The share of shopping carts that never become orders, and the revenue they hold.
Cart abandonment rate
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Enter the number of carts created and orders completed to see the result.
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Enter the number of carts created in a period and the number of orders completed. The calculator gives your cart abandonment rate (also called basket abandonment), the number of abandoned carts and the share that became orders, with every step shown. Add the average cart value to see the revenue left in abandoned carts, and a recovery rate to estimate what reminder emails could win back.
A cart is created as soon as a visitor adds at least one item. Take the number of carts created in the period from your analytics or your shop's dashboard, then the number of completed orders that came from those carts in the same period. Orders taken by phone or in store, which never go through an online cart, do not count.
For the checkout abandonment rate, enter the number of checkouts started instead of carts created: the formula is the same. If you compare periods, do not mix the two, or two tools that count carts differently.
The average cart value turns abandoned carts into revenue. Use the average value of abandoned carts if your platform shows it, otherwise your average order value, on the same basis as your reports: including or excluding VAT. The optional recovery rate is the share of abandoned carts you expect to win back, for example with a reminder email: measure it on your own reminders rather than guessing.
Rates are rounded to two decimal places and amounts to the nearest penny, with halves rounded up. Carts recovered, an estimate, are rounded to one decimal place. Every line of the workings can be checked by hand from the figures shown.
Abandoned carts = carts created − orders completed.
Cart abandonment rate = abandoned carts ÷ carts created × 100, the same as (1 − orders ÷ carts) × 100.
Revenue lost = abandoned carts × average cart value.
Revenue recovered = revenue lost × recovery rate.
In one month, an online shop records 2,000 carts created and 620 orders. 1,380 carts were abandoned, so the abandonment rate is 1,380 ÷ 2,000 × 100 = 69%, and 31% of carts became orders. With an average cart value of £45.00 including VAT, the abandoned carts hold 1,380 × £45.00 = £62,100.00. If reminder emails win back 5% of them, that is 69 carts and £3,105.00.
There is no official benchmark. The Baymard Institute, which researches the usability of online shops, puts the average at 70.22% across 50 studies published between 2006 and 2025, with rates ranging from 55% to 84%. Your own rate depends on your sector, how many of your visitors shop on mobile and how your analytics counts a cart, so the most useful comparison is with your own rate over time.
Cart abandonment starts from carts created, as soon as the first item is added. Checkout abandonment starts from checkouts started, once the customer has moved on to pay. The sum is the same and only the starting count changes, so always compare a rate with one worked out the same way.
Not all of it. Some visitors never meant to buy: in the Baymard Institute's survey of US online shoppers, 42% say they have abandoned a cart because they were just browsing. Among the rest, the reason given most often, by 40%, is extra costs that were too high (delivery, tax and fees). So the revenue lost shows what is at stake, not what you can win back; the recovery rate is there for that.
Either works: the revenue lost comes out on the same basis as the value you enter. Use the basis of your reports so that you can compare: excluding VAT for your business's turnover, including VAT for what customers pay.
Yes, within the rules on electronic marketing. A reminder that encourages someone to complete a purchase promotes your products, and the ICO counts any advertising, marketing or promotional material sent to an individual as direct marketing; only messages that give administrative information and promote nothing fall outside it. Under regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), you need the person's consent unless the soft opt-in applies: you got their email address from them in the course of a sale or negotiations for a sale, you market only your similar products and services, and you gave them a simple way to refuse when you collected the address and in every message. The ICO says browsing a website is not enough to count as negotiations: the person must actively express an interest in buying. Its guidance does not say whether leaving items in a cart meets that test, so asking for consent when the email address is entered avoids the question. These rules apply across the UK.
This calculator gives general information, not legal, tax, financial or accounting advice. The result depends on how your tools count carts and orders; before sending reminder emails, check the rules in the ICO's guidance or with a legal adviser.
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