Can you see what's in customers' carts on Shopify, or only abandoned checkouts?

What does Shopify show you about carts before checkout?

Mostly a number, not a list. In your admin, go to Analytics > Live View: on the Online Store channel, its Customer behavior block counts sessions from the last 10 minutes as Active carts, Checking out and Purchased.

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Analytics
2. Live View

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The behavior reports count the same way: their funnel step Sessions with cart additions is a total of sessions, not a list of products.

One exception is Shopify Inbox: in a chat your staff handle, the shopper's cart additions and removals appear, with the subtotal and quantities in the chat header — but not for a Shop visitor who hasn't signed in under new customer accounts. No Shopify page we read as of October 2026 describes an admin list of what shoppers put in their carts before checkout.

Abandoned cart vs abandoned checkout: what you see

In Shopify adminOpen in your store

1. Orders
2. Abandoned checkouts

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Unlike a cart, a checkout record shows what was left: in our development store, opening one listed the product, variant and quantity.

Abandoned checkouts older than three months are automatically deleted from the admin, so review them before then.

Recover abandoned cart emails go only to customers subscribed to marketing. A third automation covers product browsing, and our recovery guide separates all three.

Where else do a customer's checkout items show up?

In Shopify POS. On POS Pro locations, staff whose role has View abandoned checkouts, Create new customers and View customer details can add an identified customer's email to the POS cart, see the products in their abandoned online checkout, not their browsing history, and add them to the cart. Whether to grant that is a staff-roles decision.