"Re-engagement email" usually means one of two different things, and mixing them up is why most re-engagement flows underperform. One kind targets customers who stopped ordering. The other targets subscribers who stopped opening or clicking at all, whether they've ever bought anything or not. Both run on roughly three emails. Both are built on completely different triggers in Klaviyo. Most Shopify stores need one of each, not one flow trying to do both jobs.
What's actually different between a win-back flow and a sunset flow?
A win-back flow watches purchase behavior. It's for someone who bought once (or several times) and then stopped. The trigger is a Placed Order metric, with a profile filter along the lines of "Placed Order zero times since starting this flow," so the flow stops the moment the person actually buys again.
A sunset flow watches engagement, not purchases. It's for subscribers who have gone quiet on your emails specifically, whether or not they've ever converted. It's triggered by a profile being added to an inactivity segment, and that segment is built from engagement metrics like opens and clicks, not orders.
A customer can be active in one sense and dead in the other. Someone who orders twice a year but never opens a single campaign still needs a sunset flow. Someone who opens every email but hasn't ordered in eight months needs a win-back flow. Running only one of these leaves half your inactive list untouched.
How do you build a win-back flow in Klaviyo?
The flow trigger is the Placed Order metric, filtered so it only catches people who haven't ordered again since entering the flow. The delay before the first email matters more than the copy: Klaviyo's own example sets it at 180 days, with the guidance to set your delay a bit longer than your store's typical time between orders, so you're not nudging someone who is simply mid-cycle. A store selling a 30-day supplement should use a much shorter window than a store selling furniture or jewelry.
Klaviyo recommends three emails in the flow:
- A light touch. Three to six best-selling or new products, plus a modest incentive. Short and low-pressure, because this is the first contact after months of silence.
- A reminder with urgency. Different products than email one, an expiration date on the offer, and more visual weight, since this one can carry more detail.
- A final call. The last-chance message, framed as the last time you'll push the offer, paired with a clear, prominent unsubscribe link. If they don't respond here, stop emailing them about it.
How do you build a sunset flow in Klaviyo?
The sunset flow starts with the segment, not the flow. Klaviyo's prebuilt "Sunset (Email)" segment defines inactivity with a stack of AND conditions: the profile can receive email marketing, the account is at least 180 days old, they've received at least 5 emails over the last 72 weeks, and they've opened zero emails, clicked zero emails, been active on site zero times, viewed zero products, started zero checkouts, and placed zero orders, all measured over all time.
The flow itself triggers off "added to segment" using that sunset segment, with a profile filter that pulls anyone who opens or clicks out of the flow immediately, since the whole point is reaching people who are actually ignoring you. Klaviyo's guidance is 1 to 3 emails with a short grace period (commonly around 3 days) between sends.
Here's the part stores skip: at the end of the flow, a property-update action tags non-responders with something like "Unengaged = True." That tag does not suppress anyone automatically. You have to build a second, separate segment filtering for that property, then manually choose to suppress its members. A sunset flow that ends without that second segment just tags dead weight forever instead of actually trimming your list.
What should the win-back emails actually say?
Match the copy to each email's job instead of recycling one message three times.
Email 1, light touch:
- Subject:
We've missed you - Subject:
New since you've been away - Subject:
A little something to welcome you back - Body skeleton: a short line acknowledging it's been a while, 3 to 6 products (best-sellers or new arrivals), one modest incentive (free shipping or a small percentage off).
Email 2, reminder with urgency:
- Subject:
Your offer is still waiting - Subject:
A few days left on this one - Subject:
Here's what's new, and a reminder - Body skeleton: restate the offer with an expiration date, show different products than email 1, add one proof point (a review quote or a bestseller badge).
Email 3, final call:
- Subject:
Last chance before we let this go - Subject:
This is the last one, promise - Subject:
Should we stop emailing you? - Body skeleton: plain statement that this is the final nudge, the offer one more time, and a visible, easy unsubscribe or preference link. Letting someone opt out gracefully here protects deliverability for everyone else on the list.
What should the sunset flow emails actually say?
These emails aren't selling. They're asking a yes-or-no question: do you still want to hear from us?
- Subject:
Still want these in your inbox? - Subject:
Quick check-in - Subject:
Should we keep sending these? - Body skeleton: one short paragraph noting they haven't opened in a while, a single clear button ("Yes, keep me subscribed" or similar), and no product pitch. The goal is a click, any click, to prove the address is still a real, interested person before you either keep them or suppress them.
Do these emails actually perform?
Across Omnisend's 2026 benchmark set (more than 20 billion campaign emails and 470 million automated sends across 27,000-plus brands), the "customer reactivation" automation category averages a 33.11% open rate, 1.99% click-through rate, 6.00% click-to-open rate, 0.54% conversion rate, and $0.51 in revenue per email, with a 0.68% unsubscribe rate. The open rate is respectable for email that's intentionally going to people who've gone cold, and the unsubscribe rate is the useful number: it confirms these flows do their real job, which is sorting the list rather than forcing opens.
Which flow should you build first?
If you've never built either, start with the win-back flow. It's tied to revenue you can measure directly (a lapsed customer ordering again), and the trigger logic is simpler to reason about than a multi-condition inactivity segment. Add the sunset flow once the win-back flow is live, since list hygiene matters more as your list grows and a bloated list of dead addresses drags down your sender reputation for every other email you send, including your abandoned cart flow.
Both flows are the kind of thing JetFlow can draft for you from your store's real products once you've decided on the trigger and timing, so the slow part (three emails of copy, twice) stops being the reason these flows never get built. See how JetFlow's flow generation compares to building everything by hand in Klaviyo in our JetFlow vs. Klaviyo templates comparison.