Tuesday afternoon, the week after a big Meta push. The store pulled 9,000 sessions and a few hundred new email signups. The founder opens Klaviyo to see what happened to all those people.
The welcome flow is one email, built in 2023, with a 10% code that expired in the spring. The abandoned checkout flow sends a single message four hours later. There’s no browse abandonment, no post-purchase series, nothing for the customer who bought once and never came back. Every week, paid traffic fills a bucket with a hole in the bottom.
This guide is the build list we use for Shopify and DTC brands on Klaviyo: which flows to build first, how to time them, how to tell whether each one is earning its keep, and the deliverability and SMS consent rules that can quietly shut the whole thing off. If you’re starting from zero, our email marketing basics post covers list building and campaign habits. This one is about automation that sells.
Why flows come before campaigns
Campaigns are the emails you send to a list on a schedule. Flows are the automated messages triggered by what a person does: signs up, views a product, starts checkout, buys, goes quiet. Flows reach people at the moment they’re paying attention, which is why they earn so much more per message.
The numbers back that up. Klaviyo’s 2026 email benchmarks, drawn from more than 183,000 Klaviyo customers, put average flow click rates at 5.58% against 1.69% for campaigns, and flow revenue per recipient at nearly 18 times campaign revenue per recipient. On text messages, Klaviyo’s 2026 SMS benchmarks show flows averaging a 9.65% click rate and a 1.9% order rate, against 5.6% and 0.27% for SMS campaigns, with flows earning roughly eight times the revenue per recipient.
Campaigns still matter for launches, restocks and sales. But a store with six good flows and a sensible campaign calendar beats a store with daily campaigns and a broken welcome series almost every time.
Revenue per recipient: the one number to manage flows by
Open rates are close to useless now. Apple Mail Privacy Protection preloads tracking pixels, which, per Klaviyo’s help page on Apple privacy opens, artificially inflates open rates; Klaviyo flags those events with an Apple Privacy Open property you can filter on. Clicks are better. Revenue per recipient (RPR) is best.
| Metric | Formula |
|---|---|
| Revenue per recipient | Attributed revenue ÷ recipients (delivered) |
| Monthly flow revenue | Monthly people entering the flow × RPR |
| Placed order rate | Orders ÷ recipients |
| Email share of revenue | Email and SMS attributed revenue ÷ total store revenue |
A worked example. Klaviyo’s 2026 abandoned cart benchmark report put average abandoned cart email RPR at $6.77, with the top 10% at $13.70. If 1,500 shoppers a month enter your abandoned checkout flow, the average flow earns about $10,155 a month and a top-10% flow about $20,550. That gap, roughly $10,000 a month from one flow, is why we rebuild these before touching anything else.
Two cautions on the math. Klaviyo’s default attribution credits an order to an email opened or clicked within five days, and to a text clicked within five days, per Klaviyo’s attribution settings. Some of those buyers would have purchased anyway. For big flows, hold out 10% of entrants with a random split for a few weeks and compare order rates. And watch total store revenue, not only Klaviyo’s attributed number.
The flow build order for a new store
If you’re launching a Shopify store or rebuilding a neglected Klaviyo account, build in this order. Each step is ranked by how much money it touches and how quickly it pays.
| Flow | Klaviyo trigger | Messages and timing (our starting point) | Key filters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Added to list (from your sign-up form) | 3 to 5 emails over 7 to 10 days; 1 to 2 texts for SMS subscribers | Placed Order zero times since starting flow (or branch buyers out) |
| Abandoned checkout | Started Checkout | Email at 1 hour, 24 hours, 72 hours; text at 30 to 60 minutes | Placed Order zero times since starting flow |
| Abandoned cart | Added to Cart | Email at 2 to 4 hours and 24 hours | No Started Checkout or order since starting flow |
| Browse abandonment | Viewed Product | 1 to 2 emails, first at least 1 hour later | No order, checkout or cart since starting; not in flow in last 30 days |
| Post-purchase | Placed Order | Thank-you, how-to, review ask, cross-sell over 2 to 4 weeks | Split first-time and repeat buyers |
| Replenishment | Placed Order (or predicted next order date) | 1 to 2 messages before the product runs out | Product purchased; no order since |
| Winback | Date-based: days since last order | 2 to 3 emails | No order since entering |
| Sunset | Klaviyo’s Sunset segment | Up to 3 emails, then mark unengaged | No opens or clicks since starting flow |
Timings and message counts are where we start in accounts we run. Test from there.
Welcome, browse, cart and checkout: catching the intent
Welcome. The first email goes immediately and delivers whatever the form promised. The rest should tell the brand story, show the best sellers, answer the objections you hear in customer service (sizing, ingredients, shipping times, returns) and show reviews. Whether to lead with a discount depends on your margins. A 10% code trains people to wait for codes; a free-shipping threshold or a gift with first order often converts as well without cheapening the product. Split buyers out of the series the moment they purchase.
Browse abandonment. Per Klaviyo’s browse abandonment guide, this flow triggers on the Viewed Product metric, should wait at least an hour, and should exclude anyone who has ordered, started checkout or been in the flow in the last 30 days. Klaviyo also recommends keeping it a lighter touch than cart emails, since viewing is weaker intent. One or two emails showing the product, its reviews and two related items is plenty.
Abandoned cart vs. abandoned checkout. These are separate flows with separate triggers. Started Checkout means the person reached Shopify’s checkout and usually gave an email, which makes it the stronger signal and the first flow to build. Added to Cart catches people earlier and needs Klaviyo’s onsite tracking to identify them. Use flow filters so nobody gets both. If Klaviyo is running checkout recovery, turn off Shopify’s own abandoned checkout email so customers don’t get two.
What goes in the messages: the exact products with images and price, a clear button back to the cart, reviews, and answers to the reason people abandon (shipping cost, delivery date, returns). Save any incentive for the last message, and only for first-time buyers. Repeat customers who learn the third email has a code will wait for the third email.
Post-purchase, replenishment and winback: the repeat-order engine
Post-purchase. The first order is where most DTC brands lose money and the second order is where they make it. A good post-purchase series sets expectations (shipping, what’s in the box), teaches people to use the product so they don’t return it, asks for a review once it has arrived and been used, and only then suggests what to buy next. Split first-time buyers from repeat buyers. A loyal customer on her fifth order doesn’t need the brand story again.
Replenishment. For consumables like supplements, coffee, skincare or pet food, this is often the most profitable flow in the account. Klaviyo’s predictive analytics can estimate each customer’s expected date of next order, but per Klaviyo’s predictive analytics requirements, the account needs at least 500 customers who have placed orders, at least 180 days of order history with orders in the last 30 days, and some customers with three or more orders. Until you hit that, use a fixed delay based on the product: if a bag lasts 30 days, send the reminder around day 24 or 25, and a second one at day 30 if they haven’t reordered.
Winback. Time it from your real repurchase cycle, not a template. Pull the median days between first and second orders from Shopify, then trigger winback at roughly one and a half to two times that number. A brand whose customers reorder every 45 days might start winback at day 75. Lead with what’s new; hold the bigger offer for the last email.
Subscription brands should coordinate all of this with their subscription app so subscribers don’t get “running low?” emails for a box that ships Tuesday.
Sunset flows and list hygiene
Mailing people who never open costs more than the platform fee. Gmail and Yahoo watch how recipients respond, and a list full of dead addresses drags down inbox placement for everyone else.
Klaviyo’s prebuilt Sunset (Email) segment, as described in Klaviyo’s sunset flow guide, includes profiles created at least 180 days ago that received at least five emails in the last 72 weeks and have no recorded opens, clicks, site activity, product views, checkouts or orders. The guide recommends no more than three emails in the flow, a short wait after the last one, and a property update that sets Unengaged to true. Suppression isn’t automatic: you build a segment of Unengaged profiles and suppress its current members yourself.
Because of Apple’s privacy opens, we also build engaged segments with the filter “Apple Privacy Open is false,” which Klaviyo itself recommends, so a pixel prefetch doesn’t count as a real person reading.
Deliverability: what Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft now require
In October 2023, Google announced that starting in February 2024, anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail addresses would have to authenticate their email, offer one-click unsubscribe and process unsubscribes within two days, per Google’s October 2023 announcement. Yahoo’s sender best practices sets matching rules: SPF and DKIM, a DMARC policy of at least p=none that passes, alignment with the From domain, a List-Unsubscribe header with one-click support, unsubscribes honored within two days, and a spam complaint rate kept below 0.3%.
Enforcement has tightened since. Red Sift reported that starting in November 2025, Gmail ramped up enforcement on non-compliant traffic with temporary rate limits and outright rejections, and recommended keeping the user-reported spam rate below 0.1% and never letting it reach 0.3%. Gmail treats bulk sender status as permanent once you cross 5,000 a day. Microsoft joined in May 2025 for domains sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Outlook.com, with SPF, DKIM, DMARC at p=none or stronger and alignment, and said it would reject non-compliant bulk mail, per Spam Resource.
In Klaviyo, that means setting up a branded sending domain instead of sending on Klaviyo’s shared domain, publishing a DMARC record with your DNS provider, and checking that the one-click unsubscribe header is on. Then watch spam complaints in Google Postmaster Tools. A store that grew its list with a giveaway is the classic case of a spam rate that creeps up without anyone noticing.
SMS consent: TCPA, Texas SB 140 and quiet hours
SMS earns well, and it carries legal risk email doesn’t. We wrote a full guide to Texas SMS marketing rules; here’s the short version for eCommerce brands.
Consent. FCC rules under the TCPA call for prior express written consent for marketing texts sent with automated systems, and the consent can’t be a condition of purchase. A February 2026 Fifth Circuit decision (the circuit that covers Texas) held that the statute itself doesn’t require the consent to be written for telemarketing calls, per Holland & Knight’s summary. We wouldn’t build a text program on that: carriers and platforms still require documented opt-in. That’s why Klaviyo’s SMS forms carry compliance language and a separate SMS opt-in from email. Keep the record of when and where each number opted in.
Quiet hours. 47 CFR 64.1200 bars telephone solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the recipient’s local time. Some states are stricter. Klaviyo’s quiet hours guide explains that flows hold messages until quiet hours end, using the profile’s time zone or, in the U.S. and Canada, the phone’s area code. Klaviyo also offers state-level quiet hours, which are the default for new customers, and caps promotional texts at three per rolling 24 hours for recipients in Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon and Maryland, per Klaviyo’s state-aware quiet hours.
Texas. SB 140 brought text messages under the state’s telephone solicitation law in September 2025, with a registration scheme that carries a $200 fee and a $10,000 security deposit. After a November 2025 settlement, the Texas Secretary of State’s FAQ now says a business sending texts with the consumer’s prior consent isn’t required to register. National Law Review still flags cold texting and purchased lists as squarely covered, notes that private lawsuits under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act remain possible, and recommends applying Texas calling hours (9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 9 p.m. Sunday) to texts as a precaution. We schedule Texas sends inside those hours.
This is our reading as marketers, not legal advice. If you text customers in many states, have counsel review your opt-in language once and your sending rules once a year.
Growing the list: popups that work without annoying people
Every flow above depends on list size, and most list growth comes from the popup. Klaviyo’s sign-up form guide calls a 3% submit rate a low bar, puts standard popups in a 3% to 8% range, and says exit-intent and phone-number-only forms run 10% to 13%. It recommends against firing the form on page load and suggests something like a five-second delay combined with 20% scroll depth.
What we set up for most stores:
- A two-step form: email first, then a second step asking for a phone number with SMS consent. People who give one often give the other.
- A different form for mobile and desktop, since most DTC traffic is mobile and a desktop-sized popup is the fastest way to lose it.
- A teaser tab, so someone who closes the form can still find it.
- A clear exchange: first-order offer, early access, a quiz result or a sample. “Join our newsletter” isn’t an offer.
- Paid traffic in mind. If you’re sending Meta traffic to a landing page, the form timing and offer should match the ad. Our Meta creative testing system pairs with this.
Lists built around a launch can work extremely well when nurture is ready before the traffic arrives. For Equinox club launches, our team ran CRM, SMS and email nurture that turned waitlists into signed members, part of a program that produced 11,400 founding-member leads. The same principle applies to a product drop: build the flows first, then turn on the ads.
What to track, and a first 90 days
A monthly flow report needs only a handful of numbers per flow: recipients, click rate, placed order rate, RPR and total revenue, plus account-wide spam complaint rate, unsubscribe rate and list growth. Compare RPR month over month for each flow and against Klaviyo’s 2026 abandoned cart benchmark report and the other Klaviyo benchmarks cited above where they exist. Klaviyo doesn’t publish separate benchmarks for every flow type, so for welcome, post-purchase and winback, your own trend line is the benchmark.
Days 1 to 30. Authenticate the sending domain and set DMARC. Build or rebuild welcome and abandoned checkout. Launch the two-step popup. Turn off Shopify’s duplicate checkout email.
Days 31 to 60. Add abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post-purchase. Add SMS to welcome and checkout for consented subscribers, with quiet hours on. Set up the holdout split on checkout recovery.
Days 61 to 90. Build replenishment and winback from your real reorder timing. Launch the sunset flow and suppress the dead weight. Start A/B testing subject lines and offers in the highest-volume flows.
If you also run Google Shopping, our Shopify Shopping setup guide covers the paid side of the same funnel, and our eCommerce work shows how we tie it together. If you’d like a senior strategist to look at your store, your list and your goals and build a custom flow plan, get in touch.
Frequently asked questions
What Klaviyo flows should a new Shopify store build first?
Start with a welcome series and an abandoned checkout flow, because they reach the most people at the highest intent. Then add abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post-purchase. Replenishment and winback come next, timed from your real reorder cycle, and a sunset flow keeps the list clean. Authenticate your sending domain before any of it so the messages reach the inbox.
What is a good revenue per recipient for an abandoned cart flow?
Klaviyo’s 2026 abandoned cart benchmark report puts average email revenue per recipient at $6.77 and the top 10% at $13.70, with SMS at $4.48 and $8.69. Treat those as reference points, not targets, because price point and category change them a lot. Track your own RPR monthly and use a holdout group to check how much of that revenue the flow really created.
What are the Gmail and Yahoo bulk sender requirements?
Since February 2024, senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail must authenticate with SPF and DKIM, publish a DMARC policy of at least p=none, align with the From domain, offer one-click unsubscribe and honor it within two days. Yahoo has matching rules and a 0.3% spam complaint ceiling. Gmail tightened enforcement in November 2025, and Microsoft added similar rules for Outlook.com in May 2025.
Do I need to register in Texas to send marketing texts?
SB 140 brought text messages under Texas telephone solicitation law in September 2025. After a November 2025 settlement, the Texas Secretary of State’s FAQ says businesses that text consumers with prior consent aren’t required to register. Cold texting and purchased lists remain covered, and private lawsuits under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act are still possible. Keep consent records and ask your attorney about your situation.
How often should an eCommerce brand send SMS?
Most brands do well with flow texts plus two to six campaign texts a month, but frequency should follow results and unsubscribe rates. Respect quiet hours: federal rules bar solicitations before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time, and some states are stricter. Klaviyo caps promotional texts at three per 24 hours for Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon and Maryland recipients.
Sean Melton is the founder of First Byte, a digital marketing agency in The Woodlands, TX. A former global CMO of a $250M software company, he has spent his career inside the businesses he markets. His team runs paid social, search, CTV and creative for brands like Equinox, Kroger and Viceroy, and shares what works here.