Should I show recently viewed items in recovery emails?

As an e-commerce store owner, I've been wrestling with cart abandonment for months. Every time I see a potential customer add items to their cart and then disappear, it feels like money walking out the door. I've heard about recovery emails, but I'm not sure if simply showing recently viewed items is enough. My team and I have been debating whether this strategy actually brings customers back or just feels like another generic marketing tactic. We've tried basic retargeting, but our conversion rates remain frustratingly low. The real challenge is creating an email that doesn't just remind customers of what they left behind, but genuinely motivates them to complete their purchase. I want something more strategic—an approach that feels personalized and creates a sense of urgency. Our current email strategy feels like throwing darts in the dark: sometimes we hit, but mostly we miss. We need a smarter way to reconnect with potential customers, something that goes beyond a simple product reminder and actually speaks to why they might have hesitated in the first place.