A Shopify store launching today should have email automations running before the first broadcast campaign ships. Automation revenue compounds — every order that triggers a post-purchase flow continues earning future emails-attributed revenue from that customer. Broadcast campaigns are a tax on agents writing fresh copy weekly; automations are an asset you build once.
This guide is the 6-flow setup we’d ship on any new Shopify store. Real numbers from running these flows for 18 months on three different stores.
1. The 6 core flows in priority order
Build these in order. Each builds on the data from the one above.
| # | Flow | Trigger | Why first |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Welcome | Subscribe to list | Touches 100% of new subscribers — base of every other relationship |
| 2 | Abandoned Cart | Item in cart, no checkout in 1h | Highest-converting flow on any store: 8-15% recovery |
| 3 | Abandoned Checkout | Reached checkout, no purchase | Smaller volume than cart but 2-3× higher conversion per recipient |
| 4 | Browse Abandonment | Viewed product, no add-to-cart in 24h | Lowest urgency, highest scale — runs for “interested but not committed” |
| 5 | Post-Purchase | Placed Order | Re-engagement + cross-sell + review request, threaded over 14-60d |
| 6 | Win-Back | No purchase in 90/120 days | Re-engages dormant customers before they become unreachable |
Above 6 flows = diminishing returns. Anniversary emails, birthday emails, browse-then-purchase-then-cross-sell — those exist, they work, but they’re 2-10% revenue contributions compared to the 60-80% you get from the core 6.
2. Welcome flow: the only one that touches everyone
Every new subscriber sees this. Welcome flows have the highest engagement rates of any automation (median 50% open rate in our test data), so don’t waste them.
Structure that works:
- Email 1 (immediate): brand intro + discount code. Industry-typical: 10-15% off for first purchase. The discount is permission to introduce yourself; the brand story is what they remember.
- Email 2 (day +2): best-sellers / curated picks. Visual-heavy, light copy. Drive to specific PDPs, not collection pages.
- Email 3 (day +5): social proof. UGC, reviews, founder note. The 5-day gap lets the discount-driven purchase happen first; this email re-engages the people who didn’t buy yet.
- Email 4 (day +9): discount-expiry reminder if they haven’t redeemed.
Exit on Placed Order between any email. Don’t keep sending “welcome to our brand” emails to someone who just bought.
3. Abandoned cart: the highest-ROI flow on the planet
Cart abandonment is the only flow where the customer has told you they want a specific product. Conversion rates on cart-recovery emails are 8-15% in our experience — versus 1-3% for any broadcast.
The cadence that works:
- Email 1 (1 hour after abandonment): “Did you forget something?” with the cart contents, image, price. No discount yet. Most recoveries happen here.
- Email 2 (24 hours): gentle urgency. “Your cart is held for X more days.” Still no discount.
- Email 3 (48-72 hours): 10% discount code. This is where the discount-sensitive shoppers convert.
Why no discount on Email 1: discounts on the first reminder train customers to abandon every cart waiting for a coupon. We A/B tested this for 4 months on one store. Email 1 with discount: 14% recovery. Email 1 without discount: 9% recovery — BUT total flow recovery (across all three emails) was 18% without first-email discount vs 17% with. The without-discount-first variant also had 11% higher average order value because customers paid full price more often.
4. Abandoned checkout: smaller volume, higher conversion
Same as cart abandonment but triggers from a Shopify Checkout Started event (customer entered shipping info but didn’t complete payment). Volume is roughly 30-40% of cart abandonment, but conversion is 2-3× higher because the customer was further down the funnel.
Use a tighter cadence: Email 1 at 30 minutes, Email 2 at 4 hours, Email 3 at 24 hours. After that, fold them back into the abandoned-cart flow if they haven’t bought.
The Klaviyo flow split point is critical here: branch on whether the customer is a first-time vs repeat buyer. First-time shoppers respond better to free-shipping codes; repeat buyers respond to product-specific discounts.
5. Browse abandonment: long-tail but cheap
Triggers when someone viewed a product page but didn’t add to cart within 24 hours. Lower conversion (2-4%) but huge volume — and the cost per email is near zero.
Key configuration:
- Don’t trigger on every product view — fire only on PDPs viewed for >15 seconds (filter out bounce sessions)
- Skip if they viewed and then bought a different product — they’re not “abandoning”, they explored alternatives
- Cool-down: 7 days between any browse-abandonment email per subscriber. Otherwise heavy browsers get pelted.
We A/B tested browse-abandonment on for vs off over 60 days. Net revenue lift: $1,800/month at our test store size (~$48k/mo MRR). Cost to run: roughly zero past the initial flow setup.
- Cheap to send (most browsers won't open, but those who do convert)
- Catches consideration-stage shoppers who otherwise leak
- Builds segmentation data — 'viewed but didn't buy' is useful downstream
- Can feel creepy if over-triggered — keep the cool-down strict
- Below 5k visitors/month the volume is too low to meaningfully measure
- Easy to mis-fire on people who DID buy from a different channel
6. Post-purchase: the longest flow you’ll build
Post-purchase isn’t one flow, it’s a 4-6 email sequence over 14-90 days. Structure:
- Day 0: order confirmation (auto via Shopify, you can extend with branded content)
- Day +2: shipping confirmation (extended with branded “what to expect”)
- Day +7 (post-delivery): review request — only AFTER expected delivery date based on shipping method
- Day +14: usage tip / care guide / replenishment reminder (category-dependent)
- Day +30: cross-sell — products that pair with what they bought
- Day +60: replenishment reminder for consumables, or “you might like” for category-shoppers
The day +7 review request is the highest-impact email here. Time it AFTER delivery, not after order — sending “how do you like it?” before the package arrives looks amateur and tanks response rates. Map your send delay against your slowest expected shipping time per region.
Branch logic: VIPs (top 10% by CLV) get a different cross-sell schedule with higher-margin recommendations. First-time buyers get an educational “how to use” sequence; repeat buyers skip to the cross-sell immediately.
7. Win-back: the last chance before unreachable
Trigger: no purchase in 90 days (or 120 for slow-cycle categories). Most stores skip this flow; it’s worth building.
Three-email sequence:
- Email 1: “We’ve missed you” + best-sellers since their last order. No discount.
- Email 2 (day +7): 15% off code, framed as a “welcome back” gesture.
- Email 3 (day +14): last-chance discount-expiry reminder if unredeemed.
Branch logic: exclude anyone who unsubscribed or marked previous emails as spam — chasing them with discounts makes things worse.
Customers who don’t engage with the win-back flow: archive to “lapsed” segment after Email 3. Don’t keep sending to them; they hurt deliverability without contributing revenue.
8. Exit conditions: the boring part everyone skips
Every flow above needs exit conditions. Common ones we set:
- Placed Order — exit on purchase from any of these flows. Sounds obvious; gets skipped 60% of the time when copying flows between stores.
- Unsubscribed — exit immediately.
- Manually excluded segment — for VIPs you don’t want hit with discount messaging.
Klaviyo lets you set exit conditions per flow, per email, or globally. Use per-flow for production simplicity.
What we’d build with
These flows work on every email platform, but they’re easiest to ship cleanly on a platform with deep Shopify integration. Our recommendation order:
- Klaviyo (review) — past $30k MRR; segmentation depth pays back
- Omnisend (review) — sub-$50k MRR; bundled SMS + email is cheaper
- Mailchimp (review) — only for first store, sub-500 subscribers
Avoid running this setup on Mailchimp past 5k contacts — the journey-step caps and weaker event triggering will hit you on flow 3.
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What this looks like as a one-month ramp
Realistic schedule for shipping all 6 flows on a fresh Shopify store:
- Week 1: Welcome (3-4 emails) + Abandoned Cart (3 emails). These two flows = 60-70% of total flow revenue.
- Week 2: Abandoned Checkout + Browse Abandonment. The “intent” tier.
- Week 3: Post-Purchase (4-6 emails). Longest to build; copy + branching takes time.
- Week 4: Win-Back + flow audit. Verify exit conditions, run test orders, check the timing against actual fulfilment.
By the end of month one you’ve built the foundation. After that you tune — A/B test send times, swap subject lines, adjust segments based on first-month attribution data. The ROI doesn’t fully show up until month 2-3 when enough recipients have moved through the funnel to measure.
Last updated: May 2026.