The best Klaviyo flows for Shopify stores — built for niche Australian brands
Nine flows, in the order I'd build them, with the timing and angles that work for reef and aquarium shops, outdoor and 4WD brands, and specialty pet retailers selling into a small, passionate Australian market.
Why flows beat campaigns
Campaigns earn once. Flows earn every day, from traffic you've already paid for. A niche store with a complete flow stack typically sees flows carry 20–35% of email revenue while running in the background, and it's the part of the account most stores leave half-built — a welcome email with no follow-up, an abandoned cart with one reminder, and nothing else switched on.
The other reason flows matter more in a niche category: your audience is finite. You can't outspend a mass-market brand on acquisition, so revenue has to come from converting and retaining the people who already found you.
The nine flows
1. Welcome series
- Trigger:
- Triggers on sign-up form or pop-up submission
- Length:
- 4–5 emails over 10 days
Your highest-engagement moment. Deliver the offer, then earn trust before asking for a second sale.
Niche angle: For a reef store, email two should be a care guide, not a discount — enthusiasts buy from the shop that teaches them. Outdoor and 4WD brands do better with a build guide or gear checklist.
2. Abandoned checkout
- Trigger:
- Triggers on Started Checkout
- Length:
- 3 emails at 1 hour, 22 hours, 48 hours
Almost always the single highest revenue-per-recipient flow in the account. Highest intent, shortest window.
Niche angle: Include live stock language on limited items. In niche categories where a coral frag or a limited run of gear is genuinely one-of-one, scarcity is factual rather than manufactured.
3. Browse abandonment
- Trigger:
- Triggers on Viewed Product without a checkout
- Length:
- 2 emails at 4 hours and 24 hours
Catches research-heavy buyers who compare for days before purchasing.
Niche angle: Enthusiast categories have long consideration cycles. A single helpful email about the product they viewed converts better than a discount here.
4. Post-purchase
- Trigger:
- Triggers on Placed Order
- Length:
- 3–4 emails across 30 days
Reduces support tickets, drives reviews and sets up the second order — the hardest one to get.
Niche angle: Build for Australian transit times. Delay the review request to 10–14 days after fulfilment so the parcel has reached WA, NT and regional addresses first.
5. Replenishment
- Trigger:
- Triggers X days after a consumable purchase
- Length:
- 2 emails timed to product lifespan
Pure repeat revenue with no acquisition cost attached to it.
Niche angle: Reef salt, test kits, dosing additives, dog food, fuel filters — set the delay per product to the real consumption cycle rather than one global timer.
6. Back in stock
- Trigger:
- Triggers when a subscribed variant is restocked
- Length:
- 1–2 emails, first within minutes
Converts as hard as anything in the account because demand already exists.
Niche angle: Critical for stores with unpredictable supply — livestock, imported gear, small-batch runs. Send instantly; these sell out within hours.
7. Win-back
- Trigger:
- Triggers 60–120 days after the last order
- Length:
- 3 emails with escalating incentive
Recovers customers who drifted rather than churned.
Niche angle: Set the window to your category's real reorder gap. A tank owner buys monthly; a rooftop-tent buyer may not return for a year.
8. VIP
- Trigger:
- Triggers on lifetime-value or order-count threshold
- Length:
- Ongoing, low frequency
Protects the small group of customers producing most of your margin.
Niche angle: In niche communities your VIPs are known people. Early access and stock heads-up outperform discounting, which devalues the brand with the exact audience you can't afford to lose.
9. Sunset / list hygiene
- Trigger:
- Triggers on 90–120 days of no engagement
- Length:
- 2 emails, then suppress
Protects deliverability so the other eight flows keep reaching the inbox.
Niche angle: Small AU lists feel unsubscribes more, but sending to dead profiles is what quietly moves your campaigns to promotions and spam.
What to build first
- Week 1 — Abandoned checkout and welcome series. Fastest revenue, no historical data required.
- Week 2 — Post-purchase and browse abandonment. Lift repeat rate and catch researchers.
- Week 3 — Back in stock and replenishment. Wire these to real product data, not guesses.
- Week 4 — Win-back, VIP and sunset. These need a data cycle behind them, so build them last.
Get the AU Klaviyo flow templates
All nine flows as a build-ready pack: triggers, delays tuned for Australian shipping times, and an email-by-email outline you can copy straight into Klaviyo. Free — sent to your inbox.
Australian specifics most guides skip
- Set send windows to local time zones. Klaviyo's smart sending defaults are built around US behaviour; AEST evenings and Sunday mornings behave differently here.
- Allow for domestic transit. Review requests, replenishment reminders and cross-sell emails all need longer delays when parcels are crossing the country.
- Show prices in AUD including GST in flow emails, and be explicit about shipping thresholds — freight is the single biggest cart-abandonment reason for AU stores.
- Respect the Spam Act on consent: only email people who opted in, keep the record, and keep the unsubscribe honest. The sunset flow is part of that, not just deliverability.
- Seasonality is inverted. Summer campaigns land in December, and Q4 sale season overlaps with peak outdoor and aquarium activity rather than a quiet winter.
How to tell yours are underbuilt
- Email is under 10% of store revenue.
- Your welcome series is a single email with a discount code.
- Abandoned checkout is one reminder, or is still using the Shopify default.
- You have no back-in-stock flow despite regularly selling out.
- Nobody has been suppressed for inactivity in the last six months.
Any two of those and the flow stack is leaving money on the table — usually a four-figure amount per month at $20k+ in store revenue.
FAQ
Which Klaviyo flows should a Shopify store build first?
Welcome series, abandoned checkout and post-purchase. Those three cover the highest-intent moments — someone who just subscribed, someone who almost bought, and someone who just did. For most niche Australian stores they account for the majority of flow revenue before anything else is switched on.
How many flows does a niche store actually need?
Seven to nine well-built flows beat twenty half-finished ones. Welcome, abandoned checkout, browse abandonment, post-purchase, replenishment, back in stock, win-back, VIP and a sunset flow is a complete stack for a store doing under $100k a month.
What percentage of revenue should flows produce?
For a Shopify store with a properly built stack, flows typically produce 20–35% of total email revenue, and email overall lands around 25–35% of store revenue. If email is under 10% of your revenue, the flows are usually the gap — not the campaigns.
Do Australian stores need different flow timing?
Yes. Send windows should sit in AEST/AWST business hours rather than the US defaults Klaviyo ships with, and post-purchase timing needs to allow for longer domestic transit — a three-day review request lands before the parcel does when you're shipping from Melbourne to Perth or regional QLD.
How long before flows start producing revenue?
Abandoned checkout and welcome flows start earning within days because they trigger on existing traffic. Replenishment, win-back and sunset flows need a cycle of customer data behind them, so give those four to eight weeks before you judge the numbers.
Still deciding on a platform? Read Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for Shopify.
Related articles
Keep building out your Klaviyo setup with these guides.
The Klaviyo back in stock flow for stores that sell out
Turn restocks into revenue with a three-email sequence built for limited batches.
Read guideWin-BackThe Klaviyo win-back flow for lapsed customers
Purchase-cycle timing and discount rules that bring buyers back without wrecking margin.
Read guideComparisonKlaviyo vs Mailchimp for Shopify
How the two platforms compare on segmentation, flows and cost for niche stores.
Read guideRelated services
Klaviyo agency in Australia
Done-for-you flow builds, segmentation and campaigns for niche Shopify stores.
See the serviceFree Klaviyo audit
A short video review of your flows, forms and segments — what to fix first.
Get the auditAll Klaviyo guides
The full library of flow, segmentation and platform guides for AU stores.
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