A campaign is an email you send to your list on a Tuesday. A flow is an email that sends itself, at exactly the right moment, to exactly the right person, every day, without you lifting a finger.
For a Shopify shop, flows are where Klaviyo earns its money. Set them up once, properly, and they keep working while you get on with running the business.
We run the email programme for CurraNZ, a blackcurrant supplement brand selling through Shopify with subscriptions on Recharge, and we build Shopify stores like the one for Staffordshire Meats, a farm butchery that launched its store in July 2026. Here's the set of flows we'd put in place first.
The short version
- Start with welcome, abandoned checkout and post-purchase. They catch people at the moments they're most likely to act.
- Add browse abandonment and win-back once the basics are running.
- If you sell subscriptions through Recharge, add reminders before each charge. They cut surprises and cancellations.
- Set up your own sending domain before anything else, and keep your list clean.
- Write flows in your brand's voice, not a template's. People can tell.
Before any flows: have you set up your sending domain?
Do this first. In Klaviyo, set up a branded sending domain (something like mail.yourshop.co.uk) and add the DNS records it gives you. Make sure SPF, DKIM and DMARC are in place for your domain.
Google and Yahoo now expect bulk senders to authenticate properly and to offer a one-click unsubscribe. Without a sending domain, you're sending on Klaviyo's shared one, and your emails are more likely to land in spam. It's a short job with the right login.
1. Welcome flow
Trigger: someone joins your list through a sign-up form or pop-up.
This is the first impression, and it usually gets more attention than anything else you send. Don't waste it on a discount code and nothing else.
A good welcome flow:
- Straight away: thanks for joining, here's what you'll get from us, and the offer if you promised one.
- A day or two later: your story. Who you are, why you started, what makes your products different.
- A few days after that: your best sellers, or the product most people start with, with real reviews.
- Later still: a reminder of the offer before it expires, if there is one.
Set the flow to stop when someone buys. Nobody wants a "still thinking about it?" email the day after they ordered.
2. Abandoned checkout flow
Trigger: someone starts checkout and doesn't finish.
This is usually the highest-earning flow in any shop, because these people were one click from buying. Klaviyo's Shopify integration picks up the "Started Checkout" event automatically.
- About an hour later: a plain reminder with the items they left, a picture of each and a button straight back to checkout.
- About a day later: answer the likely worries. Delivery times, returns, what's in the product, how it's made.
- A couple of days later: a final nudge. Only add a discount here if your margins can take it, and don't train customers to always abandon for one.
3. Browse abandonment flow
Trigger: a known subscriber views a product and doesn't add it to their basket.
Softer than abandoned checkout. They were interested, not committed. One or two emails is plenty: "Still looking at this?" with the product, a short reason to choose it and a couple of alternatives.
Exclude anyone who's already in the abandoned checkout flow, and anyone who's had a browse email recently. It's helpful once and creepy three times.
4. Post-purchase flow
Trigger: someone places an order.
Shopify already sends the order confirmation. This flow is everything after it, and it's where you turn a first order into a second.
- Shortly after ordering: thank you, and what happens next. For food, how to store it. For supplements, how and when to take it.
- Around delivery: how to get the best from the product. Recipes, tips, a quick guide.
- Once they've had time to use it: ask for a review.
- When they'd typically run out or need more: a well-timed reminder to reorder.
Split it for first-time and repeat customers. A first-timer needs a welcome. A regular needs a thank you and maybe early access to something new.
5. Win-back flow
Trigger: a customer hasn't ordered for longer than usual for your shop.
Work out your typical gap between orders from your own data, then set the trigger a bit beyond it. For a butcher that might be weeks. For a supplement, it depends on pack size.
- First email: "We've missed you", what's new, a reason to come back.
- Second email: a stronger reason, such as an offer or a new product.
- Last email: a polite check that they still want to hear from you.
If they don't open or click after that, move them to a suppressed segment. Which brings us to list hygiene.
6. Subscription reminders with Recharge
If you sell subscriptions through Recharge, connect it to Klaviyo so subscription events (upcoming charges, skips, cancellations) come through.
Then build:
- An upcoming charge reminder a few days before each order, with an easy way to skip, swap or change the date. It sounds like you're inviting cancellations. In practice, people who feel in control stay longer than people who feel trapped.
- A cancellation flow that asks why, offers a pause or a smaller pack, and thanks them either way.
- A new subscriber welcome that explains how to manage their subscription, so they don't have to email you to find out.
How do you keep your list clean?
A big list that doesn't open your emails does more harm than a smaller one that does. Email providers watch how people engage with what you send.
- Send campaigns to engaged segments (people who've opened, clicked or bought recently), not your whole list.
- Run a sunset flow that checks in with people who've gone quiet, then suppresses them if they stay quiet.
- Never buy or import a list of people who didn't sign up.
- Use double opt-in if you're getting junk sign-ups.
- Check your bounce and spam complaint rates in Klaviyo's deliverability reports regularly.
What order should you build them in?
If you're starting from nothing:
- Sending domain and sign-up form
- Welcome
- Abandoned checkout
- Post-purchase
- Browse abandonment
- Win-back and sunset
- Recharge flows, if you sell subscriptions
Build, test each one with a real order or a test profile, then leave them alone for a month before you start tweaking. Change one thing at a time so you know what made the difference.
Where to go from here
See what's included in our email marketing work, or read about our work with CurraNZ and Staffordshire Meats. If you'd like your Klaviyo flows set up or checked over, Book a 20-minute call.
