---
title: How Shopify tracks abandoned carts for RocketCart
date: "2026-11-06"
author: RocketCart
url: "https://getrocketcart.com/docs/recovery/cart-tracking/"
type: docs
---

Shopify keeps its own list of abandoned checkouts. RocketCart doesn’t track carts on your storefront. Once an hour it imports the new abandoned checkouts from Shopify and starts recovery for each one that has an email address or a phone number.

## Abandoned cart or abandoned checkout?

A shopper who only adds products to the cart and leaves never reaches checkout, so Shopify has no contact details to follow up with. RocketCart works with **abandoned checkouts**: the shopper started checkout and entered an email or phone number, then left without paying. In these docs, “abandoned cart” means such a checkout.

Shopify decides when a checkout counts as abandoned. You see the same checkouts in your Shopify admin under **Orders > Abandoned checkouts**. If that list has checkouts but RocketCart shows none, see [no carts showing](/docs/troubleshooting/no-carts-showing/).

## How does RocketCart pick up abandoned checkouts?

| When | What RocketCart imports |
| --- | --- |
| When you install the app | The abandoned checkouts from the last 7 days |
| Every hour after that | New abandoned checkouts since the last import |

For each new checkout, RocketCart:

1. skips it if it is already completed;
2. saves the cart value, the products and the checkout link;
3. plans recovery messages if the checkout has an email address, or a phone number while your WhatsApp is connected. See [email recovery](/docs/recovery/email-recovery/).

There is no tracking switch or theme script to set up. The app embeds in your theme are for campaigns and back in stock, not for carts.

## When does a cart count as recovered?

When Shopify reports an order placed from that checkout, RocketCart marks the cart **Recovered**, sets its value to the order total and cancels any messages still waiting. This works whenever the order comes in, with or without a click on a RocketCart message.

The Dashboard’s revenue figures only count recoveries where the shopper engaged with a message. Read [recovery results](/docs/recovery/recovery-results/) for the difference.

Note

When a shopper clicks a recovery email and then orders, the order gets the tag “✅ Recovered by rocketcart” in Shopify, so you can filter for it in your orders list. Recoveries through WhatsApp only don’t get the tag.

## Why don’t I see a checkout or its messages yet?

- The next hourly import hasn’t run. Wait up to an hour.
- The checkout has no email address, and no phone number RocketCart can use. Then nothing is sent for it.
- The store is a development store: carts are imported, but no messages are sent.

More causes and fixes are in [no carts showing](/docs/troubleshooting/no-carts-showing/). To pull the last 7 days again by hand, use **Reload Abandoned Carts from Shopify** in the [RocketCart web dashboard](/docs/dashboard/rocketcart-web-dashboard/).