 2025
In our study, where we gathered and analyzed the data from 1000 direct to consumer brands, we found that the most common approaches to abandoned cart subject lines are:
- Mentioning the offer (44%)
- Using the word cart (18%)
- Completing your purchase (12%)
There's a noticeable pattern here: the top three are very direct and straightforward in their communication. They state exactly what the email is all about – the offer, the cart, or the action needed while avoiding any hard selling.
In contrast, you can see approaches that seemed more creative or emotionally engaging being used less frequently:
- Using questions (10%)
- Using emojis (4%)
- Using customer's first name to create personal connection (4%)
Our logic is: if these more creative approaches were proving highly effective, wouldn't more ecommerce brands be using them? The fact that direct, straightforward approaches dominated the top of the chart led us to conclude that simplicity was the preferred strategy. This could also suggest marketers might be overthinking their abandoned cart strategies when straightforward messaging would work better.
We also found that 20% of ecommerce brands would include the offer in the CTA and that the most common abandoned cart CTAs are either, “complete your purchase,” (11%) or include the word “complete” (22%).
Additionally, it turns out there's an optimal window where customers are more receptive to abandoned cart email. Not only do you have to craft click-worthy subject lines, you also have to send your abandoned cart email at the right time. Reaching out too soon will bring about the worst results, and waiting too long, customers may lose interest.
Our top-performing subject line, boasting a 32.73% conversion rate, works best when sent a day post cart abandonment. However, depending on your industry, sending the email just an hour after customer last interaction with your store can also yield impressive conversions for two main reasons:
- You avoid sending unnecessary emails to customers who would have returned to complete their purchase anyway.
- You can still catch customers before they make their purchase from a competitor.
Cart abandonment happens 70% of the time – while you can't eliminate it completely, you can try to understand its root causes. And one of the most effective approaches is to write subject lines with a focus on customer service. Remember, when someone abandons their cart it’s a data point that tells you something specific about their buying behavior and your checkout process – this is your opportunity to turn the situation into a positive customer experience.
When you execute this correctly, you can expect one of these three outcomes:
- You'll win back the sale 10-25% of the time (based on data from over 1,000 campaigns).
- You'll learn exactly why they chose not to purchase, giving you valuable insights to improve your sales process.
- You'll deliver outstanding customer service that leaves a lasting positive impression.
There are seven types of abandoned cart email subject lines that tend to do well.
7 different types of abandoned cart email subject lines
- Simple: You're just assuming the customer got distracted and forgot to complete the purchase and, so, a simple tap on the shoulder is all that's needed to go through the sale. For example, "Hey, you left something in your cart." Simple, straightforward without being pushy.
- Urgency: With this type of abandoned cart email subject line you're leveraging FOMO to create a sense of exclusivity, scarcity, and time-limited opportunities to get customers to act quickly or else they'll miss out. However, while over half of the abandoned cart email campaigns – 58% – used limited stock as the scarcity device, only 10% explicitly mentioned the limited supply. Regardless of how you want to formulate your offer, you need to draw attention to it. Otherwise, customers won’t even notice that there’s any scarcity at all.
- Intriguing: These are also called curiosity-driven abandoned cart email subject lines. You're giving away enough information to pick the customer's attention, but not so much that there's no interest to click through.
- Social proof/reviews: It's when you use positive reviews or testimonials as a motivator to get customers to finish their purchase. Examples: "[Product Name] is a customer favorite!", "See why others love [Product Name]", etc. These subject lines are great because they help build credibility by highlighting real customers who faced similar decisions and ended up loving their purchase.
- Incentivization: Just like the name suggests, you're incentivizing the reader to complete the purchase in exchange of free gifts, discount or free shipping. A classical example of this type of shopping cart abandonment email subject lines is "Final reminder: Your shopping cart misses you (save 10% now)".
- Humor: Something simple as "Smile, it's still for sale" could help you stand out from generic subject lines in your customer's inbox. This, in turn, makes cart abandonment emails feel more personal as if they're coming from a real person, which helps build trust and comfort with customers.
- Seasonal: These types of email subject lines work because they connect the abandoned products to a specific time-bound need or occasion in the customer's life. And what's interesting about the seasonal email subject line is that there's a built-in deadline (like holidays or summer) that doesn't feel artificially imposed by the marketer.
The top five abandoned cart email subject lines
Here’s a quick summary of the five best abandoned cart email subject lines.
The graph below reveals:
- Five different subject lines used by Rejoiner customers in their abandoned cart email campaigns
- The open rate each email achieves
- The conversion rate to sale
Now let’s take a deeper look into each subject line and its performance.
Abandoned cart subject line 1: “Your [BRAND NAME] Basket”
- Open rate: 52.14%
- Conversion Rate: 32.73%
- When is this email sent: 1 day post abandonment
It turns out that 60% of brands don't include "cart" in their subject lines or use phrases like "complete your purchase" or "did you forget something?" Most likely, they've either tested those approaches and didn't see the results they expected or realized that many other abandoned cart emails used similar subject lines and opted for something that differentiated their brand.
The smart thing about “Your [BRAND NAME] basket” subject line is that it clearly communicates what's inside the email while avoiding the common phrases and words. Again, the simplicity approach we talked about earlier.
One of our customers, for instance, Buy Fencing Direct, an online lawn, gardening, and fencing retailer who sells mostly to consumer-end homeowners, gets outstanding results from this subject line in their abandoned cart email campaign: 52.14% open rate with a 32.73% conversion rate.
To put these numbers into perspective, if they sent out 1000 abandoned cart emails, 521 would get opened and 171 of those opened emails would lead to sales. Assuming an average order value of £36, this would translate to a recovery of approximately £6156 in lost revenue.
Abandoned cart email subject line 2: “You Left Something In Your Basket – Can We Help?”
- Open rate: 54.34%
- Conversion Rate: 15.95%
- When is this email sent: 1 hour post abandonment
One of our clients in the cosmetics industry has turned over fifteen percent of their abandoned carts into sales with this one.
It works because it's essentially doing four things:
- It takes a customer service approach, which boosts the open rate and avoids the hard-sell tone.
- It positions the company as a consultant rather than a seller.
- It makes the customer feel valued rather than pursued.
- It suggests the company's primary concern is quality/fit, not just making the sale.
Additionally, this subject line sets up a great customer service opportunity because you can follow through on your offer to help by asking the prospect to reply to your email, or by providing a link to leave feedback on why they abandoned their cart.
For example, when KontrolFreek implemented a similar feedback loop in their abandoned cart email campaign, they noticed a pattern in customers’ responses – international customers repeatedly asking if they could get products shipped outside the US. By paying attention to these consistent requests, they identified untapped demand and strategically expanded their shipping to the most interested countries, opening up a new pool of customers for their products in the process.
Abandoned cart email subject line 3: “Tickets Are Still Available!”
- Open rate: 46.58%
- Conversion Rate: 13.95%
- When is this email sent: 30 minutes post abandonment
The “Tickets Are Still Available” subject line works best for businesses that sell products in limited quantities. A client of ours who sells tickets to live events gets almost fourteen percent of their abandoned carts back using this subject line.
We found that this subject line was especially effective for our client because it leverages the organic scarcity and urgency of the product to increase open rates, and get more conversions. What’s more interesting is that this approach aligns with industry best practices – in fact, our research shows that 44% of all cart abandonment emails use scarcity in either the subject line or body as a tactic to drive conversions.
For instance, let's say you sell flight tickets and a customer finds a great deal from New York to London for $500. They add it to their cart but get distracted and abandon their purchase process. When your system automatically sends them the "Your Selected Flight is Still Available!" abandoned cart email 30 minutes later, it's incredibly effective because:
- Customers know airline prices constantly fluctuate (usually upward)
- There are only so many seats available at each price point
- Other customers are likely looking at the same deal
- That specific departure time could fill up
The urgency isn't artificial - it's based on real market dynamics in the airline industry. When customers get that email, they know from experience that flight deals don't last forever – they've probably had the frustrating experience of coming back to book a flight only to find it's jumped in price or sold out.
Abandoned cart email subject l,ine 4: “Oops, Did Something Go Wrong?”
- Open rate: 66.28%
- Conversion Rate: 13.26%
- When is this email sent: 20 minutes post abandonment
For Pad and Quill, a leather accessories retailer, this subject line has gotten an incredibly high open rate, and brings back just over thirteen percent of their cart abandoners.
The question in this subject line exploits curiosity and uses a softer tone to get a high open rate. It works because:
- It assumes good intent from the customer (they wanted to buy but couldn't)
- It positions the company as helpful rather than pushy
- It makes customers think "Maybe there was a technical issue I should check”
This is also a great way to give your company a customer-centric persona, and give yourself a great customer service opportunity.
Abandoned cart email subject line 5: “Your Rental Quote.”
- Open rate: 65.34%
- Conversion Rate: 12.76%
- When is this email sent: 30 minutes post abandonment
The strength of this abandoned cart email subject line is the simplicity – it's simple, clear, and customers know exactly what they're getting. You’re not trying to sell potential customers anything, you just want to be helpful.
For instance, Vehicle Rent, a company that provides comprehensive car rental quotes, has experienced one of our highest email open rates using the subject line “Your Rental Quote.”
We recommend sending this 30 minutes after cart abandonment because the car rental market is incredibly dynamic, with prices fluctuating hourly. Most customers make their booking decisions quickly, and at the 30-minute mark, they're typically still weighing their options – making it the perfect moment to reach out with relevant information.
Here are 10 quote/estimate variations across different industries:
- "Your Custom Kitchen Quote"
- "Your Solar Panel Estimate"
- "Your Wedding Photography Package"
- "Your Landscaping Proposal"
- "Your Moving Service Quote"
- "Your Website Design Estimate"
- "Your Pool Installation Quote"
- "Your Home Insurance Estimate"
- "Your Event Planning Package"
- "Your Home Security Quote”
Keep the inherent urgency of your product in mind when determining when to trigger your campaign.
How to run abandoned cart email subject lines as an A/B test inside Rejoiner:
While we won’t guarantee you’ll get the same results, you can run this test, knowing that it performed quite well, and see how it goes with your customers:
1 – Open your current abandoned cart journey and drag the “Branch A/B Test” into the journey:
2 – Name the test and determine which performance metric you’d like to use to determine the test winner:
3 – Select how many customers should be included in the control group. The settings below would result in 50% of the qualifying audience entering the test branch.
4 – Replace [Company Name] in the subject line or with any subject line that you want to test.
6 – Then save the email, launch the test, and let Rejoiner do its thing.
7 – A/B Test Reporting. After launching your test, Rejoiner records a complete set of engagement metrics about emails sent for each group. You’ll have access to metrics like open rates, click-through rates, click-attributed conversion, click-attributed revenue and much more.
8 – You can also quickly gauge the performance of each individual abandoned cart email campaign from within the journey builder itself. Simply locate the email node you want to report on, and click ‘View Email Metrics’ and this panel will appear.
9 – If you have any trouble setting up your tests, our support team is always ready to help 24/7. We literally work with every user who joins our platform, and we can even assist with designing and implementing your abandoned cart campaigns if needed.
Conclusion
In evaluating abandoned cart email subject lines, a lot of emphasis is put on increasing open rates. However, we’ve found this focus to be a bit short-sighted, since the ultimate goal of any marketing email is to get more customers to buy your products.
And based on our data, it’s clear that a higher open rate doesn’t always equal higher conversion rates.
Looking at our top performers, the customer service-focused subject line "Oops, Did Something Go Wrong?" achieved an impressive 66.28% open rate but converted at only 13.26%. Similarly, "Your Rental Quote" opened at 65.34% but converted at 12.76%. These subject lines succeed in grabbing attention through curiosity and service-oriented language, but they may not create the urgency or motivation needed to complete the purchase.
In contrast, the more straightforward "Your [Brand Name] Basket" subject line had a lower open rate of 52.14% but achieved the highest conversion rate at 32.73%. This suggests that while fewer people opened the email, those who did were more likely to complete their purchase. The direct, brand-focused approach appears to attract more qualified prospects who are genuinely interested in completing their transaction.
Test different subject lines and offers (dollars off, free shipping, etc.) to find what gets better results.
What to do now
- Learn more about our abandoned cart email best practices.
- A/B test your email campaigns with Rejoiner.
- Book a 1:1 strategy session today, and see how the team at Rejoiner can help you recover lost revenues from abandoned carts.
