How to Use Klaviyo for Email Marketing

Klaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform built specifically for ecommerce. Unlike general-purpose email tools, it connects directly to your store, tracks what each customer browses and buys, and uses that behavior to send automated, personalized messages. This guide walks through how to actually use it: setting up the account and deliverability, building the automated flows that drive most of the revenue, sending targeted campaigns, and reading the analytics that tell you what's working.

The short version, in five steps: connect Klaviyo to your store, build automated flows (welcome and abandoned cart first), grow your list with sign-up forms, send targeted campaigns to specific customer segments, and track performance to improve over time. The rest of this guide covers each in turn.

Setting up your Klaviyo account

The setup work isn't glamorous, but it determines whether your emails reach inboxes at all. Three things matter most at the start.

Connect Klaviyo to your store

Create an account, then connect it to your ecommerce platform — Klaviyo integrates with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and over 200 others, with a custom API for anything else. Once connected, it automatically syncs customer data like browsing behavior and purchase history. Turn on website tracking so it records every visit and action, which is the raw material for personalization. If you're migrating from another provider, clean your existing list before importing — bring over subscribers who actually open your emails, not dead addresses that will drag down your sender reputation.

Set up deliverability before you send

Poor deliverability means your emails land in spam, and it's far easier to protect a sender reputation than to repair one. Use a real sender name and address on your own domain (like hello@yourdomain.com). Set up a branded sending domain by adding SPF and DKIM records to your DNS, which tells email providers Klaviyo is authorized to send on your behalf, and configure DMARC authentication on top of that. New accounts should use Klaviyo's guided warming, which ramps up sending volume gradually so you don't torch your reputation out of the gate.

Grow your list with sign-up forms

Your email list is an asset you own outright, unlike social followings you rent. Klaviyo's forms capture subscribers on your site: exit-intent pop-ups that fire as a visitor goes to leave, less-intrusive fly-outs that slide in from the side, and embedded forms in your footer. Offer something for signing up — a discount or free shipping — and ask for permission to email at every touchpoint, including checkout. A larger, permission-based list is what makes everything downstream work.

The automated flows that drive the revenue

Flows are email (and SMS) sequences triggered by customer actions, and they're the core of Klaviyo. Automated flows can generate many times more revenue per send than one-off campaigns, because they reach people at the exact moment of intent. Klaviyo ships pre-built templates for the essential ones, so you're editing a starting point rather than building from scratch. Two flows account for most of the revenue.

The welcome series

A new subscriber's first impression, and a consistently high converter — welcome emails average roughly a 2% placed-order rate, well above one-off campaigns. Three to five emails over about a week works well: the first arrives immediately with any promised discount and introduces the brand; later emails feature best-sellers, customer reviews, or your story. The flow triggers on subscription, so it runs entirely on its own once built.

The abandoned cart flow

Nearly 70% of online carts are abandoned, which makes this the single highest-value recovery flow — abandoned-cart emails average around $3 in recovered sales per recipient. Timing matters: a friendly reminder one to four hours after abandonment, a second email at 12–24 hours showing the exact products left behind, and a final message at 24–48 hours that may include a small incentive like free shipping. Klaviyo pulls in the abandoned items automatically, and adding an SMS step to the sequence measurably increases recovery.

The other flows worth building

Once the two big ones are running, these round out the customer lifecycle:

• Post-purchase — thank customers, set expectations, and request reviews.
• Browse abandonment — reach visitors who viewed a product but never added it to cart.
• Win-back — re-engage customers who've gone quiet, sometimes with an offer.
• Back-in-stock — automatically alert customers when a sold-out item returns.
• Birthday — a timed offer tied to a customer's birthday.

Campaigns and customer segments

Where flows are automated and behavior-triggered, campaigns are one-time sends — newsletters, promotions, launches — to your whole list or a defined segment. Both matter, and they do different jobs.

Sending a campaign

Klaviyo's drag-and-drop editor handles the build. Brand your templates once with your logo and colors, and use universal content blocks for repeating sections (like headers) so a single edit updates them everywhere. Always send a test to check formatting across devices before scheduling. The gap between an average campaign and a strong one is large — typical campaigns convert well under 0.1%, while well-targeted sends to the right segment convert several times higher. The difference is almost entirely about who you send to.

Segmentation is the real lever

Sending the right message to the right people is what separates effective email from list-blasting. Klaviyo builds precise segments from the data it collects:

• Engagement — subscribers by how recently they opened or clicked (last 30, 60, 90+ days), so you can send more to the engaged and rest the rest.
• Purchase history — first-time buyers, repeat customers, high spenders.
• Behavior — people who viewed a product but didn't buy.
• Location and preferences — by region or stated interests.

Klaviyo's predictive features go further, estimating a customer's likely future spend or churn risk so you can target accordingly. Sending less, but more relevantly, almost always beats sending more.

Adding SMS

SMS has high open rates and immediate attention, which makes it a strong complement to email rather than a replacement. The most effective use is inside flows — an SMS reminder after the abandoned-cart email, for instance — with SMS-only sends reserved for genuinely time-sensitive news like a flash sale. It's a personal channel, so every message needs to earn its place. Getting explicit opt-in consent before texting is legally required, and Klaviyo provides the tools to collect it.

Reading the analytics

Sending is only the start; the data tells you what to do next. You don't need to be an analyst to use Klaviyo's reports — a handful of metrics carry most of the signal.

The metrics that matter

• Open rate — how many opened. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection inflates this, so treat it as directional; Klaviyo flags the affected data.
• Click rate — how many clicked through. High opens with low clicks means the subject worked but the content or offer didn't.
• Conversion rate — how many purchased after the email. The most direct measure of value.
• Revenue per recipient — average revenue from each person sent, the cleanest way to compare sends.
• Unsubscribe rate — a climbing rate signals you're sending too often or to the wrong people.

You can adjust the conversion-tracking window (five days by default) and compare against Klaviyo's industry benchmark reports to see where you stand.

A/B testing

Testing replaces guessing, and the one rule that makes it valid is to change a single variable at a time. Worth testing: subject lines (question vs. statement, urgency vs. curiosity), email copy (short vs. long, formal vs. casual), calls-to-action (wording and button treatment), send times (by day and hour), and sign-up form offers (a percentage discount vs. free shipping). Klaviyo can send the winning variant automatically once a test resolves. Continuous, disciplined testing is how good programs become great ones.

Frequently asked questions

What is Klaviyo email marketing?

Klaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform built for ecommerce. It connects to your online store, tracks each customer's browsing and purchase behavior, and uses that data to send automated, personalized messages — like welcome series, abandoned-cart reminders, and targeted campaigns. The behavioral data and deep store integration are what distinguish it from general-purpose email tools.

Is Klaviyo free or paid?

Klaviyo offers a free tier that covers a limited number of contacts and email sends per month, which is enough to start. Paid plans scale with the size of your contact list and add SMS sending, with pricing rising as your list grows. Most stores begin on the free plan and move to paid as their list and sending volume increase.

Is Klaviyo or Mailchimp better for ecommerce?

For ecommerce specifically, Klaviyo is generally the stronger choice because it was built around store data — its segmentation, automated flows, and revenue tracking are designed for online sellers. Mailchimp is a capable, often cheaper general-purpose email tool that suits businesses without deep ecommerce needs. The tradeoff is cost versus ecommerce depth: Klaviyo typically costs more but does more for a store. Many brands that outgrow Mailchimp's ecommerce features migrate to Klaviyo.

How many emails should I send to my list?

There's no universal number; one campaign per week is a reasonable starting cadence. Watch your metrics — rising unsubscribes mean you're sending too often, while strong opens and clicks mean you have room for more. Use segments to send more frequently to engaged subscribers and less to dormant ones, and balance promotional emails with useful content (a roughly 1:3 sales-to-value ratio is a common guide).

Can I use Klaviyo if I'm not on Shopify?

Yes. While Klaviyo is known for its Shopify integration, it works with BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and many others, plus a custom API for bespoke sites. You get the same core features — automation, segmentation, and analytics — regardless of platform.

The bottom line

Using Klaviyo well comes down to a sequence: set up the account and deliverability properly, build the welcome and abandoned-cart flows first, grow a permission-based list, send targeted campaigns to real segments rather than the whole list, and let the analytics guide what you change. The platform's value isn't in sending more email — it's in using store data to send the right message at the right moment, then improving it with testing. Done that way, the flows keep earning revenue long after they're built.

If you'd like help setting up or improving your Klaviyo email and SMS program, get in touch.