Lead with what they picked
Show the abandoned item, not a new pitch. The reader has already made the choice — restating it is what makes the email feel like a hand back to the cart rather than another ad.
Preview
What's inside
What's inside this abandoned cart email template, module by module.
Read off the file itself, not a spec sheet. This is the module order the download actually ships with, in the order a reader meets them.
- Hero greeting
- Product block (detail zone)
- Product image
- Product details & CTA
- Support line
Import
How to import this template into Mailchimp, step by step.
The download is a single HTML file. Here is where it goes in Mailchimp, what the platform expects, and which tags are already wired up.
- Open Email templates and choose Create template.
- Pick Code your own, then Paste in code.
- Paste the downloaded HTML and save the template.
- Replace every placeholder before you send — image sources, link targets, product and price copy, the sender name and the footer address. Anything marked mc:edit is editable in the campaign builder, so most of this needs no HTML.
- Start a campaign from the saved template.
Plan Custom-coded templates are a paid-plan feature. Mailchimp’s free tier does not offer the code-your-own path.
Editing This is a Classic template. Every region marked mc:edit opens in the campaign builder as an editable region with a WYSIWYG toolbar, so a non-technical teammate can change copy and images without touching HTML. Classic and the Drag-and-Drop builder are not interchangeable — an imported HTML template always lands in Classic.
Watch for Do not paste this into the Drag-and-Drop builder. There is no path from custom HTML into a Drag-and-Drop template — importing as code-your-own always yields a Classic template, which is what the mc: regions are built for.
Swapping the placeholder images
A custom-HTML template opens in Mailchimp’s legacy builder. Click the image, open the source view on that editable region, and replace the src with an image from your Mailchimp file manager — those URLs start with mcusercontent.com. The rest of the block can stay as it is.
Shortcut You can skip this entirely. Connect Mailchimp under Connectors in the studio and EmailTemple transfers the files over the API when it pushes the template, so there is no source code to edit. Connectors are on the Starter and Pro plans.
How to use it
When to send this abandoned cart email, and what to change first.
When to send it
This is the first email of a recovery automation, fired by the abandonment event rather than sent as a campaign. Set the trigger and the delay in Mailchimp — the template does not control timing. It leads with what the shopper already chose and sends them back to one place. By Klaviyo’s published benchmark data, abandoned cart is the highest-earning flow per recipient of the ones they report on.
What to change first
The hero ships with a sparkle emoji and a demo product from another brand. Swap “Excellent taste” for your own line, and replace the Illumis PMS Formula block, its image and the $45.00 price with what the shopper actually left behind. The “Return to cart” button points at mywebsite.com/cart, so send it to a link that rebuilds the basket rather than the storefront. Then fix the support line about hassle-free returns to match your real policy, plus the footer’s YourBusinessName and New York, New York address.
The craft
What makes an abandoned cart email worth sending.
Answer the blocking objection
Klaviyo maps abandonment reasons straight onto content: surprise shipping cost gets a free-shipping line, slow delivery gets an expedited option, hesitation gets the returns policy. Pick the one that actually stalls your buyers.
One CTA, back to the cart
The button returns the reader to exactly where they stopped. Anything else — new arrivals, a category grid, a second offer — reopens a decision they had already closed.
Or refine this
Make this email template yours.
Generate your own with this template as a starting point. Change the colors, the voice, the offer — describe what you want different and the studio recomposes it. Apply your brand kit and ship in your tone, not the template's.
The download is yours either way.
Open this template in the studio →
Questions
Mailchimp template questions, answered.
Can I import a custom HTML template on Mailchimp’s free plan?
No. The code-your-own path is a paid-plan feature — Mailchimp’s free tier does not expose custom-coded templates. Everything else about this template is free and unrestricted.
Will my team be able to edit this without touching HTML?
Yes, for the regions marked editable. Each mc:edit region opens in the campaign builder with a WYSIWYG toolbar, so copy and images can change per send while the layout stays fixed.
Is a cart recovery email worth building?
By Klaviyo’s own benchmark data it is the highest-earning flow per recipient of the ones they publish, ahead of welcome, browse abandonment and win-back. Baymard’s meta-analysis puts cart abandonment around 70%, so the audience for it is not small.
Does Abandoned cart — Mailchimp hold up in dark mode and Outlook?
Every zone sets its background twice — once as a bgcolor attribute and once as an inline background-color — which is the pattern that survives dark-mode inversion in clients that repaint backgrounds.
The “Return to cart” button is a bulletproof VML button, so Outlook on Windows draws a real filled button instead of collapsing it to a bare text link.
The layout is a 600px table backbone with a mobile breakpoint, and the CSS is already inlined for the clients that strip style blocks.
In the studio
Compose your own.
Describe what you want to send. Get a high-converting, dark-mode-safe template in seconds. Free tier, three generations a month, no card required.