---
title: Order Retention Emails
description: Learn more about Order Retention Emails in this guide.
---
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# Order Retention Emails
Occasionally, your shoppers may place items in their carts and don't complete the purchase.An order retention email can be a valuable tool to gently nudge shoppers to go back and complete their order, or for you to find out if they had an issue during checkout.
Sending a Retention Email
If an abandoned cart is associated with an existing customer account, you can send an order retention email to the email address on file. Heres how:
1. Go to **Orders \> Abandoned/Live Carts** in your Admin Area.
2. Click the three-dot actions menu icon and select **Enable Quick Edit**.
3. Find a table entry for a cart with an associated customer email address, then click on it.
4. Click the **Send Retention Email** button that appears in the lower panel.
If you don't see the **Send Retention Email** button, it may not be available because:
- the shopper wasn't logged in as an existing customer, so the cart is not associated with a specific email address
- The retention email waiting period (time since cart was abandoned) hasn't passed yet. For details on changing the default waiting period, see below.
If you'd like, you can customize the email that gets sent by clicking **Edit Abandoned Cart Retention Template.** You can edit this Email Template by going to Design \> Email Templates in your admin Dashboard. You can view [this article](https://help.volusion.com/s/editing-email-templates?hsLang=en-us) for more information on editing Email Templates.
Changing the Default Retention Email Waiting Period
By default, a cart must be abandoned for 12 hours before you can click the Send Retention Email button. If you want the option to send retention emails sooner, you can update the **Retention Email Waiting Period in Hours** config variable, like so:
1. Go to **Settings \> Config Variables**.
2. Perform a search with the term "retention" in the **Name** field.
3. Modify the numerical value in the field next to **Retention Email Waiting Period in Hours**.
4. Click **Save**.
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