Sound familiar?
- Shoppers start checkout and leave, and nothing happens next.
- Your abandoned basket email offers 10% off to everyone, including people who were going to buy anyway.
- First-time buyers never hear from you again, so they never buy a second time.
- Lapsed customers stay on the list for years, costing money and hurting deliverability.
- Default flows from the platform template were switched on but never edited.
- Customers get a 'you left something behind' email after they have already ordered.
Key facts
- Ecommerce flow set-up starts from £195 + VAT one-off; ongoing management from £95 a month + VAT.
- The core flows are welcome, abandoned checkout, browse abandonment, post-purchase and win-back.
- Flows depend on shop events (viewed product, started checkout, placed order) syncing correctly to your email platform.
- Every flow has exit conditions so a buyer leaves the abandoned checkout sequence as soon as they order.
- Discounts in flows are optional; we often test a reminder without one first to protect margin.
- Abandoned checkout emails need marketing consent or the soft opt-in under PECR.
Why flows matter more than campaigns for online shops
A campaign goes to many people once. A flow goes to one person at exactly the moment their behaviour says they are interested. That is why, in most shops we look at, a handful of well-built flows end up doing much of the work that busy campaign calendars try to do.
dijitul marketing builds ecommerce flows from £195 + VAT one-off. The fixed price depends on how many flows you need, how many emails each one holds and whether we are building from scratch or fixing what is there. If you want us to keep tuning them and run your campaigns as well, that is part of email marketing from £95 a month + VAT.
The ecommerce flow set, step by step
| Flow | Typical timing | Main job |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | Immediately, then every 2 to 3 days | Turn a subscriber into a first-time buyer |
| Abandoned checkout | Within a few hours, then a day later | Recover a sale that was nearly made |
| Browse abandonment | Within a day of viewing | Remind them of the product with reviews or alternatives |
| Post-purchase | After delivery | Reassure, ask for a review, suggest a second product |
| Replenishment | Before the product typically runs out | Prompt a repeat order for consumables |
| Win-back | After a long gap since last order | Bring a lapsed customer back before they are lost |
Timings are starting points. We adjust them to your buying cycle. A shop selling sofas has a very different rhythm from one selling coffee beans.
Getting the shop data right first
Flows run on events. In Klaviyo, for example, the Shopify integration sends Viewed Product, Added to Cart, Started Checkout and Placed Order. WooCommerce needs the Klaviyo plugin installed and configured to do the same. If an event is missing or mislabelled, the flow simply never fires, and nobody notices because nothing visibly breaks.
Before building anything we place test orders, abandon test checkouts and view products with a test profile, then confirm each event arrives with the right product name, image, price and URL. Dynamic product blocks in the email pull from that data, so a broken image URL in the feed becomes a broken image in every abandoned basket email.
Discounts: when to use them and when not to
Automatically giving 10% off in every abandoned checkout email trains customers to abandon on purpose. It also gives margin away to people who would have bought anyway.
- Start with a plain reminder: the products, delivery times, returns policy and a clear checkout button.
- If you test an incentive, add it to the second or third message, not the first.
- Use unique, single-use codes with an expiry so they do not end up on voucher sites.
- Exclude recent discount users and high-value customers where it makes sense.
We will set up the comparison so you can see the difference in orders, then decide with real numbers.
Post-purchase: the flow most shops skip
Shops put effort into the first sale and then go quiet. The post-purchase flow is where a one-off buyer becomes a regular. We split it into stages. Straight after the order, a short message confirms what happens next and when it will arrive, which cuts 'where is my order' emails. After delivery, a how-to or care email helps the customer get value from what they bought. A week or two later, a review request goes out, linking to your product reviews or Google. Only after that do we suggest a related product, chosen from what people who bought the same item tend to buy next.
First-time buyers and repeat customers get different versions. A loyal customer does not need the brand introduction again; they might value early access to a new range instead.
Consent, frequency and keeping the list healthy
Abandoned checkout and browse abandonment emails are marketing. The ICO's PECR guidance says they need consent or the soft opt-in, which covers existing customers and people who were in the process of buying, provided they were offered an opt-out when you collected their address. We check your checkout and sign-up forms say this clearly.
We also switch on frequency controls such as Klaviyo's Smart Sending, so a customer in three flows at once does not get three emails in an afternoon. The sunset flow at the end of the journey asks long-inactive subscribers if they still want to hear from you and then suppresses those who do not reply. That keeps your platform bill down and protects your sender reputation with Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.
What you get
- An event check: viewed product, added to cart, started checkout and placed order syncing correctly
- Welcome series with optional sign-up incentive
- Abandoned checkout and browse abandonment flows with dynamic product blocks
- Post-purchase flow: thank you, care or how-to, review request, cross-sell
- Replenishment reminders for consumable products where it fits
- Win-back and sunset flows for lapsed customers and inactive subscribers
- Exit conditions, smart sending and frequency rules across all flows
How it works and what it costs
Google Ads management from £150 a month, social media management from £125 a month and email marketing from £95 a month, all + VAT. Ad spend is separate and paid to the platform. No long contracts.
Free review
We look at your current ads, social, email and analytics, or your plans if you are starting out, and tell you plainly what we would change.
Plan and price
You get a written plan with targets, budgets and a fixed monthly fee before anything starts.
Set up properly
Tracking and consent first, then campaigns, audiences, content calendars or email flows, all in accounts you own.
Run and improve
We manage it every week: search terms, bids, creative, posts and tests, cutting what does not pay and doing more of what does.
Report in plain English
A monthly report on leads, sales and cost per result, not vanity numbers, with what we will do next.
Frequently asked questions
How much do ecommerce email flows cost to set up?
dijitul marketing sets up ecommerce email flows from £195 + VAT one-off. The fixed price depends on the number of flows and emails, and is agreed before we start. Ongoing optimisation and campaigns are available from £95 a month + VAT.
Which flow should we build first?
Usually abandoned checkout, because those shoppers were closest to buying. Welcome comes next, then post-purchase. Browse abandonment and win-back follow once the core flows are working, tracked in GA4 and showing sensible numbers.
Do you build flows for WooCommerce shops?
Yes. We connect Klaviyo or Mailchimp to WooCommerce through the platform's plugin, check that product views, checkouts and orders sync correctly with the right images and prices, then build the flows on those events.
Should our abandoned cart email include a discount?
Not automatically. We usually start with a plain reminder and test an incentive later in the sequence, using single-use codes. That way you see whether a discount actually changes behaviour before you give margin away.
Can abandoned cart emails be sent without consent?
They are marketing, so PECR applies. The soft opt-in can cover people in the process of buying from you if they were offered an opt-out when their email was collected. We check your checkout wording to make sure.
How do you stop customers getting too many emails?
Each flow has exit conditions, and we use frequency controls such as Klaviyo's Smart Sending so one person does not receive several messages in a short window from different flows or campaigns.
Related
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