Updated
The short answer
WooCommerce doesn't track abandoned carts. Out of the box you can see orders that were placed but not paid — under Pending payment and Failed in WooCommerce → Orders. A shopper who fills in the checkout and leaves before clicking Place order leaves no order, so WooCommerce has nothing to show and nobody to contact. To see those shoppers, something has to save the checkout while it is being filled in.
Three kinds of abandoned cart, and what each leaves behind
“Abandoned cart” covers three different moments, and WooCommerce records each one differently:
- Left in the cart. The shopper added products and never opened the checkout. WooCommerce keeps the cart in their session for about two days, but for a guest there is no name or email attached to it.
- Left at the checkout. The shopper typed their email or phone and left before clicking Place order. No order is created, so this is the abandoned cart WooCommerce shows least — and the one with the most intent behind it.
- Left at the payment. The shopper placed the order, but the money never arrived: they closed the payment window, or the card was declined. WooCommerce keeps these as orders.
Where to look in WooCommerce
Pending payment and failed orders
Go to WooCommerce → Orders and pick Pending payment or Failed in the status links above the list. Each order has the customer's billing name, email and phone, and its order notes usually say why the payment gateway refused it. This is a list you can follow up by hand today.
If you manage stock, WooCommerce cancels unpaid orders after the time set in WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Inventory → Hold stock (60 minutes by default), so older abandoned payments are under Cancelled.
Carts in customer sessions
Carts that never reached an order are stored in WooCommerce's sessions table (wp_woocommerce_sessions with the default table prefix). There is no screen for it in the admin, sessions expire after about 48 hours, and a guest's session holds the products but not who the shopper was.
Draft orders from the Checkout block
If your checkout page uses the Checkout block, WooCommerce keeps a draft order while the shopper is on the page. Drafts are hidden from the Orders screen and cleared out automatically, so they don't work as a report either.
WooCommerce Analytics
Analytics reports orders, revenue, products and customers — the people who bought. There is no report for the people who didn't.
How to see checkouts abandoned before the order
The shoppers who leave at the checkout can only be seen if their details are saved as they type — when they leave each field, not when they submit the form. Whatever you use for it, check that it:
- captures guest checkouts, not only logged-in customers;
- saves the contact (name, email, phone) together with the cart items and total;
- recognises a returning shopper, so one basket is one lead rather than a new one every visit;
- follows the order, so a shopper who later pays is marked paid and never chased;
- never reads password or card fields, and can wait for consent where your law requires it.
Whichever tool you choose, say in your privacy policy that checkout details are collected before the order is placed.
Seeing abandoned carts in StorePilot
- Install the StorePilot WordPress plugin and connect your store. Checkout capture needs WooCommerce 7.0, WordPress 6.0 and PHP 8.0 or later.
- Open Leads. Every checkout that has been filled in is there with the shopper's name, email, phone, cart items and total, and a status: in progress, reached out, payment pending, cancelled or ordered. The status follows the WooCommerce order, so a lead turns to ordered when it is paid.
- Press Play on a lead to watch the visit, when it was recorded, and see where the checkout stalled.
- In Ecommerce → Overview, see the last checkout field each unpaid cart stopped at and the money left in those carts. If most carts stop at the same field, that is where to look first.
- Get told about new abandoned checkouts in Slack, Telegram or email — after a delay you choose and above a minimum cart value — or send a reminder sequence of up to five steps through your own automation (n8n, Make or any webhook). It stops as soon as the order is paid.
See how checkout leads and cart recovery work, or read the leads documentation.
What to do with the list
- Wait 15–30 minutes before reaching out. Many shoppers are still on the payment page; a call in the first minutes interrupts a purchase rather than saving one.
- Start with the biggest carts. A high-value basket is often one question away from an order, and worth a phone call rather than an email.
- Treat declined payments on their own. These shoppers wanted to buy — offer another way to pay. StorePilot shows, for each payment method, how many declines were followed by the same shopper paying within 48 hours, so you can see which ones still need a reminder.
- Look for a pattern. When carts stop at the same field, on the same device or with the same payment method, the problem is the checkout, not the shoppers — and fixing it recovers every future cart, not just this one.