Part of: Email marketing
Ecommerce email automation
We build the automated emails that send themselves when a customer does something: signs up, leaves a basket, buys or goes quiet. We map the flows to your customer journey, build the ones that earn their place and test them one change at a time. It suits stores with steady traffic and a list. We are cautious about the revenue figures.
Is this right for you?
Who it is for
Online stores with steady traffic and a growing list that want repeat orders without sending every email by hand.
When it is not
Stores with very little traffic or no list yet, where there is nobody for a flow to reach. Work on sign-ups first. It is also not for stores that want to email people who never agreed to hear from them.
What is included
- A map of your customer journey and the flows that fit it
- Welcome, abandoned basket, browse abandonment, post-purchase and win-back flows, as they suit your store
- Writing and layout for every email in each flow
- Rules that stop one customer receiving several flows at once
- Consent, unsubscribe and sender set-up checks
- A testing plan, and reporting that is honest about attribution
Flows that earn their keep
An automation is an email that sends itself because of something a customer did. Done well, it arrives when they are interested and says something useful. Done badly, it is noise on a timer. We build only the flows that have a clear reason to exist, and we remove the ones that do not.
Automations handle the moments that follow a customer’s actions. The planned sends you choose to make, such as launches and sales, are email campaigns. Most stores need both, and they should not contradict each other.
The flows we usually consider
- Welcome. Someone has just signed up. We say who you are, what to expect and what to look at first. This is often the most-read email you send.
- Abandoned basket. Someone started to buy and stopped. A short, helpful reminder, and an answer to the questions that usually cause a pause, such as delivery and returns.
- Browse abandonment. Someone looked at a product and left. It needs more care than a basket email, because the interest is weaker and the consent position is less clear.
- Post-purchase. Order confirmed, delivered, and how to get the most from it. A later email can ask for a review or suggest something that goes with it.
- Win-back. Someone who used to buy has gone quiet. We try once or twice to bring them back, and then we stop. People who never respond are better removed than emailed for ever.
Klaviyo and most email platforms pick these up from Shopify through their own integration. Shopify’s own email tool has ready-made automations too, such as abandoned checkout and welcome emails, but with fewer options, so most growing stores connect a dedicated platform.
We work mostly in Klaviyo, and can work in the platform you already use.
Flow mapping and testing
Before we build anything, we map the journey: where customers join, where they hesitate and where they come back. That tells us which flow comes first, and where two flows might collide. A customer who has just bought should not get an abandoned basket reminder for the same item.
We test one change at a time, such as a subject line or the delay before a reminder, and give each test long enough to mean something. With a small list, many tests will not give a clear answer, and we will say so rather than declare a winner.
Layout matters in flows because they send for years. Email layout design builds modular templates, so a flow can be edited without breaking the design.
Consent and deliverability
This is a general explanation, not legal advice. Emails that complete an order, such as a receipt or a delivery update, are treated differently from marketing emails. Most flows in the list above are marketing, so the usual UK GDPR and PECR expectations apply: agreement or a narrow, documented exception, and an easy way to unsubscribe in every email.
The soft opt-in only applies to people who bought from you, or were in the middle of buying, were offered a way to opt out when they gave their email address, and can unsubscribe from every email. It covers similar products from you, nothing else. Abandoned basket and browse emails to anyone else need their consent.
Large mailbox providers, including Google and Yahoo, have requirements for bulk senders. As we understand it, they cover authenticating your domain, easy unsubscribing and low spam complaints.
Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo have required anyone sending in bulk (for Gmail, about 5,000 emails a day or more) to authenticate with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, to offer one-click unsubscribe and act on it within two days, and to keep spam complaints below 0.3%. Microsoft brought in similar rules for Outlook.com in 2025. We set all of this up, and aim for a complaint rate well under 0.1%.
What we measure, and a caution
We watch delivery, clicks, unsubscribes and complaints for each flow, and the orders your store records afterwards.
A caution on revenue: automated emails reach people who have already shown interest, so many of them would have bought anyway. A platform that gives its email full credit for those sales will overstate what email added. We report the platform’s figure, explain its limits and, where it is practical, compare with a group who did not receive the email. For a wider view of what each channel contributes, see attribution and ROI dashboards.
We do not promise revenue from any flow.
How we do it
Every project is different, so timings depend on its size and complexity. You get a realistic timeline in writing before work starts, and we never promise results by a date.
Step 1: Map the journey
We list the moments when a customer would welcome an email, and the ones where it would be an intrusion.
Step 2: Choose the first flows
We start with one or two flows that fit your store, rather than building everything at once.
Step 3: Write and build
We write each email, build the flow logic and set the timing and exit rules.
Step 4: Test before launch
We check triggers, timing, links, unsubscribe handling and how each email looks in a range of inboxes.
Step 5: Review and refine
We watch each flow, change one thing at a time and remove anything that is not helping.
What it costs
Retainers start from £500 per month and cover our services only. They do not include your ad spend, or any software or other subscription costs. One-off optimisation projects are priced by current need or an agreed hourly rate. Our pricing page has the detail.
Questions people ask
Which flows should we build first?
Usually a welcome series and an abandoned basket email, because they match moments when customers are already interested. Post-purchase and win-back flows follow once those are working. The right order depends on your store, so we map it first.
Which email platform do you build in?
We build in Klaviyo or the platform you already use, or help you choose one.
How much revenue will automation bring in?
We cannot promise a figure. Platforms often credit automated emails with sales that would have happened anyway, so we treat their numbers with care and, where practical, compare against people who did not receive the email.
Can we email people who abandoned a basket?
It depends on how they gave their details and what they agreed to. The rules for marketing emails are not the same as those for emails that complete an order. We set things up with this in mind, but we do not give legal advice. Abandoned basket emails are generally treated as marketing, so they need the person's consent, or the 'soft opt-in' for existing customers. Browsing alone doesn't count as a customer relationship.
Will automated emails feel pushy?
Not if they are done with restraint. We limit how many flows one person can be in, space the emails out and write them to be useful. We would rather send one helpful reminder than three nagging ones.
Do automations replace campaigns?
No. Automations answer what a customer has just done. Campaigns are the planned sends you choose to make. Most stores need both.
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