Every Klaviyo account has the same flows available. The accounts that make money from them look nothing like the ones that do not. Below is every core flow ranked by what it earns per recipient, using Klaviyo’s own 2026 data, what separates the top 10% of brands from the average, and the order to build them in.
Flows earn 41% of email revenue from 5% of sends
Klaviyo’s 2026 email marketing benchmarks, drawn from more than 183,000 customers, put the split plainly. Campaigns are 94.7% of sends. Flows are 5.3%. Flows produce nearly 41% of total email revenue, their click rate is 5.58% against 1.69% for campaigns, and revenue per recipient is nearly 18 times higher. Nearly half of flow revenue comes from new buyers, against 16% for campaigns.
That is the whole argument for flows in one paragraph. Campaigns are the hours. Flows are the money. At Toups & Co, where email is 55% of revenue, the flows were finished before the campaign calendar was.
How to rank a flow: revenue per recipient, checked against Shopify
Revenue per recipient (RPR) is the number Klaviyo uses and the one worth using. It is the revenue a flow attributes divided by the number of people it sent to, so a flow that reaches 500 people a month and a flow that reaches 50,000 can be compared. Open rates cannot do that, and they have been unreliable since Apple started pre-loading emails in 2021.
One caution before the ranking. Klaviyo books a flow email’s revenue on the day it was sent and credits any order inside its attribution window, five days by default. Shopify books the order on the order date. Read RPR in Klaviyo to rank your flows, then reconcile the 90-day total against Shopify before you believe the size of it.
1. Abandoned cart
The highest-earning flow in every industry Klaviyo reports. Average revenue per recipient is $6.77 for email and $4.48 for SMS, and the top 10% of brands reach $13.70 and $8.69. Average email click rate is 6.0%; the top 10% hit 11.3%.
The trigger is someone starting checkout and not finishing. The reason it earns the most is obvious, which is also why most brands build it once and stop. The gap between $6.77 and $13.70 is structure. Three emails instead of one, the first inside an hour, the cart contents shown in the email, a filter that drops anyone who bought in the meantime, and no discount in the first message. A discount in email one trains customers to abandon on purpose.
2. Welcome series
Average revenue per recipient is $5.75 for email and $3.33 for SMS, and the top 10% reach $13.27 and $7.07. The welcome series has the highest average click rate of any flow at 6.5%, with the top 10% at 13.3%.
The welcome flow is where almost half of flow revenue from new buyers starts, so it is the flow with the most upside for a brand that is growing its list. The top 10% version runs several emails over a week or more, delivers the signup offer in the first one, and splits buyers from non-buyers so a customer who just ordered stops getting asked to. A one-email welcome is the most common single failure in an email audit.
3. Browse abandonment
Average revenue per recipient is $2.08 for email and $1.04 for SMS; the top 10% reach $4.32 and $2.10. Email click rate averages 5.6%.
The trigger is a product view with no add to cart, which is a weaker signal than a cart, so the flow earns less and can burn the list if it fires on every view. The top 10% send once, show the product that was viewed, suppress anyone who later adds to cart or buys, and limit how often one person can enter the flow.
4. Post-purchase
Average revenue per recipient is $1.80 for email, with the top 10% at $2.77. Click rate averages 5.1% and reaches 10.5% for the top 10%.
Ranked by RPR the post-purchase flow looks like a minor flow. Ranked by what it does to lifetime value, it is the most important one on the list, because it is where a first buyer becomes a second buyer. The flow should start with a thank-you that sells nothing, then education on the product they bought, then the cross-sell timed to when they will actually want it. Asking for a review before the box arrives is the mistake to avoid.
5. Winback
Average revenue per recipient is $0.82 for email, with the top 10% at $1.60. Click rate averages 2.8%.
Winback earns the least per recipient because it is sent to people who have already stopped buying. It still pays, as long as the window matches your products. A 90-day winback on something people buy twice a year fires before the customer has any reason to return. Set the window from your real repeat-purchase cycle, not the Klaviyo default.
The flows the benchmarks do not rank
Three more belong in every account even though Klaviyo’s report does not score them. Back in stock, which only sends to people who asked to be told and converts accordingly. Sunset, which gives unengaged profiles one last chance and then suppresses them, so the dead weight stops hurting deliverability for every other flow. And the SMS version of the top two flows, since Klaviyo’s data shows abandoned cart and welcome earning well on text as well as email.
| Flow | Trigger | Average RPR (email) | Top 10% RPR (email) | What separates the top 10% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abandoned cart | Started checkout, no order | $6.77 | $13.70 | Three emails, first within an hour, no discount in the first |
| Welcome series | New subscriber | $5.75 | $13.27 | A week or more of emails, offer in the first, buyers split from non-buyers |
| Browse abandonment | Viewed a product, no cart | $2.08 | $4.32 | One send, product shown, suppressed on add to cart |
| Post-purchase | Placed order | $1.80 | $2.77 | Thank-you with no sell, then education, then a timed cross-sell |
| Winback | No order in a set window | $0.82 | $1.60 | Window set from the real repeat cycle |
Figures from Klaviyo’s 2026 abandoned cart benchmark report, based on more than 110,000 Klaviyo customers.
What the gap between average and top 10% tells you
On every flow the top 10% earn about twice the average. The trigger is identical. The difference is the number of emails, the timing of the first one, who gets filtered out, and whether anyone has tested the flow since it launched. None of that costs money. It costs someone’s attention, which is why an audit of a Klaviyo account usually finds the flows switched on and unfinished.
What to build first
If you have nothing, build in this order. Welcome, because every new subscriber enters it and it carries the most new-buyer revenue. Abandoned checkout, because it earns the most per recipient. Browse abandonment, because it is the next largest audience. Post-purchase, because it is where repeat revenue starts. Winback, once you know your repeat cycle. Sunset, so the list stays healthy enough for the other five to land.
If you have all six, read each one’s revenue per recipient for the last 90 days in Klaviyo, compare it to the averages above, and start with the flow furthest below its line. Our email marketing audit checklist covers the rest of the account.
Questions people ask
What are the best Klaviyo flows?
Ranked by revenue per recipient in Klaviyo's 2026 benchmarks: abandoned cart ($6.77 average, $13.70 for the top 10% of brands), welcome series ($5.75 and $13.27), browse abandonment ($2.08 and $4.32), post-purchase ($1.80 and $2.77) and winback ($0.82 and $1.60). Every account also needs a sunset flow for list health and a back-in-stock flow where it applies.
Which Klaviyo flow makes the most money?
Abandoned cart. It leads every other flow on revenue per recipient in both email and SMS, at $6.77 per email recipient on average and $13.70 for the top 10% of brands. Welcome is close behind at $5.75 and $13.27, and it produces more new-buyer revenue because every new subscriber passes through it.
How many Klaviyo flows should an ecommerce brand have?
Six core flows cover most of the revenue: welcome, abandoned checkout, browse abandonment, post-purchase, winback and sunset. Add back in stock if products sell out, and SMS versions of welcome and abandoned cart once the list is opted in. More flows than that usually means overlapping sends to the same people, which hurts deliverability more than it adds revenue.
What is a good revenue per recipient for a Klaviyo flow?
Use Klaviyo's 2026 averages as the floor and the top 10% as the target: abandoned cart $6.77 and $13.70, welcome $5.75 and $13.27, browse abandonment $2.08 and $4.32, post-purchase $1.80 and $2.77, winback $0.82 and $1.60. Across all flows, the top 10% of brands reach $7.79 per recipient. Read your numbers over 90 days and reconcile the total against Shopify orders.
Should I build the welcome flow or the abandoned cart flow first?
Welcome first if you are building from nothing, because every new subscriber enters it and nearly half of all flow revenue from new buyers starts there. Abandoned checkout second, because it earns the most per recipient. Both should be live within the first month. Everything else follows once those two are finished and tested.
Klaviyo email marketing for DTC brands
Flows, campaigns, design and deliverability, run as one program by senior people.
See how we run itFlows are the part of email that pays without weekly effort, which is exactly why they get built once and forgotten. If you want someone to find the gap between your numbers and the top 10% and close it, see how we run email marketing for DTC brands. Or book a call and bring your Klaviyo flow report. If you are deciding who should build them, start with how to choose a Klaviyo agency.
