Email and SMS flows for ecommerce: the automations every store needs

Paid ads bring people to your store. Email and SMS bring them back, at a fraction of the cost per message. The most valuable part of a retention program is not the weekly newsletter but the automated flows: messages triggered by what a shopper does, sent at the right moment, that keep working while you sleep.

This guide covers the flows every e-commerce store should run, what goes in each, and the deliverability and consent rules you need to follow in the US and France. Examples use Klaviyo because it is common on Shopify, but the logic applies to any email platform.

Before the flows: deliverability and consent

A perfect flow is worthless if it lands in spam or breaks the law. Get these foundations right first.

Authenticate your sending domain

Gmail's email sender guidelines require every sender to set up SPF or DKIM, and senders of more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts to set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC, support one-click unsubscribe on marketing messages, and keep the spam rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.3%. Google recommends staying below 0.1%. Yahoo publishes similar sender best practices. Even if you are below the bulk threshold today, set all three up now; it is easier than fixing reputation later.

Collect consent properly

• France (and the EU): the CNIL's guidance on electronic marketing requires prior, specific consent from consumers, given through a positive action such as an unticked checkbox. There is an exception for existing customers when you market similar products, but the CNIL is clear that creating an account without a purchase does not count.
• United States, email: the rules are less strict than in France, but opt-in lists perform better anyway, and Gmail asks senders to make sure recipients opted in.
• United States, SMS: marketing texts need express written consent, clear disclosures and working opt-out keywords. The carrier industry's CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices describe what is expected. Ask a lawyer to review your SMS signup form before you launch.

If you sell in both countries, collect the shopper's country at signup so you can apply the right rules and language from the first message.

Flow 1: Welcome series

Trigger: someone joins your list through a signup form.

The welcome series is the first impression for people who are interested but haven't bought. A solid structure:

1. Immediately: deliver whatever you promised at signup, and say what they will receive from you and how often.
2. A day or two later: your story and what makes the product different. Founders' stories work well here.
3. A few days later: social proof. Reviews, photos from customers, press.
4. Later: answer the most common objection (fit, price, results, delivery), then a reminder of any offer before it expires.

Exit anyone who places an order from this flow, so you don't send a "still thinking about it?" email to someone who just bought.

Flow 2: Browse abandonment

Trigger: a known subscriber views a product but doesn't add it to the cart.

Keep it light: one or two messages showing the product they looked at, plus a few related products or reviews. No discount by default. This flow only works for visitors your platform can identify, which is one more reason to grow your list.

Flow 3: Abandoned cart and checkout

Trigger: a shopper adds to cart or starts checkout but doesn't finish.

Cart abandonment is common. Baymard Institute's compilation of 50 studies puts the documented average at 70.22%. A typical sequence:

1. Within a few hours: a simple reminder showing the cart contents, with a direct link back to checkout.
2. The next day: address the reasons people hesitate. Shipping cost, delivery time, returns, payment options.
3. A couple of days later, optionally: an incentive. Use it carefully. If every abandoned cart gets a discount, some customers learn to abandon on purpose.

SMS can work well for the first reminder, for subscribers who opted in. Many of the reasons for abandonment are best fixed on the site itself; our Shopify product page CRO checklist covers them.

Flow 4: Post-purchase

Trigger: an order is placed.

The post-purchase flow decides whether a first order becomes a second. Split it between first-time and returning customers:

• Thank you and what happens next. Separate from the transactional confirmation. Gmail's guidelines advise against mixing promotions into receipts.
• How to get the most from the product. Usage tips, care instructions, a short video. This reduces returns and support tickets.
• Review request once the product has arrived and been used for a while, not on the day it ships.
• Cross-sell of products that genuinely complement what they bought.

Flow 5: Replenishment or next purchase

Trigger: time since the last order.

For consumables, time the reminder to when the product typically runs out. Look at your own data for the usual gap between first and second orders. For non-consumables, use the same idea to suggest the next logical product, such as a matching item or a new collection.

Flow 6: Win-back

Trigger: a customer hasn't purchased in a longer period than is typical for your store.

Start with what's new since they last bought. Add an incentive in a later message if needed. Finally, if they still don't engage, stop sending to them or reduce frequency. Sending to people who never open hurts your reputation with mailbox providers; Gmail even suggests unsubscribing recipients who don't open or read your messages.

Optional flows worth adding

• Back in stock: lets shoppers sign up for a sold-out variant.
• Price drop: notifies shoppers when a viewed product goes on sale.
• Sunset: a final "do you want to stay?" message before suppressing unengaged subscribers.
• VIP: early access for your best customers.

Klaviyo's getting started with flows guide explains how triggers, filters and time delays work if you are building these for the first time.

Writing for two markets

If you sell in the US and France, don't run one flow and machine-translate it. Build separate versions:

• Written natively in each language, with the right tone. French customers often respond to a more measured tone than the enthusiastic style common in US e-commerce.
• With the right currency, sizes, delivery promises and returns policy.
• Timed for the right time zone.
• Following the consent rules of each market, as described above.

Our guide to scaling a DTC brand from France to the US covers the other parts of localization.

Measuring what the flows are worth

• Revenue per recipient for each flow and each message, to find weak spots.
• Clicks and conversions rather than opens. Privacy features in mail apps make open rates unreliable, and Gmail states that it can't verify open rates reported by third parties.
• Holdout tests for flows with incentives: keep a small group that receives no discount and compare. Otherwise you may be paying discounts to people who would have bought anyway.
• Unsubscribes and spam complaints per message, to catch anything that annoys subscribers.

Common mistakes

• Discounting by default. If every flow ends with a code, you train customers to wait for one. Test whether reassurance alone does the job first.
• Sending everything to everyone. Segment by engagement and purchase history, so loyal customers and new subscribers get different messages.
• Forgetting plain-text readability. Many emails are image-only. If images don't load, the message is blank. Keep key information in live text.

Checklist

• SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up; one-click unsubscribe working
• Consent collected correctly for each country and channel
• Welcome, browse abandonment, cart abandonment, post-purchase, replenishment and win-back flows live
• Buyers excluded from pre-purchase flows
• Separate versions for each language and market
• Flows reviewed monthly against revenue per recipient

Retention is what makes your acquisition costs affordable. Pair these flows with a solid Meta ads setup, and if you don't have the time to build them, read agency vs in-house or request a free audit of your current email program.