With over 65,000+ Shopify brands using Klaviyo for their email marketing, it’s not surprising that Klaviyo has become one of the most reliable customer data platforms to retain and re-engage shoppers online. Klaviyo’s motto is “Own your data. Own your growth.”, encouraging businesses around the world to analyse their customer information and providing them with the tools they need to intelligently target niche segments and drive revenue.

Klaviyo is built specifically for e-commerce merchants, which is why it blends so seamlessly with the Shopify platform.

With historical and real-time data available at the click of a button, customers can be reached in the right places and at the right time in their buyer journey. Behaviour-based automations are one of the most effective ways of cashing in on untapped income, yet many brands still aren’t getting personal with their emails. Klaviyo’s pre-built workflows provide the building blocks for sophisticated use cases, allowing each customer to move organically through the sales funnel.

Unlike campaigns that shift from season to season, email workflows can be set up and left to run, subject to optimisation and monitoring. Whether a customer has been with you for five weeks or five years, whether they shop with you once a month or once in a blue moon, there’s an email automation for every purpose and person.

From birthday wishes, to VIP-exclusive product launches and clever cross-selling, here are 5 automations you should be utilising in your Klaviyo toolkit.

1. Abandoned Cart Flow

Forgetting something? Abandoned cart reminders are a quick and easy way to bring back customers who were on the cusp of checking out. Not only do these subscribers make up a vast majority of potential shoppers (almost 70% of shopping carts are abandoned on average), these customers have shown high interest in your products, so it’s all the more important to encourage them to complete their purchase.

Removing the barrier to purchase and giving your customers the extra attention they need ensures money isn’t being left on the table.

Consider the types of content you could offer your customers at this stage. Address any concerns they might have about shopping on your store, and use this time to talk about any USPs around delivery and returns.

Use Klaviyo’s content blocks in an abandoned cart template to send dynamic email content based on your customers’ browsing activity. If the last message in your flow has a conversion rate over 1%, add a time delay and send a second message. Any customers who have purchased from your last email will have automatically exited the flow, but this gives you a second chance to draw people back in.

How to Level Up Your Abandoned Cart Emails

Klaviyo recommends adding a trigger split to your abandoned cart automation depending on the value of the cart in question.

What does this mean? You can offer different incentives to shoppers depending on the value of what’s in their basket. A customer abandoning £30 worth of stock, for example, might require different messaging to someone who has left £300 on the table. Creating personalised paths allows you to offer high value abandoned carts tailored content and higher incentives than those who have left something of low value.

2. Birthday Flow

Who doesn’t love a birthday gift on their special day? Entice your customers back to your online store with a birthday discount or - even better - a free gift. Provided you ask for your customers’ birthdays when they first sign up on your store, you’ll have a whole host of birthday data to send virtual birthday wishes all year round.

Not only does a birthday email feel personalised, studies have shown that birthday emails have a conversion rate that’s almost five times higher than a typical campaign - so it’s a lot more valuable than just sending a few birthday bumps.

Time is of the essence when it comes to birthday marketing. Decide when is the best time to alert your customers on their special day. For some businesses, this might be in the run-up to their birthday - particularly if you sell clothing or party gear and want to encourage shoppers with a “It’s nearly your birthday! Are you party ready?” campaign. If you haven’t got an incentive for customers to shop before their special day, stick with their birthday itself and offer a free gift or voucher.

Just don’t mention your subscribers’ age. Some things are better left unsaid.

How to Level Up Your Birthday Emails

Don’t have any birthday data yet? It’s not too late. Make like Oliver Bonas and ask for their birthday at the bottom of your Welcome series (see above). People will be more likely to provide their details when they know they’ll get something exciting in return.

3. Upsell & Cross-Sell Flows

“You just bought our trousers. Did you spot the matching jacket?”

Welcome to the world of cross-selling. Cross-sell automations work by recommending products based on a customer’s previous purchases. These recommendations can be super broad - highlighting other products on your store - or a lot more tailored to specific collections and buying habits. Cross-selling is also useful for informing your customers about new product releases - targeting those who have bought similar products in the past and incentivising them with an offer. All of these go towards retaining customers long-term and preventing churn after their first purchase.

If you have a large catalogue of products, start with a core range of products that pair well and start to scale this up. Likewise if you sell brands, stick to your bestsellers and create campaigns that fire out when someone purchases an item from that particular brand “We saw that you loved [VENDOR]. Did you know we stock these too?”

Cross-sell and upsell opportunities are all about subtle persuasion. Persuading your customers to either add to or upgrade their shopping without putting them off their current purchase.

Upselling, unlike cross-selling, is the chance to reach your customers and offer them something better than their current purchase at different points in their buying journey. If a customer views a certain product many times, for example, your Klaviyo trigger point might be Viewed Product and you could send them an email with an even better version of the thing they were initially looking for. This might be a bundle offer, allowing them to add accessories. This could be a “Spend another £25 to qualify for free shipping” to push their average order value up.

If you offer subscriptions, upselling also gives you the chance to change repeat customers into lifetime subscribers.

How to Level Up Your Cross-Selling Strategy

You don’t have to wait to start cross-selling. Start showing your customers personalised product recommendations based on their last purchase as early as the email receipt for their item to get them coming back for more.

4. Review Flows

Reviews are part and parcel of the online shopping experience, and you shouldn’t have to sit back and wait for the reviews to roll in. Take back control of the information shown on your product pages with automated review requests that fire out once a certain amount of time has passed since a customer bought your product.

Set a time delay sensibly. Too early, and the customer might not have received their product yet. Too late, and they’ll be less likely to bother responding. Klaviyo recommends 14 days after fulfilment to give your customers a chance to try your product before a review request lands on their doorstep. You can use Klaviyo’s dynamic data to populate the email with their item and link to the review area of your site.

5. VIP Flows

There are many ways to define a VIP customer, but one rule stands above them all - Very Important People deserve Very Rewarding Emails.

Conversations with your VIPs are going to sound very different to customers who haven’t even shopped with you yet. Like a close friend, you already know about their unique interests and what they love about your brand. You don’t need to educate them on who you are and what you do - instead you can keep them engaged with content tailored to their needs.

How do you define a VIP? Your VIP customers might be those who have spent the most on your store. They might be those who have ordered over a certain number of times, or have a high average order value. You might even consider a customer who regularly takes time to review your products and is a valued member of your social community as a VIP.

Start creating VIP flows that reward your most valuable customers with special offers and exclusive alerts tailored to them. You might foster relationships by sharing social links and connecting them with your wider community, or give them early access to a new collection or product launch. You might just show them a little love with a discount code or voucher so they know how important they are to your brand.

How to Level Up Your VIP Strategy

Your VIPs are more than just sales targets.

They’re your brand advocates and understand exactly what it’s like to be on the receiving end of your digital experience.

Look to your VIP audience for feedback and reviews - across your website, social media and emails. These are the people who will give you honest, unfiltered feedback and that you can use to shape the future of your brand.

Don’t be afraid to ask what you could be doing better. If they’re a regular customer, they’ll be much more likely to help you figure out what the business could do next.

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Trying out Klaviyo on your Shopify store? Speak with our marketing experts. We can help you get your email automations to the next level.

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