Summary
Klaviyo “abandonment” flows (browse, cart, checkout abandonment emails) are a proven way to recover otherwise lost sales by reminding shoppers to finish their purchase.
Upstack Data integrates with Klaviyo to supercharge these flows – ensuring more of your visitors actually receive those follow-up emails. In fact, most brands see a 30 to 50% lift in triggered abandonment emails (and revenue) within the first few weeks of Upstack Data.
Below, we willll explain how the abandonment flows are set up with Upstack Data, their purpose and mechanics, and answer frequently asked questions (FAQs).
What Are Klaviyo Abandonment Flows and Why Do They Matter?
Abandonment flows in Klaviyo are automated email sequences that reach out to customers who almost bought something but left before completing a purchase.
These typically include:
Browse Abandonment – triggers when a known visitor views a product page but leaves without adding it to cart or purchasing.
Cart Abandonment – triggers when a shopper adds items to their cart but doesn’t check out.
Checkout Abandonment – triggers when a shopper begins the checkout process (e.g. enters their email at checkout) but doesn’t finish the purchase.
Each of these flows will send a timely email (or series of emails) reminding the customer of what they viewed or left in their cart, often with a gentle nudge or incentive to return and complete the purchase.
The goal is to re-engage the shopper and recover the sale that might otherwise be lost. This is a well-known high-ROI tactic – for example, sending an abandoned cart email with a discount can win back a significant portion of would-be drop-offs.
However, these automated emails only work if the shopper’s identity (email) is recognized at the time they abandon. Klaviyo needs to know who to email – typically this means the customer is already in your Klaviyo database (e.g. they subscribed or made a past purchase) and is identified during their session. If the customer isn’t identified (no email captured or no cookie linking to their profile), the abandonment flow won’t trigger at all.
For instance, if someone visits your site, enters their email for a discount code, but later returns on a different device or a cleared browser, Klaviyo might not realize it’s the same person – so an abandoned cart event could go un-emailed. Capturing the visitor’s email (via a sign-up pop-up or at least at checkout) is a crucial first step for any abandonment flow to work
Why Some Shoppers Don’t Get Abandonment Emails (The Identification Gap)
In today’s world, shoppers often switch devices, use private browsing, or reject cookies – which can break the chain of identity needed for Klaviyo’s flows. If a returning visitor isn’t recognized as an existing contact, Klaviyo’s flow won’t fire at all, meaning no abandonment email is sent.
This is a common gap: you might be “dropping” a large chunk of potential follow-ups simply because the customer’s sessions appear fragmented. In fact, without advanced identity resolution, as much as half of returning visitors can go unrecognized by marketing tools – resulting in many would-be abandonment emails never being delivered.
Consider a simple example: Customer Bob signs up with his email to get a 10% off coupon. A week later, Bob comes back to browse products but does so on a different browser or device; he adds something to his cart but doesn’t buy. Klaviyo sees an anonymous cart abandoner (because Bob isn’t identified in that new session), so no cart abandonment email goes out. The opportunity to remind Bob about his cart is lost entirely.
This scenario is surprisingly common – cookies expire or get cleared, mobile in-app browsers don’t share identifiers, etc. – and it means missed revenue because your customer engagement system didn’t realize Bob was the same person who had given his email before.
How Upstack Data Enhances Your Abandonment Flows
Upstack Data fixes this problem by using identity resolution to connect those fragmented sessions and ensure the shopper is recognized. Upstack Data’s technology “stitches” together data from multiple visits and devices, so we know when Bob comes back even if he looks anonymous to Klaviyo.
Upstack Data is especially strong at recognizing returning buyers even months later across devices. In practice, Upstack Data ensures that the abandonment flow will trigger for Bob by matching him to his known email/profile – in other words, we “trigger the flow that would otherwise be left untriggered.”
This dramatically increases the reach of your abandonment emails and recaptures revenue that would have been lost.
What does Upstack Data do in Klaviyo?
We set up “enriched” abandonment flows in your Klaviyo account that run in parallel with your standard flows. Each Upstack flow acts as a safety net to catch the customers your normal flows miss.
Here’s how it works:
Dual-Flow Setup
For each type of abandonment (browse, cart, checkout), you keep your standard Klaviyo flow intact, and we create an Upstack flow alongside it. The Upstack flow is essentially a duplicate automation that will send the same kind of email – but only to shoppers who didn’t get captured by the standard flow.
Timing Coordination
The Upstack-triggered flow is set to wait a short period (e.g. ~30 minutes) after the abandonment event before it sends anything. This delay gives the standard Klaviyo flow time to fire first if it’s going to. If the standard email was sent, great – we don’t need to send another. If the standard flow did not send (because the user wasn’t identified in time), then Upstack’s flow will now kick in and send the abandonment email.
No Duplicate Emails
We configure the Upstack flows with proper filters so that anyone who already received the standard Klaviyo email is excluded from the Upstack flow. This means your customer will never get two emails for the same abandoned cart. Either they get the normal one, or (if that failed) they get the Upstack Data one – but not both. We’re only capturing the missed opportunities, not doubling up on messaging.
“Enriched” Identification
Upstack Data’s script on your site works behind the scenes to identify visitors by their email or other identifiers. If someone abandons and Klaviyo didn’t recognize them initially, Upstack Data may identify them moments later (for example, by matching their device or browsing behavior to a known profile in our system). Once identified, we send that info to Klaviyo and trigger the Upstack flow email to that person. These are emails that would have never been sent if not for Upstack’s data enrichment.
Content and Branding
You don’t have to craft entirely new emails for the Upstack flows – typically, we’ll mirror the content and timing of your existing abandonment emails (or whatever you prefer). The customer experience remains on-brand; the only difference is more of your shoppers will actually receive the messages. (If you haven’t set up abandonment emails yet, we’ll help you get the basic flows in place – Upstack’s team can even advise on content best practices while configuring the flows.)
Setting it up
The configuration of these parallel flows is handled by our team as part of your Upstack Data onboarding. We will usually ask you to invite our team to your Klaviyo account as a manager/admin user so we can create and test the necessary flow rules. If you prefer to do it yourself, we can walk you through it, but most clients let us take care of this step for speed and accuracy.
We make sure the triggers, delays, and exclusion conditions are correct so that everything runs smoothly. Once set up, Upstack Data’s enrichment flows run automatically in the background – you don’t need to babysit them. They work alongside your normal Klaviyo operations without interfering in any way (you continue business as usual with campaigns, other flows, etc.).
What impact can you expect?
In short, significantly more recovered revenue. By “plugging the leaks” in identification, Upstack typically increases the audience for your abandonment emails by ~30% on average. That means about 30% more would-be buyers get an email that brings them back, which often translates to a substantial jump in monthly sales from these flows.
Many brands using Upstack Data see on the order of one-third to one-half more revenue from abandonment flows compared to before. For example, one apparel brand’s standard Klaviyo flows were generating about $115k/month, and after Upstack Data they saw an additional $95k per month from the Upstack-triggered abandonment emails – roughly an 80% increase in recovered revenue (an exceptional case, but it shows what’s possible). In their case this was equivalent to a 90× ROI on the Upstack product. Even if your results are more average, capturing 30% to 50% more abandoned carts can easily mean tens of thousands in recouped sales. And because Upstack Data keeps learning (every new visitor identified today is one more person we’ll recognize tomorrow), these benefits can compound over time as your repeat visitors grow.
In summary, Upstack Data’s enriched abandonment flows ensure no potential customer falls through the cracks. You spend money and effort to get these shoppers to your site. Upstack Data helps make sure a faulty identification or cookie doesn’t prevent your follow-up emails from doing their job. It’s a seamless enhancement on top of Klaviyo that boosts one of your most important revenue-driving automations.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Will my customers get duplicate abandonment emails?
No. Upstack’s flows are specifically configured not to double-email anyone. The Upstack flow only targets people who did not get the standard Klaviyo email, and we exclude anyone who already received the normal flow. In practice, a customer either gets your usual abandonment email or an Upstack Data one – never both for the same event.
How much of a lift in sales/emails will we see with Upstack Data?
Most brands see on the order of a 30–50% increase in the volume of abandonment emails sent (and proportional uplift in recovered revenue) after Upstack Data is implemented. This can vary based on your business – e.g. stores with lots of repeat customers or long purchase cycles tend to benefit even more over time as Upstack Data recognizes more return visitors. In one case study, a merchant’s abandonment flow revenue jumped from $115k to about $210k per month (a ~80% increase) by using Upstack Data’s enriched flows. While that was an unusually strong result, it underscores that the upside can be very large. Generally, you should expect at least a few tens of percent improvement relatively quickly, since Upstack Data will capture those extra abandonment events that were previously invisible.
Which abandonment flows does Upstack Data set up or enhance?
We typically focus on the three core flows: browse abandonment, cart abandonment, and checkout abandonment. These cover the key stages where shoppers drop off. (If you have other Klaviyo flows like a post-purchase or win-back series, Upstack Data doesn’t need to modify those – we target the flows related to pre-purchase abandonment.)
We can also work alongside your welcome flow (for new subscribers) in the sense that Upstack Data helps identify leads, but welcome emails send normally since those don’t require a second-chance trigger. The main lift comes from the browse/cart/checkout abandon sequences.
Do I need to create new emails or content for the Upstack flows?
Not necessarily. In most cases, we reuse your existing abandonment email content and timing – essentially cloning your email templates into the Upstack-triggered flow. This keeps messaging consistent. If you already have effective emails for cart or browse recovery, those same emails will be sent, just to more people now. If you don’t yet have these flows set up or lack content, we’ll help you get the basics in place (for example, a simple 1- or 2-email sequence for each abandonment type) and you can always refine the content later. Upstack Data’s primary job is making sure the right people get the email; the content of the email remains under your control, just as with any Klaviyo flow.
How will Upstack Data get added to my Klaviyo account?
Our team will coordinate with you to do the setup. Typically, we ask you to invite an Upstack Data specialist as a user in your Klaviyo (with manager or admin permissions) so we can build the flow logic for you. This is usually done during your onboarding call. We’ll create the additional flows, set the triggers and filters, and test that everything works. It’s a quick process (often we complete it in the same session). If you prefer, we can also send you instructions to implement the flows yourself, but most clients find it easier to let us handle it. After setup, you can always review the flows in Klaviyo – they will be clearly labeled (e.g. “Upstack Cart Abandonment”) – and you retain full control over them.
Does this integration disrupt anything in my store or Klaviyo?
No, not at all. Upstack Data doesn’t require you to remove or pause your existing Klaviyo flows; we operate in the background and only augment what’s there. Your standard flows, Shopify checkout, and other tracking all remain unchanged. Upstack Data simply adds extra data to Klaviyo and uses Klaviyo’s normal flow mechanism to send more emails to those who qualify. There’s no impact on site performance either – the identification happens via a lightweight script on your site and server-side matching. In short, it’s a seamless addition, and if for any reason you disabled Upstack Data, your original flows would continue as they were.
What if we haven’t set up Klaviyo flows (or we use a different email platform)?
You’ll get the most value if you are using Klaviyo’s abandonment flows, since that’s what Upstack Data ties into. If you’re new to Klaviyo or just migrating, we recommend first creating the basic browse, cart, and checkout flow in Klaviyo (even a simple one-email flow to start). Our team can guide you on this. Once those flows exist (even if inactive), let us know and we will configure the advanced Upstack Data portions for you.
Currently, Upstack Data’s enhanced flows are purpose-built for Klaviyo on Shopify. We do integrate with many marketing platforms, but the out-of-the-box abandonment email solution is via Klaviyo. If you use a different email tool, Upstack Data’s identity resolution will still improve your data (which could help your other platform in theory), but we may not be able to set up parallel flows automatically as we do with Klaviyo. Feel free to discuss your setup with us – we can often find a workaround or at least you’ll know what benefits to expect.
Will Upstack Data affect my email deliverability or subscriber list?
No – Upstack Datadoes not add any new contacts who weren’t already in your system. We only target people who have engaged with your site and provided their email (or are existing customers). In other words, we’re not injecting third-party emails or doing cold outreach. We’re simply making sure your own leads and customers get the emails they should be getting. In fact, this approach is healthier than some alternatives where third-party data is used: one brand we onboarded had been feeding purchased contact lists into Klaviyo (via another tool), which hurt their deliverability (spam complaints, etc.). Upstack Data helped them remove that practice and instead capture more revenue organically by emailing real visitors who showed intent – leading to better deliverability and engagement. So you should see no negative impact on deliverability since we stick to your opt-in audience.
These illustrate the typical setup and benefits of Upstack Data’s enriched abandonment flows, as well as real-world results seen by merchants.
This feature is a key driver of ROI for many Upstack Data clients, and we want to ensure you’re fully set up to take advantage of it. By closing the gaps in who gets your abandonment emails, Upstack Data helps you convert more sales on autopilot – leveraging the customer interest you already generated.
It’s a “low hanging fruit” win for your email marketing, and we’re here to help you make the most of it.
Enjoy those recovered carts and happy emailing! 🚀
If you have any other questions about Upstack Data’s Klaviyo abandonment flow integration, please reach out to our support team.
For further reading or specific examples, please refer to the Upstack Data knowledge base or contact us for detailed case studies.
Sources: Upstack Data internal case studies, onboarding guides, and FAQ documentation have informed the above (e.g. Perfect White Tee Klaviyo flow case study, and Upstack Data Customer FAQ docs.