Browse Abandonment re-engages contacts who visited your store – browsing a homepage, category page, or sale page – but left without viewing a specific product or adding anything to their cart. Use it to send a timely reminder, a general offer, or an invitation to return.
Note: Browse Abandonment targets the earliest stage of the shopping journey. It works alongside, not instead of, Product Abandonment and Abandoned Cart. Each automation serves a different funnel stage:
Browse Abandonment – contact viewed any page, did not view a specific product.
Product Abandonment – contact viewed a product page, did not add it to the cart.
Abandoned Cart and Abandoned Checkout – contact added items to the cart, did not start checkout.
Use all three together with proper exit conditions and Skip Contacts settings to avoid sending multiple emails to the same contact.
Before You Begin
Supported platforms: Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce (module 1.6.0 or newer), Magento 1 (module 1.2.0 or newer), and stores connected via API v3.
Plan: Automation Workflows are available on all Omnisend plans. View pricing.
User roles: All roles except Analyst can access Automation Workflow settings. Learn more about user roles.
Subscription status: Browse Abandonment can trigger for both subscribed and non-subscribed contacts. See which workflows trigger for different subscription statuses.
Retrospective triggering: This automation cannot be triggered retrospectively.
Important: Browse Abandonment only fires for identified contacts – visitors whose email address is linked to a tracking cookie in their browser. A cookie is placed when a contact: signs up via an Omnisend Signup Form, clicks a link in an Omnisend email, or submits their email at checkout. Visitors who have not completed any of these actions cannot be tracked, and the automation will not trigger for them – even if their email exists in your Omnisend contact list.
Automation Setup
Go to Automation and click Create workflow.
Select Browse Abandonment from the workflow library.
The workflow opens with a preset trigger and default exit conditions. Configure each section below before activating.
Automation Trigger Settings
The trigger is preset to the Viewed page. By default, it fires for all page views. You can restrict it to specific pages using the trigger filter:
Exact URL – fires only when a contact views a specific page.
URL contains a word – fires for any page whose URL contains the word you define. For example, "sale" triggers the automation for all contacts who visit any URL containing
/sale.
Tip: If you also have a Product Abandonment workflow active, avoid setting your Browse Abandonment trigger to product page URLs (for example, URLs containing /products/). Product Abandonment already covers product page views. Target Browse Abandonment at broader page types: homepages, collection pages, or sale pages (for example, URLs containing /collections/ or /sale).
Audience Filter and Conditional Split
To target a specific group of contacts, add an Audience filter in the trigger settings. For Browse Abandonment, the Audience filter is limited to contact properties only.
For more advanced targeting – such as filtering by segment or tag – use a Conditional Split step inside the workflow instead.
Note: The workflow can only trigger for contacts who have been previously identified by Omnisend tracking. Learn how contact tracking works.
Exit Conditions
The default exit condition is Placed order – contacts exit the workflow as soon as they complete a purchase.
If you also have Abandoned Cart or Abandoned Checkout workflows active, add these exit conditions to prevent contacts from receiving emails from multiple abandonment flows at the same time:
Added product to cart
Started checkout
With all recommended exit conditions in place, contacts exit the Browse Abandonment workflow when they:
Receive all messages in the sequence.
Add a product to the cart.
Start the checkout process.
Place an order.
Important: Exit conditions only apply to events that occur after the workflow is triggered. If a contact submits their email for the first time at checkout (the first action that places a cookie), the Abandoned Checkout flow triggers. Any page view or cart addition that occurs after that point triggers Product Abandonment and Browse Abandonment separately – because no exit condition was active before those later triggers fired. To prevent contacts from entering multiple abandonment flows simultaneously, use the Skip Contacts setting (see the Frequency and Skip Contacts section below).
Frequency and Skip Contacts
Frequency controls how often the same contact can re-enter this workflow. If a contact visits your store multiple times in a day, only one Browse Abandonment workflow triggers.
Skip Contacts is a separate setting that prevents a contact who is currently in – or has recently completed – another automation from entering Browse Abandonment at the same time. Configure Skip Contacts under the workflow's trigger settings.
Both settings work independently and both are recommended:
Set Frequency to 10–15 days to avoid over-messaging contacts who visit your store regularly.
Enable Skip Contacts to exclude contacts already in a higher-priority flow such as Abandoned Cart or Abandoned Checkout.
Message Content
Unlike Abandoned Cart and Product Abandonment, Browse Abandonment does not capture information about what a contact viewed. This means:
No product names, images, or prices can be dynamically pulled into the email.
No return URL is available for the specific page the contact was viewing. There is no variable equivalent to
[[event.raw.abandoned_checkout_url]]for Browse Abandonment.
Instead, use general content that works for all visitors:
A brand introduction or value proposition.
A curated selection of bestsellers or new arrivals.
A discount code or exclusive offer.
A link to the category page or collection that matches the trigger URL you set.
Tip: If your Browse Abandonment trigger is set to a specific URL (for example, /collections/sale), link your email button to that collection page. This creates a relevant experience without requiring dynamic URL variables.
Increase Identified Contacts
Browse Abandonment only works for contacts with a tracking cookie. The more contacts Omnisend can identify on your website, the more visitors the automation can reach.
To increase the number of identified contacts:
Send regular Email Campaigns. Links in emails place a tracking cookie in the recipient's browser when they click through to your store.
Activate Omnisend Signup Forms. When a contact submits their email via an Omnisend Signup Form, Omnisend places a cookie in their browser.
WooCommerce stores: After a contact places their first order, Omnisend places a cookie in their browser. Returning visitors who have ordered before are automatically identified on subsequent visits.
Reports
Browse Abandonment performance is available in the Reports tab. View the full reporting guide.
Reports include: emails sent, open rate, click rate, sales generated, and unsubscribes. A month-by-month view and an Activity feed with contact-level detail are also available.
FAQ
Why isn't Browse Abandonment triggering even though I have thousands of contacts?
The automation only fires for contacts with a tracking cookie in their browser. Having an email address in your Omnisend contact list is not enough – the contact must have clicked an Omnisend email link, signed up via a Signup Form, or submitted their email at checkout. If you have no active Signup Forms and haven't sent many Email Campaigns recently, most of your contacts may not yet have a cookie. Activate an Omnisend pop-up or embedded form to start building cookie reach.
What is the difference between Browse Abandonment, Product Abandonment, and Abandoned Cart?
Each targets a different funnel stage. Browse Abandonment fires when a contact views any page but does not view a specific product. Product Abandonment fires when a contact views a product page but does not add it to cart. Abandoned Cart fires when a contact adds items to cart but does not start checkout. All three can run simultaneously – use exit conditions and Skip Contacts to ensure each contact only receives the most relevant message.
Can I send the contact back to the specific page they were browsing?
No. Browse Abandonment does not store the URL the contact was viewing. There is no dynamic return URL available for this workflow. Link your email button to a relevant category page, homepage, or the collection that matches your trigger URL setting.
What is the difference between Frequency and Skip Contacts?
Frequency controls how often the same contact can re-enter this specific workflow (for example, no more than once every 10 days). Skip Contacts prevents a contact already active in another automation from entering this one. Use both together: set Frequency to 10–15 days, and enable Skip Contacts to exclude contacts already in Abandoned Cart or Abandoned Checkout.
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