Some customers fill a cart, check out, reach the payment page, and then stop. The card was declined, a bank app didn't open, or they simply got distracted. On a self-hosted store that's easy to miss, because the cart has already been emptied at checkout, so a normal abandoned-cart reminder never sees it. This guide covers the follow-up for checkouts left at the payment page in PrizeX and BidKing: when the two reminders go out, what they say, how the customer gets their items back, and the cases where no reminder is sent.
Who has it
- Part of Abandoned Cart Recovery, an add-on for the shop. It's included in PrizeX and BidKing Pro. For BidKing Starter, BidKing Plus and RaffKing it's an add-on, and it needs the Shop feature.
- It works next to the usual cart reminders. Those cover carts left before checkout; this covers checkouts left at the payment page.
When reminders go out
- Reminder 1, after about an hour: "Your order is waiting for payment".
- Reminder 2, after about a day: with a single-use discount code, if you use the Coupons feature, or a plain reminder if you don't.
- The follow-up ends after 72 hours.
The timings are fixed. A job runs every few minutes, so reminders go out shortly after each mark, as long as cron is running on your server.
A checkout only counts when its payment request has expired unpaid and the customer hasn't checked out again since.
What the customer gets
- An email and a browser push with the same message: "You got as far as paying for [your items], but the payment wasn't finished."
- A "Put it back in my cart" link. It's signed, works once, only for the same account, and stops working at 72 hours. A customer who isn't signed in is asked to sign in first.
- Items come back at today's prices. They're added to the cart again with current prices and stock, and the customer is told if a price changed or something couldn't be added.
- The discount code in reminder 2 is made for that one customer and works once. It uses your cart-recovery coupon settings: by default a fixed 5 off in your store currency, valid for 3 days.
If the original payment arrives late after all, the items put back in the cart are removed again and the unused code is switched off, so nobody pays twice.
When no reminder is sent
The follow-up deliberately stays quiet when it can't be sure the customer didn't pay, or when they asked not to be contacted.
- The payment might still be going through. If the gateway can be asked, as Stripe, Razorpay, Paystack and Checkout.com can, the store asks it first, and only sends a reminder if the payment failed, expired, was cancelled or was never attempted. A "pending" or unclear answer means no reminder.
- Gateways the store can't ask, such as PayPal, Flutterwave and Skrill. A checkout where one of them was chosen gets no reminder.
- Manual payments waiting for your approval, such as bank transfers.
- Guests. Only signed-in customers get reminders.
- Prize claims and points redemptions.
- Customers who unsubscribed from your marketing emails get neither the email nor the push.
- An earlier cart reminder for the same items that's still running goes first.
Before you rely on it
- These are marketing emails. They need your sender details, a postal address and working unsubscribe links set up. The admin page warns you if something is missing.
- Check your email rules. Follow-up emails to customers are regulated in many places. Make sure your privacy policy and consent wording cover them.
- Turn on the Coupons feature if you want reminder 2 to carry a discount.
- Watch the numbers. The admin page shows how many checkouts were left at payment, how many customers used the link, and how many paid after a reminder.
- You can switch off a reminder template if you only want one of the two.
Common questions
How is this different from abandoned cart reminders?
Cart reminders cover carts left before checkout. This follows up checkouts that reached the payment page but weren't paid, which a cart reminder can't see because the cart is emptied at checkout.
When are the reminders sent?
About an hour after the checkout, and again after about a day with an optional discount code. The follow-up ends at 72 hours. The timings are fixed.
Does every unpaid checkout get a reminder?
No. There's no reminder when the payment might still be going through, when a gateway the store can't ask, such as PayPal, was chosen, for manual payments awaiting approval, for guests, or for customers who unsubscribed.
Does the customer pay the old price?
No. The link puts the items back in the cart at today's prices, and the customer is told about any change.