A client came to us last year doing $1.2M in revenue with email contributing about 8% of that. Not terrible, but not great either. They were sending a newsletter every week or two: new products, sale announcements, that sort of thing.
We spent about three weeks setting up proper automated flows. Same list, same products, same brand. Six months later, email was driving 34% of revenue. Not because we're geniuses, but because automated flows do what newsletters can't: they send the right message to the right person at the right moment.
The difference between 8% and 34% is real money. On $1.2M revenue, that's an extra $300K driven by email, most of which comes in automatically once the flows are set up.
Here are the five flows that matter. In order of priority.
Abandoned Cart: Start Here
Roughly 70% of shopping carts get abandoned. That's not a stat I'm making up. It's consistent across every store I've seen. People add things to cart, get distracted, leave.
Some of those people were never going to buy. But a lot of them just needed a nudge. Abandoned cart emails recover 5-15% of those carts depending on how well they're done. On a store doing 100 orders a day with 70% cart abandonment, that's potentially 10-20 extra orders daily. It adds up.
The flow itself is simple. Email one goes out about an hour after abandonment. Don't wait longer, they'll forget what they were doing. Just remind them what they left. Show the product image. Make it easy to get back to checkout. Don't offer a discount yet.
Email two, about 24 hours later, addresses objections. Remind them about free returns. Show a review of the product they were looking at. Answer whatever question might be stopping them.
Email three, maybe 48-72 hours later, is where you can offer an incentive if you want to. Free shipping or 10% off, time-limited. Some stores skip this entirely because they don't want to train customers to abandon carts for discounts. That's a reasonable position.
One thing I'd push back on: don't offer discounts in email one. You'll condition people to abandon carts on purpose. We've seen stores undo this training and it takes months to recover.
Welcome Sequence: Your Best Shot at Converting
Someone just signed up for your email list. Maybe they used a pop-up discount, maybe they opted in for something else. Either way, this is peak interest. They're thinking about you right now.
Most stores send a discount code and then nothing until the next newsletter. Waste of an opportunity.
Email one should go out immediately. Deliver whatever you promised: discount code, free guide, whatever. Short brand intro. Clear path to shop.
Email two, next day, is your story. Why does this brand exist? What's different about you? People buy from brands they connect with. This is your chance to make that connection before they forget who you are.
Email three, maybe three days in, is social proof. Customer testimonials, reviews, user-generated content. Reduce the perceived risk of buying from a brand they don't know yet.
Email four, around day five, showcases bestsellers. Make it easy for them to find something they'll love.
Email five, if they still haven't bought, is a reminder about that discount expiring. Create some urgency.
Benchmarks: expect 40-50% open rates on email one, dropping to maybe 25-35% by email five. If your welcome sequence is contributing 3-5% of total revenue, you're in a good place. Less than that and there's room to improve.
Post-Purchase: Where Repeat Customers Are Made
Here's a stat that should focus the mind: a first-time buyer has about a 27% chance of buying again. A second-time buyer? 54%. Getting that second purchase is the game.
Order confirmation is transactional, not marketing. But a few days after delivery, check in. Did it arrive okay? Are they happy? Soft ask for a review.
A week or two later, send usage tips. How to get more value from what they bought. Care instructions. Styling ideas if it's fashion. This isn't selling, it's building relationship.
Two to three weeks post-purchase, ask for a review properly. Make it one-click easy. Direct link to the review form. The easier you make it, the more reviews you'll get. A good review request email should generate 5-10% submission rates.
Four to six weeks out, cross-sell. 'Customers who bought X also love Y.' Based on what they purchased, what's the logical next thing? This is your warmest audience. Conversion rates are typically 1-3% on these, which doesn't sound like much until you remember it's almost free revenue.
Segment by product if you can. Someone who bought skincare needs different follow-up than someone who bought furniture. The more relevant the cross-sell, the better it converts.
Browse Abandonment: Tread Carefully
Someone looked at a product but didn't add to cart. You can email them about it.
This one's tricky. Done well, it's helpful: 'spotted something you liked?' with the product they viewed. Done poorly, it's creepy. 'We noticed you looked at...' sent 20 minutes after browsing feels surveillance-ish.
I'd wait at least a couple of hours. Keep the tone light and casual. One email, maybe two at most. Show the product they viewed, maybe some similar items in case that one wasn't quite right.
This flow has lower conversion rates than abandoned cart, which makes sense since these people were earlier in the buying journey. But volume can be high, so even 1-2% conversion adds up.
Honestly, for smaller stores, I'd prioritise this last. Get the other three flows working well first. Browse abandonment is refinement, not foundation.
And if your entire catalogue is like five products, skip this one. It's awkward to send 'we noticed you viewed...' when there's only five things they could have viewed.
Win-Back: Reactivate Before They Forget
Customers go cold. Life happens, they find alternatives, they just forget about you. Win-back sequences try to bring them back.
Timing matters. Start too early and you're nagging. Start too late and they've completely forgotten you. For most stores, 30-60 days after last purchase is about right for the first email.
Email one: 'We miss you.' Show what's new since they last shopped. Remind them why they bought from you in the first place.
Email two, maybe two weeks later: offer an incentive. An exclusive 'come back' discount. Make them feel valued.
Email three, another couple of weeks: 'Last chance.' Stronger offer. After this, if they don't engage, suppress them from regular emails for a while. Sending to people who never open hurts your deliverability.
Expect lower open rates than other flows, maybe 10-20%. These are cold subscribers. But reactivation is still cheaper than acquisition. A 5% win-back rate is decent.
High-value lapsed customers might warrant personal outreach. An email from a real person, not a marketing automation. Sometimes that's what it takes.
Getting These Set Up
If you're starting from zero, do them in this order: abandoned cart, welcome, post-purchase, then browse abandonment and win-back. The first three drive the most revenue for the effort.
You'll need an ESP that supports behavioural triggers. Klaviyo is the standard for e-commerce Shopify, and for good reason: the integration is solid and the flow builder is intuitive. Omnisend is fine too. Whatever you use, make sure it's actually connected to your shop and syncing properly. I've seen flows that weren't sending because the integration was broken and nobody noticed for weeks.
Measure revenue, not just open rates. Open rates tell you if your subject lines are working. Revenue tells you if your email programme is working. Target 20-30% of total revenue coming from flows once mature.
And don't set and forget. These run automatically, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't look at them. Review performance monthly. Test subject lines. Update content when products change or go out of stock. The stores getting 30%+ of revenue from email are the ones treating it as an ongoing practice, not a one-time project.
Have questions about this topic? Get in touch—we're happy to discuss your specific situation.