Every year, 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, costing eCommerce businesses trillions of dollars. The good news? You can recover up to $260 billion in lost revenue by setting up an automated abandoned cart email flow in Klaviyo.

Here’s how Klaviyo helps:

  • Personalized Emails: Tailor messages based on customer behavior, cart value, and purchase history.
  • Proven Results: Abandoned cart flows can generate $3.65 per recipient and achieve a 3.33% placed order rate.
  • Timing & Segmentation: Send 2–3 emails over 7–10 days and segment audiences for better engagement.

Key Steps to Build Your Flow:

  1. Set Triggers: Use the "Started Checkout" event to target serious shoppers.
  2. Segment Audiences: Separate new leads, returning customers, and high-value shoppers.
  3. Craft Emails: Use dynamic content, clear CTAs, and personalized subject lines.
  4. Optimize Timing: Send the first email 2–4 hours after abandonment, followed by 1–2 reminders.
  5. Measure & Improve: Track open, click, and conversion rates to refine your flow.

By combining email and SMS, addressing customer pain points like high shipping costs, and continuously testing, you can significantly boost your recovery rates and revenue. Klaviyo’s tools make it simple to turn abandoned carts into completed sales.

Start small, refine over time, and watch your conversions grow.

How to create an abandoned cart flow in Klaviyo (Step by step tutorial)

Klaviyo

Setting Up Your Klaviyo Abandoned Cart Flow

Setting up your Klaviyo abandoned cart flow is essential for recovering lost sales and boosting your store’s performance. Follow these steps to configure your flow effectively.

Setting Trigger Events for Your Flow

The first step in creating an abandoned cart flow is choosing the right trigger event. Typically, the "Started Checkout" event is the best option, as it identifies customers who have shown strong purchase intent by beginning the checkout process. While some systems track "Added to Cart", the "Started Checkout" event is more reliable for targeting serious shoppers.

Here’s how you set up your flow trigger:

  • Go to the Flows tab in Klaviyo, select Create Flow, and choose Build your own.
  • Name your flow (e.g., "Abandoned Cart Recovery") and click Create flow.
  • Choose Metric as the trigger type.

To ensure your flow works smoothly, add these filters:

  • Profile Filter: "Person has Placed Order zero times since starting this flow".
  • Time Filter: "Hasn’t been in flow in the last 7–14 days" to avoid sending duplicate messages too soon.

Timing is everything. Add a time delay after your flow trigger to allow customers a chance to complete their purchase naturally. Klaviyo’s default flows include a 4-hour delay, but many experts recommend sending your first email 2–4 hours after abandonment.

For example, SixThreeZero saw a 50% increase in abandoned cart revenue within two months by using a 5-part flow.

Creating Audience Segments

One of Klaviyo’s strengths is its ability to segment audiences for more personalized messaging. By tailoring your emails to specific customer behaviors and preferences, you can increase engagement and conversions. Here are some key segments to consider:

  • Previous Customers vs. New Leads: Existing customers may only need a gentle nudge, while new leads might respond better to social proof or special offers.
  • Cart Value Segmentation: Adjust your incentives based on cart value. For higher-value carts, consider offering discounts, while for lower-value carts, free shipping or personalized recommendations might work better.
  • Previous Discount Seekers: Target those who signed up for discounts or lead magnets – they’re often responsive to reminders about unused offers.
  • High-Value Customers: For shoppers with a history of large purchases or high lifetime value, consider personalized follow-ups or even direct outreach.

Take Oliver Bonas as an example. This British lifestyle retailer used segmented abandoned cart emails to achieve a 97% increase in click-through rates in under a year.

"Sometimes, the best way to turn a missed sale into a conversion is by highlighting items a shopper may have missed. Including personalized product recommendations in an abandoned cart email can turn heads and drive much higher click rates as shoppers investigate new finds that align with what they’ve already shown an interest in." – Sharon Goldstein, former CEO of LimeSpot

Configuring Flow Settings

Fine-tuning your flow settings is crucial for optimizing performance and maintaining compliance with email marketing laws. Here are some important factors to address:

  • Frequency Caps: Successful flows typically send 2–3 emails over 7–10 days. Sending more can lead to higher unsubscribe rates without adding much value.
  • Sending Schedule: Use analytics to identify peak open times. Many brands find weekdays between 10 AM and 2 PM work best.
  • Compliance: Make sure every email includes an unsubscribe link and your business address to comply with regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM.
  • Data Synchronization: Check how often your data syncs. Some integrations update every 15 minutes, while others may take hours, which can affect email timing.
  • Disable Duplicates: Turn off default abandoned cart emails from platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or Magento to avoid sending duplicate messages.
  • Amazon Buy with Prime: If you use this feature, create separate flows for your main eCommerce platform and Buy with Prime, as they track different customer behaviors.

Finally, test your flow with sample orders to ensure timing, personalization, and overall functionality are spot on before launching it live.

Creating High-Converting Abandoned Cart Emails

Abandoned cart emails are a powerful tool to reconnect with potential customers. With an impressive 48% open rate and 21% click-through rate, these emails can significantly boost conversions. The secret lies in blending personalization with clear, compelling messaging that addresses the reasons behind cart abandonment and encourages shoppers to complete their purchase.

Writing Clear Subject Lines

Your subject line is the first thing customers see, so it needs to grab attention instantly. Personalized subject lines can increase open rates by 26%. Keep them short – ideally between 7 to 9 words or 40 to 60 characters.

Using the customer’s name or referencing the abandoned products makes the email feel more personal. Adding urgency, like time-sensitive offers, can create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out). Incentive-based lines, such as highlighting discounts or free shipping, also work well. For a creative twist, some brands inject humor to stand out in cluttered inboxes.

Here are some real-world examples:

  • 7 For All Mankind: "Your bag is full, get your favorites!"
  • Nomad: "Nomad Gear is Selling Out Quick"
  • Infostack: "[Name], why did you abandon me?"
  • United By Blue: "Looking for a sign? Free shipping" (addressing the fact that 39% of customers abandon carts due to extra costs)
  • Whiskey Loot: "Your cart is sobering up"

These examples show how a mix of personalization, urgency, and humor can make your emails more engaging. Don’t forget to run A/B tests to see which subject lines resonate most with your audience.

Using Dynamic Content

Once your subject line is on point, focus on making the email itself more personalized. Dynamic content allows you to tailor each email to the customer’s preferences. Tools like Klaviyo can automatically pull product images, prices, and details from your store, ensuring the email reflects exactly what the customer left behind.

For example, Total Tools, Australia’s largest retailer for professional tools, doubled their click-through rates by adding personalized triggers to their cart recovery emails. Similarly, Ryderwear boosted its email marketing revenue from 4–5% to nearly 20% by using advanced segmentation and personalization. Booktopia took it a step further by including value-added content like book reviews, author insights, and personalized recommendations, strengthening customer loyalty and driving conversions.

To make your emails even more effective:

  • Include high-quality images and clear descriptions of abandoned items.
  • Highlight pricing details and any special offers.
  • Add customer reviews to build trust.
  • Suggest complementary products based on browsing history, which can encourage additional purchases.
  • Address common concerns upfront – mention free shipping thresholds, include size guides or return policies, and emphasize limited stock with phrases like "Only 3 left in stock."

Creating Clear Call-to-Action Buttons

A well-crafted call-to-action (CTA) button is the final push customers need to complete their purchase. Use specific, action-oriented phrases like "Complete Your Purchase", "Return to Cart", "Finish Your Order", or "Claim Your Discount."

Make your CTA visually distinct and mobile-friendly. Use contrasting colors to make it stand out, and ensure it’s easy to tap on smaller screens. Position the button prominently – ideally right after the abandoned product images but before any additional recommendations.

When appropriate, create urgency with CTAs like "Complete Your Order – Offer Expires Tonight" or "Return to Cart – Limited Stock." If your email is longer, you can include multiple CTAs, but ensure they align with the customer’s behavior and remain clear.

Finally, test different variations of your CTA buttons to find the most effective design, wording, and placement for driving conversions.

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Improving Your Abandoned Cart Flow Performance

Turning your abandoned cart flow into a revenue driver requires more than just setting it up – it’s about refining it with real data. Once your flow is in place and emails are crafted, the next step is to tweak and improve for better results. Even small changes can lead to noticeable increases in recovery rates and revenue.

Testing and Improving Email Performance

A/B testing is a powerful way to fine-tune your abandoned cart emails. Surprisingly, 39% of brands don’t test their broadcast or segmented emails, which gives you a head start by simply running tests.

Focus on testing one element at a time to pinpoint what works best. Start with emails that are sent most frequently since they generate data faster. For instance, personalizing the sender name can boost open rates by 0.53% and click-through rates by 0.23%. Similarly, adding the subscriber’s name to the subject line can increase open rates by over 14%.

Here’s a real-world example: HubSpot compared personalized sender names with generic ones and saw a 0.53% higher open rate and a 0.23% higher click-through rate. This seemingly small change brought in 131 additional leads. In another case, Bing tested ad headlines in 2012 and achieved a 12% revenue increase, adding over $100 million in the US alone.

Before diving into testing, set clear goals and form a hypothesis about what might improve performance. Experiment with subject lines, sender names, email content, call-to-action buttons, images, and send times. Be patient – let the test run long enough to gather statistically significant results. Avoid making changes mid-test, as this can skew your data.

"Email marketing A/B testing has so many benefits, such as solving user problems and improving UX, driving growth and business impact, optimizing content for diverse audience segments as well as gaining insight and learnings you can apply to future campaigns." – Rob Gaer, Senior Software Engineer at Miro

Take Brava Fabrics as an example. They tested a contest entry form against a discount offer for sign-ups. The A/B test revealed that both options performed equally well, allowing them to protect their marketing budget without sacrificing conversions.

Once your email content is polished, focus on adjusting send times to maximize engagement.

Adjusting Timing Based on Segments

Timing plays a critical role in abandoned cart recovery. Emails sent 60 minutes after a customer’s last interaction have the highest conversion rates. Additionally, sending three abandoned cart emails can result in 63% more sales compared to sending just one.

"Timing your emails correctly is always crucial to success – and nowhere is that more true than the abandoned cart flow." – Alexandra McPeak, Content Marketing Lead at Klaviyo

A typical timing structure works for many businesses: send the first email 30 minutes to one hour after abandonment, follow up 24 hours later, and send a third email 24 to 48 hours after the second. However, you should tailor these timings to different customer segments and product types.

For example:

  • High-value carts may need a different approach than low-value ones.
  • Perishable goods like food require faster follow-ups, while durable items like electronics can wait longer.
  • Luxury products might benefit from longer intervals to avoid seeming too aggressive, while everyday items can handle quicker reminders.

Total Tools, in collaboration with SAP Emarsys, implemented over 20 automated workflows based on customer behavior. This data-driven approach doubled their click-through rates.

Use tools like Klaviyo to analyze engagement trends and pinpoint the best times to send emails for each segment. Look for patterns where open and click rates peak, and adjust your flow accordingly.

To take your recovery efforts up a notch, consider adding SMS to your strategy.

Adding SMS to Your Cart Recovery Strategy

Pairing SMS with email can significantly improve cart recovery rates. SMS messages boast a 98% open rate, and those sent within an hour of abandonment have a 20.3% conversion rate. With 72.9% of eCommerce sales now happening on mobile devices, SMS offers a direct and immediate way to re-engage customers.

"By sending a timely and personalized abandoned cart text message to re-engage high-intent shoppers, brands can expect a spike in returning customers and recovered cart rates." – Yotpo

To succeed with SMS, it’s essential to follow compliance guidelines. For US-based campaigns, you’ll need double opt-in, can send only one SMS per recipient, must send within 48 hours of cart abandonment, and must obtain express consent with clear disclosures.

Keep messages short – 100 to 160 characters is ideal. Personalize them with the customer’s name and product details. For example: "Hi [Customer Name], you left [Product Name] in your cart. Complete your purchase now and enjoy free shipping!".

Create urgency with phrases like “Limited stock remaining” or “Your cart will expire soon.” Include a clear call-to-action that directs customers back to their cart. A good SMS sequence might look like this:

  • Send the first message 30-60 minutes after abandonment.
  • Follow up 24 hours later with a compelling value proposition.
  • Send a final reminder 48-72 hours later with urgency messaging.

Use conditional splits in your Klaviyo flow to ensure SMS messages only go to customers who have opted in. Always include opt-out instructions and schedule messages during appropriate hours in the customer’s time zone to maintain a positive experience.

"Abandoned cart SMS messages capture immediate attention, landing directly on customers’ phones for immediate impact. With unmatched visibility and urgency, they’re a powerful way to recover lost sales quickly." – Mailchimp

Measuring and Improving Your Flow Results

Once you’ve implemented strategies to streamline your flow, the next step is to measure and refine your performance. By tracking key metrics, you can identify opportunities to boost revenue from your abandoned cart flow. Metrics like open rates, click rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates provide clear indicators of where adjustments are needed to keep your flow driving consistent results.

Important Metrics to Track

To understand how well your flow is performing, focus on four critical metrics: open rates, click rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Each one offers valuable insights into different aspects of your email sequence.

  • Open rates: These show whether your subject lines and sender names are grabbing attention. The industry average is 50.5%, with top performers hitting 65.34%. If your rates fall short, experiment with personalized subject lines, sender names, or different send times.
  • Click rates: These measure how engaging your email content and calls-to-action (CTAs) are. The average click rate is 6.25%, while top performers reach 13.33%. Low click rates might indicate that your CTAs, messaging, or product recommendations need fine-tuning.
  • Conversion rates: This metric tracks how many recipients complete their purchase. The average is 3.33%, but top-performing flows achieve 7.69%. A low conversion rate may point to the need for stronger incentives or a clearer path to purchase.
  • Unsubscribe rates: High unsubscribe rates can signal overly aggressive messaging. The average is 0.60%, but top performers maintain a rate of 0.00%.

It’s also helpful to track performance for each email in your sequence. For instance, your first email might have a high open rate but fewer conversions, while later emails with incentives may convert better even if their open rates are lower. Additionally, calculating revenue per recipient (total flow revenue divided by the number of recipients) offers a comprehensive view of how your flow is performing across segments.

Making Flow Improvements Over Time

With your metrics in hand, you can refine your flows systematically. Start by comparing your current performance to benchmarks and testing specific changes through A/B testing.

"Review how things are performing and then taking an educated guess and saying, ‘OK, we think if we tweak this specific thing, that it’s going to move this specific needle,’ we make that change, see what happens, and just continue that process over and over again." – Sean Donahue, Director of Email Marketing, Power Digital

If your open rates are lagging behind the 50.5% benchmark, consider personalizing subject lines with the recipient’s name or referencing the abandoned products. For improving click rates, focus on enhancing email content and CTAs. Segmenting high-value carts and offering selective incentives can also help boost recovery rates.

Real-world examples illustrate the impact of data-driven optimization. Ryderwear, for instance, grew its email marketing revenue from 4–5% to nearly 20% of total revenue by implementing automated workflows and segmenting based on performance data. This resulted in a 300% increase in overall email revenue. Similarly, Willow Tree Boutique achieved a 44.6% rise in Klaviyo-attributed revenue and a 53.1% boost in campaign revenue within six months by segmenting customers based on lifetime value and shopping behaviors.

Understanding customer behavior is also essential. For example, 43% of shoppers abandon carts because they’re “just browsing” or “not ready to buy,” while 39% leave due to extra costs like high shipping fees. Tailor your messaging to address these issues – offer educational content or social proof for browsers, and use free shipping thresholds or time-sensitive discounts to appeal to price-sensitive customers.

"The ability to A/B test flows is critical. Test out different offers and the timing of the sequence to see what version works best for your brand." – Tim Akers, Founder, Akers Digital

Don’t forget to account for seasonal trends, as shopping behaviors often shift during holidays. Adjust your messaging and timing to align with these patterns. Finally, ensure your emails are mobile-friendly by using responsive design, as most email opens now happen on mobile devices.

Conclusion: Increase Sales with a Well-Built Klaviyo Abandoned Cart Flow

Creating a well-structured abandoned cart flow in Klaviyo can make a huge difference for your eCommerce business. By recovering lost sales from customers who already showed interest, you’re not just boosting revenue – you’re making the most of opportunities that might otherwise slip away. With so many carts left behind, using strategies like perfect timing, smart segmentation, and personalized messaging isn’t just helpful – it’s a must for consistent growth.

The key to success lies in getting the details right: sending emails at the right time, crafting messages that feel personal, offering incentives that resonate, and constantly improving your approach. Here’s a fact to keep in mind: sending multiple abandoned cart emails can lead to 69% more orders compared to sending just one.

The numbers speak for themselves. Top-performing brands generate over $27 per recipient through abandoned cart flows, making this type of email campaign one of the most profitable tools in your marketing arsenal.

"Email allows us to follow up with people for free via automated flows, so we can develop a relationship with them and guide them to their first purchase. That’s what’s so valuable about email – you can do that for free automatically, and send personalized content so easily."

Treat your abandoned cart flow as a living, breathing system that evolves over time. Dive into performance data, experiment with new strategies, and keep pace with changing customer habits. Whether you adjust timing for different segments, add SMS for urgency, or use dynamic product recommendations, small tweaks can lead to big gains.

Start simple: set up your basic trigger events and email sequence. From there, add advanced features like segmentation, dynamic content, and A/B testing. Research shows that abandoned cart emails alone can recover about 10% of lost revenue. With consistent effort and optimization, your abandoned cart flow can become a powerful driver of long-term growth and profitability.

FAQs

How can I segment my audience to improve my Klaviyo abandoned cart flow?

To get better results from your Klaviyo abandoned cart flow, focusing on audience segmentation can make all the difference. Here are a few strategies to consider:

  • Behavior-Based Segmentation: Divide customers based on their actions, such as cart value, browsing habits, or how often they make purchases. For example, someone with a high-value cart might respond better to a personalized email, while a smaller cart might need a simpler nudge.
  • Engagement Levels: Adjust your messaging based on how active shoppers are. Emails for those who shop frequently can be more direct, while less engaged customers might need a reactivation approach.
  • Demographics: Details like location, age, or gender can help you craft emails that feel more personal and relevant to each recipient.

By using these segmentation methods, you can create abandoned cart emails that resonate better with your audience and improve your chances of recovering those sales.

What’s the best timing for sending abandoned cart emails to recover lost sales?

To get the best results with cart recovery, timing matters. Start by sending the first email within 1 to 4 hours after the cart is abandoned – this keeps the potential purchase top of mind. Then, follow up with a second email about 12 to 24 hours later, and a third email 2 to 3 days after the initial abandonment. This schedule helps you stay on your customer’s radar without overwhelming them.

You can tweak these timeframes based on how your audience interacts with your emails, making sure they come across as helpful rather than pushy.

How can combining SMS with email improve abandoned cart recovery?

Combining SMS with email can seriously boost your abandoned cart recovery efforts by connecting with customers through more than one channel. With SMS boasting an open rate of 98%, it’s an incredibly effective way to grab attention quickly. Sending personalized text reminders shortly after a cart is abandoned helps re-engage shoppers while their intent to buy is still fresh.

Pairing SMS with email lets you build a multi-channel approach that improves your chances of turning lost sales into completed purchases. Emails are perfect for sharing detailed offers and visuals, while SMS shines with short, urgent messages that drive immediate action. Together, they keep your brand front and center, offering a smooth customer experience that increases both engagement and conversions.

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