The winback flow for Shopify stores
A three-email winback flow for Shopify stores to bring lapsed customers back: when to trigger it, full copy, when to offer a discount, and setup notes for Klaviyo and Omnisend.
The flow at a glance
A lapsed customer already trusted you once. Winning them back costs less than finding someone new, and the flow only needs to answer one question: why come back now?
Condition: exit anyone who orders.
- 1Email 1: What is new
- 2Email 2: What they liked
- 3Email 3: A reason, and a way out
Why three emails and not more
Klaviyo's help centre recommends the same length as the table above: three emails per person, each with a different job. More than that and the flow starts to feel like the reason they stopped buying. source, checked 25 September 2026
Keep the first one short and visual. A handful of products, either bestsellers or what is new since their last order, is enough to answer the only question the email has to answer: has anything changed? source, checked 25 September 2026
Email 1: What is new
Subject: A few things have changed since you were here
Preview: New products, and one favourite back in stock
Two or three genuinely new things: a new product, an improved formula, a new size. Short, visual, no discount.
Email 2: What they liked
Subject: Running low on product?
Preview: It is still here
Their last product, with a line about why people reorder it and one recent review.
Email 3: A reason, and a way out
Subject: Something to welcome you back
Preview: Plus a quick question
If you use an incentive, this is where it goes. Then: "Not interested any more? Update your preferences or unsubscribe here." Letting people leave cleanly keeps your list healthy.
Setup notes
Klaviyo: trigger on "Placed Order" with a long time delay matched to your lapse window, and the flow filter "Placed Order zero times since starting this flow". Use a dynamic block for their last product.
Omnisend: start from the customer reactivation workflow and set the inactivity window.
Finding your lapse window
The start date is the one number this flow lives or dies on, and it should come from your own customers. In Klaviyo, build a segment of people who have ordered at least twice, export it, and average the time between their orders. That is your normal buying cycle. source, checked 25 September 2026
Then set the flow's first delay a little past that cycle, so you only write to people who are genuinely late rather than people about to reorder on their own. source, checked 25 September 2026
What to measure
- Reactivation rate: share of recipients who order again
- Revenue per recipient, with and without the incentive
- Unsubscribes and spam complaints, which are higher in this flow. Watch them
Unsubscribes are part of the result
This flow is allowed to lose subscribers. Email 3's way out is doing its job when people take it: someone who will never buy again is better off your list than ignoring you, because silent readers are what drag deliverability down. The unsubscribe link has to be there anyway; in this email, make it easy to find. source, checked 25 September 2026
Questions people ask
When should a winback flow start?
When a customer has gone noticeably longer than usual without ordering. For many stores that is 90 to 180 days after the last order, but it depends on how often your products are bought. Base it on your own repeat-purchase timing.
What happens to people who do not come back?
Move them to a sunset flow that asks if they still want your emails, then stop emailing those who do not engage. It protects your deliverability.
What if my store is too new to have a buying cycle?
Start from how long your product lasts or how often people in your category buy, pick a conservative window, and replace it with your own number once enough customers have ordered twice.
What is the difference between a winback flow and a sunset flow?
A winback flow tries to bring a past customer back to buying. A sunset flow comes after it, for people who no longer open anything, and asks whether they still want your emails before you stop sending.
How Tilly builds it
Tilly sets the lapse window from your own repeat-purchase data, and writes email 1 from what has actually changed in your catalogue.
How Tilly's email agent runs it
Tilly's default is two emails: the first when a customer reaches 60 days since their last order, the second 10 days later, which is the only one allowed to carry a code. Both stop if they order. Klaviyo cannot start a flow on days since the last order through its API, so Tilly does not push this one as a draft. It gives you the emails and the timing, you build the flow in Klaviyo, and Tilly still shows what it earns.
See this on your own store
Paste your store URL. The first pass takes about a minute and needs no account. Save a card (nothing is charged) and Tilly reads the whole store and works out who buys from you.