Collection abandonment email: the flow most brands don't have

What is a collection abandonment email?

Someone landed on a collection page and left. Maybe it was "Shop all," "Variety packs," "Sleep," or "Best sellers." They scrolled. They didn't click into a product.

That's a real signal. They're interested in a category, not one specific thing. And it's a signal most brands ignore.

Collection Abandonment is one of the 8 core flows I install for every brand. It sits between browse abandonment (they looked at a product) and site abandonment (they didn't look at a product or a collection).

Why most brands don't have this flow

Two reasons.

First, Klaviyo's best-known abandonment flows are cart, checkout and browse. Those are the ones with step-by-step guides. I couldn't find a Klaviyo help article for a collection abandonment flow specifically.

Second, the tracking has to be on. If nobody checked the right box in the Shopify integration, the event never shows up, so nobody thinks to build a flow off it.

The result is a gap. Someone who looked at your "All flavors" page and left never viewed a product, so browse doesn't fire. If your site abandonment flow is set up the way Klaviyo suggests, it may catch them, but with a generic message that ignores what they were actually looking at.

How do you track collection views in Klaviyo?

On Shopify. Klaviyo's guide to onsite tracking for Shopify lists Viewed Collection as one of the behavioral events it tracks, defined as "triggered when someone views a collection on your store." To turn it on:

1. In Klaviyo, go to Integrations, then Shopify.
2. In the Onsite tracking section, check Track behavioral events. That turns on Viewed Collection, along with Submitted Search and Added to Cart.
3. Make sure the Klaviyo app embed is on in your Shopify theme.

Klaviyo notes these events are tracked through the Shopify pixel and only for shoppers it can identify. That means people who've submitted a Klaviyo or Shopify form, entered their info at checkout, or logged in. Depending on your Shopify Customer Privacy settings, Klaviyo may also not track visitors in the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland without consent.

Not on Shopify. I didn't find a Klaviyo page confirming a built-in collection event for other platforms. Plan on custom tracking: a developer sends a "Viewed Collection" event to Klaviyo when an identified visitor loads a collection page. Get them to include the collection name and URL so your emails can use it.

Once the event shows up in your account, check it under Analytics, then Metrics, before you build anything on it.

What to send in a collection abandonment email

The person looked at a group of products and couldn't decide, or didn't get around to it. So your email should do the deciding with them.

Here's the collection flow I install. Three emails per path over 4 days.

Non-customer path:

1. 1 to 2 hours: help selecting from the collection. "Still deciding?" Show the top three or four products from that collection, with one line each on who it's for, and a link back to the collection page.
2. Day 2: first-purchase recommendations. Narrow it down. "If you're only trying one, start here." The best seller, or a variety pack that lets them try a few.
3. Day 4: category benefits and social proof. Why this kind of product is worth it, plus reviews from people who sound like them.

Customer path:

1. 1 to 2 hours: restock or try something new. A link back to their usual, next to what's new in that collection.
2. Day 2: cross-sell related products. "If you like X, try Y," based on what they already buy.
3. Day 4: bundles and simplified purchase. Make it one click to get their usual plus something new.

For consumables, a variety pack or starter bundle is often the best answer to a collection visit. The shopper doesn't have to pick one flavor. They get to try.

If the event doesn't carry the collection name in your account, you've got two options. Build a split for each of your biggest collections, or send one version that features your overall best sellers and a "how to choose" message. The second is less personal but still better than nothing.

How does the customer and non-customer split work?

Like every flow in my system, this one starts with a routing check: "Placed order ever?" No goes to the non-customer path. Yes goes to the customer path.

Collection adds one more check: "Ordered in the last 30 days?" Recent buyers are routed out, so someone who just ordered doesn't get a "still deciding?" email on top of their post-purchase emails.

The paths differ because the people do. Non-customers browsing a collection are still figuring out if you're for them. Customers are often looking for what to try next, or they were really there to reorder.

Both paths carry an offer, like every flow in my system. Non-customers get the same offer your welcome series gives at signup, never a bigger one, so nobody learns that leaving pays better than signing up. Customers get a slightly upgraded offer, an offer built around a bigger order, or a monthly subscription offer. Customers who order in large quantities are usually left out of these automations.

How to keep it from overlapping browse and site abandonment

Collection sits in the middle of a chain. The rule I use: each flow exits anyone who takes a step closer to buying.

In my system, collection abandonment exits on purchase or when someone moves into a higher-intent flow. In Klaviyo, that looks like these filters:

• Viewed Product zero times since starting this flow (they move to browse)
• Added to Cart zero times since starting this flow (they move to cart)
• Started Checkout zero times since starting this flow
• Placed Order zero times since starting this flow
• Has not been in this flow in the last 35 days, the re-entry window all five of my abandonment flows share

Those mirror the filters Klaviyo recommends for its browse and abandoned site flows. On the other side, your site abandonment flow should exit anyone who views a collection, so they land here instead. I cover that in site abandonment email.

Leave Smart Sending on, too. Klaviyo recommends it for browse, and the same logic applies here. These flows can fire a lot.

Further in, there's browse abandonment, abandoned cart vs abandoned checkout and the abandoned checkout email. The full build order is in the essential Klaviyo flows for CPG brands.

FAQ

WRITTEN BY Jack White

Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.

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