A shopper sets a custom blind to 48 inches wide, picks Premium Linen, and leaves at checkout. Later, your abandoned checkout email arrives and they click the button.
They land on a cart holding a blind with no width and no fabric. Every choice they made is gone. Shopify's default recovery button points at a checkout or cart link, and those links carry the product and the quantity, nothing else.
The shopper is left with something they did not configure and no way to tell what they picked. Building it again from memory is the only route to checkout, so most of them close the tab. Your recovery email spent its one click sending a ready buyer back to the start.
The fix is a recovery button that rebuilds the whole cart, customizations included. Appify Custom Product Options adds a Restore your cart link to your abandoned checkout email, and can list each product's options right in the email.
Why do abandoned cart emails lose custom options?
A standard recovery link knows the products and quantities. A configured product carries more: the width, the fabric, the engraving text the shopper typed.
Those choices are saved on the cart line as cart properties, outside the product variant. A cart permalink like /cart/123:1 only names the variant and the quantity, so the choices don't come with it.
The shopper who clicks gets a product with nothing chosen. They either set it all up again, or they don't. The customer never complains, they just don't come back.
What does Restore your cart do?
Appify Custom Product Options saves a recover ID on each cart. The Restore your cart link in the email uses that ID to rebuild the cart they left.
- The link opens a page on your store, with your theme's header and footer. The shopper sees "Restoring your cart…"
- The cart in that browser is cleared. Then every abandoned line is added back, customized products with their options and regular products too.
- Linked fee and shipping-weight rows are recreated from the product.
- The shopper lands on the cart page, ready to check out.
On a big cart the shopper sees a running count as it fills ("12 of 50…"), so there is never a blank screen to wonder about.
The whole cart comes back, not just the products. Every option the shopper chose is filled in again, next to the regular products they had in the cart.
Shopify's default recovery link vs Restore your cart in Appify Custom Product Options
| When the shopper clicks | Default checkout or cart link | Restore your cart Appify Custom Product Options |
|---|---|---|
| Products and quantities | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom options on each product | ✗ | ✓ |
What does the shopper see in the email?
On its own, Shopify's abandoned checkout email shows none of it. The shopper gets the product name and the price, with nothing about the width, the fabric or the text they typed, so the email for the blind they spent ten minutes configuring reads like an email for something off the shelf. Nothing in it reminds them what they were buying.
With Appify Custom Product Options, each customized product lists the options they chose, one per line. "Width: 48 inches." "Fabric: Premium Linen." Hidden technical fields stay out of sight.
That list reminds them exactly what they built. The button below it brings it all back.
How do you set it up?
Use the way your store already sends abandoned checkout emails. The app dashboard has a setup card for each one, and the help doc on setting up abandoned checkout and cart emails has the full walkthrough for all three routes, with the exact snippets to paste.
1. Shopify customer notification emails
In Shopify admin, go to Settings, then Notifications, then Abandoned checkout, and click Edit code. Two changes go in: the options under each product title, and the restore link on the main button.
You don't have to hunt through the code. Copy the email body into Update with AI on the dashboard, and paste back what it returns. Do the same for Abandoned cart if your store has that template.
2. Shopify Marketing Automations
If your store uses Shopify Messaging, open the Recover abandoned checkout automation and edit its Complete your order email. Hide the built-in button, then add a Custom Liquid section with the restore-button snippet from the dashboard. It adds a Complete Your Order button that opens the restore page.
3. Klaviyo or another email app
Keep your email app. Just change its abandoned-cart button so it opens the restore page.
Klaviyo users paste the ready-made button link from the dashboard. Other apps take the start of the link, then the cart field named _recover.
One setting to check whichever way you send: the Appify Custom Product Options app embed in your theme must be on, so each cart gets its recover ID.
What if you changed the product since they left?
Prices and options change. If one product's calculator was updated after the cart was abandoned, the rest of the cart restores first.
That product waits behind a short review banner, with the shopper's options filled in. They check them against your current calculator and add it. Nothing old slips into checkout unchecked.
Can shoppers change something after the cart comes back?
Yes. Restored lines can show the Edit options button in the cart page and cart drawer. It reopens the calculator with every choice filled in. Here is how to let customers edit configured products in the cart.
If the size needs to change, they change it and update the line. No starting over.
The same configuration follows the whole order
Recovery is one part of the story. The configuration a shopper builds in Appify Custom Product Options keeps working after checkout:
- Order confirmation email: the options under each product, plus a Reorder this item link that puts the same configuration back in the cart.
- Customer accounts: an Appify Reorder button on past orders, in place of Shopify's Buy again, which adds only the variant. That gap is worth knowing about on its own: why Shopify's Buy again button drops custom options.
- Your team: the app's Orders tab shows every option, proof, and design file, and reorders a line or a whole order.
New to configured products? Start with how to build a custom Shopify calculator without code, or see a full example in how to sell custom flooring on Shopify.
FAQ
Does Shopify's abandoned checkout email keep custom product options?
No. The default button points at a checkout or cart link, and those links carry the product and the quantity only. Options saved on the cart line do not come back.
Does Restore your cart restore one product or the whole cart?
The whole cart. Customized and regular products come back together, with fee and shipping-weight rows recreated.
Where does the shopper land after clicking?
On your cart page, with the cart rebuilt. From there they check out as normal.
Can I use it with Klaviyo?
Yes. Paste the ready-made Klaviyo button link from the app dashboard into your abandoned-cart email's button.
Can the email show each product's options?
Yes, in Shopify's notification email, once Appify Custom Product Options is set up. The options appear under each product title, one per line. Without it the email shows the product and the price only.
Do I need to edit email code myself?
No. Paste your email into Update with AI on the dashboard and it returns the updated version to paste back.
What if the shopper already has something in their cart?
Restore your cart clears that browser's cart first, then adds the abandoned lines, so the shopper gets the exact cart they left.
Bring back the cart they built, options and all.
Whatever you sell, however you price it · The last options app you'll shop for