How to Build a Klaviyo Flow Strategy From Scratch

Direct answer: Build your Klaviyo flows in order of revenue per recipient and traffic volume: abandoned cart first, then welcome series, browse abandonment, abandoned checkout, post-purchase and winback. Klaviyo's own data on more than 143,000 abandoned cart flows shows an average revenue per recipient of $3.65, against $2.65 for welcome flows and $1.07 for browse abandonment. Start with 3 emails in each core flow, use Klaviyo's filters to stop people receiving overlapping messages, and review each flow against benchmarks every 30 days.

Most DTC brands we look at have some flows switched on. Few have a flow strategy. The usual picture is a 1-email welcome series written at launch, an abandoned cart flow copied from a template, and nothing after the first order. That leaves the highest-margin revenue a brand can earn sitting untouched, because flow revenue arrives without any extra ad spend.

Why flows come before campaigns

Campaigns go to your list on your schedule. Flows go to 1 person at the moment they show intent. That timing is why flows convert so much better per send. Our email marketing benchmarks for DTC brands show flows producing around 41% of email revenue from about 5% of sends.

There is a second reason. Every abandoned cart you recover is a customer you already paid to acquire. According to the Baymard Institute, the average documented cart abandonment rate across 50 studies is 70.22%. If your paid traffic is filling carts and 7 in 10 of them walk away, your automated flows decide how much of that spend you get back.

The 6 core flows, in build order

Order	Flow	Trigger	Emails to start	Klaviyo average RPR	Top 10% RPR
1	Abandoned cart	Added to cart, no order	3	$3.65	$28.89
2	Welcome series	Joined list or signed up via form	3 to 5	$2.65	$21.18
3	Browse abandonment	Viewed product, no cart	2	$1.07	$7.21
4	Abandoned checkout	Started checkout, no order	2 to 3	Track against cart	Track against cart
5	Post-purchase	Placed order	3 to 4	Varies by category	Varies by category
6	Winback	No order in your repeat window	2 to 3	Varies by category	Varies by category

RPR figures come from Klaviyo's abandoned cart benchmark report, based on flows sent in 2023. Klaviyo also reports average abandoned cart click rates of 6.25% and placed order rates of 3.33%, rising to 13.33% and 7.69% for the top 10% of brands.

The gap between average and top performers is the point of this whole exercise. A top 10% abandoned cart flow earns nearly 8x the revenue per recipient of an average one. Both use the same trigger, so the gap comes down to copy, timing, offer and segmentation.

Flow by flow: what to build

1. Abandoned cart

Send email 1 between 1 and 4 hours after the cart event. Show the product, the price and a single button back to the cart. No discount.

Email 2 goes out around 24 hours later and handles objections: reviews, delivery times, returns policy, how the product works. Email 3 goes out at around 48 to 72 hours. This is where an incentive belongs, if you use one at all.

Add a flow filter so anyone who has placed an order since the flow started exits immediately. Also split first-time visitors from returning customers. Returning customers rarely need a discount to finish an order.

2. Welcome series

This is the first impression of your brand in the inbox, so it carries more weight than its RPR suggests. A solid structure:

1. Deliver what you promised. The signup offer or content, sent instantly.
2. The founder story. Why the brand exists and who it is for.
3. Proof. Reviews, press, before and after results, user content.
4. Best sellers. Your 3 to 4 highest-converting products with clear reasons to choose each.
5. Reminder. If the signup offer has not been used, a short reminder before it expires.

Split the flow on whether the subscriber has purchased. Someone who bought after email 1 should exit the welcome series and move into post-purchase content.

3. Browse abandonment

Lower intent, so keep it light. Two emails: a reminder of the product viewed with related items, then social proof for that product or category. Suppress anyone already in the cart or checkout flows so a single visit does not trigger 3 different sequences.

4. Abandoned checkout

If you can capture the checkout start event separately, treat it as the highest-intent signal you have. These people have given you an email address and stopped at the payment step. Lead with reassurance on payment security, delivery and returns. If checkout abandonment is high, the fix may be on site rather than in the inbox. Our guide to lowering CAC covers how to find where the funnel leaks.

5. Post-purchase

This flow builds lifetime value. Thank the customer, set delivery expectations, then teach them how to get the best result from the product. Ask for a review once the product has arrived and been used, which for most categories means 10 to 21 days after dispatch. Add a cross-sell or replenishment prompt timed to when a typical customer runs out.

Usage education matters most for unfamiliar formats, such as a solid haircare bar like KIND2. Clear guidance reduces disappointment, and fewer disappointed customers means fewer refunds and more repeat orders.

6. Winback

Set the trigger from your own data. Look at the median time between first and second orders, then start the winback at roughly 1.5x to 2x that gap. Lead with what is new, then offer an incentive in the final email. After the last email, suppress unengaged contacts from campaigns to protect deliverability.

Rules that stop flows fighting each other

Use flow filters on every flow. At minimum, exclude anyone who has placed an order since starting the flow, and anyone who has received an email from another intent flow in the last 24 hours.

Set smart sending. Klaviyo's smart sending skips a profile if they received a message recently. Keep it on for browse and winback flows. Consider turning it off for abandoned cart and checkout, where timing matters most.

Separate discount logic. Decide once which flows can carry an incentive and how large. Training customers to abandon carts for a code is an easy habit to create and a hard one to break.

Keep the plain-text option. For the final email in abandoned cart and winback, a short plain-text note from the founder often outperforms a designed template. Test it.

How to measure your flow strategy

Review every flow monthly against 4 numbers:

1. Revenue per recipient. The single best measure of flow health. Compare against the benchmarks in the table above.
2. Placed order rate. For abandoned cart, the Klaviyo average is 3.33%.
3. Click rate. Use clicks over opens, since Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates open rates.
4. Unsubscribe and spam complaint rate. Klaviyo's average abandoned cart unsubscribe rate is 0.60%. A rising number means you are sending too often or to the wrong people.

Then look at flow revenue as a share of total email revenue. If flows sit well below a third of your email revenue after 90 days, something in the core 6 is broken or missing.

A 30-day build plan

Week	Build	Target by end of week
1	Abandoned cart (3 emails), flow filters, smart sending rules	Live and recovering carts
2	Welcome series (3 to 5 emails), signup form audit	Every new subscriber enters a sequence
3	Browse abandonment and abandoned checkout	Intent signals covered with no overlap
4	Post-purchase and winback	Full lifecycle covered, first benchmark review booked

After 30 days, move from building to testing. Test 1 variable at a time per flow: subject line, send delay, offer or content order. Give each test enough recipients to reach a clear result before calling it.

Where PPAIOS fits

PPAIOS is the team of 15 AI agents Caner built to run growth on his own brands, including KIND2, now open to other DTC and CPG founders. The email agent audits your existing Klaviyo flows against benchmarks, writes and builds the missing ones, and runs the monthly testing cycle. Caner has helped more than 350 DTC and CPG brands grow, and built Liquiproof from zero to more than 3,000 retailers before exiting. See pricing or start here.

FAQ

Which Klaviyo flow should I build first? Abandoned cart. Klaviyo's data shows it has the highest average revenue per recipient ($3.65) and the highest placed order rate (3.33%) of all automated flows, so it returns money fastest.

How many emails should a Klaviyo welcome series have? Start with 3 to 5. Deliver the signup offer, tell the founder story, show proof, present best sellers and send a reminder before any offer expires. Exit anyone who buys into your post-purchase flow.

What is a good revenue per recipient for Klaviyo flows? On Klaviyo's 2023 data, average RPR is $3.65 for abandoned cart, $2.65 for welcome flows and $1.07 for browse abandonment. Top 10% brands reach $28.89, $21.18 and $7.21 respectively.

Should I offer a discount in my abandoned cart flow? Hold it until the final email, and consider excluding returning customers. Offering a code in the first email trains shoppers to abandon carts to get a discount.

How often should I review my Klaviyo flows? Monthly. Check revenue per recipient, placed order rate, click rate and unsubscribe rate for each flow, then run 1 test per flow at a time.