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CAMPAIGNS VS FLOWS

The Klaviyo Strategy Most Shopify Brands Get Wrong

"Email isn't really working for us." It's the line we hear from almost every Shopify founder before they actually look at what's in their Klaviyo account. The truth is, email is working exactly as it's been set up to work. The problem isn't the channel. It's that most brands treat campaigns and flows as the same thing, and run their entire email program on the wrong one.

Once you understand the difference between campaigns and flows, and how they're supposed to work together, email stops feeling like a struggle and starts behaving like the most profitable channel in your business.

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What Are Flows?

Flows are automated email sequences triggered by customer behaviour. Someone subscribes, adds to cart, completes a purchase, or goes quiet, and a pre-built sequence kicks in automatically.

You set them up once. They run forever.

The triggers are behavioural, which means flows are inherently relevant. The customer just did something. Your email shows up at the exact moment it's most useful.

Examples of common flows:

  • Welcome series (triggered when someone subscribes)
  • Abandoned cart and abandoned checkout (triggered when a session is abandoned)
  • Post-purchase (triggered when an order is placed)
  • Browse abandonment (triggered when a product page is viewed)
  • Winback (triggered when a customer hasn't purchased in 60 to 90 days)

Why this matters: Flows typically generate 60 to 70% of total email revenue for a healthy Shopify store. They're the engine of your email program. Without them, you have no engine.

What Are Campaigns?

Campaigns are one-off, manually-sent broadcasts. You build them, you pick the audience, you hit send.

They're how you handle:

  • New product launches
  • Sales and promotions
  • Brand storytelling and editorial content
  • Seasonal moments (Black Friday, Mother's Day, restocks)
  • Founder updates and behind-the-scenes content

Where flows are reactive (triggered by behaviour), campaigns are proactive. They give you the chance to stay top of mind in the weeks and months between purchases, surface new products, and keep the brand alive in people's inboxes.

A good campaign cadence sits somewhere between one and three sends per week, depending on category and list health.

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Why You Need Both

Flows handle the moments your customer creates. Campaigns handle the moments you create.

Run only flows and you'll capture every cart and every welcome, but your list will go dormant between buying cycles and forget you exist.

Run only campaigns and you'll keep showing up, but you'll miss every abandoned cart, every welcome moment, every post-purchase upsell, every winback opportunity. Worse, you'll burn out your list with bulk sends because that's all you've got.

The brands hitting 30 to 40% of revenue from email aren't doing anything magical. They've built the flows, then layered campaigns on top.

The Trap Most Shopify Brands Fall Into

Here's the pattern we see again and again.

A founder sets up Klaviyo. Maybe they get a welcome email live, maybe an abandoned cart. Then life happens. The flows stay frozen at "draft."

Meanwhile, they start sending weekly campaigns. To the entire list. Same offer, same audience, every Friday.

Within a few months:

  • Open rates drop
  • Click rates collapse
  • Unsubscribes climb
  • Sender reputation tanks (which means even engaged customers stop seeing emails in their inbox)
  • Revenue per send falls off a cliff
  • Founder concludes "email doesn't work for us"

It's not that email doesn't work. It's that bulk-blasting an unsegmented list with no flows behind it is the worst way to use it.

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The Fix

The fix is simple in concept, but it has to be done in this order:

1. Build the core flows first. Welcome series, abandoned cart and checkout, post-purchase, browse abandonment, winback. This is the foundation. Without flows, campaigns are just shouting into the void.

2. Clean and segment your list. You don't need every contact in your account to be on every campaign. Identify your engaged subscribers, your VIPs, your first-time vs repeat buyers, and your dormant contacts. Send to the people who actually want to hear from you.

3. Layer campaigns on top. Now your campaigns are doing what they're designed to do: drive new product engagement, support launches, keep the brand alive between purchases. They're a complement to your flows, not a substitute for a strategy.

This is the difference between an email program that generates 8% of your revenue and one that generates 30%+.

What "Working Right" Actually Looks Like

When the structure is right, a typical revenue split looks something like:

  • Flows: 60 to 70% of email revenue
  • Segmented campaigns: 25 to 35% of email revenue
  • Bulk sends (entire list): close to zero, because you almost never send to the entire list

Open rates stay above 35 to 40%. Click rates hold above 1.5 to 2%. Unsubscribes stay below 0.3% per send. And total email revenue sits at 25 to 40% of store revenue.

That's not optimistic. That's what a properly structured account looks like.

Where to Start: If your account doesn't have flows live yet, start there. One flow at a time, in priority order: welcome, cart and checkout, post-purchase.

If you have flows but your campaigns are going to the entire list every week, your next move is segmentation. The lift from sending the right campaign to the right segment is significant on its own.

The two together (proper flows plus segmented campaigns) is where the compounding starts.

Want a Setup That Actually Earns?

If your Klaviyo account is doing less than 25% of your store revenue, the structure isn't right yet. We help Shopify brands build flows, segment intelligently, and run campaigns that don't burn their list.

Enquire about a project with us below and we'll review your current setup and show you exactly where the gaps are.

Enquire here

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