Abandoned carts
The moment a customer types their phone and wilaya at checkout, DZBuild captures a "draft order". If they complete, it becomes a real order. If they don't, it stays here as an abandoned cart — and most of these are recoverable with a phone call or SMS.
The abandoned-carts dashboard is a paid feature available on the Pro, Unlimited, and Enterprise plans. On the Free plan, abandoned carts are still captured in the background, but customer phone numbers, names, wilaya and item names are masked (●●●●●●) until you upgrade. Open /dashboard/subscribe and click ▶ How to renew for the in-app tour, or watch the DZBuild YouTube channel tutorials.
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What gets captured
When a customer enters their phone + wilaya in the checkout form, DZBuild stores:
- Phone, wilaya, city.
- Items in cart (with variants, quantities and prices).
- Cart total + shipping (computed from your store's shipping rates for the captured wilaya).
- Timestamp of capture.
- Source — whether it came from the storefront, a specific landing page, or another entry point.
If the customer completes checkout, the row turns into an order. Otherwise it stays here.
The abandoned-carts page
Open Dashboard → Abandoned carts at /dashboard/abandoned-carts. You'll see:
- Top stat cards: total, abandoned, contacted, recovered, recovered value, recovery rate.
- A filter tab strip: All, Abandoned, Contacted, Recovered.
- A table of carts with phone, wilaya, items summary, total, status, captured-at, and per-row actions.
The status flow:
abandoned → contacted → recovered
- Abandoned — captured but no follow-up yet.
- Contacted — you've tried to reach the customer (called, sent SMS, etc.). Marks the cart as touched.
- Recovered — the customer completed the purchase, either by your follow-up or on their own. Counts in your recovery rate.
Recovery channels
1. Call
The fastest and highest-converting channel. Click the cart's row to open detail, then tap the phone number — it opens your dialer on mobile. Most merchants close 25–40% of carts called within an hour.
After the call, mark the cart as Contacted. If the customer says "yes I'll order now", you can convert the cart directly to an order from the cart detail (or wait for them to complete checkout themselves).
2. SMS recovery link
Each abandoned cart has a unique recovery URL that pre-fills the cart and the form fields. Send it via SMS:
"Hi [name], you left an item in your cart. Finish in one tap: [recovery_link]"
3. Email reminder
If the customer entered an email, send a recovery reminder. Algerian buyers respond less to email than SMS or calls — usually keep email as a third tier.
4. Pixel retargeting
Every abandoned cart fires InitiateCheckout to your connected Pixel. Use the cart audience in your Facebook / TikTok ads to re-engage.
Marking as contacted
When you reach out (any channel), click Mark as contacted on the cart row. This:
- Updates the status to
contacted. - Records a timestamp on the cart's timeline.
- Excludes the cart from your "to-call" filter so your team doesn't double-touch.
Converting a cart to an order
For carts where the customer agreed by phone but didn't go back to the website, you can convert the cart to an order directly:
- Open the cart detail.
- Click Convert to order.
- Confirm the wilaya and shipping (auto-computed from your rates), and the payment method (usually COD).
- The order is created with the cart's items and snapshot pricing.
The cart status flips to recovered.
Shipping for abandoned carts
DZBuild computes shipping for the cart from your store's per-wilaya rates the moment the wilaya is entered, so the total you see in the cart matches what the customer saw. If you've changed your rates since the cart was captured, the new rates apply when you convert the cart to an order — double-check the total before converting.
What converts (typical Algerian benchmarks)
| Tactic | Recovery rate (typical) |
|---|---|
| Phone call within 1 hour | 25–40% |
| SMS with recovery link within 1 hour | 10–15% |
| Email reminder at 1h + 24h | 5–8% |
| Pixel retargeting ad | 3–5% |
The compound effect of all four is usually 30–50% recovery on a cold-traffic store.
Tips
- Call within 1 hour when you can. The longer the gap, the colder the customer.
- Lead with a question, not a pitch. "Did you find what you needed?" works better than "Here's why you should buy."
- Don't push new products on the recovery call. Just close what's already in the cart.
- If they say "I'll order tomorrow", send the SMS link. Reduces the friction to zero.
- Mark contacted promptly so your team doesn't call the same person twice.
- Stop chasing after 48 hours. Past that, the recovery rate falls below 5% and starts feeling like spam.
- Spot-check your recovery rate weekly. A drop usually means a checkout regression — fix the form, not the call script.
Privacy
Abandoned carts include phone numbers and partial addresses — keep your dashboard access tight via Team & roles. Customers can request deletion via Contact.
What's next
- Orders — once a cart converts.
- Customers — see if the abandoner is a repeat or a first-timer.
- Pixels & marketing — retargeting setup.