The 7 Klaviyo Flows Every Australian Ecommerce Store Needs
If you run an ecommerce store on Klaviyo, your flows should be doing a lot of the selling for you. Campaigns get the attention, but flows are the emails that send every single day, triggered by what customers actually do.
The problem is that most accounts I audit have flows that were switched on once, from a template, and never touched again. Here are the seven Klaviyo flows I set up for almost every Australian ecommerce brand, what each one should do, and the mistakes I see most often.
1. Welcome series
Trigger: someone joins your list through a sign-up form.
This is your first impression, and new subscribers are more engaged now than they will ever be again. A good welcome series:
Delivers the sign-up offer immediately (if you have one)
Tells your brand story and why you exist
Shows best sellers and social proof
Answers the questions that stop people buying, such as shipping times, returns and sizing
Common mistake: a single email with a discount code and nothing after it. Three to five emails over about ten days usually works far better.
2. Abandoned checkout
Trigger: Started Checkout, with no order placed.
These shoppers entered their email and got close to paying. This flow is usually the highest earner per recipient in the account. Send the first email within one to four hours, then follow up once or twice.
Common mistake: no filter excluding people who ordered since starting checkout, so customers get "you forgot something" emails after paying.
3. Abandoned cart (added to cart)
Trigger: Added to Cart, with no checkout started.
This catches a much bigger group than abandoned checkout. On Shopify, the Added to Cart event needs Klaviyo's onsite tracking set up correctly, so check it is actually firing before you build the flow.
4. Browse abandonment
Trigger: Viewed Product, for known subscribers.
Keep it soft. "Still thinking about it?" with the product they viewed and a couple of related items. No hard sell, and no discount.
5. Post-purchase
Trigger: Placed Order.
This is where one-time buyers become repeat customers. Split first-time and returning customers with a conditional split, then send:
A genuine thank you
How to use or care for the product
A review request once the order has arrived (allow for Australian shipping times)
A relevant cross-sell a few weeks later
6. Win-back
Trigger: a customer has not ordered within your normal repurchase window.
Look at your data first. If most customers reorder within 60 days, a win-back at 90 days makes sense. A skincare brand and a furniture brand should have very different timing.
7. Sunset flow
Trigger: a subscriber has not opened or clicked in a long time.
Ask them if they still want to hear from you, then suppress them if they do not respond. It sounds counterintuitive, but removing dead weight protects your inbox placement. Because Klaviyo bills on active profiles, it can also reduce your monthly cost.
Don't forget Australian compliance
Under the Spam Act 2003, commercial emails to Australians need consent, must identify you as the sender, and must include a working unsubscribe. Make sure your sign-up forms collect consent clearly and every flow email carries your business details and an unsubscribe link.
How to check your own flows in 10 minutes
Open Klaviyo, go to Flows, and check that each of the seven flows above exists and is Live, not Draft or Manual.
Check the flow filters. Is anyone being excluded who should not be?
Click into each email. Are the discount codes still valid and the products still in stock?
Look at revenue per recipient for each flow over the last 90 days. The flows with the lowest numbers are your first fixes.
Want a second set of eyes? The Email Revenue Leak Calculator gives a quick estimate of what missing flows may be costing you, or you can see how I approach Klaviyo flow setup for Shopify stores.
