Klaviyo flows vs campaigns: which actually makes more money?

Flows. Klaviyo’s benchmark data puts automated flows at roughly 5 percent of all sends but around 41 percent of email revenue. Per recipient, campaigns earn about $0.11 and flows earn about $3.65, more than 30 times as much. The reason is timing, not copy quality.

The numbers

Across Klaviyo’s benchmark data, the split between the two send types is lopsided in a way most brands do not expect:

• Share of sends. Flows are roughly 5 percent of everything sent.
• Share of revenue. Flows are roughly 41 percent of email revenue.
• Per recipient. Campaigns earn around $0.11. Flows earn around $3.65.

Put that per-recipient figure against a list of 1,000 people and the gap becomes concrete. The same 1,000 subscribers are worth about $110 through a campaign and about $3,650 through a flow. Same list, same brand, same products.

Why the gap is that big

It is not that flow copy is better written. It is that a flow is sent at a moment the recipient chose and a campaign is sent at a moment the brand chose.

A campaign goes to the whole list on Tuesday morning because Tuesday morning is when the brand decided to send. Most people receiving it were not shopping, were not thinking about the category, and have no particular reason to act. A small percentage happen to be in market and they carry the entire result.

A flow waits. It fires forty minutes after someone left a full cart, or the morning after someone looked at the same product twice, or four days after an order arrived. Intent already exists and the email meets it. That is the whole mechanism, and it is why the ratio holds across brands and categories rather than being a quirk of one store.

Baymard Institute puts average documented cart abandonment at around 70 percent. That figure is worth sitting with, because it means the majority of people who got far enough to add something to a cart left without buying. They are not cold traffic. They are the warmest audience a store has, and without a cart and checkout flow nothing follows up with them at all.

This is not an argument against campaigns

Campaigns do work flows cannot. A product launch, a seasonal push, a restock announcement, a genuine piece of brand news, anything anchored to a date rather than a behaviour. A store that only runs flows goes quiet between purchase moments and loses the relationship.

The failure mode is a store that runs campaigns only, with a thin or templated automated layer underneath. That store is paying full traffic costs to acquire visitors, capturing a fraction of them, and then relying on a Tuesday send to convert people who were ready to buy on Saturday. It also tends to lean on discounts, because a broadcast to an unsegmented list needs a reason to act, and the easiest reason to reach for is 20 percent off. Do that repeatedly and customers learn to wait for the next promotion, which costs margin on the sales that would have happened anyway.

The flows worth having

A reasonable baseline for almost any ecommerce store:

• Pop-up and welcome flow. Converts a first-time visitor into a subscriber and then into a first order.
• Browse abandonment. Follows up on product interest that never reached the cart.
• Cart abandonment. The highest-intent recovery flow a store has.
• Checkout abandonment. Separate from cart, because someone who started checkout is further along and needs different handling.
• Post-purchase. Sets up the second order, which is where margin actually lives.
• Winback. Reaches customers who bought once and went quiet.

Beyond that baseline the useful flows depend on the brand: replenishment cycles for consumables, size and fit education for apparel, VIP tiers for high repeat rates, and segment-specific versions of the flows above. This is the part templates cannot do, because the right flow set is a function of the catalogue and the buying cycle rather than a checklist.

What this is worth to a store

Email should drive 30 to 40 percent of an ecommerce store’s revenue, and flows should be about half of that. Properly built flows therefore land at roughly 15 percent of total store revenue. On $100,000 a month that is around $15,000 a month, or $180,000 a year, from traffic the store is already paying to acquire.

The caveat matters as much as the number. That 15 percent assumes flows that are relevant to the brand and its customers. Generic flows installed to tick a box do not get there, and a store with all the right flow names switched on can still be leaving most of it behind. See what a full flow build costs or who builds them.

Common questions

Do Klaviyo flows make more money than campaigns?

Yes, by a large margin per recipient. Klaviyo's benchmark data puts flows at roughly 5 percent of total sends but around 41 percent of email revenue. Measured per recipient, campaigns earn around $0.11 and flows earn around $3.65, which is more than 30 times as much per person reached.

Why do flows earn so much more per email?

Timing. A campaign goes out on the sender's schedule to everyone at once, so most recipients get it at a moment when they were not thinking about buying. A flow fires on the recipient's behaviour, right after they abandoned a cart, browsed a product, or received an order. The message arrives while intent still exists, which is why the same list converts at a completely different rate.

Does that mean I should stop sending campaigns?

No. Campaigns still do work that flows cannot: launches, seasonal pushes, restocks, brand storytelling, and anything tied to a date rather than a behaviour. The mistake is not sending campaigns, it is sending only campaigns and leaving the automated side thin or templated.

Which Klaviyo flows should every ecommerce store have?

At minimum: a pop-up and welcome flow to convert new subscribers, a browse abandonment flow, a cart abandonment flow, a checkout abandonment flow, a post-purchase flow, and a winback flow for lapsed customers. Beyond that, the useful flows depend on the brand, its catalogue and its buying cycle.

How much revenue should flows add?

Email should drive 30 to 40 percent of an ecommerce store's revenue, and flows should make up about half of that. Properly built flows therefore tend to land at roughly 15 percent of total store revenue.

How many people abandon checkout?

Baymard Institute's research puts average documented cart abandonment at around 70 percent. That is the pool of already-interested buyers a cart and checkout abandonment flow exists to recover.