Black Friday on Shopify: Find the Products Shoppers Add to Cart but Don't Buy
To find the products shoppers add to cart but do not buy on Shopify, compare each product's add to cart count with its units sold. Shopify reports do not put these two numbers side by side. A cart analytics app such as Cartlytics does: its Product Performance page shows, for each product, how often it was added to cart, removed, and bought, with an abandonment rate.
On Black Friday this matters more than any other week. A product that many shoppers add and few buy is demand you already paid to attract. Fix it on Friday, and Cyber Monday is still ahead of you.
Why a Black Friday sales report misses this
A sales report counts what sold. A product that 300 shoppers added to cart and 20 bought looks like a weak product there. In fact it is a strong product with a problem between the cart and the order.
The problem is usually one of four: the sale price is still too high next to a competitor, shipping cost appears late, a size or variant sold out, or the shopper is waiting for a deeper discount on Cyber Monday.
The three numbers to watch per product
Added to cart: how many times shoppers put the product in a cart. This is interest.
Cart conversion: how many of those carts became orders. This is the number that tells you if the cart step works.
Abandonment rate: the share of carts with the product that were left. A product with high adds and a high abandonment rate is your first thing to fix.
How to find them, step by step
Open Product Performance and pick the sale dates
In Cartlytics, open Product Performance and set the date range to the sale days. Sort by Added to Cart to see the products with the most interest first.
Compare adds with units sold
Look at Abandonment % and Cart Conversion % next to Added to Cart. A product near the top of the list with a low cart conversion is the one losing sales.
Check what is in carts right now
The In carts now tab shows how many active carts hold each product at this moment. During a sale this tells you which products are waiting in carts and could convert with one reminder.
Act before Cyber Monday
For each product with high adds and low sales, check the price against competitors, the shipping cost, the stock of each variant, and the product page on mobile. Then send a recovery email to the carts that hold it.
Compare with a normal week
Abandonment is always higher during a sale, because shoppers compare more. So do not judge a Black Friday number alone. Compare it with the same product in the weeks before the sale. A product whose abandonment rate jumps far above its normal level has a sale-specific problem, such as a discount that is smaller than a competitor's.
Common questions
How do I see which products are added to cart but not bought on Shopify?
Use a cart analytics app such as Cartlytics. Its Product Performance page shows, per product, the add to cart count, the units sold, the cart conversion rate and the abandonment rate, for any date range. Shopify's own reports do not show these side by side.
What is a normal cart abandonment rate on Black Friday?
Abandonment is higher during a sale than on a normal week, because shoppers fill carts in several stores and compare. The useful comparison is your own: the same product before the sale and during it.
Can I see which products are in carts right now?
Yes. In Cartlytics, the In carts now tab of Product Performance shows how many active carts hold each product, updated live.
See your own numbers
Install Cartlytics for free before Black Friday. It starts to count adds, removals and orders per product from the day you install it.
Install Cartlytics for free