How to plan a product launch email sequence
Plan the emails around a new product on Shopify: a waitlist, the teaser, early access, launch day timed to the product going live, proof and a last call.
What this is for
A launch sequence is the handful of emails that take your list from not knowing a product exists to buying it in its first week. One launch email on the day works when the product is a small variation. A new product line, a first collaboration or anything customers have been asking for deserves a short run of emails before and after the day, each doing a different job.
By the end of this guide you will have the product scheduled to go live in Shopify, a waitlist segment, five or six campaigns drafted in Klaviyo with their dates and audiences, and a rule for who stops getting launch emails once they buy.
Time needed and what you need
Time needed: about 4 hours. An hour to set the date, the waitlist and the Shopify schedule, two hours to map and brief the emails, and an hour for tests and the final checks on launch morning.
- The product set up in Shopify with photos, price, variants and stock
- A launch date and time you will not move
- Klaviyo with a sign-up form you can edit and permission to create segments
- Two or three honest reasons someone would want this product, in your customers' words if you have them
The steps
Plan backwards from the moment the product goes live. Everything else is timed from that minute.
1. Fix the launch moment and the one-line reason
Pick the day and the exact time the product becomes buyable. Then write the one sentence that says what the product does for the customer, not what it is made of. Every email in the sequence comes back to that sentence, so settle it before anyone writes a subject line.
2. Schedule the product to go live in Shopify
In the product's Publishing section, set the date and time it should appear on your online store. First check that your store's time zone is right in the general settings, or the product can go live an hour early or late. Keep the product Active: a product still in Draft at the scheduled time is not published. source, checked 28 September 2026
Scheduling works on the whole product, not on single variants. If only one new colour is launching, publish it as its own product or plan to manage that variant's availability by hand on the day. source, checked 28 September 2026
3. Open a waitlist two to three weeks before
Add a short sign-up form or a field to your existing form so subscribers can say they want to hear first, and put everyone who opts in into a waitlist segment. The waitlist does two jobs: it tells you how much stock you are likely to move on day one, and it gives you a warm audience for early access.
4. Map the sequence and give each email one job
Lay the emails out on your monthly email calendar with a date and an audience each. Six is plenty for a big launch; a smaller one can drop the story and proof emails.
- Teaser, about ten days out: something is coming, join the waitlist
- Story, about five days out: why you made it, what problem it solves
- Early access, an hour or a day before: waitlist only, with the link
- Launch: everyone who has not bought yet
- Proof, three or four days later: first reviews, photos, questions answered
- Last call, about a week later: non-buyers who opened or clicked
5. Stop emailing people who have already bought
Build a segment of people who ordered the new product and exclude it from every launch email after early access. Klaviyo normally fixes a campaign's recipients when you click schedule, so if you schedule the proof email days ahead, buyers from launch day will still get it. Turn on determining recipients at send time for these sends, since it is off by default. source, checked 28 September 2026
6. Time the launch email a few minutes after go-live
Schedule the launch email for a few minutes after the product is published, never before, so nobody clicks through to a missing page. Klaviyo also notes that sends on the hour are slower to go out and suggests an off-peak minute, which suits a launch: publish at 9:00 and send at 9:04. source, checked 28 September 2026
7. Test one thing on the launch email
The launch email goes to your largest audience, so it is the one worth testing. Change a single element, usually the subject line, and leave everything else identical. If you change the subject and the hero image together you will not know which one made the difference. source, checked 28 September 2026
8. Check everything on launch morning, then review the week
An hour before go-live, open the product page in a private window to confirm it is still hidden, check stock and price, and send yourself a test of the launch email with every link clicked. A week later, list orders per email, how many waitlist members bought, and what people asked in replies. Those answers go into the product page copy and the next launch plan.
A worked example
For a skincare brand launching a vitamin C serum to 8,000 subscribers
Worked example (an invented brand, with invented numbers)
The serum is scheduled to publish at 9:00 on a Tuesday, with the launch email set for 9:04. The teaser and story emails bring 900 subscribers onto the waitlist.
Early access opens to the waitlist the evening before, and 120 of the 900 buy. The launch email goes to the other 7,880 subscribers, and 210 more buy on the day. Because recipients are set at send time, the proof email four days later goes only to the 7,670 who have not bought, and brings 95 orders.
The last call goes to 2,400 non-buyers who opened or clicked a launch email, and 60 buy. The first week ends with 485 orders, a quarter of them from the waitlist, which tells the brand to open the waitlist earlier next time.
Common mistakes
Sending the launch email before the product is live. The first and keenest clicks land on a page that does not exist yet. Publish first and send a few minutes later.
Emailing buyers about the product they just bought. It reads as if nobody is paying attention, and it costs you unsubscribes from your best customers. Exclude buyers from every email after early access.
Making every email the same announcement with a new subject line. Each email needs its own job: tease, explain, open, prove, close. If two emails say the same thing, cut one.
Giving the waitlist nothing. If early access is just the same email an hour sooner, people stop joining waitlists. Give them real first access, first pick of limited stock, or a small thank-you.
Doing this with Tilly
Tilly's email marketing agent can write each email in the sequence as a Klaviyo campaign, at 10 credits a campaign, working from the same brand profile as its other agents. Every campaign arrives in Klaviyo as a draft and waits for your approval.
The scheduling in Shopify, the waitlist form, the buyer exclusion and the send times in this guide are still set by you, in Shopify and Klaviyo.
Questions people ask
How long before launch should the first email go out?
Around ten days is enough for most small launches: long enough to build a waitlist, short enough that people still remember when the day arrives. A preorder or a limited run can justify starting earlier.
Should the launch include a discount?
Usually not. A new product has its own reason to buy, and a launch discount sets the price people expect to pay later. If you want to reward the waitlist, offer first access or a gift instead of money off.
What should I do if the product sells out during the launch?
Pause the remaining launch emails, put a restock sign-up on the product page, and plan the restock email with the guide on how to announce a restock.
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.