Abandoned checkout: how to recover online course sales
Why people stop at your course checkout, the reasons Baymard measured, how to simplify checkout and how Stripe cart recovery emails work with consent.
People who reach your payment page have done almost everything: read the sales page, decided, clicked. Losing them there is the most expensive way to lose a sale. Yet it happens often, for reasons that can usually be fixed.
This guide reports the most-cited data on cart abandonment, explains how to simplify a course checkout and how to set up recovery emails with proper consent.
How many people abandon their cart?
Most of them. Baymard Institute, which compiles studies on the topic, calculates an average documented cart abandonment rate of 70.22%, based on 50 different studies, updated 22 September 2025. It's an e-commerce-wide figure: for a digital course some reasons (like shipping costs) don't apply, but the order of magnitude shows checkout deserves attention.
Why do people stop?
Baymard reports that 42% of US online shoppers have abandoned a cart because they were just browsing and not ready to buy. Excluding that group, the most-cited reasons are:
See the data as a table
| Reason | Share |
|---|---|
| Extra costs too high | 40% |
| Didn't trust site with card details | 19% |
| Had to create an account | 18% |
| Checkout too long or complicated | 17% |
| Site errors or crashes | 17% |
| Couldn't see total cost up front | 12% |
| Not enough payment methods | 9% |
For an online course, "extra costs" usually means tax or fees that only appear at the last step. The rule is simple: the price buyers see on the sales page should be what they pay.
How do you simplify a course checkout?
With five choices:
- Total price visible from the start, including tax where you're required to show it.
- Account created after payment, not before.
- Only the data you need: email, name, payment details and, if needed, invoicing details.
- Common payment methods: card plus at least one alternative popular with your audience. For instalments see payment plans for online courses.
- A one-line summary: what's being bought, when access starts, the refund policy, as covered in refunds and cancellation rights.
How do recovery emails work?
They go to people who started paying but didn't finish, with a link to resume. Take Stripe Checkout, widely used by course platforms. According to Stripe's documentation:
- recovery emails are promotional, so consent is required: customers must agree to receive promotional emails before you contact them;
- a payment session expires by default after 24 hours, and the minimum you can set is 30 minutes; on expiry Stripe sends an event your system uses to send the email;
- Stripe doesn't send the email for you: your system or platform does;
- the recovery link is valid for 30 days and creates a new session copied from the expired one;
- Stripe recommends tracking emails sent so you don't contact the same person repeatedly.
An example
A creator sells a $149 course. In a month, 400 people reach checkout and 120 pay, so 280 stop. Checkout requires creating an account before paying and only shows tax at the last step. He makes three changes: tax-inclusive price on the sales page, account created after payment, and an unticked box to receive messages, including an email if payment isn't completed. The next month, out of 400 people reaching checkout, 140 pay; of those who stop, 60 gave consent and get a recovery email after an hour, with the link and answers to the two most common questions. Nine of them complete the purchase. It isn't a controlled experiment, because the months differ; however, it shows where to act. In practice, remove friction first, then recover who's left. The numbers are our example.
What should a recovery email say?
Little: a gentle reminder, the link to resume payment, answers to the common doubts (access, refunds, invoices) and a contact for questions. No fake urgency and no automatic discounts, which teach people to abandon carts to get a better price. Deadline rules are in Black Friday for online courses.
Which mistakes should you avoid?
- Costs that appear at the last step. They're the top reason for abandonment.
- Forced account creation before paying. Create it afterwards.
- Recovery emails without consent. You need accepted promotional messages.
- Several pushy emails. One, at most two, well written.
- Automatic discounts in the email. They reward abandoning.
Key terms. Checkout is the page where people enter details and pay. Cart abandonment is leaving checkout without completing the purchase. A recovery email invites someone to complete an interrupted purchase.
How we checked. We read Baymard Institute's cart abandonment statistics page (updated 22 September 2025) and Stripe's documentation on recovering abandoned carts in Checkout. Baymard's data covers e-commerce in general; we found no course-specific figures. Contact: hi@heytea.app. Editorial note: we check every figure against the sources listed below and correct mistakes openly.
Frequently asked questions
How many people abandon their cart?
Baymard Institute calculates an average documented online cart abandonment rate of 70.22%, based on 50 different studies (updated 22 September 2025). It covers e-commerce in general, not just courses, but it shows most people who reach a cart don't complete the purchase.
Why do people abandon checkout?
In Baymard's surveys of US shoppers, excluding those just browsing, the top reason is extra costs being too high (40%). Others include not trusting the site with card details (19%), having to create an account (18%) and a checkout that's too long or complicated (17%).
Can I email people who abandoned checkout?
Only with consent to receive promotional messages. Stripe's documentation on recovering abandoned carts says customers must agree to receive promotional emails before you can contact them. Without consent, the email address isn't even included in the data Stripe sends you.
When is a Stripe checkout considered abandoned?
A Stripe Checkout session expires by default 24 hours after creation, and the minimum you can set is 30 minutes. When it expires without payment, Stripe sends an event you can use to trigger the recovery email; the recovery link stays valid for 30 days.
What makes a course checkout simpler?
Showing the total price before payment, not requiring account creation before paying, asking only for necessary data, offering common payment methods and repeating in one line what's being bought and what the refund policy is.
Sources
- Baymard Institute, "Cart Abandonment Rate Statistics", updated 22 September 2025. Accessed 19 October 2026. baymard.com
- Stripe, "Recover abandoned carts", Checkout documentation. Accessed 19 October 2026. docs.stripe.com