Skip to main content

    Automate the customer journey with flows

    Course overview
    Lesson
    4 min read

    Deliver timely post-purchase messages

    Learn how to improve the purchase phase with flows, sending customers timely, thoughtful, and helpful messages.

    Improve the purchase stage

    During the purchase stage, your customer buys from your store. Congrats, you have a new customer! But don’t stop there. Make sure their post-purchase experience is as positive as possible, so they remember to return and shop again in the future.

    The 2 main flows that automate this stage of the customer journey are a post-purchase flow and review request flow. These flows may look different for your brand depending on your marketing strategy. That said, let’s discuss what kinds of strategies you can add to post-purchase messages to improve the experience.

    Thank and inform your customers

    First and foremost, show customers that you care and appreciate their purchase. Send a thank you message that feels genuine and specific to their purchase. You should likewise include key information that they may be expecting upon placing an order. For instance, add in their first name and include order details, like an image, price, quantity, and product name.

    Cross-sell to boost revenue

    Use this time to continue to market from your brand. For instance, add a product feed of trending items or personalized product recommendations as a secondary call-to-action in a follow-up email. This may encourage them to return to shop again.

    Request a review

    Request reviews to collect ratings, feedback, and information from customers who have received their orders. This drives brand loyalty and encourages new shoppers to buy highly-rated items.

    Follow up with new customers

    Now it’s your turn. Head back into your Klaviyo account, and follow along with these steps to build or update the following 2 flows that send to customers who place an order from your store.

    Create a post-purchase flow

    A post-purchase flow is a metric-triggered flow that begins once someone places an order. This is a great opportunity to thank customers for their purchase, especially if it’s their first purchase.

    Goal: Thank your customer and drive additional conversions.

    Best practices:

    • Send a personal thank you note as the first flow message within 1-2 days of their purchase
    • Add a branch to your flow for repeat customers who’ve bought many times, and share how much you appreciate their support. For first time shoppers, you can thank them and welcome them to your community of shoppers.
    • Build excitement leading up to the expected delivery date. Share inspiration via images, either professionally shot or from user-generated content on social media.
    • Prevent negative experiences with tips for proper installation, usage, or care. Create these personalized experiences using splits and show/hide blocks to ensure content fits the products purchased.
    • Add cross-sell messaging later in your flow to advertise related products that they may likewise want to purchase.

    Build a personalized flow tailored to your specific customer personas using Klaviyo’s pre-built template. Search for post-purchase followup in the flow library.

    A post-purchase follow up that sends a day after someone places an order, and includes conditional splits based on how many times someone has shopped previously.

    Note: You may decide to add transactional messages to your flow. These are non-marketing messages that send to customers regardless of if they have opted into marketing. These messages specifically relay helpful information about their purchase or account (e.g., purchase, shipping, or account created confirmations).

    While it is possible to send transactional emails in Klaviyo, you must first contact our customer support team to manually review your request ahead of time.

    Collect reviews from shoppers

    Did you know that 93% of shoppers seek out reviews before placing an order? Capitalize on this by collecting reviews after someone receives their order. In order to utilize this flow, you must first enable reviews in Klaviyo.

    Goal: Ask a recent purchaser to review a product from their order.

    Best practices:

    • Offer an incentive (e.g., 15% off, free shipping, loyalty points).
    • Personalize your message with the recipient's first name.
    • Write an enticing subject line for review request emails to stand out in the inbox (e.g., tease a discount, use creative copy and emojis, etc.)
    • Avoid sending to those who purchase an item that you do not want a review of. To exclude these recipients, add a tag to that product in Shopify labeled: klaviyo_reviews_exclude.

    Build this flow using Klaviyo’s pre-built template. Search for review request in the flow library.

    Standard review request flow from the Klaviyo flow library, which sends an automated review request once someone is ready to review.
    Deliver timely post-purchase messages