The Klaviyo flows every Shopify brand needs first

Which Klaviyo flows should a Shopify brand build first?

Build the flows that catch people at the moments they are most likely to buy: a welcome series, abandoned checkout, abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post-purchase. Add replenishment if your products run out, then win-back and a sunset flow to keep the list healthy. Those eight flows cover the full customer journey, and in our experience they are the first place retention revenue comes from on a Shopify store.

A Klaviyo flow is an automated sequence of emails or texts that starts when a customer does something, or reaches a point in time, and runs for every customer who qualifies. Campaigns are the opposite: one send, to a list, on a date you choose. In the accounts we audit, it is common to find weekly campaigns running and flows half built, which is the wrong way round. Flows run every hour of every day without anyone pressing send.

What does each core flow do?

The table below is the order we build them in on a new account. The timings are starting points to test from, not rules. What matters most is that each flow has one job and that customers never receive two flows fighting over the same moment.

Klaviyo documents the setup for abandoned cart and browse abandonment flows. Both depend on Klaviyo's onsite tracking being installed correctly on your Shopify theme, which is the first thing to check if either flow looks quiet.

What is the difference between abandoned cart and abandoned checkout?

Abandoned checkout starts when someone enters the checkout and leaves without paying. Abandoned cart starts earlier, when someone adds a product to their cart and never reaches the checkout. The checkout group is smaller and much closer to buying, so it usually earns more per message. The cart group is larger and needs more persuasion.

Run both, but make sure they cannot overlap. The simplest way is a flow filter on the cart flow that removes anyone who has started a checkout since entering it. Without that filter, a customer can receive a cart reminder and a checkout reminder within the same hour, which reads as desperate and trains people to wait for a discount.

Why does replenishment matter so much for FMCG and supplement brands?

If your product runs out, the second order is the one that makes the first one profitable. A supplement tub, a pack of pouches or a skincare refill has a predictable life, and the customer will buy again from someone. A replenishment flow makes sure the reminder comes from you, a few days before they run out, rather than from a competitor's ad after they already have.

Set the timing from your own order data, not a guess. Look at how long customers who reorder a product actually take to do it, per product and per pack size, and send just before that point. A 30-day tub and a 90-day bundle need different flows. For fashion brands, which rarely have a natural reorder cycle, the same slot is better used for a post-purchase flow that recommends what goes with the item just bought.

Should every flow include a discount?

No. A discount in every flow teaches customers that leaving a cart is the fastest way to get money off, and it gives margin away to people who would have bought anyway. Start each flow with reminders, reviews, delivery details and answers to common questions. Test an offer only in the later messages, and only for the customers who have not responded to anything else.

Flow filters are where most of the control lives. Every flow should exclude anyone who has placed an order since it started, and most should exclude anyone who has entered the same flow recently. Beyond that, split high-value customers from first-time browsers where the numbers justify it, because the message that wins back a customer who has spent £500 with you is different from the one that nudges a first visit.

Email, SMS or WhatsApp?

Email should carry most flows, because it is cheap to send and has room for product, reviews and detail. SMS earns its cost on the moments where speed matters: the first abandoned checkout reminder, delivery updates, and back-in-stock alerts on products that sell out. WhatsApp is worth testing for brands with a younger or international audience, provided customers have opted in to receive marketing there.

Treat each channel as a separate consent. A customer who agreed to email has not agreed to texts, and the rules for both are stricter than many brands assume.

What are the UK rules on marketing emails and texts?

In the UK, marketing emails and texts fall under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). The default is that you need consent. The exception most ecommerce brands rely on is the soft opt-in, set out in the ICO's guidance on the soft opt-in. In summary, you can market to existing customers without separate consent only when all of these are true:

• You collected their contact details yourself, directly from them.
• You collected them during a sale, or during negotiations for a sale.
• You are only marketing your own similar products or services.
• You gave them a clear chance to opt out when you collected their details.
• You give them a simple way to opt out in every message you send.

Anyone who joined through a pop-up or a competition, without buying, needs to have given clear consent. Browse and cart flows only work where the customer is already identified and has agreed to hear from you, so a clean sign-up flow matters as much as the flows themselves. This is a summary rather than legal advice; if your list has a mixed history, check it with someone qualified before you build on it.

How do you know whether your flows are working?

Klaviyo credits an order to the last flow message a customer opened or clicked, within the attribution window and model set in your account (Klaviyo Help Center). Apple Mail's privacy protection inflates opens, so many brands count clicks only. That number is useful for comparing flows with each other, but it overstates what the flows add, because some of those customers were going to buy regardless. Read it alongside these:

• Revenue per recipient for each flow, compared month on month rather than against another brand's benchmark.
• Repeat purchase rate and the time between first and second order, from Shopify rather than Klaviyo.
• A holdout test on your biggest flows, where a small share of customers receive nothing, to see what the flow truly adds.
• List health: deliverability, unsubscribe and spam complaint rates, because a flow that burns the list costs more than it earns.

Retention figures should also sit next to paid media in the same report. If retention is doing its job, the blended return on your ad spend improves over time, because more of each month's revenue comes from customers you have already paid to acquire.

Where RedPxl fits

As a Klaviyo agency, our retention team builds and runs Klaviyo email, SMS and WhatsApp for ecommerce brands, planned alongside the paid media, site and creative work rather than on its own. We usually start with an audit of the flows you already have, fix tracking and filters, then rebuild in the order above.

If you would like a second opinion on your Klaviyo account, tell us what you are running and we will show you where the gaps are.