How a Single Klaviyo Flow for Shopify Added $50K to Our Client's MRR

We took on a homewares brand with a solid email setup. Their welcome series was good. Their abandoned cart flow was making money.

But they had a leak. A big one.

Every month, hundreds of past customers were drifting away, never to be heard from again. There was no system in place to win them back. This single gap was costing them at least $50,000 in monthly revenue.

This isn’t an unusual story. I’ve seen this pattern across dozens of eCommerce accounts. Brands focus on acquiring new customers and converting prospects, but they forget about the goldmine in their existing customer list.

Here’s exactly how we built one Klaviyo flow that plugged the leak and added a consistent $50k to their monthly revenue.

The missing win-back Klaviyo flow for Shopify

When we first looked at this client’s account, the basics were covered. They were a growing brand on Shopify, doing well with their core product line. Their marketing team was sharp and had implemented a standard welcome series and abandoned cart flow in Klaviyo.

The problem wasn’t what they were doing. It was what they were not doing.

There was no strategy for customer retention beyond the initial post-purchase follow-up. Once a customer made a purchase and went through the post-purchase sequence, they were dropped into the general newsletter list. That was it.

This meant a customer who bought 6 months ago received the same weekly email as someone who bought yesterday. There was no targeted effort to re-engage customers who had become inactive. We identified this immediately during our initial review. It’s one of the first things we look for when we run a free Klaviyo audit.

Lapsed customers are a huge, untapped opportunity. These people have already bought from you. They know your brand and trust you enough to have given you their money once before. Letting them slip away without a fight is like setting a pile of cash on fire.

Our assessment was simple. The biggest and fastest opportunity for revenue growth was not in acquiring new customers. It was in reactivating the ones they already had. We proposed building a dedicated, automated win-back flow to do just that.

Building the targeted win-back Klaviyo flow for Shopify

A good win-back flow isn’t just a single “we miss you” email. It’s a strategic sequence designed to re-engage a specific type of customer. We started by defining exactly who we were targeting.

First, we had to define ‘lapsed’. This is different for every brand. For a brand selling consumables, ‘lapsed’ might be 60 days. For this homewares brand, where purchase frequency is lower, we worked with their data and set the trigger at 120 days post-purchase with no new activity.

With the trigger defined, we architected the flow itself. We planned a multi-step sequence with specific goals for each email, using Klaviyo’s deep integration with Shopify to pull in all the data we needed. We also built A/B testing into the structure from day one to continuously optimise subject lines, offers, and send times.

Understanding the customer journey for re-engagement

Before writing a single word, we mapped out why a customer might have lapsed. Did they forget about the brand? Did they find a competitor? Were they waiting for a new product release?

Our flow needed to address these possibilities. The timing of the first email was critical. Too soon, and it feels pushy. Too late, and they’ve already moved on. The 120-day mark felt like the right moment to start the conversation again.

The strategy for this flow shared principles with our framework for welcome emails, which you can read about in The Elite Brands Framework for Your Klaviyo Welcome Flow. Both flows need to understand the user’s mindset at a specific point in their journey and deliver the right message at the right time.

Designing the multi-step sequence for maximum impact

We designed a three-email sequence over 14 days.

Email 1 (Day 120): The Gentle Nudge. The goal here was simple recognition and value, not a hard sell. The subject line was something like “It’s been a while”. The content reminded them of the brand’s value proposition and highlighted a few best-selling or new products. There was no discount.

Email 2 (Day 127): Social Proof & Newness. If they didn’t engage with the first email, the second one aimed to rebuild interest. We used dynamic content to showcase products related to their last purchase. We also included customer testimonials and user-generated content to remind them why they liked the brand in the first place.

Email 3 (Day 134): The Compelling Offer. This was the final step. For customers who still hadn’t re-engaged, we presented a strong, time-sensitive offer. It wasn’t a generic 10% off. It was a compelling reason to come back now, like “25% off your next order, this week only”. This created urgency and was often enough to convert those who were on the fence.

Smart segmentation and content for effective Klaviyo flows for Shopify

A generic win-back flow gets generic results. The real power comes from segmentation and personalisation. We didn’t just target everyone who hadn’t bought in 120 days with the same message. We went much deeper.

We used Klaviyo’s segmentation tools to create branches within the flow. This allowed us to tailor the content and offers to different types of lapsed customers. This is a core principle we discuss in our guide, Why More Klaviyo Segments Don’t Always Mean More Revenue. It’s about creating a few, powerful segments that drive behaviour.

For this flow, we used two main segmentation strategies.

Defining ‘lapsed’ with precision

First, we segmented based on past purchase value. A customer who had spent $500 with the brand was treated differently than one who had spent $50.

• High-Value Lapsed Customers: These customers received a more aggressive offer in Email 3, sometimes including a higher discount or a free gift with purchase. The tone was more personal, acknowledging their past loyalty.
• Standard Lapsed Customers: These customers received the standard offer. The goal was still to win them back, but we protected margins by not giving away our best offer to everyone.

This simple split ensured we were investing our best offers in retaining our most valuable customers.

Crafting compelling, personalized messages

Second, we used dynamic content blocks based on their purchase history. Thanks to Klaviyo’s Shopify integration, this was straightforward.

If a customer previously bought bedding, their win-back emails would feature new duvet covers and sheet sets. If they bought kitchenware, we’d show them the latest glassware or cooking utensils.

The copy wasn’t just “Check out these products”. It was specific. “Love your linen sheets? See the new colours for summer.” This level of personalisation shows the customer you remember them and understand what they like. It’s far more effective than a generic blast.

Klaviyo provides excellent documentation on how to set this up. Their guide on creating a win-back flow is a good starting point for the technical setup, which you can find on the Klaviyo Help Centre. The strategy, however, is what makes it work.

The $50K MRR impact from our Klaviyo flow for Shopify

The results were immediate and significant.

Within the first 60 days of the flow going live, it was generating over $50,000 in monthly recurring revenue. This was revenue that simply did not exist before. It was all directly attributable to this single, automated sequence.

Let’s break down the numbers: - Attributed Revenue: A consistent $50,000+ per month. - Open Rate: Averaged 38% across the three-email sequence, well above their campaign average of 22%. - Click-Through Rate: 4.2%. - Conversion Rate: 2.8% of everyone who entered the flow made a purchase.

The most important metric was the re-activation rate. We successfully brought back 14% of their lapsed customer segment into an active purchasing state.

This didn’t just provide a one-time revenue bump. It had a lasting impact on customer lifetime value (CLTV). By re-engaging these customers, we put them back on the path to becoming repeat buyers. It is always cheaper to retain an existing customer than to acquire a new one, and this flow proved it.

The before-and-after was stark. Before, the brand had $0 in automated revenue from customers who hadn’t purchased in over 120 days. After, they had a new, reliable revenue stream that added over $600,000 to their annual top line. You can see more examples of this kind of impact by looking at our results with other brands.

Key lessons for your own Klaviyo flows for Shopify

This case study highlights a few critical lessons for any eCommerce brand using Shopify and Klaviyo.

Focus on quality over quantity. You don’t need 20 different automated flows. You need 3-5 killer ones that are highly optimised. A win-back flow should be one of them, right alongside your welcome series and abandoned cart.

Data-driven segmentation is non-negotiable. Don’t send the same message to everyone. Use the rich data from Shopify inside Klaviyo to segment your audience. Past purchase value and product category are two of the most powerful data points you have. Use them.

Continuous testing is crucial. We didn’t just launch this flow and walk away. We set up A/B tests on subject lines, offers, and timing from day one. A 2% improvement in conversion rate on a flow like this adds up to thousands of dollars over a year.

Don’t give up on ‘lapsed’ customers. They are one of your most valuable assets. They already know you and have purchased from you. A targeted, personalised effort to re-engage them has one of the highest ROIs of any marketing activity you can undertake.

Finally, sometimes you need an expert partner to see the opportunity that’s right in front of you. The brand’s team was busy with day-to-day operations. Our team was able to come in with a fresh perspective and identify this high-impact opportunity quickly. It’s a core part of how we work.

Take a look at your own Klaviyo account. Do you have a dedicated strategy for winning back customers who have drifted away?

If not, you are almost certainly leaving money on the table.

This single flow is a perfect example of how targeted automation can create a significant, predictable revenue stream. It requires a bit of strategic thinking and setup upfront, but once it’s running, it works for you 24/7.

If you suspect you have a similar leak in your customer lifecycle, we can help you find it.