Most store owners search for this for one of two reasons. Either the default email is annoying customers and under-performing, or you are moving to a dedicated email tool and you do not want shoppers getting the same reminder twice. Both are good reasons to flip the switch — as long as you know what replaces it.
This guide gives you the exact clicks, then does what the other results skip: it puts real numbers on what that abandoned cart email is actually worth, so you turn it off as an upgrade, not a leak.
Two ways to turn off Shopify's abandoned cart email
Shopify has moved this setting around over the years, so the location depends on how your store is set up. One of these two paths will have it.
Method 1: Marketing → Automations (current path)
This is where most stores manage it now.
- From your Shopify admin, open Marketing, then Automations.
- Find the Abandoned checkout automation in the list.
- Click the three-dot menu next to it (or open the workflow) and choose to turn it off.
Turning off the workflow stops the email immediately. You can switch it back on the same way, so this is fully reversible.
Method 2: Settings → Checkout (classic path)
If you do not see an Automations entry, use the checkout settings instead.
- Open Settings, then Checkout.
- Scroll to the Abandoned checkouts section.
- Uncheck "Automatically send abandoned checkout emails."
- Click Save.
On some older or notification-based setups the same toggle appears under Settings → Notifications in the Abandoned checkout block. Either checkbox controls the same email.
A reassuring note the top-ranking guides leave out: turning this off does not delete anything. Your order history, customer list, and any saved email content stay exactly where they are. You are pausing a trigger, not wiping data.
The reason most operators actually turn it off
The single most common reason is duplication. If you run a tool like Klaviyo, its abandoned cart flow fires on the same event as Shopify's, so a shopper who leaves a cart gets two reminders — one generic, one yours.
Klaviyo's own setup guidance is blunt about this: disable the ecommerce platform's default abandoned-cart email so customers do not get duplicates (Klaviyo — abandoned cart flow guide). The timing detail that matters: switch off the Shopify email right before you turn on your replacement flow, so there is no gap where nobody gets reminded.
If you are not replacing it with anything, pause before you flip the switch — the next section is for you.
What that email is actually worth before you kill it
Here is the part the "how to disable it" articles never mention. Cart recovery is not a small line item.
The average documented online shopping cart abandonment rate sits at 70.22%, averaged across 50 studies (Baymard Institute). Roughly seven of every ten carts started on your store never convert on their own, which makes the recovery email the closest thing email has to found money.
And recovery emails pull far above their weight. Across Klaviyo's benchmark data, automated flows generate nearly 41% of total email revenue from just 5.3% of sends, with revenue per recipient close to 18 times higher than one-off campaigns (Klaviyo — email marketing benchmarks). The abandoned cart flow is the highest-earning automation in that set.
So the honest framing is this: Shopify's default email is a real revenue source running at low output. Turning it off to send nothing throws away margin. Turning it off to run a proper flow usually earns more. This is why understanding the economics of owned-channel retention beats treating the email as an on/off nuisance.
Worked example: the default email vs a real flow
Say you run a store at a $48 average order value with about 900 started checkouts a month that do not convert. That is your recoverable pool.
A purpose-built abandoned cart flow at that AOV, for a store in the $1M–$5M revenue band, benchmarks between $1.12 and $3.03 in revenue per recipient (Klaviyo flow benchmarks reference). Take a conservative middle figure of $1.50 per recipient.
900 recipients × $1.50 = $1,350 per month in recovered revenue — $16,200 a year from one automation.
Now the margin math that decides whether it is worth it. Say your product cost plus Shopify and payment fees run $29 on that $48 order, leaving $19 of contribution per recovered sale. At $48 AOV, $1,350 recovered is about 28 orders, or roughly $530 a month in contribution you keep after costs — on an email that costs cents to send.
The question is never "should I turn the email off." It is "is my replacement earning closer to $3.03 per recipient or closer to zero." The gap between a thin default and a well-built flow is the whole game.
How to turn it off as an upgrade, not a leak
Before you disable Shopify's email, line up what replaces it. A strong abandoned cart flow does three things the default does poorly.
- It uses 2–3 timed messages, not one. Klaviyo's guidance is a first message a few hours after checkout starts and a follow-up a day or two later, which beats a single reminder (Klaviyo abandoned cart guide).
- It exits buyers who already purchased, using a "Placed Order zero times since starting this flow" filter, so nobody gets nagged about a cart they already bought.
- It holds the discount back. Do not put a coupon in the first email, or you train shoppers to abandon carts on purpose to mint a code (same Klaviyo guidance).
For the deeper mechanics — how long your reminder window should be and what each email should say — see our breakdown of the abandoned cart email extension and timing. And since recovery is only one of several money flows, pairing it with win-back sequences for lapsed buyers is usually the next move.
Where Victor fits
Turning off a checkbox is easy. Building the replacement flow, keeping it clean, and knowing whether it actually earns is the work most owners never get to.
PodVector AI puts an AI employee named Victor on exactly that. Victor builds the Klaviyo flow, sets the timing and exit filters, and sends it — then watches what it recovers. Because Victor sees every order, every ad dollar, and every supplier cost together, he computes the true per-order profit on each recovered sale, not just top-line revenue.
He works the same way across the rest of your store: Victor pauses the losing Meta ad set, reprices the thin-margin SKUs, and drafts the customer-support email, all from your live Shopify, ad, supplier, and Klaviyo data. If you want the cart flow built and measured instead of left as a to-do, start with PodVector AI. To weigh which tool runs the flow in the first place, compare options in our guide to ecommerce email marketing software.
FAQs
Will turning off the abandoned cart email delete my old emails or data?
No. Disabling the automation or unchecking the setting only stops the trigger from firing. Your order records, customer list, and any email content you saved all stay intact, and you can switch the email back on at any time.
Does turning it off stop recovering abandoned carts entirely?
Only if you do not replace it. If you turn off Shopify's email and run a flow in Klaviyo or another tool, recovery continues — usually better, because a multi-step flow with the right filters out-earns a single generic reminder. Turn the default off, but make sure something is catching those carts.
When should I disable the Shopify email if I'm switching to Klaviyo?
Right before you turn the new flow live, not days ahead. Klaviyo recommends this exact sequence so there is no gap where abandoned carts get no reminder at all. Build and test your flow first, then disable Shopify's email and enable the flow in the same sitting.
Why can't I find the checkbox under Settings → Checkout?
Shopify has moved this control. If it is not under Settings → Checkout, look under Marketing → Automations for the Abandoned checkout automation, or under Settings → Notifications. One of those three locations will have the toggle depending on your store's setup.
Should I put a discount in my abandoned cart email?
Not in the first message. Klaviyo's guidance is to save incentives for a later email, because leading with a coupon teaches shoppers that abandoning a cart is how you unlock a discount. Lead with the product and a return-to-cart link, and reserve the offer for the follow-up if you use one at all.
Does recovery email still matter if my abandonment rate feels normal?
Yes — "normal" is high. With the documented average around seven in ten carts abandoned (Baymard), even a store with healthy conversion leaves a large recoverable pool every month. The question is whether your recovery email is earning its keep, which you measure in recovered contribution, not opens. Tracking that sits alongside your broader ecommerce retention metrics.