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Before you spend on paid ads, build these five Klaviyo flows. They drive 41% of email revenue from just 5% of sends. Here's the architecture, flow by flow.
Most fashion brands spend their first £5,000 on Meta ads. They should spend it on Klaviyo flows first.
Automated Klaviyo flows generate nearly 18x more revenue per email sent than broadcast campaigns. Flows account for just 5.3% of total email sends but drive close to 41% of total email revenue. That is not a rounding error. That is the difference between a leaking bucket and one that holds water.
Running paid ads before your flows are live means paying to fill that leaking bucket. Every pound spent on acquisition loses value the moment someone hits your site, because without flows, there is no system to capture, nurture, or convert them.
Build these five flows first. Then run ads.
When it triggers: a new subscriber joins your list via popup, checkout, or lead magnet.
This is the highest-engagement window you will ever have with a subscriber. Open rates on welcome emails run 3 to 4x higher than regular campaigns. The subscriber just raised their hand. They are paying attention. Do not waste it on a single "Thanks for signing up" email.
What a good welcome series looks like for a fashion brand:
Email 1, sent immediately: deliver the incentive. One image. One CTA. Do not overwhelm.
Email 2, day 2: tell the brand story. Not your founding date, the reason the brand exists. What does your label stand for? Give people something to belong to.
Email 3, day 4: social proof. Best reviews, most-worn pieces, real customer photos. Let other people do the selling.
Email 4, day 7: soft urgency. If the discount code has not been used, remind them it expires. If they have already bought, skip this and move to the post-purchase flow.
The most common mistake: sending one welcome email and calling it a sequence. That is not a sequence.
When it triggers: someone adds to cart and leaves without buying.
The average eCommerce cart abandonment rate sits between 70 and 75%. For fashion brands specifically, where sizing anxiety and "I will come back later" are common, that number often runs higher. A solid cart recovery flow recaptures 5 to 15% of those lost sales automatically.
Email 1, one hour after abandonment: simple. "You left something behind." Show the product. Make it easy to return. No pressure.
Email 2, 24 hours later: social proof on the specific product. A review, a low-stock notice if true, or a quick note on your returns policy. Address the silent objections before they harden.
Email 3, 72 hours later: urgency. Genuine low stock if you have it. A small incentive if your margins allow. But do not make this your default first move.
The biggest mistake brands make: discounting in Email 1. It trains the part of your list that would have bought anyway to always wait for the offer.
When it triggers: order confirmed.
Most brands go quiet after the sale, or launch straight into a review request. The post-purchase window is the best chance you have to build loyalty, cut returns, and generate a second purchase. Customers who buy twice are far more likely to stick around than those who only buy once.
Email 1, immediately: order confirmation. Make it warm, not a receipt. This is the most-opened email you will ever send. Use it to reinforce the purchase and set expectations.
Email 2, day 3: build anticipation. "Your order is on its way." How-to-wear content works well here for fashion brands.
Email 3, day 7: check in. Ask for feedback before you ask for a review. If something went wrong, catch it here.
Email 4, day 14: cross-sell. Based on what they bought, suggest something that works with it. Klaviyo's product recommendation blocks are built for exactly this.
Email 5, day 30: ask for the review. They have had the product long enough to have a genuine opinion.
Most brands skip this flow entirely and only email when there is a problem. That is backwards.
When it triggers: someone views a product page or collection but does not add to cart.
These are warm leads who showed interest but not enough to commit. The volume here is usually much higher than cart abandonment, even if the urgency is lower.
Email 1, four to six hours after browsing: light and non-pushy. "Still thinking about it?" Show the product. Add one detail they may have missed: materials, an editorial shot, a note on how it has been styled.
Email 2, 48 hours later: only send if they have not purchased. Social proof or a back-in-stock signal if relevant.
One thing worth saying for fashion specifically: if your emails do not look as good as your products, no amount of clever copy will convert a style-conscious buyer. The visual quality matters as much as the words.
When it triggers: a previously active subscriber or customer has not engaged or purchased in 60 to 90 days.
Inactive subscribers drag down deliverability. And lapsed customers cost far less to reactivate than new customers cost to acquire. A win-back flow does both jobs at once.
Email 1, at 60 days inactive: "We have missed you." A best-seller or a new arrival. No pressure.
Email 2, at 75 days: a real offer. Not 10%. If you want someone who has gone cold to come back, make it worth their while.
Email 3, at 90 days: last chance. "This is the last time we will be in touch" consistently outperforms standard re-engagement copy because it is true and people know it.
After Email 3 with no response: suppress them. A smaller, engaged list performs better than a large, disengaged one every time.
These five flows are not a nice-to-have. They are the infrastructure that makes everything else worth paying for. When your paid ads bring in traffic, your welcome flow captures it. When someone nearly buys, your cart flow recovers them. When they do buy, your post-purchase flow turns them into someone who buys again.
Without this in place, you are paying for traffic that has nowhere useful to go.
At Digitox, every new email client starts here. Before we look at a campaign calendar. Before we touch a paid media brief. Get the flows right first. Then scale.
Once your flows are running, the next question most brands hit is how flows and campaigns should work together. We cover that in Klaviyo Flows vs Campaigns: Why Flows Should Generate 40% of Your Email Revenue.
Want us to audit your current Klaviyo setup? We will show you exactly which flows are missing and what they are costing you.
Digitox is a London-based eCommerce marketing agency helping DTC brands grow through strategy-led email, paid media, Shopify, and creative.
Where strategy meets creativity. Delivering ideas that move brands forward.
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