Abandoned cart recovery has traditionally been dominated by monolithic Shopify apps and heavy scripts that slow down your site. But as e-commerce moves towards headless architectures and custom stacks, these legacy tools are falling behind.
The Problem with "Apps"
If you're building with Next.js, Hydrogen, or a custom stack, you don't have access to the typical "App Store" ecosystem in the same way. You need tools that:
- Don't touch your DOM: No injection scripts slowing down your LCP.
- Work server-side: Secure, reliable data tracking.
- Are type-safe: TypeScript first.
Enter the Recovery API
Retake was built to solve this. Instead of a plugin, we give you an API.
// It's this simple
import { Retake } from '@retakeapi/js';
const retake = new Retake({ apiKey: '...' });
await retake.track({
type: "checkout",
userId: "user_3264",
email: user.email,
value: cart.total
});
This simple call allows you to:
- Track abandons in real-time
- Trigger recovery emails automatically
- Sync with your existing email provider (Resend, AWS SES, etc.)
Ownership of Data
When you use a platform-specific app, your data is locked in their silo. With an API-first approach, you own the data pipeline. You can export it, listen to webhooks, and integrate it with your analytics stack (PostHog, Mixpanel).
Conclusion
The future of e-commerce is composable. Your recovery engine should be too.