CDS Abandoned Cart · Subject Line Verdict

The Bottom Line

More clicks. Not more revenue.

The refreshed subjects are earning noticeably more clicks than the flow did in the 5 weeks before the change. That engagement has not yet turned into more revenue per recipient. Previous period: May 4 – Jun 1 · since the change: Jun 8 – Jul 6.

Click rate

1.6%→5.1%

▲ +3.5 pts (+225%)

Improving

Conversion rate

5.3%→5.5%

▬ +0.2 pts (+3%)

Holding flat

Revenue / recipient

$8.68→$5.81

▼ -$2.87 (-33%)

Declining

What this means

The subject lines are doing their job — they are pulling more people back into the cart (clicks up sharply). But revenue per recipient is down and conversion is flat, so the extra clicks are not converting to more sales yet. Verdict: a clear engagement win, not yet a revenue win. Keep the new subjects; look at the offer and landing step next.

Week By Week Since Jun 8

Each week vs. the old baseline

Every bar is one week since the change. The dashed line is the average for the previous period, so a bar above the line beat the old flow and a bar below it fell short.

Above previous-period average Below previous-period average Dashed line = previous-period average

Click rate by week since the change

Conversion rate by week since the change

Revenue / recipient by week since the change

* Jul 13 is the current, in-progress week (14 recipients so far) and is excluded from the totals.

The 2h → 1h Delay

Did the faster first email help?

On June 8 the first email's wait dropped from 2 hours to 1 hour after abandonment. Catching people sooner front-loaded the sale: the first email now closes far more of the flow's orders and converts much better than before.

35% → 64%

Share of all flow orders that now close on email 1

Email 1 metric	Previous (May 4 – Jun 1)	Since change (Jun 8 – Jul 6)
Click rate	2.7%	5.2% ▲
Conversion rate	5.3%	9.4% ▲
Revenue / recipient	$7.62	$10.11 ▲
Orders on email 1	6	9 ▲

Read it as "helped, with a footnote." Email 1's subject also changed on June 8, so timing isn't perfectly isolated — but a shift this large toward the first touch is what a shorter delay is supposed to do. Note the flip side: the flow's later emails now do less work, which is part of why total flow revenue per recipient is down.

Fewer Entrants — Why?

Fewer abandoners, or fewer form fills?

Fewer people entered the flow this period. The upstream funnel says it's mostly the healthy reason: fewer people are abandoning. Checkouts started are down -16%, and of those that start, more are finishing (completion 78.5% → 81.6%), so abandonments — the events that feed this flow — fell faster than checkout volume. Form-fill rate did slip, but this flow triggers on checkout, not form fills, so that's a list-growth watch-item, not the driver here.

Funnel step	Previous (May 4 – Jun 1)	Since change (Jun 8 – Jul 6)
Started Checkout Total checkouts begun — the pool the flow draws from	619	517 ▼
Placed Order	486	422 ▼
Checkout completion rate Share of started checkouts that finished — higher = fewer abandon	78.5%	81.6% ▲
Abandonments (started, not placed) The events that actually feed this flow	133	95 ▼
Flow entrants (email 1 sent)	114	96 ▼
Form views	3,231	3,059 ▼
Form submits	125	84 ▼
Form submit rate Submits ÷ views — the 'form fill conversion rate'	3.9%	2.7% ▼

The answer

Mostly fewer people abandoning, not a form-fill problem. A higher share of checkouts are completing (78.5% → 81.6%), so there are simply fewer abandoned carts to email. Overall checkout volume is also down -16% — worth watching as a traffic/demand signal — but the flow itself isn't leaking entrants to a broken form.

Side By Side

Previous period vs. since the change

Metric	Previous (May 4 – Jun 1)	Since change (Jun 8 – Jul 6)
Emails sent (all 6 in flow)	323	255 ▼
Click rate	1.6%	5.1% ▲
Conversion rate	5.3%	5.5% ▲
Revenue / recipient	$8.68	$5.81 ▼
Placed orders	17	14 ▼
Total revenue	$2,803	$1,481 ▼

What Changed

The subject lines, before & after

#	Before (through Jun 7)	After (Jun 8 on)
1	🐴 The Donkey’s Still Holding Your Cart	We saved your cart, ready to check out?
2	🧰 You Were So Close to Wrapping It Up	We know you’re busy, your cart's still here
3	🐴 Welcome Back: Your Cart’s Still Safe	Still interested? Your cart expires soon!
4	🐴 Donkey Says It’s Deal Time: Grab Your 10% Off	10% off your cart with code DONKEY10
5	⏳ Last Call: Your 10% Off’s About to Expire	Your DONKEY10 discount expires tonight
6	📦 Still Thinking It Over?	Still need it? Last reminder about your cart. 🐴

How To Read This

Caveats

Click rate is the fairest subject-line signal. Apple Mail Privacy auto-opens emails and pins open rate near 100%, so we don't use it here; subject lines are judged by clicks, then downstream conversion and revenue.
Small samples. Only ~50 people enter the flow each week, so read the direction, not any single week. The revenue-per-recipient figure swings on a few large carts.
The previous period was a soft patch for clicks (about 1.6% vs. the flow's ~3.3% full-year average), so the click jump looks larger than a full-history comparison would. Even against that 3.3% average, clicks are up.
Three things changed on June 8, not just subjects: new subjects, new preview text, and a first-email delay cut from 2h to 1h. The lift can't be pinned to subjects alone.
The change date is the June 8 implementation log; June 8 falls on a clean week boundary, so the comparison has no mixed week.

Cheap Dealer Supplies · [ED] Abandoned Checkout Flow - Updated · Prepared by Easton Digital · Data through 2026-07-13