To get to the point (and maybe, attracting some controversy over here on my blog): I love an automated email.
Not because I particularly enjoy receiving 47 emails from the same company after looking at one pair of mountain bike shoes online (been there, done that), but because when email automation is done well, it takes a lot of the marketing work off of an already-too-busy e-commerce business’ plate without someone having to remember to send an email every Tuesday.
Thus far, Klaviyo flows have been my favorite email automation platform.
Flows are automated emails (or series of emails) that are triggered by something a customer does on-site. This can be signing up for an email list, adding something to their cart, making a purchase, etc.
Unlike a regular email campaign, where you manually send to a list or segment, flows are always running. You set them up once, and your email platform does the rest.
If you have a Shopify store and are either setting up Klaviyo for the first time or staring at the Flows tab wondering what you actually need, these are the flows I recommend starting with:
But First… Why Klaviyo?
There are a lot of email marketing platforms out there, so why do I keep talking about Klaviyo? Klaviyo is the platform I find myself recommending most often to e-commerce businesses, particularly businesses using Shopify.
This is mostly because Klaviyo is one of the most sophisticated platforms I’ve used for ecommerce businesses.
When you connect Shopify and Klaviyo, Klaviyo uses information about what customers are actually doing on your store to inform your email marketing. That includes things like signing up for emails, viewing products, adding products to their cart, starting checkout, placing orders, waiting for products to come back in stock, etc.
That data is what ends up making flows so useful.
So, instead of sending the same email to everyone on your list, you can send an email because someone did (or didn't do) something specific, making the email more relevant to them.
1. Welcome Flow
If someone voluntarily gives an e-commerce business their email address in this day and age, they deserve a proper hello.
A welcome flow is triggered when someone joins your email list, and is your opportunity to introduce your business before regular marketing emails start appearing in their inbox.
I generally recommend making this more than a generic, “welcome to our email list!”
Questions like, “Who are you? Why did you start the business? What makes your products different?” can help guide you in the right direction when it comes to writing welcome sequence copy.
This is especially useful for smaller brands where the story and people behind the company are part of why someone might choose to buy from you over bigger businesses with less personality.
Should You Offer a Welcome Discount?
Discounts can be a great incentive for getting someone to sign up for your email list, but I don't think every brand needs to immediately offer 10–15% off just because that's what e-commerce stores tend to do. You can definitely create a welcome flow without one, if offering a discount isn’t part of your business model, or doesn’t work with your margins.
If you do offer a discount, I like using the rest of the flow to do more than repeatedly announce a coupon code. Introduce the brand, highlight bestsellers, answer common questions, share reviews, and overall, give subscribers a reason to not unsubscribe around after they've used their discount.
2. Back-in-Stock Flow
This might be my favorite Klaviyo flow, because of the features Klaviyo offers.
When a product sells out, Klaviyo can add a “Notify Me When Available” button directly to your product page. Depending on your setup, this can appear right where the Add to Cart button is, which makes the experience feel like a natural part of the store rather than a completely separate email signup form. When you restock the product, Klaviyo automatically lets them know– a feature that customers usually appreciate!
Back-in-stock signups also tell businesses something about demand, because if 50 people are waiting for one product and three people are waiting for another, that's useful information to have when you're thinking about inventory and future product planning.
3. Abandoned Cart Flow
In its simplest terms, an abandoned cart flow gives shoppers a reminder that they’ve left something in their cart.
With Shopify and Klaviyo, you can trigger automations based on shopping behavior and dynamically include information about the products someone was considering.
I usually recommend keeping these emails simple, because the goal isn't to convince someone who doesn't want the product that they need it, but to make it easy for someone who was interested to come back and finish what they started.
You can also use later emails in the flow to address reasons someone might not have purchased, like shipping questions, return policies, sizing information, etc.
4. Upsell / Cross-Sell Flow
A customer purchasing from you one time shouldn't necessarily be the end of your email marketing relationship with them.
Depending on what you sell, a post-purchase upsell or cross-sell flow introduces customers to products that make sense based on what they already bought.
For example, if someone buys a coffee maker, showing them coffee filters or your favorite coffee beans makes sense.
On the other hand, If someone buys a coffee maker and receives six emails over the next week asking them to buy another coffee maker, you’ve probably gained an unsubscriber.
The nice thing about Klaviyo is that you can use purchase information to create more thoughtful automations that benefit your customers. Different products can lead to different recommendations, and you can add timing so that customers receive those recommendations when they're actually useful, like after their coffee filters are likely to have run out.
There are many, many more Klaviyo flows you can build in addition to the basic flows recommended above.
But for most Shopify businesses getting started with Klaviyo, three or four thoughtful, well-designed flows that are properly integrated with the store are more beneficial than 14 half-finished automations sending customers emails that nobody remembers setting up. Once those three or four are working, you can start getting fancy.
And if you'd rather not spend your afternoon learning a new platform, that's also something I can help with. I offer Klaviyo setup, flow strategy and builds, email template design, Shopify + Klaviyo integration, and ongoing email marketing support for e-commerce businesses.
