Klaviyo flows send because the customer did something. Campaigns send because it's Tuesday. The case for flows is simple: they run every hour of every day without anyone writing a brief, and they target the exact moment a customer's intent changed. Bain & Company's retention research found that small lifts in retention compound into outsized profit gains, a 5% retention improvement raising profits by 25% or more, and flows are the cheapest retention machinery available. Litmus pegs email's return at roughly 36 to 1, and flows are the highest-yield slice of that.
Here are the eight, in build order. Build order matters because each flow has different revenue density.
| # | Flow | Trigger | First send | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome series | Joined list, hasn't purchased | Minutes | 3 to 5 emails over 10 days |
| 2 | Abandoned checkout | Started checkout, didn't finish | Under 1 hour | 2 emails |
| 3 | Abandoned cart | Added to cart, didn't check out | 1 to 4 hours | 3 emails |
| 4 | Browse abandonment | Viewed product, didn't cart | 24 hours | 1 to 2 emails |
| 5 | Post-purchase (first order) | Placed first order | On delivery confirmation or day 3 | 3 to 4 emails |
| 6 | Post-purchase (repeat) | Placed second-plus order | Day 3 | 1 to 2 emails |
| 7 | Win-back | No purchase in X days | At your lapse point | 2 to 3 emails |
| 8 | Sunset | No opens or clicks in 90 to 180 days | Once | 1 to 2 emails, then suppress |
1. Welcome. Highest open rates you will ever see, because the subscriber just asked to hear from you. Email one delivers whatever you promised at signup and sets expectations. Emails two to four carry your story, your best sellers and your answers to first-purchase objections. Don't lead with discount unless discount is your brand.
2 and 3. Checkout and cart abandonment. Separate flows, different intent levels. Full treatment in the abandoned cart recovery guide.
4. Browse abandonment. Soft touch. One email showing the product and a couple of alternatives. This flow reads as creepy fastest, so keep frequency caps tight.
5. Post-purchase, first order. The most under-built flow in small ecommerce. The window between first and second purchase decides your repeat rate, and the repeat rate drives lifetime value. Sequence: delivery and care content first, review request after the product has been used, cross-sell last. Selling again before the parcel arrives is how you earn spam complaints.
6. Post-purchase, repeat. Shorter and warmer. These customers don't need convincing, they need acknowledging. A simple thank-you with early access or a loyalty nudge outperforms a hard cross-sell.
7. Win-back. Triggered at your lapse point, which is a number you calculate from your own order gaps, not a default. Covered fully in the win-back guide.
8. Sunset. The unglamorous one that protects everything else. Continuing to email people who never engage drags your sender reputation down for the whole list. Ask once if they want to stay, then suppress. Deliverability is a system, and this flow is its drain.
A common pattern in mature accounts is flows producing a large minority of total email revenue from a small minority of total sends. That ratio is the point: high revenue per send, zero marginal effort. Campaigns still matter for launches, promotions and stories. But if your flow revenue share is small, the fix is almost never more campaigns.
Welcome series, then checkout abandonment, then cart abandonment. Highest intent, highest volume, fastest payback.
The eight here cover the lifecycle. A store with limited time gets most of the value from the first five.
Flows are triggered by customer behaviour and run automatically. Campaigns are scheduled sends to a segment. Flows typically earn far more per send.
Qwrki runs lifecycle email as part of the operating layer, not as a one-off setup. We build the eight flows in order, tune them against revenue per recipient, and keep them maintained alongside the rest of retention delivery. Book a call and we'll start with a read of your current flow revenue share and where the gaps are.
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