Abandoned checkouts in Bangladesh: why customers leave and how to bring them back

Look at your store's numbers for a week and one figure will stand out: the number of people who added something to the cart, started the checkout, sometimes even typed their phone number — and then left. On most stores that group is several times larger than the group that ordered. Every one of them wanted the product enough to start buying it.

That is the most valuable list you have that you are probably not using. This post covers why Bangladeshi shoppers abandon a checkout (some reasons are specific to here), what to fix on the checkout itself, and a follow-up sequence that brings a share of them back without turning your store into a nuisance.

Why they leave

Global surveys of cart abandonment list the usual suspects — unexpected costs, forced account creation, slow sites. In Bangladesh the list has its own shape:

The delivery charge appeared late. The product was ৳850. At the last step it became ৳850 + ৳120 delivery, and the customer feels the price changed. This is the single biggest cause, and it is entirely fixable.

The bKash step. The customer chose bKash, was taken to the payment screen, did not have the balance, or the PIN, or the app open, and closed the tab intending to come back. Many never do.

COD advance payment. If you ask for an advance on cash-on-delivery orders (and you should — see reducing fake orders), a share of customers will hesitate at that step. The ones who leave are partly fake orders you did not want, and partly real customers who need a nudge.

Trust. A first-time visitor from a Facebook ad has never heard of you. They got to the checkout, looked for a reason to believe the parcel would arrive, did not find one, and left to "check the page first".

Comparison shopping. They have three tabs open. Yours was not the one they finished.

Interruptions. A phone call, the bus arriving, the app switching to a message. Not a decision at all — they simply forgot.

The last three are not problems with your store. They are the reason follow-up works: the customer already decided once, and a reminder is often all it takes.

First, fix the checkout

Follow-up recovers a share of abandoned checkouts. Fixing the checkout prevents them, which is better.

• Show the delivery charge on the product page and in the cart, not only at the final step. "Delivery: ৳60 inside Dhaka, ৳120 outside" next to the price removes the surprise.
• Show delivery time. "2–4 days" is an answer; silence is a question.
• Ask for the phone number first. If the customer gives you a phone number at the top of the checkout, you can follow up even if they leave at the payment step. If the phone number is the last field, you get nothing.
• Make cash on delivery visible even if you prefer bKash. A visitor who does not see COD may assume it is not offered and leave.
• Put trust signals on the checkout page — how many orders delivered, a return policy in one line, a WhatsApp number a real person answers.
• Keep the page fast. A checkout that loads slowly on a mobile connection outside Dhaka loses customers before they see the form.

Then, follow up — the sequence

Once the checkout is clean, the follow-up is simple. The principle: one reminder soon, one offer later, then stop.

Within an hour: a plain reminder by SMS. Short, personal, no discount. The customer probably got interrupted.

"Assalamu alaikum [name], apnar [product] cart-e rekhe gechen. Order complete korte: [link]. Kono proshno thakle ei number-e WhatsApp korun. — [store]"

The next day: a WhatsApp message with the product. WhatsApp lets you include the product photo and answer questions in the same thread. This is where trust objections get resolved — "delivery koto din?", "cash on delivery ache?", "size exchange hobe?". Answer, and send the link again.

Two to three days later: a small reason to finish. Free delivery, a small coupon, or simply "stock is low". Use this only once, and only for carts above a value that makes it worthwhile. If you discount every abandoned cart, customers learn to abandon.

Then stop. Three touches. A customer who has not returned after that has decided, and a fourth message costs you goodwill for nothing. Keep a "do not contact" flag for anyone who asks, and respect it.

Phone calls are for high-value carts and for customers who replied but did not finish. A two-minute call converts better than any message, and it also catches the "I tried bKash and it failed" cases you can fix on the spot by taking the order manually.

Track what comes back

Measure recovery the same way you measure returns: how many abandoned checkouts were contacted, how many completed an order within a few days, and what that is worth. If the first SMS recovers a meaningful share and the discount step recovers almost nothing extra, drop the discount. If WhatsApp replies are mostly questions about delivery time, put the delivery time on the product page and watch abandonment fall.

How this works on Eazifiy

On Eazifiy this is the Abandoned Checkout Recovery screen, available on the Lite and Premium plans:

• The storefront asks for the customer's phone number early in checkout, so an abandoned checkout is captured with a name, phone and the cart contents — not just an anonymous session.
• Each abandoned checkout is listed with what was in the cart and when it was left. From the row you can send a recovery SMS, open a WhatsApp message with the details pre-filled, or — if you have connected WhatsApp Business under Integrations — send it automatically through the WhatsApp Cloud API.
• Mark contacted and do not contact keep the list honest, so two people on your team do not message the same customer twice and nobody messages someone who asked to be left alone.
• A Recovery Performance panel shows the last 30 days: how many were contacted, how many recovered.
• If the customer would rather order by phone, create the order manually from the admin and it enters the normal order and courier flow.

SMS templates for the recovery message are managed under Messaging, so the wording is written once.

Frequently asked questions

Is it legal to message someone who abandoned a checkout? They gave you their phone number while trying to buy from you, and a reminder about their own order is what most customers expect. Keep it about their cart, stop after a few messages, and honour any request to stop. Promotional bulk SMS is a different matter — see SMS and WhatsApp marketing.

Should I offer a discount to recover the cart? Rarely, and never in the first message. Start with a plain reminder; most recovered orders come from that. Save the discount for carts that are worth it and customers who engaged but did not finish.

What about customers who abandon at the advance payment step? Message them. Some are fake orders you are glad to lose; the rest are real customers who wanted reassurance. A WhatsApp reply explaining why you take an advance ("it covers the courier if the parcel is refused — it is deducted from your total") recovers a surprising number.

Can I recover abandoned checkouts on the Starter plan? Abandoned checkout recovery is on Lite and Premium. Starter includes the checkout fixes above, which prevent most abandonment in the first place. See pricing.

Does this work with bKash payments that failed? Yes — an order that reached the bKash step and did not complete appears as an abandoned checkout, and a quick message ("apnar bKash payment complete hoyni, abar try korun: [link]") is the highest-converting recovery message of all.