Most brands we audit have Klaviyo set up and one or two flows running, usually the default welcome email and a cart reminder they turned on in year one and never looked at again.
Then they spend all their email energy on campaigns.
That's backwards, and Klaviyo's own data says so. Across more than 183,000 accounts, flows are 5.3% of all email sends and about 41% of all email revenue. Revenue per recipient from a flow is nearly 18 times a campaign's, and flows get a click rate of 5.58% against 1.69% for campaigns. Klaviyo also says nearly half of flow revenue comes from first-time buyers (Klaviyo 2026 benchmarks).
Here are the five we build first for every brand, and the number each one should be hitting.
1. Welcome series
The person just gave you their email. This is the most interested they'll ever be in you, and most brands waste it on a single "here's your 10% off" email.
Build four emails over a week. First one immediately, with the offer if you're running one and one clear thing to buy. Second one a day or two later is the founder email. Who you are and why this exists. Third around day four has your best-sellers or the product that converts best for new customers. Fourth at day seven says the offer is expiring.
What it should earn: Needle's summary of Klaviyo's 2026 data puts welcome series around $2.65 per recipient on average, with top performers well into double digits (Needle). If yours is under a dollar the problem is the offer or the copy, and it's usually the offer.
2. Abandoned cart
Everyone has this one running. Most people haven't opened it since they turned it on. Klaviyo's October 2026 abandoned cart benchmarks put the average email in this flow at $6.77 per recipient, with the top 10% of brands at $13.70, and a 6% click rate (Klaviyo, Oct 2026). That's the highest-earning flow most brands can run, and it's usually one email with a product grid.
Send the first one two to four hours after they leave, no discount, just the cart and a reason to finish. A second at 24 hours, and this is where the discount goes if you use one. A third at 48 to 72 hours that's shorter and more direct. If you have SMS consent, Klaviyo's data has the text version at $4.48 per recipient with a 10.3% click rate, so the 24-hour touch often works better as a text than an email.
3. Browse abandonment
Same idea as cart, one step earlier: they looked at a product and left. Lower intent, so lower numbers, around $1.07 per recipient on average per Needle's read of the Klaviyo data. It still pays because it costs nothing and it's the only flow that catches people before they've committed to anything.
Two emails, no discount. The product they looked at with a short line of social proof, four to six hours after. A second the next day with that product plus two related ones. Keep it light. Browse abandonment gets creepy fast, and in the accounts we run it's where the unsubscribes come from.
4. Post-purchase
Brands skip this one because it doesn't feel like it sells. Someone who just bought is the warmest person on your list, and this is also where reviews, UGC and referrals come from.
Start with a real thank-you right away, signed by a person. It doesn't need the order details, Shopify already sent those. Day three is the how-to. What to expect, how to use it, whatever tip you'd tell a friend who just bought it. Day seven, ask for the review, and if you want UGC, ask for a photo. Day 14 to 21 is the cross-sell, timed to when they'd be running low or ready for the next piece. That's four emails.
Klaviyo doesn't publish a per-flow number for post-purchase, but across all flows the average placed-order rate is 2.11% and the top 10% hit 4.3% (Klaviyo UK, Feb 2026). In the accounts we run, post-purchase usually lands above that line, because these people already bought once.
5. Winback
Anyone who bought and then went quiet. Set the trigger off your actual repurchase cycle, because Klaviyo's default is just a guess at it. If people usually reorder at 45 days, the winback starts at 60. If it's a once-a-year gift product, start at 10 months.
Three emails over two weeks. "We miss you" with what's new since they bought. A second with your strongest offer of the whole program, because you already paid to acquire this person once. A third that asks plainly whether they want to stay on the list, which cleans your deliverability at the same time.
Average revenue per recipient here is the lowest of the five, around $0.84 per Needle, but these are people you'd otherwise never hear from again.
Number six, if you sell out of things
Back in stock. On average it's the highest revenue per recipient of any flow in Needle's breakdown, $9.14, with a 6.72% conversion rate, because the customer asked you to tell them. It only works if you sell out of things, so if you do, build it this week.
How to tell if yours are working
Open Klaviyo, go to Analytics, then Benchmarks, and look at revenue per recipient by flow against your industry. Anything in the bottom half is a copy, timing or offer problem and usually a day or two of work. The flows you haven't built yet cost you more than any of that.
sound like you?
Want us to look at your flows?
We build and run Klaviyo for consumer brands as part of our email and SMS work, usually alongside the content that feeds it. If you want us to look at your account and tell you which of the five is leaking, start a project and give us read access to the account.
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Written by
Hana Brenner-Katz is the founder and creative director of Beyond Bright Creative. She started her own design studio in 2018 and turned it into a full-service agency in 2023.
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