Email marketing · Klaviyo
Why your automated emails earn more than your campaigns
Automated emails, called flows in Klaviyo, are a small share of what a brand sends and a large share of what it earns. Across 150,000 brands, Omnisend found automations were 2% of email sends and 30% of email revenue. At a UK food brand I worked with for four years, flows earned about 16 times more per recipient than campaigns. Here is why, and which flows to build first.
Small share of sends, big share of revenue
Share of sends
Share of revenue
Klaviyo's benchmarks show the same pattern: flows generate around 41% of email revenue from 5.3% of sends.
A campaign interrupts. A flow answers.
A campaign goes to everyone on your list on the same day, whatever they happen to be doing.
A flow is triggered by something a customer has just done: signed up, looked at a product, left a basket, bought for the first time, or gone quiet. It arrives when their interest is highest, which is why Omnisend found automated emails converted 19 times better than campaigns.
And the moments are everywhere. Around 70% of online baskets are abandoned before checkout, according to Baymard Institute. Every one of them is a moment a flow can answer and a campaign will miss.
The customer journey, and the flow for each moment
Before the first order
- Top earner1
Signs up
Welcome series
Right after sign-up
- 2
Browses, doesn't buy
Browse abandonment
A day after browsing
- Top earner3
Leaves a basket
Abandoned checkout
Within a few hours
The first order
- 4
Buys for the first time
Thank you and cross-sell
After the order ships
After
- 5
Is about to run out
Replenishment
Before they run out
- 6
Goes quiet
Win-back
After a few quiet months
- 7
Has a birthday
Birthday email
On their birthday
Welcome and abandoned cart emails drove 76% of all orders from automations. Source: Omnisend 2026 Ecommerce Marketing Report.
The flows that do the heavy lifting
Omnisend found that abandoned cart and welcome emails alone drove 76% of all orders from automations. Start with those, then add the rest.
Welcome series
Introduces the brand and turns a sign-up into a first order. Usually three to four emails over the first week.
Abandoned checkout
Reminds people what they left behind. The first email works best within a few hours.
Browse abandonment
A gentler nudge for people who looked at a product but didn't add it to the basket.
Post-purchase
Thanks the customer, sets expectations for delivery and suggests what goes well with what they bought.
Replenishment
Arrives when a product is likely to be running out. Ideal for food, coffee and anything people reorder.
Win-back
Reaches customers who haven't bought in a while, before they forget you.
Bonus: back-in-stock emails had the highest conversion rate of any automation in Omnisend's data, at 6.46%.
What this looked like at a real brand
When I started working with a UK food brand in September 2021, it had a customer list, three automated flows and occasional campaign sends. Most email revenue came from one-off promotions.
Over four years, I built the programme out to 14 live flows, alongside a regular campaign calendar.
From 3 flows to 14
3
September 2021
14
2025
Flow revenue grew year after year, from £7.1K in the last four months of 2021 to £48.3K in the twelve months to July 2025.
Email revenue by period
- Flows
- Campaigns
16x
Revenue per recipient, 2024
Campaign email
Automated email
Omnisend's data across 150,000 brands found almost exactly the same gap: automated emails earned 16 times more per send.
In 2024, flows brought in 43% of this brand's email revenue, very close to the 41% in Klaviyo's benchmarks.
One flow paid for everything else
The single biggest earner wasn't a clever new automation. It was the welcome series for the brand's box list, which brought in £23.6K in the twelve months to July 2025 on its own.
£23.6K
from one welcome series, in twelve months
Hillside Pantry
Welcome to Hillside Pantry
Good food, delivered
Thanks for joining us. We make small-batch pantry favourites with ingredients we know by name.
Have a look around and find something new for the table this week.
Illustrative example, not the brand's actual email.
The honest part
Not every number went up. As more flows went live, flow click rate fell from 8.5% in 2024 to 7.3% in the twelve months to July 2025, while the number of people receiving flows rose 142%. More flows reach more people, but each one needs its own testing, or the average slips.
Your first 30 days of flows
Week 1
One list, one sign-up form, a three-email welcome series
Week 2
Abandoned checkout and browse abandonment
Week 3
Post-purchase thank-you and a cross-sell email
Week 4
A simple campaign calendar and a 30-day engaged segment
Replenishment, win-back and birthday flows come later, once there is enough purchase data to time them well.
Want help building yours?
If you have a list but fewer than three flows, there is usually revenue sitting in your account already. As a Klaviyo Partner with the Practitioner certificate, I can build this for you. Klaviyo setup with core flows starts from £1,200, and monthly email marketing from £750 a month. Not sure where to start? The Growth Audit (£750) reviews your account and gives you a prioritised plan.
Sources
- Omnisend, 2026 Ecommerce Marketing Report
- Klaviyo, email marketing benchmarks
- Baymard Institute, cart abandonment rate
- Klaviyo Business Overview exports for the brand in this article (2021 to 2025)
Frequently asked questions
What is a Klaviyo flow?
A flow is an automated series of emails or texts that Klaviyo sends when someone does something specific, such as signing up, leaving a basket or making a first purchase. Unlike a campaign, it runs on its own once it is set up.
Are Klaviyo flows better than campaigns?
Per email, yes. Omnisend's data across 150,000 brands found automated emails earned 16 times more per send, and a UK food brand's own 2024 data showed the same gap per recipient. Campaigns still reach far more people, so a healthy programme needs both.
Which flows should a small Shopify store set up first?
A welcome series and abandoned checkout first, then browse abandonment and a post-purchase email. Omnisend found welcome and abandoned cart emails alone drove 76% of orders from automations.
What share of email revenue should come from flows?
Klaviyo's benchmarks put flows at around 41% of email revenue. If yours bring in much less than a third, flows are usually the first place to look.