CartBay – Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce

Description

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Every abandoned cart is a shopper who already wanted to buy. CartBay brings them back with a simple, focused abandoned cart recovery workflow for WooCommerce: it captures consented checkout emails, detects when a cart goes quiet, and sends a configured 3-step recovery email sequence through your existing WooCommerce email setup.

CartBay is built for performance and privacy. It stores everything in WooCommerce-native order objects – no custom database tables to bloat your site, and full compatibility with WooCommerce HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage). Setup takes under 5 minutes with the built-in wizard, and the whole plugin is open source with un-minified, human-readable code included in the package.

How CartBay works

  1. A shopper reaches checkout and sees a clear, consent-based recovery checkbox (classic and WooCommerce Block Checkout).
  2. When they consent and a valid email is available, CartBay captures the cart as a recovery session.
  3. After your configurable inactivity timeout, the session is marked abandoned.
  4. CartBay schedules up to 3 recovery emails with delays you control, sent through WooCommerce’s native email system.
  5. Each email can include a secure restore link that rebuilds the shopper’s exact cart, an unsubscribe link, and an optional coupon code.
  6. When the shopper completes checkout, CartBay matches the order back to the abandoned session, attributes the recovered revenue, and cancels any remaining emails.

Key features

  • Consent-first email capture on both classic checkout and the WooCommerce Block Checkout
  • Abandonment detection via Action Scheduler with a configurable timeout
  • 3-step recovery email sequence with per-step delays, sent through your existing WooCommerce/WordPress mail (your SMTP)
  • Fully editable emails – customize each email’s subject, heading, preheader, body, button text, and additional content in the native WooCommerce email editor, using your store’s WooCommerce logo, colors, and footer, with live preview and test send
  • Secure cart restore – a hashed-token restore link rebuilds the exact cart, including variable product attributes
  • One-click unsubscribe backed by a hashed suppression list, so opted-out shoppers are never emailed again
  • Coupon in recovery emails – reference a coupon you created in WooCommerce and include it in your emails as plain text
  • Accurate recovery tracking – completed orders are matched back to abandoned sessions with recovered-revenue attribution
  • Analytics overview – tracked, abandoned, and recovered carts, abandoned cart value, recovered revenue, and recovery rate, with 7/30/90-day filters
  • Session list – filter recovery sessions by status and inspect individual captured carts and their recovery progress
  • Setup wizard for guided first-run configuration in a few minutes
  • Email delivery health checks (SMTP detection) plus a built-in Send Test Email tool
  • Test Mode with a one-click Trigger Test Flow that schedules a sample recovery email about 30 seconds out, so you can preview an email and its restore link before going live
  • Privacy-conscious storage – data stays on your site in WooCommerce-native records; no custom tables, HPOS compatible

What CartBay does NOT do (by design)

CartBay intentionally stays focused on doing one job well. It does not include:

  • SMS or push notifications
  • A/B testing
  • Exit-intent popups

Upgrade to CartBay Pro

Everything above is included in the free plugin. CartBay Pro is an optional licensed add-on that installs on top of CartBay and adds:

  • Dynamic recovery coupons – a unique, single-use, expiring coupon generated for each cart session, instead of one static code
  • Auto-apply on restore – each coupon is restricted to the shopper’s own email and applied automatically when they return via the restore link (subscription carts excluded)
  • Advanced recovery analytics – restore-link clicks, click-to-recovery rate, failed restores, and per-step email performance, plus CSV export of sessions and recovery emails
  • Licensed automatic updates delivered outside WordPress.org and tied to your license key
  • License management in Settings and the setup wizard, plus a REST API for programmatic activation

On the roadmap for Pro: a visual drag-and-drop email builder, and more. Learn more at https://wpanchorbay.com/plugins/cartbay/.

Open source and privacy-friendly

CartBay is fully GPL, contains no obfuscated code, and ships its JavaScript source in the package. The free plugin does not phone home to any WPAnchorBay licensing service and makes no external API calls – capture requests go only to your own site’s local REST endpoint. See the FAQ below for exactly what data is stored and where.

Source Code

CartBay is fully open source under GPL-2.0-or-later and contains no obfuscated code. The plugin’s JavaScript is written in an un-minified, human-readable form and is included in this package under the src/ directory:

  • src/capture/index.js – classic checkout capture (compiled to assets/js/cartbay-capture.js).
  • src/block/index.js – block checkout capture (compiled to assets/js/cartbay-block.js).

The compiled files in assets/js/ are generated from these sources with the official WordPress build tooling (@wordpress/scripts, which uses webpack). The build tooling and configuration are also included in this package as package.json and webpack.config.js.

To regenerate the compiled assets from source, run these commands in the plugin directory:

npm install
npm run build

Screenshots

Installation

Prerequisites:

  1. Install CartBay from Plugins > Add New, or upload the plugin ZIP under Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
  2. Activate the plugin.
  3. Open the setup wizard at WooCommerce > CartBay and follow the guided steps.
  4. Configure your consent text, abandonment timing, recovery emails, and email delivery, then launch the campaign.
  5. Before going live, use Send Test Email under WooCommerce > CartBay > Notifications to confirm your site can deliver mail.

FAQ

Do I need WooCommerce?

Yes. CartBay requires WooCommerce 9.8 or higher and WordPress 6.6 or higher.

Does CartBay work with the Block Checkout?

Yes. CartBay natively supports both the classic checkout and the WooCommerce Block Checkout. On Block Checkout the consent field appears in the contact section as a WooCommerce additional checkout field.

Where do I edit the recovery emails?

Open WooCommerce > CartBay > Templates and click Edit in WooCommerce for the email you want to change. Each recovery email is a native WooCommerce email, so you can edit its subject, heading, preheader, body, button text, and additional content, and it automatically uses your store’s WooCommerce email logo, colors, and footer – with the same preview and test-send tools as your other WooCommerce emails. Supported placeholders include {restore_url}, {coupon_code}, {coupon_expiry}, and {unsubscribe_url}.

Does CartBay use a separate database?

No. CartBay strictly uses WooCommerce-native order storage and is fully compatible with WooCommerce HPOS (High-Performance Order Storage). There are no custom database tables.

How do coupons work?

CartBay Free lets you reference a coupon you created in WooCommerce > Marketing > Coupons and include it in your recovery emails as plain text for the shopper to enter at checkout. Automatically generated, unique, single-use expiring coupons that auto-apply at checkout are part of CartBay Pro.

Does CartBay work with WooCommerce Subscriptions?

Yes. Capture and recovery work normally. CartBay Free does not auto-apply coupons; any coupon code you configure is included in the recovery email as plain text for the shopper to enter at checkout.

How do I test CartBay before going live?

Enable Test Mode in WooCommerce > CartBay > Settings, then use Trigger Test Flow in the Templates section to schedule a sample recovery email about 30 seconds out and preview the email and its restore link. Use Test Mode on staging or during controlled QA, and disable it for normal production monitoring.

Does CartBay contact external services?

No. The free plugin does not contact WPAnchorBay licensing services or any third-party API. CartBay sends recovery emails through your WordPress/WooCommerce mail setup and sends capture requests only to your own site’s local REST API endpoint at /wp-json/cartbay/v1/capture.

Why didn’t my recovery email send?

CartBay hands recovery emails to WordPress and WooCommerce for delivery – it does not send email itself. If a send fails, the cause is almost always your site’s mail configuration (no SMTP plugin, misconfigured SMTP credentials, or your host blocking PHP mail()), not CartBay. Use the built-in Send Test Email tool in the setup wizard or under WooCommerce > CartBay > Notifications to check your configuration, and see https://docs.wpanchorbay.com/cartbay/getting-started/email-delivery-setup/ for help setting up reliable delivery (SMTP/transactional email and SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records).

What does “Sent” mean in Notifications?

Sent means WordPress/WooCommerce accepted the email for delivery. It does not by itself guarantee inbox delivery – that still depends on your SMTP configuration, domain authentication, and the receiving mailbox.

What personal data does CartBay store?

When a shopper gives consent at checkout, CartBay stores the email address, a cart snapshot, the checkout source, timestamps, notification history, and recovery metadata in WooCommerce-native order records. Restore and unsubscribe tokens are stored only as SHA-256 hashes, never in raw form. This data stays on your WordPress site unless your mail provider processes outgoing recovery emails. You can enable Delete Data on Uninstall in Settings to remove CartBay data when the plugin is deleted.

Where can I get support?

Documentation is at https://docs.wpanchorbay.com/cartbay/. For questions, please use the plugin’s support forum on WordPress.org.

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Contributors & Developers

“CartBay – Abandoned Cart Recovery for WooCommerce” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

Changelog

1.1.0

  • Recovery emails no longer include a coupon by default. Turn a coupon on per email under WooCommerce > CartBay > Recovery Sequence when you want one. Existing setups are preserved.
  • Added coupon setup checks on the Offers screen: warns when an email includes a coupon but no code is set, or when the configured code has no matching WooCommerce coupon, has expired, has reached its usage limit, or is restricted to specific email addresses.
  • Recovery emails now automatically leave out a coupon that is missing or no longer valid (no matching coupon, expired, or usage-exhausted) at send time, so shoppers never receive a code that fails at checkout.
  • Smarter cart restore: restoring now merges into the shopper’s current cart, clamps each quantity to available stock, and reports per-item outcomes.
  • Test emails now send from your WooCommerce store sender, so they match the From name and address of real recovery emails.
  • The setup wizard now lets you choose the default state of the checkout consent checkbox.
  • Added a developer filter, cartbay_offers_coupon_notice_relevant, so extensions can control the new Offers notices.
  • Fixed recovery emails showing an empty “Expires .” line when the coupon had no expiry date.

1.0.0

  • Initial release.