Recovering Unpaid / Failed Orders

Not every unfinished sale is an abandoned cart — sometimes a customer reaches the final step, clicks “Place Order”, but the payment fails, stays pending, or times out. These orders still represent interested buyers who can be recovered with the right follow-up.

This guide explains how Cart Abandonment Recovery handles orders with Pending and Failed statuses, and how to configure the plugin to either recover them or exclude them from recovery emails.

Understanding Order Statuses in WooCommerce

By default, Cart Abandonment Recovery treats orders as “completed” when they move to Processing or Completed — meaning the cart stops receiving recovery emails.

For Pending, Failed, or On hold orders, you have control over whether recovery emails continue.

Prerequisites

• WooCommerce checkout configured with at least one payment gateway
• Email templates set up under the Follow Up Templates tab

How Pending / Failed Orders Are Handled

1. Customer fills out the checkout form — cart is tracked.
2. Customer clicks “Place Order” — WooCommerce creates an order with status Pending or Failed (depending on gateway response).
3. The plugin checks the status against the “Exclude email sending for” setting.
4. If the status is not excluded, recovery emails are sent based on your templates.
5. When the order eventually reaches Processing or Completed, the cart is marked as Recovered.

Step-by-Step: Configuring Recovery for Pending / Failed Orders

Step 1 — Open Settings

Navigate to WooCommerce > Cart Abandonment > Settings > General.

Step 2 — Find the “Exclude Email Sending For” Option

Scroll down to find the Exclude Email Sending For multi-select dropdown.

This multi-select field lets you choose which order statuses should NOT receive recovery emails.

Step 3 — Choose Your Strategy

Option A — Recover Pending/Failed Orders (Recommended)
Do NOT add “Pending payment” or “Failed” to the excluded list. The plugin will continue sending recovery emails encouraging the customer to complete payment.

Option B — Skip Pending Orders
If you prefer not to chase pending payments (e.g., bank transfer orders you trust will arrive), add “Pending payment” to the excluded list.

Option C — Skip Failed Orders
If your checkout allows automatic retries or you have a separate flow for failed payments, add “Failed” to the excluded list.

Writing Effective Recovery Emails for Pending / Failed Orders

For unpaid orders, your messaging should be different from standard cart abandonment. Try these patterns in your email templates:

• Subject: “Your order is just one step away — complete your payment”
• Subject: “We couldn’t process your payment — let’s fix that”
• Include a clear call-to-action linking to the checkout
• Offer alternative payment methods if available
• Use {{cart.abandoned_date}} to reference when they last tried

Tips & Best Practices

• Split your templates — create separate templates for “abandoned at checkout” vs. “pending payment” with different tone.
• Shorter follow-up times for failed payments — a 15–30 minute delay is often more effective than hours.
• For high-value orders, consider a manual phone follow-up alongside the email.
• Monitor your payment gateway — a surge in failed orders may indicate gateway issues.

FAQs