The 13 email flows of an online store: triggers, filters and full skeletons

A campaign goes out when you press the button. A flow goes out when the customer does something: they sign up, they add to cart, they buy, they stop opening. The right message, at the right time, with no manual work.

It's the most profitable mechanism in email marketing for a simple reason: the message lands while the intent is hot. A Thursday campaign talks to everyone at once; an abandoned cart email talks to one specific person, two hours after they hesitated.

Three elements come back everywhere. Understand them once and the whole catalog becomes readable:

• The trigger: the event that pulls the customer into the flow (signup, checkout started, order placed).
• The filters: the conditions that pull them out or keep them from entering. The most important one: "placed 0 orders since entering the flow". Without it, you're chasing a cart that's already been paid for. Add an anti-repeat window ("hasn't been in this flow in the last X days") so the recurring window-shopper doesn't get hounded.
• The sequence: two to five emails, moving from light reminder toward incentive, never the other way around. You don't hand out the discount in the first message; you keep it for the people who didn't move.

1. The welcome series

The most-opened email of the entire relationship. Trigger: list signup. Filter: 0 orders all time (an existing customer doesn't need the brand introduced).

• Email 1, immediately: welcome, the brand's promise, the incentive promised at signup.
• Email 2, 2 days later: the brand story, what makes it different.
• Email 3, 2 days later: social proof, the bestsellers.
• Email 4, 2 days later: community, mission, the founders.
• Email 5, 1 day later: reminder that the incentive is expiring.

2. Abandoned checkout

The highest-yield flow in the account: the person filled in their information, then left. Trigger: checkout started. Filters: 0 orders since entering; hasn't been in this flow in the last 7 days.

• Email 1, 30 minutes to 2 hours after: a simple reminder of the items, with one customer review.
• Email 2, 1 day later: reassurance (shipping, returns, what makes the product different).
• Email 3, 1 day later: the incentive, as a last resort only.

3. Abandoned cart

One step higher in the funnel: added to cart without starting checkout. Trigger: added to cart. Filters: 0 orders AND 0 checkouts started since entering; hasn't been in this flow in the last 30 days.

Same three-beat logic: reminder, social proof, incentive. Both flows coexist; the filters keep a single hesitation from triggering both.

4. Browse abandonment

The customer looked at a product without adding it to the cart. Weaker intent: lighter tone. Trigger: product viewed. Filters: 0 add-to-carts, 0 checkouts, 0 orders; 30-day window.

Two to three emails: the viewed product (in a dynamic template), the store's value proposition, and if needed a last touch with the bestsellers.

5. Site abandonment

A site visit with no product viewed. It's the weakest signal there is: two emails maximum, very editorial (popular products, general reviews), and a long 90-day window. Reserve it for lists that are already healthy on deliverability.

6. Post-purchase

The most neglected and the most strategic. Trigger: order placed (first order). Filter: order not cancelled.

• Email 1, 1 day after: thank you, confirmation that it was the right choice.
• Email 2, 2 days later: answers to frequent questions, the brand's mission.
• Email 3, timed to your actual delivery window: usage tips, best use cases.

The timing of email 3 is the reason this flow can't be copied from one brand to another: it depends on your delivery times, not anyone else's.

7. The immediate upsell

The complementary offer while the card is still warm. Trigger: order placed. Short sequence: a time-limited offer 10 to 30 minutes after purchase, one reminder the next day. It works when the offer genuinely complements the product bought, not as a plain "buy more".

8. The replenishment flow

For consumable products. The email goes out slightly before the customer runs out, calculated from your median time between orders (see the pillar article for the method). Three beats: the restock reminder, the offer with social proof, the urgency.

9. The winback

The customer has passed their normal cycle without buying again. Two to three spaced emails: "it's been a while" with the new arrivals, social proof plus the offer, then urgency on the offer.

10. The sunset

The opposite of a sales flow: it protects your deliverability by cleanly retiring inactive subscribers. Trigger: entering the unengaged segment. One email asking "do you still want to hear from us?" with your best offer, one reminder, then the breakup email. Those who don't react get removed from the active list. Painful on the subscriber counter, vital so the rest of the list keeps landing in the primary inbox.

11. Back in stock

Trigger: product available again, sent to those who asked to be notified. An immediate email with real urgency (it already sold out once), a reminder with social proof, a last chance.

12. The review request

Trigger: order delivered, with a delay that leaves time to actually use the product. One goal per email: the review. This is the flow that feeds the social proof of every other flow.

13. The VIP flow

Your best customers, defined by a segment (order count or lifetime spend). One recognition email with an exclusive perk, one reminder. This is where brand advocates get built, and it's the most enjoyable flow to write.

Don't build all 13 at once. The profitability order we follow on mandates: welcome, abandoned checkout, abandoned cart, post-purchase, then replenishment or winback depending on your product type, then the rest. With 7 out of 10 carts abandoned on average across the industry, the recovery flows pay for themselves within the first weeks.

And before activating anything: test every flow yourself, end to end, with a real address. A flow that fires at the wrong time or with the wrong filter does more damage than no flow at all.

Two non-negotiables for a list based here: CASL requires valid consent before commercial email and a working unsubscribe mechanism; Law 25 governs the personal information your triggers rely on. And if your customers are French-speaking, your flows should be too: an English abandoned-cart email landing in a Chicoutimi customer's inbox is a lost conversion and a dent in the brand.

What's the minimum number of flows? Four do most of the revenue: welcome, abandoned checkout, abandoned cart and post-purchase. The others get added once those are running and the list grows.

What's the difference between the abandoned checkout flow and the abandoned cart flow? The level of intent. Abandoned checkout targets people who started paying; abandoned cart targets people who only added a product. The filters (0 checkouts started, 0 orders) keep the same person from receiving both sequences at once.

Should I offer a discount in cart recovery emails? As a last resort only. The first email reminds, the second reassures, and the incentive arrives in the third for those who didn't move. Leading with the discount trains your customers to abandon their carts to get one.

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