Set up five lifecycle automations: welcome new subscribers, browse abandonment, abandoned cart or checkout, post-purchase follow-up, and winback. The right trigger, timing controls, templates, and available events depend on your ecommerce platform and integration. Before activating anything, confirm the store data syncs correctly, add suppression rules to prevent stale or overlapping messages, and test each flow.
Which automated emails should every ecommerce store have?
These five flows cover distinct moments in the customer lifecycle. They are a practical starting set, not a guarantee of a particular conversion rate or revenue lift.
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| Flow | Entry event | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | An eligible new subscriber joins the email list | Introduce the store and its products |
| Browse abandonment | A visitor views a product, then leaves without adding it to a cart, starting checkout, or ordering | Offer a light reminder about a product they viewed |
| Cart or checkout recovery | A shopper adds an item to a cart or begins checkout but does not order | Help the shopper return to the saved cart or checkout |
| Post-purchase | An order is placed | Provide useful product, care, onboarding, or service information |
| Winback | A customer goes a defined period without another purchase | Re-engage a lapsed customer with relevant messaging |
How do I set up automated emails for my online store?
- Connect your store and verify event data. Confirm that subscriber, viewed-product, cart or checkout, order, and unsubscribe events sync to your email platform. Custom integrations may delay events, which can make a recovery message arrive at the wrong time. Shopify’s automation guidance and Klaviyo’s flow documentation describe platform-specific options.
- Choose the event and template for each flow. Use a prebuilt automation when it fits, but inspect its trigger, message content, dynamic product or order blocks, and filters. Klaviyo advises reviewing and customizing default messages and previewing them before sending; Shopify also documents available automations and setup steps. See Klaviyo’s flow guide and Shopify Messaging automations.
- Set entry conditions and suppression rules. Check whether the customer has purchased or started checkout before each send. If browse and cart flows are both active, exclude people who add the product to a cart or start checkout from browse messages so they do not receive overlapping reminders. Klaviyo explains relevant filters in its browse abandonment setup guidance.
- Choose delays based on event reliability and context. Do not copy one delay across every flow by default. Klaviyo recommends waiting at least one hour for its browse abandonment flow; that is a platform-specific recommendation for that flow, not a universal timing rule. Check the timing and event synchronization behavior for your own integration in Klaviyo’s browse-flow documentation and checkout-flow documentation.
- Write, preview, and test. Check the sender name, subject line, personalization, and dynamic links. Send a test, then verify that the intended test profile enters the correct flow before activation. Shopify documents test sends and activation in its automation setup instructions.
- Activate and review reports. Turn flows on only after their triggers and exclusions behave as intended. Review platform reports after launch and adjust using your store’s results; the available guidance does not establish a universal performance benchmark. Shopify describes reporting in its automation documentation.
How should each of the five email flows work?
1. Welcome new subscribers
Trigger this flow when an eligible person joins your email list. Introduce the store, its products, and what the subscriber can expect from future messages. Treat consent for email separately from consent for any other channel; a newsletter signup does not by itself establish permission for another channel. Klaviyo describes a list-triggered welcome flow in its flow guide, while Shopify offers a welcome-new-subscribers automation.
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2. Browse abandonment
Use a viewed-product event, and send only if the visitor has not since added the item to a cart, started checkout, or placed an order. A page view is a weaker signal of purchase intent than a cart addition or checkout start, so keep this message lighter than a recovery email. Confirm that viewed-product tracking works before relying on the flow. Klaviyo recommends a delay of at least one hour for this flow and provides filters to exclude people whose shopping activity has progressed; see its browse abandonment instructions.
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3. Abandoned cart or checkout
Choose the event your integration exposes reliably. Cart and checkout are not interchangeable: platforms may provide separate triggers and recovery options. Shopify documents separate cart and checkout recovery automations; Klaviyo documents checkout flows as well as cart flows. Check event synchronization before deciding when to send, and suppress the reminder if an order is placed first. Keep the message focused on returning to the saved cart or checkout rather than diverting the shopper to unrelated products.
4. Post-purchase follow-up
Start from a placed-order event. Make the first follow-up useful for the product: it could explain setup, care, onboarding, or how to get service. Keep promotional recommendations distinct from transactional order and shipping notices; buying something does not make a later promotional message transactional. Where your data supports it, exclude products the customer already bought from recommendations. Klaviyo recommends a post-purchase flow, and Shopify offers post-purchase automations.
5. Winback
Trigger this flow after a defined period without another purchase. Set the interval according to how often customers normally replenish or repurchase your product; there is no universal number of days established for all stores. Segment by prior purchase where possible, and avoid sending the same discount to every lapsed customer regardless of what they bought or are likely to need. Winback flows are covered in Klaviyo’s flow guidance and Shopify’s automation documentation.
Which platform should I use for these automations?
Choose based on the integration and controls your store actually needs, not just the number of templates shown in a catalog.
| Option | What the documentation covers | Check before building |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Messaging | For Shopify merchants, documentation covers welcome, post-purchase, browse, cart, and checkout automations, as well as reporting. See Shopify’s automation guide. | Confirm the specific automation and event are available to your store and review its trigger, content, filters, and activation steps. |
| Klaviyo | Documentation covers event-triggered flows, delays, filters, and templates. See Klaviyo’s flow guide. | Klaviyo’s Help Center says its Starter free plan allows up to three automated messages live at once; this is plan-specific and can change, so verify the current limit and your account’s terms before planning all five flows. See Klaviyo’s plan and flow documentation. |
| Custom or third-party workflows | Shopify points merchants to Shopify Flow for custom automations and workflows involving third-party apps. See Shopify’s automation guidance. | Check that all required events and consent data pass correctly between the store, email platform, and connected apps. |
Compare platforms on store integration, event coverage, trigger and filter controls, dynamic content, testing and activation steps, reporting, and plan limits. Feature names and availability vary by platform, plan, and integration.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What should I check before sending commercial email?
For U.S. commercial email, the Federal Trade Commission’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide says messages need accurate header information and non-deceptive subject lines, a valid physical postal address, and a clear way to opt out. Senders must honor opt-out requests within 10 business days, and remain responsible for monitoring vendors that send on their behalf. Whether a message is transactional or commercial depends on its primary purpose: a promotional post-purchase email does not become transactional simply because the recipient placed an order. Requirements differ outside the United States, so identify the geography of your audience and seek appropriate legal review for other markets.
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