Klaviyo Flow Audit: The Checklist, Diagnostics and Math We Use on Shopify Stores

Klaviyo flows are the automated emails and SMS that run behind a Shopify store. Set up well, they earn revenue every day without anyone pressing send. Left alone, they decay: templates break, codes expire, filters exclude the wrong people and deliverability slides.

We see the same pattern across audits: the flows exist, but nobody has checked whether they are triggered correctly, whether they overlap, or how much revenue each one should be producing. This guide is the process we use, written so you can run it yourself.

It covers a real example of what a structured email program can produce, the core flows with recommended timings, how to size each flow's revenue opportunity, a diagnostic table for common symptoms, deliverability checks and the metrics to review.

What a Structured Email Program Can Produce

For an Australian merchandise brand with a list of more than 100,000 subscribers, Growthtrait built and managed Klaviyo email around a real campaign calendar, segmentation and iteration based on results. In the final five months of 2023, email generated AUD 158,500 from 1,023 orders, with a 30 percent average open rate.

Two numbers are worth deriving from that. Revenue per email order was about AUD 155 (158,500 divided by 1,023), and the list produced roughly AUD 1.60 per subscriber over five months. Calculating the same two numbers for your own store is a quick first check of whether email is pulling its weight.

The lesson from that project was not to send more email. It was to give every send and every flow a clear role, a segment and a reason to exist, and to keep improving from results.

Step 1: Check the Core Flows and Their Timing

Compare your live flows with this blueprint. Timings are common starting points to test from, not fixed rules:

Welcome series

• Trigger: added to your newsletter list.
• Email 1, immediately: deliver any promised offer, say what the brand stands for.
• Email 2, about 2 days later: best sellers or the problem your products solve.
• Email 3, about 4 to 5 days later: social proof and reviews.
• Exit if the subscriber places an order.

Abandoned checkout

• Trigger: Started Checkout.
• Email 1 after about 1 hour: a simple reminder with the items.
• Email 2 after about 24 hours: answer objections such as shipping, returns or sizing.
• Email 3 after about 48 to 72 hours: optional incentive, only if margin allows.
• Filter: has not placed an order since starting the flow.

Abandoned cart and browse abandonment

• Abandoned cart, triggered by Added to Cart: one or two emails, excluding anyone who started checkout.
• Browse abandonment, triggered by Viewed Product: one or two light emails, excluding anyone who added to cart or checked out recently.

Post-purchase, winback and sunset

• Post-purchase, triggered by Placed Order: thank you and what to expect, then how to use the product, then a review request after delivery, then a relevant cross-sell.
• Winback: triggered when a customer passes your typical repurchase interval without ordering. Calculate that interval from your own data, for example the median days between first and second order.
• Sunset: identifies subscribers with no opens or clicks over a long window, sends a final re-engagement email, then suppresses those who stay inactive.

Step 2: Size the Revenue Each Flow Should Make

Sizing tells you which flow to fix first. Use your own numbers in these formulas:

• Abandoned checkout opportunity per month = checkouts started but not completed × recovery rate × AOV.
• Example: 1,000 abandoned checkouts a month, a 5 percent recovery rate and a 60 dollar AOV gives 3,000 dollars a month. Every extra percentage point of recovery adds 600 dollars.
• Flow revenue per recipient = flow revenue ÷ recipients. Compare it across flows and over time.
• Flow share of email revenue = flow revenue ÷ total email revenue. A low share usually means flows are missing, broken or underbuilt.

Find your recovery rate in the flow's own reporting: placed orders attributed to the flow divided by people who entered it. Start with the flow that has the largest gap between its potential and its current revenue.

Step 3: Check Triggers, Filters and Overlap

• Triggers fire on the right event, and the Shopify integration syncs events in real time.
• Flow filters remove people who have purchased since entering, so nobody gets a reminder after ordering.
• Abandonment flows do not stack: checkout beats cart, and cart beats browse.
• Smart sending and quiet hours are set deliberately, so flows and campaigns do not flood the same person on the same day.
• Every flow is live, not left in draft or manual mode after an edit.

Step 4: Diagnose the Symptoms

When a flow underperforms, the pattern of its metrics usually points to the cause:

• Low opens across all emails: likely deliverability or sender reputation. Check authentication, complaint rates and list hygiene first.
• Opens fine but low clicks: content or offer problem. Test the hero message, product blocks and call to action.
• Clicks fine but few orders: the problem is on site. Check the landing page, stock, price and checkout, not the email.
• High unsubscribes on email 1 of the welcome series: the signup promise and the first email do not match.
• Flow revenue dropping over months: look for expired codes, broken dynamic blocks or a filter that changed.
• Customers receiving several reminders at once: overlapping abandonment flows or missing exit conditions.

Step 5: Check Deliverability

Since February 2024, Google's sender guidelines require bulk senders to authenticate email, offer one-click unsubscribe and keep spam complaint rates low. Check that:

• Your sending domain is set up in Klaviyo with SPF and DKIM.
• A DMARC record is published for your domain.
• One-click unsubscribe works in every email.
• Spam complaint rates stay well below 0.3 percent, the threshold Google names.
• Inactive subscribers are regularly suppressed through the sunset flow.

Our glossary entry on email deliverability explains these terms in more detail.

Step 6: Review the Right Metrics

• Clicks rather than opens, because privacy features inflate open rates.
• Placed order rate and revenue per recipient for each flow and each email in it.
• Unsubscribe and spam complaint rates, especially on the first emails of each flow.
• Flow revenue share and revenue per subscriber, tracked monthly.

Step 7: Prioritize and Test

List every issue you found with its estimated revenue impact from Step 2, then fix in that order. Test one variable at a time in the highest volume flows: subject line, send time, offer or content. Re-run this audit at least twice a year and after any major site, offer or app change.

Get a Free Klaviyo Flow Audit

If you would rather have us run this for you, our free Klaviyo audit reviews your flows, setup and deliverability and sizes the missing revenue. For the wider strategy, read our guide to Shopify email marketing with Klaviyo, or contact us with questions.