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If you're running an ecommerce brand and you haven't set up your Klaviyo flows yet, you're leaving money on the table every single day. Flows are automated email sequences that trigger based on customer behavior - they run in the background, nurture your list, and drive revenue without you lifting a finger after setup.
This guide walks you through exactly how to set up Klaviyo flows from scratch, what each flow should say, and the mistakes most brands make along the way.
What Are Klaviyo Flows?
Klaviyo flows are automated email (and SMS) sequences triggered by specific actions - someone subscribes to your list, browses a product, abandons their cart, or places an order. Unlike campaigns (one-time sends), flows work 24/7 and are typically responsible for 30-50% of a brand's total email revenue.
The most important flows for any ecommerce brand are:
- Welcome series
- Abandoned cart
- Browse abandonment
- Post-purchase
- Winback
If you have those five running and dialed in, you have a real retention engine.
Step 1: Connect Your Store to Klaviyo
Before you build anything, your Klaviyo account needs to be connected to your Shopify store (or whatever platform you're on). Go to Integrations in Klaviyo and find your platform. For Shopify, the integration is native - it syncs your product catalog, order history, and customer data automatically.
Once connected, Klaviyo starts tracking on-site behavior: page views, product views, collections viewed, checkout started, order placed. All of that becomes the data your flows run on.
Step 2: Set Up Your Welcome Series
Your welcome flow is the most important flow you'll build. It's the first impression - and it sets the tone for the entire customer relationship.
Trigger: Someone subscribes to your list (list trigger, not segment)
Recommended structure:
- Email 1 (send immediately): Welcome + deliver the incentive if you offered one. Keep it warm, on-brand, short.
- Email 2 (send 1 day later): Brand story. Why you exist, what you stand for. This is where you build trust.
- Email 3 (send 2-3 days later): Social proof. Reviews, UGC, bestsellers. Give them a reason to buy.
- Email 4 (send 4-5 days later): Final nudge. Last chance for the discount if applicable, or a strong CTA to shop.
What most brands get wrong: They send one generic "thanks for signing up" email and call it a day. A 4-email welcome series consistently outperforms a single email by 2-3x in revenue per recipient.
Step 3: Build Your Abandoned Cart Flow
Abandoned cart is the highest-converting flow in Klaviyo. Someone added to cart, got close, and left. They already showed intent - your job is to bring them back.
Trigger: Started checkout (metric trigger)
Recommended structure:
- Email 1 (send 1 hour after abandonment): Simple reminder. Show the cart, make it easy to return.
- Email 2 (send 24 hours later): Address objections. Answer common hesitations - shipping, returns, quality.
- Email 3 (send 48-72 hours later): Urgency or offer. Low stock notice, expiring discount, or a final push.
Key detail: Use Klaviyo's dynamic product blocks to pull in the exact items they left behind. This personalization alone lifts click rates significantly.
Step 4: Set Up Browse Abandonment
Browse abandonment catches people earlier in the funnel - they looked at a product but never added to cart. Lower intent than cart abandonment, but there's a lot of volume here.
Trigger: Viewed product (metric trigger) - add a time delay and filter out anyone who already started checkout or purchased
Recommended structure:
- Email 1 (send 1-4 hours after browse): "Still thinking about it?" Pull in the product they viewed. Keep it short.
- Email 2 (send 24 hours later): Social proof specific to that product or category. Reviews, bestseller callout.
Flow filter to add: Exclude anyone who placed an order in the last 30 days or is already in your abandoned cart flow. You don't want to double-message the same person.
Step 5: Build Your Post-Purchase Flow
Most brands ignore post-purchase and it's a huge miss. Someone just gave you money - that's the highest-trust moment in the entire relationship. Use it.
Trigger: Placed order (metric trigger)
Recommended structure:
- Email 1 (send immediately): Order confirmation + thank you. Warm, human, brand-forward.
- Email 2 (send 3-5 days later): What to expect. Shipping info, how to use the product, what's coming.
- Email 3 (send 7-14 days after delivery): Review request. Time it based on your estimated delivery window.
- Email 4 (send 21-30 days later): Cross-sell or replenishment. Recommend complementary products based on what they bought.
Post-purchase flows are one of the best places to increase LTV without spending more on acquisition.
Step 6: Set Up a Winback Flow
Winback flows target customers who haven't purchased in a while. They're cheaper to re-engage than acquiring new customers, and Klaviyo makes it easy to identify them.
Trigger: Segment-based - customers who purchased at least once but haven't ordered in 90-120 days
Recommended structure:
- Email 1: "We miss you" - soft, no hard sell. Remind them what you offer.
- Email 2 (send 5-7 days later): Incentive. Give them a reason to come back.
- Email 3 (send 7 days after Email 2): Last chance framing. If they don't engage here, suppress them from future sends to protect deliverability.
Step 7: Smart Flow Filters to Add Across Everything
A few universal filters that should be on most flows:
- Suppress unengaged contacts - exclude anyone who hasn't opened or clicked in 90+ days (protects deliverability)
- Suppress recent purchasers - don't send cart abandonment to someone who bought in the last 7 days
- One flow at a time - use flow filters to prevent someone from being in two flows simultaneously when it doesn't make sense
How Long Does This Take to Set Up?
If you're building these from scratch with no existing copy or templates, expect 20-40 hours of real work to do it properly - writing, designing, testing, and QA-ing across flows. Most brands either rush it (bad copy, wrong triggers) or never finish it at all.
That's exactly why done-for-you services exist. At Sendly, we build out all 24 Klaviyo flows for ecommerce brands in 14-21 days - strategy, copy, design, and setup included. Brands like Body Glove, Dakine, and Dr. Brandt have gone through our process.
If you'd rather have it done right without spending weeks on it, book a free strategy call and we'll walk through what your account needs.
Final Thoughts
Klaviyo flows aren't optional for serious ecommerce brands - they're the foundation of your retention stack. A well-built flow library compounds over time: more customers, more touchpoints, more revenue without more ad spend.
Start with the welcome series and abandoned cart. Get those right. Then layer in the rest. If you have all five flows live and properly configured, you're ahead of most brands already.
Sendly is a done-for-you email and SMS marketing agency for ecommerce brands. We specialize in Klaviyo and Postscript, and we've helped 80+ brands generate $30M+ through retention marketing.
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