The channel you own
Every other way of reaching customers is rented. Google and Meta set the price, the algorithm decides who sees you, and the bill arrives whether it worked or not. Your email list is yours. It keeps working while you are on the shop floor, and it is the cheapest second order you will ever get.
Klaviyo is the email platform built around Shopify data. It knows what every subscriber looked at, put in a basket, bought and came back for, and it lets you send on the back of all of that automatically. Most stores that have it are using a fraction of it: a welcome email, a half-built abandoned basket flow, and campaigns sent to everyone on the list.
The core flows
Flows are the automated emails that go out when a customer does something. They are where the revenue is, because they arrive at the moment someone is most likely to buy. These five are the foundation for every Shopify store, and we build them properly before we talk about anything else.
Welcome
Someone signs up and gets a short series over the first week or two: who you are, why people buy from you, your best sellers, and the offer you promised at sign-up if there was one. Written to sound like your shop, not a template.
Abandoned checkout and abandoned basket
Shopify knows when someone starts a checkout and does not finish. Klaviyo can also know when someone adds to basket and leaves. Two different moments, two different flows. A reminder, then the answers to the questions that usually stop people (delivery, returns, sizing), then, only if it earns its place, an incentive. Timed so it does not feel like a chase.
Browse abandonment
Someone looks at a product twice and leaves. A gentle nudge with that product and a few related ones converts well and annoys nobody, provided it is capped so the same person is not emailed every day.
Post-purchase
The most neglected flow and often the most valuable. Thank them properly, tell them what happens next, help them get the most from what they bought, ask for the review at the right moment, and introduce the product they are most likely to buy next. This is where second orders come from.
Win-back
Customers who have gone quiet for longer than your normal buying cycle. A reminder of what they liked, something new since they last looked, and a reason to come back. Then, if they stay quiet, a sunset flow that stops emailing them, so they stop dragging your deliverability down.
Beyond the five: back in stock, replenishment reminders and VIP flows, added when your catalogue and your data justify them.
Segmentation, so the right people get the right email
Sending everything to everyone is how lists die. We build segments from Shopify data: engaged in the last ninety days, first-time versus repeat buyers, high spenders, people who bought one category and not its companion, people who have never bought at all. Campaigns go to the segment they are relevant to, flows branch on what the customer has actually done, and the unengaged are rested rather than hammered.
Campaigns without the chaos
Campaigns are the emails you choose to send: launches, seasonal ranges, news your customers actually want. We set a calendar around your trading year, design templates that load quickly and read well on a phone, write or edit the copy, and send to segments rather than the whole list. Fewer, better emails beat a daily blast every time.
Deliverability: the part nobody sees until it breaks
An email that lands in spam is an email you paid for and nobody read. Since the big mailbox providers tightened their rules, sending without proper authentication gets you filtered. We set up a branded sending domain, the technical records that prove the email really came from you, and the sending rules that keep complaints low: engaged segments first, the unengaged rested, a sunset flow for the permanently silent, and list growth from real sign-up forms rather than bought data.
SMS, where it earns its place
Text messages convert well and annoy quickly. In the UK you need clear consent and you should respect quiet hours, both of which Klaviyo handles if it is set up properly. We use SMS sparingly: abandoned checkout reminders, delivery and back-in-stock notices, the occasional genuine offer for your best customers. If your customers would not thank you for a text, we will not send one.
Reporting on revenue per flow
Klaviyo will tell you how much revenue each flow and campaign produced. It is useful, and it is generous with itself: by default it takes credit for any order within a window after a click or an open. We report Klaviyo's numbers alongside what Shopify says you actually banked, so you see flow revenue, campaign revenue, list growth, and unsubscribe and complaint rates in one short monthly report, along with what we changed and what is next.
How it starts
If you already have Klaviyo, we audit the account: integration, forms, flows, segments, sending domain and what the reports are really saying. If you do not, we set it up from scratch, connected to your store. Either way you get a written plan and a fixed quote before we start, and the flows are built, tested on real phones and switched on one at a time so you can watch them work.
Questions we get asked
We already have Klaviyo and some flows. Can you take it over rather than start again?
Yes, and that is the usual starting point. We audit what is there: the Shopify integration, the forms, every flow and its timing, the segments, and the sending domain. Flows that work stay. Flows that are half-built get finished, and the missing ones get added. Nothing gets switched off until its replacement has been tested.
Is Klaviyo worth it compared with Shopify Email?
For a small store sending an occasional newsletter, Shopify Email is perfectly good and costs very little. Klaviyo earns its fee when you want flows that branch on what a customer has done, segments built from purchase history, and proper reporting on what each email made. Most growing retailers cross that line sooner than they expect, and we will tell you honestly which side of it you are on.
Do you write and design the emails, or just set up the flows?
Both. Flows are only as good as the words and pictures in them. We design templates that load quickly and read well on a phone, write the copy in your shop's voice, and use your product photography. If you have a designer or a writer, we will work with what they produce.
How much of our revenue should come from email?
Every platform quotes a benchmark and none of them knows your store. It depends on how often people reorder, how big your list is and how well the flows are built. What we do is measure it properly for your store, against what Shopify says you banked rather than what Klaviyo claims, and then raise it month by month.
Will SMS annoy our customers?
Only if it is done badly. UK rules require clear consent, and your customers require restraint. Used for an abandoned checkout reminder, a delivery update or a genuine offer to your best customers, SMS converts well and people keep it. Used for a daily blast, they leave. We set it up with consent and quiet hours handled, and we use it sparingly.