In 2025, every e-commerce marketer must confront a mounting challenge: recovering cart and browse abandonment when third-party cookies are disappearing. As major browsers continue to phasing out third-party tracking, strategies that once worked no longer function. In this article, I will tell you a story of adaptation, explore data, and share actionable techniques to thrive in a cookieless world.
“We must change how we track intent—otherwise, we’ll lose revenue that was once just a click away.” — Mr. Phalla Plang, Digital Marketing Specialist
The Stakes: Why Cart & Browse Abandonment Matter
Imagine a shopper visiting your site. She browses a few products, perhaps adds one to the cart, but then leaves—never to return. That’s cart abandonment. Or she explores product pages but never adds anything—browse abandonment. These phenomena are familiar, but recovering them is more urgent now.
Globally, about 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned (Baymard Institute aggregated across 48 studies) (Hotjar, 2024). hotjar.com
In addition, Klaviyo reports that abandoned cart email flows generate an average conversion (placed order) rate of 3.33% and revenue per recipient (RPR) of US$3.65 (Klaviyo, 2024). Klaviyo
These numbers show there is opportunity hiding in abandonment—even modest recovery can move the needle. But the tools of yesterday (third-party cookies for retargeting) are fading. What then?
The Shift: Why Third-Party Cookies Are Losing Power
Browsers like Safari and Firefox have already blocked third-party cookies by default; Chrome is on a path to phase them out. For advertisers and e-commerce platforms, this means many legacy retargeting and tracking tools will lose precision.
Yet, not all is lost. The industry is pivoting to first-party data, server-side tracking, and privacy-forward methods. Research (e.g., COOKIEGRAPH) finds that first-party cookies and identifiers are now being used more widely, and trackers are ingeniously embedding identifiers even in first-party contexts (Munir et al., 2022) arXiv. These changes create both challenges (privacy, compliance) and opportunities (deeper customer relationships).
The Story of One Brand’s Pivot
Let me tell you a fictional but realistic story, drawn from dozens of real-world pivots:
“BetterStyle,” a mid-sized fashion e-commerce site in the U.S., used to rely heavily on retargeting via third-party cookies. Their abandonment recovery funnel looked like:
- Pixel tracks cart abandonment →
- Display ad shows the same product across sites →
- A discount sweetens the return →
- Email reminders finalize conversion.
When Chrome began limiting third-party cookies, their retargeting reach dropped 40%—and revenue dipped accordingly. They faced a dilemma: how to match abandonment with follow-up when cookies fail.
Here’s how they adapted:
- They implemented a server-to-server (S2S) event tracking pipeline, passing cart and browse events via their backend instead of relying on browser cookies.
- They strengthened their first-party data capture, offering registration incentives (loyalty points) and progressive profiling.
- They used referer-based attribution and hashed e-mail matching to reconnect sessions across devices.
- They built predictive models (machine learning) to identify browse abandoners likely to convert, even if they never added to cart.
Within six months, BetterStyle recovered 5–7% of lost revenue, nearly offsetting the decline from lost cookie-based retargeting. Today they use blended strategies to rebuild momentum.
You too can build your own path.
Key Challenges in a Cookieless Era
When third-party cookies fade, you must grapple with:
- Identity gaps: you may lose the ability to reliably link a user’s browsing behavior across sessions and devices.
- Reduced retargeting reach: many ad platforms will no longer allow cookie-based audiences in the same way.
- Privacy compliance: methods such as fingerprinting or covert tracking are legally risky.
- Data fragmentation: information spreads across channels (web, mobile, CRM) unless unified.
Thus, your strategies must be privacy-first, consent-oriented, and customer-centric.
Strategies to Recover Cart & Browse Abandonment Without Third-Party Cookies
Below is a playbook of approaches you can adopt immediately:
1. Maximize First-Party Data & Consent
Capture data explicitly. Use popups or banners to request consent, then store identifiers (email, hashed ID) in your own database. Ask users to opt in to personalized offers. Incentivize such opt-ins with discounts or exclusive access.
When users browse, if they’re logged in (or subsequently log in), you can map that browsing to their profile—even across devices.
2. Server-Side (S2S) Event Tracking & Tagging
Shift away from browser-based pixel firing. Instead, relay cart and browse events from your backend to your analytics and ad platforms. This reduces dependency on cookies being present in the browser.
You can still signal events like “cart add,” “product view,” “cart abandon” to your ad systems with consented IDs.
3. Email + SMS Abandonment Flows (Even for Browse)
If a user has an email or phone number (via lead magnet, newsletter sign-up, loyalty program), you can send targeted re-engagement. This works for:
- Cart abandonment: Recommend the exact cart items.
- Browse abandonment: Recommend similar products based on what they viewed.
Klaviyo data shows a basic abandoned cart email flow average open rate ~50.5% and click rate ~6.25% (Klaviyo, 2024). Klaviyo
Also, Shopify cites open rates ~41.18% and click rates ~9.5% in its dataset (Shopify, 2025). Shopify
4. Predictive & Propensity Modeling
Use machine learning to predict which browsers or carts are likely to convert—even when full identity is missing. Features might include:
- Time on page
- Number of product views
- Scroll depth
- Cart value
- Product margins
You can then bid more aggressively in your ad campaigns toward those high-propensity sessions.
5. Contextual & Keyword Retargeting
Instead of relying on cookie-based ad targeting, lean into contextual advertising. Serve ads based on the content of where your users browse, matching product categories rather than user profiles.
Combined with broad interest audiences, this can simulate remarketing without cookies.
6. Unified Customer Profile (CDP)
Build or adopt a customer data platform (CDP) that stitches together signals from your site, email, app, and CRM. When a user logs in on one device, you unify their history across others.
This lets you engage them holistically and recover more abandonment.
7. Use Privacy-Safe Cohort & Federated Approaches
Emerging methods such as Google’s Topics API or FLEDGE (for auctions) are designed to replace third-party cookies with cohort-based targeting. While still in flux, many ad platforms plan to support them.
Monitor your ad platform’s rollouts, join tests, and incorporate these methods as they stabilize.
8. Incentives Triggered by Exit Intent
You can detect exit-intent or near-close behavior in JavaScript and trigger overlays or onsite messages—offering discounts, free shipping, or reminders to login or save the cart. This doesn’t rely on cookies, just client-side behavior during the session.
Best Practices: Tactics That Actually Work
- Segment by abandonment stage (browse vs. cart) and tailor messaging.
- Test timing: For cart abandonment, send first email in 2–4 hours, follow-up after 24 hours, final after 48 hours. (Klaviyo suggests 3-step flows) Klaviyo
- Personalize content: Use names, product images, urgency, and social proof.
- Use minimal friction checkouts: Avoid forcing account creation; allow guest checkout.
- Show total cost early: Hidden shipping or tax surprises drive 48% of abandonment (Opensend) Opensend
- Offer multiple payment options: Local wallets, installments, etc., especially in global markets.
- Monitor your metrics carefully: Compare checkout abandonment vs. cart abandonment (they differ in stage) (Advertising Week article) Advertising Week
Data Privacy & Ethical Considerations
As you shift tactics, privacy cannot be an afterthought. Some guiding principles:
- Always seek clear, explicit consent before tracking or emailing.
- Use hashing / pseudonymization for IDs (never store raw sensitive data).
- Comply with GDPR, CCPA, and local laws in your operating markets.
- Avoid fingerprinting or covert tracking methods that bypass consent.
- Be transparent in your privacy policy about how data is used for abandonment recovery.
Measuring Success & KPIs
Key metrics to watch:
- Abandonment Rate = (Abandoned Carts ÷ Initiated Carts) × 100% (Census glossary) getcensus.com
- Recovery Rate = (Recovered Orders ÷ Abandoned Carts) × 100%
- Placed Order Rate (from recovery flows)
- Revenue per Recipient (RPR) from abandonment emails
- Incremental lift compared with a control group
Track these over time to identify what’s working and iterate.
Looking Ahead: Future Trends
- Privacy-preserving APIs (cohorts, on-device signals) will grow.
- Edge computing & browser-based ML may allow predictions without server tracking.
- Identity graphs managed by major platforms may offer safer identity linking.
- Zero-party data (surveys, quizzes) will gain importance in building direct relationships.
Brands that successfully shift now gain a competitive edge in a cookieless future—and can recapture revenue others will lose.
Conclusion
Cart and browse abandonment has always been a revenue drain. In 2025 and beyond, recovering those lost opportunities demands creativity, privacy-first design, and new architecture. The days of leaning on third-party cookies are ending—but abandoning your strategy is not an option.
Start with first-party data, build server-side event flows, enrich them with predictive models, and engage through email, SMS, and contextual ads. Step by step, you can transform abandonment into conversion—even without cookies.
This is how you stay in the game. This is how you evolve. And this is the path ahead in a cookieless world.
More Read
References
Klaviyo. (2024). The abandoned cart benchmarks report: 2024 data to inform your strategy. Retrieved from Klaviyo blog Klaviyo
Munir, S., Siby, S., Iqbal, U., Englehardt, S., Shafiq, Z., & Troncoso, C. (2022). COOKIEGRAPH: Understanding and Detecting First-Party Tracking Cookies. arXiv. arXiv
Shopify. (2025, February 18). How to reduce shopping cart abandonment (2025). Shopify Enterprise Blog. Shopify
Hotjar Team. (2024, January 26). 23 Insightful stats on shopping cart abandonment. Hotjar blog. hotjar.com
Advertising Week. (n.d.). Getting your KPIs right: Should you really be measuring shopping cart abandonment rates? Advertising Week
Opensend. (2025, April 20). 7 cart abandonment rate statistics for eCommerce stores. Opensend. Opensend
Dynamic Yield. Shopping cart abandonment recovery strategy. Mastercard Dynamic Yield
Census. (2024, October 1). Cart abandonment metrics: Measuring lost sales. getcensus.com
ClickPost. (2025, July 19). Cart abandonment statistics: Key trends & insights for 2025. ClickPost AI.
