No: abandoned cart emails are not transactional. In the EU they are marketing messages, so you need the customer's consent or, for someone who has already bought from you, the "soft opt-in" exception with its limits. Transactional emails carry out an order that already exists, such as a purchase confirmation or a shipping notice.
Below you'll find the difference between the two types, what EU rules and one national authority say, a summary table, and the settings to check on Shopify, Klaviyo and WhatsApp.
Why a cart reminder is not a transactional email
What matters is the purpose of the message. A transactional email carries out a contract that has been concluded: the customer paid and needs to know the order is on its way. A cart reminder tries to complete a purchase that didn't happen, so it promotes a product. The fact that the customer typed their email address at checkout doesn't change what the message is.
Two examples from a jewelry store:
Subject: Order #1048 confirmed Hi Emily, we've received your order: sterling silver ring, size 7. We'll ship it within two business days and email you the tracking number.
Subject: Your ring is waiting for you Hi Emily, the silver ring you picked is still in your cart. Shipping is free and you have 30 days to return it. Head back to your cart in one click.
The first is transactional. The second, however friendly, is marketing.
What GDPR, ePrivacy and the regulators say
Promotional email is governed by the ePrivacy Directive (Article 13), which requires prior consent. The only exception is the existing-customer rule, often called "soft opt-in". Italy, for example, implements it in Article 130 of its Privacy Code, and the 2013 guidelines of Italy's data protection authority say a store may write without consent if the address was provided in the context of a sale, if it promotes its own similar products, and if the customer, properly informed, hasn't objected.
Someone who abandons a cart without ever buying hasn't completed any sale. In 2025 the EU Court of Justice (case C-654/23) read the "context of a sale" broadly, but it did not rule on abandoned checkouts: the prudent choice is to ask for consent. In the US, CAN-SPAM works differently: it covers messages whose primary purpose is advertising, and the "transactional or relationship" category is limited to narrow cases such as confirming a transaction already agreed, so a cart reminder is in practice a commercial message. It doesn't require prior consent, but it does require a working opt-out honored within 10 business days and your valid postal address.
| Type of email | Legal basis (EU) | Consent needed? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Order confirmation, shipping, return | Performance of the contract | No | "Your package is on its way" |
| Abandoned cart to someone who never bought | Consent | Yes | "Your ring is waiting for you" |
| Abandoned cart to an existing customer | Soft opt-in (similar products, objection always possible) | No, if every condition is met | Reorder of a supplement already bought |
| Newsletters and promotions | Consent | Yes | "End-of-season sale" |
How to collect and respect consent across Shopify and Klaviyo
On Shopify, the marketing consent checkbox at checkout is switched on under Settings > Checkout, in the marketing consent section. For customers in the EU, leave it unticked by default: Shopify lets you choose in which regions it is pre-selected.
In Klaviyo every profile has a status: "subscribed" (gave consent), "unsubscribed" or "never subscribed". Klaviyo itself warns that never-subscribed profiles can receive flow emails unless they are suppressed. That's why the abandoned cart flow needs a consent filter: "Person can receive email marketing" with the reason "Because person subscribed to email marketing". Tools that write the copy, such as AchillesAI, leave consent and sending to Klaviyo: the filter belongs in the flow.
WhatsApp: a separate consent
Email consent doesn't carry over to WhatsApp. Meta requires an explicit opt-in that tells the customer clearly they are agreeing to receive messages and from which store. The cart reminder has to go out as an approved template, which Meta classifies as marketing even when the customer asked for it. So your checkout needs two separate checkboxes, one for email and one for WhatsApp.
Where to start
Check that the consent checkbox in your Shopify checkout isn't pre-ticked for EU customers. Open your abandoned cart flow in Klaviyo and add the email consent filter. If you use WhatsApp, add a dedicated checkbox that names your store.
Further reading: the rules for WhatsApp cart recovery, the abandoned cart flow in Klaviyo and the guide to abandoned cart recovery.
This article is general information and does not constitute legal advice.
