The 7 Klaviyo Flows Every E-commerce Brand Needs (In the Order to Build Them)

Klaviyo flows are automated email sequences triggered by what a customer actually does: joins your list, abandons a cart, buys for the first time, goes quiet. Campaigns you have to send; flows run around the clock once they're built. For a healthy DTC brand, email should drive 25–40% of total revenue, and flows are usually the bigger half of that number.

The problem is that most accounts run a default welcome email and a single abandoned cart reminder, both using stock templates, and call retention done. Here are the seven flows worth building, in the order we build them for clients.

1. Welcome flow

The Klaviyo welcome flow is consistently the highest revenue-per-recipient email you will ever send. Someone just traded their email for a discount or early access — they are as warm as they will ever be. Three to five emails: deliver the signup offer immediately, tell the brand story, handle the big objection, show social proof, and close with urgency on the offer's expiry. Split buyers out so they stop getting "first purchase" pressure after they've purchased.

2. Abandoned cart flow

The classic for a reason: these are people who picked a product and stopped at the finish line. Build it with three sends — roughly one hour, 24 hours, and 48–72 hours after abandonment. Show the exact cart contents, answer the questions that stall checkouts (shipping cost, returns, sizing), and save any discount for the final email so you're not training full-price buyers to abandon on purpose. In Klaviyo, set up both checkout-started and added-to-cart triggers; they catch different shoppers.

3. Browse abandonment flow

One step up the funnel: they viewed a product but never carted it. Intent is lower, so keep it light — one or two emails, more "still thinking about this?" than "BUY NOW." Feature the viewed product, add a couple of bestsellers, and let the product photography do the selling. Volume is high here, so even a modest conversion rate adds up.

4. Post-purchase flow

The order confirmation is a receipt, not a relationship. A Klaviyo post-purchase flow thanks the customer like a human, sets delivery expectations, teaches them how to get the most from the product, asks for the review once the product has arrived, and introduces the logical next purchase. First-time buyers and repeat customers get different branches — the first needs reassurance, the second needs a reason to come back again.

5. Win-back flow

A Klaviyo winback flow targets customers who bought but have gone quiet past your typical reorder window. Lead with what's new since they left, remind them why they bought in the first place, and escalate to your strongest offer only in the last email. Time the trigger off your real purchase-cycle data, not a generic 90 days.

6. Sunset flow

A sunset flow in Klaviyo is the goodbye sequence for subscribers who have ignored everything for months. One or two "do you still want these?" emails, and if nobody clicks, they get suppressed. It feels wrong to delete subscribers; it's the opposite. Mailing people who never open tells Gmail you send mail nobody wants, which drags your whole domain into the Promotions tab or worse. The sunset flow is a deliverability flow disguised as an email flow — it protects the revenue every other flow produces.

7. Back in stock & replenishment

Two smaller flows that print money in the right catalog. Back-in-stock alerts turn stockouts into launch moments — Klaviyo's native button captures the demand and emails it automatically on restock. Replenishment flows suit anything consumable: trigger a reminder just before the product typically runs out, and reordering becomes the path of least resistance.

Why this order

Build in the order of intent. Welcome and abandoned cart sit closest to the money, so they pay for everything else first. Browse abandonment and post-purchase widen the engine. Win-back, sunset, and the inventory flows compound over time. A brand that ships the first four properly usually sees flow revenue move within the first month — then the rest is optimization: subject lines, send timing, offer tests, and smarter segmentation.

If your account is running on defaults, that's fixable fast. We build exactly this architecture for e-commerce brands — see how our Klaviyo agency service works, or book a call and we'll audit what your current flows are actually earning.