Klaviyo Abandoned Cart Flow – How to Increase Sales By Up To 300%

The Abandoned Cart Flow is without a doubt one of the biggest money-making automation for any eCom store – so taking the time to get the flow right is a big deal! 

In this article, I’m going to share with you exactly how to create a killer abandoned cart flow that’ll increase your sales by upwards of 200-300%. 

This isn’t a standard out-of-the-box automation either. This is a tried and tested abandoned cart flow that’ll turn on the cash machine for your eCom store. You can follow our guide to implement this for your own store, or if you want you can get a direct clone of this directly inside your Klaviyo account free of charge. Just complete the form below.

Ready? Hold onto your butts!

What is an Abandoned Cart Flow in Klaviyo?

Before we get into the design and creation of your abandoned cart flow, it’s important to understand exactly how the automation works – and where your customers are in their buying funnel. 

If you’re not familiar with a sales funnel, here’s how it works:

In a nutshell:

Top of Funnel: Customers don’t know you or your brand
Middle of Funnel: Customers show an interest in your products, they visit your website and they might add a product to your cart
Bottom of the funnel: Customer is ready to purchase. They normally just need a nudge or something to entice them to complete their purchase.

Someone who abandons their cart is right in the middle of the funnel. They like your products, your brand, and what you stand for.

They’re ready to make a purchase, but for whatever reason, they decided not to complete the checkout. There are a ton of reasons this can happen – maybe they’re not sure about shipping, they want to read more reviews, or they just want a sneaky coupon from you. Whatever the reason might be, they decide to abandon the cart. Our job is to get them back to the store and complete the purchase using your Klaviyo automation. Specifically the Abandoned Cart flow.

It’s not important to note that this isn’t the abandoned checkout flow – although the two are similar, an abandoned checkout is just after the abandoned cart flow. (It’s right before they hit the complete purchase button). A good eCommerce store will have both automation in place, but the abandoned cart flow will be the best option if you’re deciding between the two. 

Should I Offer a Discount to Abandon Carts?

This is the most common question most eCom store owners want to know.

Should you give shoppers a discount to get people to complete their purchases? 

The honest answer: It depends. 

Some brands only offer discounts during some periods of the year, whilst others are happy to offer a small discount to get a new customer because they know the average lifetime value of a customer. 

Here’s my suggestion: Try running an abandoned cart sequence without a discount code, and see if you can capture those lost sales first. You can always offer a discount code on the second or third email in your flow. 

You can also run a split test in your Klaviyo flows to see what performs better (discount vs. no discount). The results will probably surprise you! 

Building a Klaviyo Abandoned Cart Flow

Alrighty, let’s get this abandoned cart flow up and running. 

There are two ways to get this flow set up. You can follow the instructions below or you can complete this short form and I can clone the flow from my account to yours. 

Step 1:

Inside your Klaviyo dashboard, click flows on the left-hand side menu, then click ‘Create flow’ on the right-hand side (black button). 

Step 2:

On the next screen, you’ll have the option to create a new flow or use a template from the pre-built Klaviyo flows. If you use the search bar at the top and enter ‘cart’ you’ll be able to filter all the flows down to just abandoned cart. For this flow, select the ‘Added to Cart Trigger’ (see the screenshot). 

Step 3: 

Give your new flow a name (see image), I normally add in Shop: Date of the new flow – flow name. This keeps things easy to manage and find in Klaviyo. Plus I also know when the flow was created so I can come back and optimise it at a later date (important).

Step 4:

On the next screen, you can start building out the flow. It’s super important that you don’t leave the pre-built flow in place – they’re incredibly generic and won’t drive anywhere near the revenue that’s possible. The good news is I’m going to give you my kick-ass-make-a-crap-ton-of-cash-money-maker flow. 

You’re welcome. 

Note: If you click the ‘Trigger’ at the top of the flow, you can expand out the flow filter to see how customers are actually entering each flow. Obviously, for this one, it’s ‘Started Checkout’.

Step 5: 

Now it’s time to make your flow into a beastly cash monster. 

Start by adding an additional 3 emails, with a 2-day time delay between each one. Simply drag and drop them from the left-hand side menu.

So many brands get this wrong – because they leave the abandon cart sequence at 1 email. 

People are often forgetful (I’m terrible) and they need multiple reminders before they make a purchase. In fact, one study shows that we often need up to 7 exposures to something before we make a purchase decision. (I think I fall into that category lol 🤣)

Step 6: 

Create a simple template to use for all of the emails in your abandoned cart sequence. This might not be applicable to all brands, but I recommend you take the time to create a template for all your Klaviyo emails. 

Note: If you haven’t created a reusable template in Klaviyo before, it’s super simple and a massive time saver. We typically create these for the brands we help and it’s the perfect way to create lots of new emails in a short time frame. To create a template, go to your dashboard, and select ‘Content > Templates’. Create a nice header with a brand logo, a copy block, and 2-3 image blocks. 

Step 7: By now you should have your template sorted, added 3 new emails, and some time delays between each. If you’re getting lost, this is basically what it looks like:

Email 1: Trigger: Added to Cart 

Template: Simple Header > Short Copy > Single Call to Action button > Footer

Size: 100kb~ 

Email headlines: 

• Whoops…
• Was this yours?
• Yikes, did you drop this?
• Forget your cart?
• Hey hey – was this yours? 

Time delay: 24 hours from previous email

Email 2: 

Template: Simple Header > Short Copy > Single Call to Action button > Footer

Email headlines: 

• Should we return your items?
• Very limited stock available
• %firstname%, your item is in the warehouse
• Friendly reminder before we return your items to the warehouse

Time Delay: 2 Days

Email 3: 

Template: Simple Header > Short Copy > Single Call to Action button > Footer

Email headlines: 

• Final reminder before we return your items
• Any questions?
• Shipping questions?
• Hey, CEO here – need any help?

Time Delay: 2 Days

Email 4: 

Template: Simple Header > Short Copy > Single Call to Action button > Footer

Email headlines: 

• Discount inside! 
• You twisted my arm – discount inside
• [Coupon Inside] 10% 
• [10% OFF] 24 hours only 

Some brands will opt for a 5th email which gives a small gift or another incentive to get people to complete their purchase. For most brands, this isn’t necessary though. 4 really well-thought-out emails are typically more than enough. 

See how we didn’t just jump to the discount straight away? The discount is often the very LAST email in the sequence. This means you’re making more per website visitor, bringing up your value per subscriber. 

Depending on the brand, we sometimes split testing free shipping vs. a discount on the final email. If free shipping is a cheaper alternative vs. a small discount, test it and see which one delivers the best results. 

(If you have large products shipping might not be the best option). 

Taking it to the Next Level: How to Get The Most Revenue From Your List

Once you’ve got your new Abandoned Cart Sequence in place, how do you get the most from it? By doing ongoing optimisation of your headlines, copy, offers and discounts.

You should also split test variations of the email copy, graphics, and new call to actions. Whilst this takes some effort, it can add thousands of dollars to your bottom line without having to spend a cent on new ads or marketing.

Wrapping Up and My Experience With Abandoned Cart Flows

The Abandoned Cart Flow is incredibly powerful for any eCom brand. Unfortunately, most brands only have a single reminder that typically offers a generic discount. If you take the time to create several reminders in your flow, optimise them over a few months, and run split tests, you can see a HUGE increase in sales. 

If you want to get a copy of our abandoned cart sequence that has done millions of dollars in sales, you can request a free copy by completing this form:

We’ll clone into your account free of charge (and provide you with a free audit to help you increase email revenue). 

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