Look at your email revenue by day for the last month. If it spikes on the days you send a campaign and goes quiet in between, your problem is not your campaigns. It is your flows.
Flows are the automated emails Klaviyo sends when a customer does something: signs up, views a product, abandons a cart, places an order, or stops buying. They run every day without anyone pressing send, and in a properly built account they carry a large share of email revenue. Across the brands we work with, email typically attributes 35 to 40% of total revenue once flows, segmentation and campaigns are built properly. Most of the gap between that and a single digit share sits in the flows.
These are the six every Shopify store should have running, in the order we build them.
1. The welcome series
Triggers when: someone joins your list through a sign up form.
This is the most important flow in the account, because it reaches people at the moment their interest is highest. It has three jobs: deliver whatever was promised on the form, tell the brand story so the subscriber knows why you exist, and move them to a first order.
Build it as a series, not a single email. The first email lands immediately with the offer. The ones that follow handle the objections that stop people buying: proof the product works, reviews, what makes you different, and a reminder before any offer expires. Split the flow so anyone who buys during the series leaves it and moves into post purchase.
2. Browse abandonment
Triggers when: a known subscriber views a product but does not add it to their cart.
This flow catches interest early, before it becomes intent. Keep it light. Show the product they looked at, add a line of social proof, and make returning to the page one click. It works best when it is short and when it excludes anyone already inside a cart or checkout flow, so nobody receives three emails about the same product on the same day.
3. Cart and checkout abandonment
Triggers when: a subscriber adds to cart, or starts checkout, and leaves without ordering.
This is usually the highest revenue flow per recipient, because the customer has already decided they want the product. Build two versions. Someone who abandoned at checkout has gone further than someone who only added to cart, so their message should be more direct and arrive sooner.
The first email should arrive while the visit is still fresh. Show the exact items left behind, answer the common objections (delivery cost, delivery time, returns), and only bring in an incentive later in the sequence if you use one at all. Leading with a discount trains customers to abandon on purpose.
4. Post purchase
Triggers when: an order is placed.
Most brands send an order confirmation and stop. That leaves the most valuable moment in the customer relationship empty. The post purchase flow should thank the customer, help them get the most from the product, ask for a review once it has arrived, and introduce the products that naturally go with what they bought.
Split it by first time and returning buyers. A first order is the moment to build the relationship that produces the second. A returning customer needs recognition, not an introduction.
This is also where order value grows. At The Corkbox, Klaviyo attributed orders averaged £95.10 in the UK against a store average of £73.42. Email was not only bringing customers back. It was bringing them back to spend more.
5. Replenishment or back in stock
Triggers when: a customer is due to run out, or a product they wanted comes back.
If you sell anything consumable, from supplements to skincare to coffee, replenishment is one of the most profitable flows you can build. Time it to how long the product actually lasts, so the reminder arrives just before the customer runs out. If you sell in drops or limited stock, a back in stock flow turns sold out pages into a list of people who have already told you they want to buy.
6. Win back
Triggers when: a customer has not ordered for longer than your normal repeat cycle.
Base the timing on your own data, not a template. Look at how long your typical repeat customer waits between orders, then trigger the flow once a customer goes past that. Lead with what is new, remind them why they bought, and keep any incentive for the final email. Anyone who does not respond should move into a sunset segment and be suppressed, which protects your deliverability for everyone else.
What sits underneath the flows
Flows only perform as well as the system around them. Two things decide that.
- Sign up capture. A flow can only convert the people who join your list. Across our clients, sign up forms have moved from around 2% to as high as 14% once they are designed and tested properly. Every point of improvement there feeds every flow above.
- Segmentation at the point of capture. Ask one useful question on the form, such as what the subscriber is shopping for, and route them into the right version of each flow. The cheapest moment to understand a customer is the moment they join.
How this played out at The Corkbox
When we started with The Corkbox, revenue arrived in bursts around campaign sends. The welcome series, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post purchase and win back flows were rebuilt across all three of its stores, with logic, timing and creative specific to each market. A segmentation model built on purchase behaviour, engagement and region sat on top. Peak monthly email revenue on the UK store went from £11k to £117k. You can read the full breakdown in the Corkbox case study.
Where to start
- Check what is live. Open Klaviyo, go to Flows, and list which of the six above you have, and when each was last touched.
- Fix the biggest gap first. If the welcome series or cart abandonment is missing or thin, start there. They usually carry the most revenue.
- Size the opportunity. The email revenue calculator shows what email should be making for your store, and how much of it would come from flows.
If you would rather have it built for you, this is exactly what we do as a Klaviyo agency. The free Klaviyo Segment Build Sheet has the segments and flows we start every account with.