The Complete Guide to Klaviyo Flows [2026]

Most Shopify brands have 2-3 Klaviyo flows running. A welcome series, maybe an abandoned cart email. That's it.

The brands making real money from email? They have 10+.

And the gap between those two setups isn't marginal. Klaviyo typically drives 25-45% of total revenue for ecommerce brands, with a roughly 50/50 split between flows and campaigns. For higher-ticket products, that skews even harder toward flows — we've seen 70/30 splits because the consideration window is longer and flows are what nurture people through it.

Here's a scenario we see constantly: Someone gets a campaign email featuring a $200 jacket. They click through, browse a few pages, leave. Browse abandonment email fires. They come back two days later, add to cart, get distracted, leave again. Cart abandonment email fires. They finally check out a week and a half later. The campaign got the click, but the flows got the conversion. Without those automated touchpoints, that sale doesn't happen.

This guide covers every flow type worth building, when to use each one, and the order to build them in. It's a map, not a blueprint — we'll link to the deep-dives for the technical details.

Flow Builder Tool — Want to plan your flow architecture before you read? Start here.

What Flows Are (and Aren't)

Flows are triggered automations. Someone takes an action — joins your list, abandons a cart, makes a purchase — and a pre-built email sequence fires based on that behavior. They run 24/7 without anyone pressing send.

Campaigns are manual sends. You build them, pick a segment, schedule them, and hit send. Promotions, product launches, newsletters — anything time-based.

Campaigns drive traffic and awareness. Flows convert that traffic and retain those customers over time. If your flows are doing less than 40% of your email revenue, something is broken or missing.

The "Set and Forget" Myth

Flows are automated. They are not "set and forget."

We audit accounts all the time where a brand set up their flows two years ago and never touched them again. I recently audited an account where I hadn't even looked at half the flows myself — and sure enough, there was outdated copy everywhere, broken images, features listed instead of benefits, and flows that had been daisy-chained into nonsensical setups by a previous agency. One flow had a re-engagement email that created a property, which put people into a second sunset flow, which created another property to suppress. Two flows doing what should be one. That's what "set and forget" gets you.

Flows need regular optimization — updated copy, refreshed creative, tested timing. The automation part means they run without you. The optimization part still requires attention.

Core Flows Every Brand Needs

These five flows form the backbone of your email automation. Here's the math on when deeper optimization starts mattering:

If you're at $50K/month in revenue, email is probably driving around $15K of that (30% is typical). Split that 50/50 between flows and campaigns and you've got about $7,500/month coming from flows. A 10% improvement at that level is $750/month — it adds up over time, and it scales as you grow. But below $50K? Get these core flows set up with solid best practices and you're in great shape for a while. Above that threshold is where optimization starts paying for itself — personalization splits, product-specific abandonment emails instead of generic ones, pop-up question customization, new flow types like referral programs or sales team notifications for large abandoned orders.

Welcome Flow — 5 Emails

What it is: The sequence that fires when someone joins your email list. Its job is simple: convert a subscriber into a purchaser. That's priority number one. Brand storytelling and relationship building are secondary.

Why it matters: This is your highest-engagement moment. Someone just gave you their email — they're paying attention. A single welcome email with a discount code is a massive missed opportunity. You have a window of 5-7 days where open rates are at their peak. Our time to first purchase benchmarks confirm it: 66% of subscribers already bought before the welcome flow sent, and the real conversion window for the rest is about 7 days. Use it.

Our approach:

• Email 1: Welcome offer + brand story highlights + policy blocks (shipping, returns — reduce objections immediately)
• Email 2: Offer reminder + best sellers + brand story continuation
• Email 3: Offer reminder + review highlights (social proof to push hesitant buyers)
• Email 4: Offer reminder + founder story (build connection)
• Email 5: Offer close with urgency

The flow filter exits anyone who purchases, so buyers don't keep getting discount emails after they've converted. And the trigger filter ensures only non-purchasers enter — someone who already bought through another channel doesn't need your welcome offer.

One thing we watch for: make sure your welcome flow isn't triggered by the Newsletter list. Shopify's default behavior dumps checkout opt-ins into Newsletter, which means people entering their email at checkout get thrown into the welcome flow, immediately purchase, and get skipped through the whole thing. We use a dedicated welcome flow list tied only to pop-up signups so actual prospects enter the flow.

Most welcome flows we audit have 1-2 emails. That's leaving money on the table. Five emails over five days gives you multiple angles to convert someone while they still remember signing up.

Welcome Flow Examples — See real welcome flow breakdowns with subject lines and content direction.

Welcome Flow Subject Lines — The subject lines that actually drive opens in welcome sequences.

Time to First Purchase Benchmarks — How fast subscribers actually buy, what the welcome flow is really worth ($1.7M across our portfolio), and why the conversion window is shorter than you think.

Abandoned Cart + Abandoned Checkout — 6 Emails

What it is: Two separate flows that recover people who showed purchase intent but didn't buy. This is where we need to talk about a distinction most brands miss entirely.

Abandoned cart triggers when someone adds a product to their cart but never starts checkout. Abandoned checkout triggers when someone begins the checkout process — enters their email, maybe their shipping info — but doesn't complete the purchase.

These are different behaviors with different intent levels. Checkout abandoners are further down the funnel — they're closer to buying. And here's the problem: if you only have an "abandoned checkout" flow (which is what Klaviyo's default template gives you), you're missing every single person who added to cart but never made it to checkout. That's a huge segment.

Our approach (same structure for both, different triggers):

• Email 1: Cart/checkout reminder + shipping and return policies (remove friction first)
• Email 2: Reviews that combat common objections (quality, fit, durability — whatever your customers worry about)
• Email 3: Customer service angle + dynamic product suggestions (helpful, not pushy)
• 1-4 hour initial delay (give them time to come back on their own)
• 21-day re-entry window (prevent flow fatigue for serial browsers)

We build both flows as one project — same email content, updated triggers and dynamic content. You get full-funnel abandonment coverage without doubling the workload.

Abandoned Cart Flow Deep-Dive — The full setup guide including cart vs. checkout trigger logic.

Browse Abandonment — 2 Emails

What it is: The flow that fires when someone views products on your site but doesn't add anything to their cart. This is the middle of the abandonment funnel that most brands skip entirely.

Why it matters: Browse abandonment is typically a top-five revenue generating flow, sometimes top three. The revenue per recipient is lower than cart or checkout abandonment, but the volume is way higher — that's why it competes. Think about how many people look at a product page vs. how many actually add to cart. That gap is your browse abandonment audience.

Our approach:

• Email 1: Show them what they viewed + shipping and policy highlights
• Email 2: Same products + similar recommendations + reviews
• 1-4 hour initial delay
• 21-day re-entry window

The filter logic is critical here. Browse abandonment must exclude anyone who added to cart, started checkout, or purchased — because those people should be in higher-intent flows instead. You get tighter on your timeframes the lower you go in the funnel because the lower you go, the higher the intent is. Browse can run on a 14-21 day window. Cart and checkout should be tighter — 7 days max.

Browse Abandonment Flow Deep-Dive — Setup guide with filter logic and the full abandonment funnel breakdown.

Post-Purchase — 6 Emails

What it is: The sequence that fires after someone places an order. It splits into two paths: first-time buyers and repeat buyers. Because those are fundamentally different customers who need different messages.

Why it matters: The moment after purchase is your second-highest engagement window (after the welcome flow). The customer just gave you money. They're excited. They want to feel good about that decision. This is where you reinforce that they made the right call and start building the relationship that turns a one-time buyer into a repeat customer.

And if you have a conditional split for repeat buyers — make sure something actually lives on that path. We audited a brand where the repeat buyer path led to nothing. Zero emails. Multi-buyers received nothing after their second, third, fourth purchase. A complete dead end that nobody had noticed.

Our approach:

First-time buyer path (3 emails):

• Email 1: Personal thank you — make it feel human, not transactional
• Email 2: Brand values, how to use/care for the product — educate and build affinity
• Email 3: Post-purchase survey

Repeat buyer path (3 emails):

• Email 4: Thank you for coming back (different tone — they already know the brand)
• Email 5: Brand values refresh + product tips
• Email 6: Repeat buyer survey

The survey is probably the most underrated piece of this entire flow. I've never seen a post-purchase survey in an account that we didn't set up ourselves. But the data you get back changes how you think about the brand — you go from guessing to knowing exactly what customers think.

Real examples: An apparel brand learned customers couldn't figure out sizing because models didn't show weight and height — that became a product page fix and email content. A brand discovered an actual website bug through survey responses that their dev team hadn't caught. An incontinence brand learned customers were saying "I wish I would have found you years ago — I used [competitor] for years and it just leaked." That became direct copy for campaigns and flows. You can't make this stuff up, and you can't get it without asking.

One note on timing: ask immediately after purchase while the buying decision is fresh, not 30+ days later. My buying experience is more fresh in my mind right after I make that decision. In 38 days, I don't remember what almost stopped me from buying or how I heard about the brand.

Predictive Flows from Purchase Paths — How to use actual purchase data to build smarter post-purchase sequences.

Winback — 3 Emails

What it is: The flow that re-engages customers who bought from you but haven't come back. It triggers on Placed Order with a delay based on your actual repurchase data.

Why it matters: There's a window between "lapsed" and "dead." The winback flow lives in that gap — it's your last real shot at bringing someone back before you're spending money emailing someone who will never buy again.

Our approach:

• Email 1: "We miss you" + new arrivals (don't lead with a discount — lead with what's new)
• Email 2: Offer open + shipping/return policy reminder (now introduce the incentive)
• Email 3: Offer close + reviews + customer support angle (urgency + social proof + helpfulness)
• Flow filter exits anyone who purchases

On timing: Don't use Klaviyo's arbitrary 180-day default. Use your actual repurchase data from your order history. Rule of thumb: start the winback at roughly 1.5x the average days between purchases. If your average customer reorders every 50 days, start your winback around 50-80 days — not 180. Waiting 180 days when your natural cycle is 50 means you've already lost most of them. One thing to watch: subscription products can drag down your medians, so use the average, not the median, for this calculation.

Winback Flow Deep-Dive — Full setup guide with timing strategy and how winback connects to sunset.

Automated List Hygiene — The sunset side: what happens to people who don't respond to winback.

Additional Flows That Drive Retention

Once your core five are running, these flows add another layer of revenue and list health. They're not critical on day one, but they matter as you scale.

• Review Request (2-4 emails): Triggers on Fulfilled Order — they need to actually receive and use the product first. Delay it long enough to clear your post-purchase flow. Reviews feed your other flows (cart abandonment, browse abandonment, welcome), so this flow fuels the whole system.
• Sunset / Non-Purchasers (1 email): The cleanup flow. One email: re-engage or we unsubscribe you. This protects your deliverability — dead subscribers tank your sender reputation, which hurts delivery to everyone else. Automated List Hygiene
• Cross-Sell / Upsell (3 emails): Triggers on Fulfilled Order after your post-purchase and review flows complete. The 1x-to-2x buyer jump is the biggest loyalty inflection point. Use actual purchase path data to recommend what similar customers bought next, not guesses. Predictive Flows from Purchase Paths
• Back in Stock (2 emails): Triggers when a customer signs up for a back-in-stock notification (requires custom Shopify code). These people already told you they want the product. High urgency, direct messaging.
• Replenishment (3 emails): For consumable products only. Triggers on Placed Order with a delay based on your actual repurchase timing. "Running low?" then "shipping takes X days, order now" then a final nudge. A quiet revenue machine for brands with products people use up and rebuy.

How Flows Work Together — The Full Customer Journey

Individual flows are useful. A connected flow system is where the real revenue lives:

Each flow handles one stage of the customer lifecycle. Filters prevent overlap — someone who adds to cart exits browse abandonment. Someone who checks out exits cart abandonment. Someone who purchases exits everything in the abandonment funnel. The system is designed so that each customer is always in the most relevant flow for their current behavior.

The High-Ticket Consideration Window

This is where the full system really shows its value. Take that $200 jacket example from the intro:

1. Customer sees your campaign email featuring the jacket
2. They click through, browse the product page, leave → Browse abandonment fires
3. They come back, add to cart, get interrupted → Cart abandonment fires
4. They come back again, start checkout, second-guess the price → Checkout abandonment fires
5. They finally purchase 2-3 weeks later → Post-purchase fires
6. Two weeks after delivery → Review request fires
7. A month later → Cross-sell fires with what similar customers bought
8. Five months of silence → Winback fires

That single customer hit seven automated touchpoints. The campaign opened the door. The flows did everything else.

Priority Build Order

You can't build all of this at once. Here's the order that matters:

Phase 1 — Revenue now:

• Welcome Flow + Abandoned Cart/Checkout
• These two alone can represent 60-70% of your total flow revenue

Phase 2 — Retention layer:

• Post-Purchase + Browse Abandonment
• Turns one-time buyers into repeat customers, catches mid-funnel browsers

Phase 3 — List health:

• Winback + Sunset
• Re-engages lapsed customers, cleans dead weight from your list

Phase 4 — Optimization:

• Review Request, Cross-Sell, Back in Stock, Replenishment, everything else
• Incremental gains on top of a solid foundation

We typically see a 10-20% revenue lift (15% on average) just from fixing broken or incomplete flow setups — before any new flows are even built.

Flow Visualizer Tool — See how your existing flows connect and where the gaps are.

Common Mistakes

These aren't hypothetical. We see every single one of these in real accounts, regularly.

Confusing Abandoned Cart with Abandoned Checkout

This is the most common one. A brand says they have an "abandoned cart flow" but when we look at it, it's triggered on Started Checkout. That means everyone who added to cart but never made it to the checkout page — a massive segment — gets nothing. Klaviyo's default template does this. If you set up your flow from a Klaviyo template and never changed the trigger, you probably only have abandoned checkout.

OR vs. AND in Exclusion Filters

This one is subtle and we see it constantly. A brand's browse abandonment flow had filters set to exclude people who added to cart OR started checkout OR placed an order. Sounds right, doesn't it? It's not.

When you use OR, the filter passes anyone who meets any of the conditions. So if someone added to cart AND viewed a product, they pass the browse filter because they met the "has not started checkout" condition — even though they should be in the cart abandonment flow instead. They end up getting both flows.

The fix: every time your filter uses "zero times" — has not placed order, has not started checkout, has not added to cart — it always needs to be AND. AND means they have to meet all the exclusion criteria to pass through. This is the number one filter logic mistake we fix in audits, and even I've tripped myself up on it.

Not Enough Emails in Flows

A welcome flow with 1-2 emails. A cart abandonment flow with one reminder. This is leaving money on the table. Your highest-engagement moments deserve multiple touchpoints with different angles — brand story, social proof, objection handling, urgency. One email can't do all of that.

Unnecessary Conditional Splits

We audit accounts where every single email in a flow has a "has not placed order" conditional split before it. The flow filter already handles this — if someone purchases, the flow filter exits them from the entire sequence. Adding redundant splits at every step clutters the flow, makes it harder to maintain, and doesn't actually change behavior. Save conditional splits for things that actually need different content paths, like the first-time vs. repeat buyer split in post-purchase.

Missing Flow Filters Entirely

We've seen cart abandonment flows with no "has not placed order" filter. Meaning someone adds to cart, buys the product ten minutes later, and still gets a "you left something in your cart" email the next day. This is how you train customers to ignore your emails. Every flow needs filters that exit people when they take the desired action.

Flow Quick Reference

If you're building these yourself, here's the cheat sheet — triggers, filters, timing, and sequences for every core flow.

Flow Builder Tool — Build these out with pre-loaded templates and trigger logic.

What to Do Next

If you're starting from scratch, follow the priority build order:

1. Welcome + Abandoned Cart/Checkout — revenue now
2. Post-Purchase + Browse Abandonment — retention layer
3. Winback + Sunset — list health
4. Everything else — optimization on a solid base

If you already have flows running, audit them. Check your triggers (cart vs. checkout), check your filters (are they using AND for zero-times exclusions?), check your email count (are you actually using the engagement window?), and check your timing (is it based on data or a guess?).

Tools to help:

• Flow Builder Tool — Plan your full flow architecture before you build
• Flow Visualizer Tool — See how your existing flows connect and where the gaps are