How to set up a Klaviyo replenishment flow

What is a Klaviyo replenishment flow?

It's a flow that starts when someone places an order, waits until they're close to running out, then sends a reminder with an easy way to buy the same thing again. Klaviyo describes it as a flow for products customers buy repeatedly within a set timeframe, built on your existing purchase data.

You'll also hear it called a reorder reminder. Same thing. In my Flow System it sits after post-purchase and before winback.

The logic is simple. A customer who liked your product is going to buy more of it. The only question is whether they buy it from you, from a marketplace, or from the competitor whose ad they saw the morning they ran out.

Why build the reorder flow before anything else?

Because it earns more per person than almost anything else you'll send. Across the four consumable brands in my pooled data, replenishment flows made about $2.23 for every person who got them. That's about 28x the best campaign in the same sample.

It makes sense. A campaign lands on people who may not need anything today. A reorder reminder lands on someone at the exact moment they need more.

And two of those four brands didn't have one. That's the part that bugs me. If your product runs out, this comes before the fancy browse abandonment branch and before the birthday email.

Two single-brand examples show what it looks like once it's live:

• A subscription wellness brand's "your order is coming up" reminder made $47,321 in one month. That was 74% of all its flow revenue.
• A skincare brand's reorder reminder flow grew 496% in one month as new customers hit their reorder window.

The skincare number is worth a second look. The growth came from a wave of newer customers reaching the point where they were running low. That's how this flow pays you: it collects later on customers you already worked hard to win.

How do you set up a replenishment flow in Klaviyo?

Here's the basic build, based on Klaviyo's own help article and how I'd set it up for a consumable brand.

1. Start from a template or build your own. In Klaviyo, go to Flows, then Create Flow, and search "replenishment." Shopify stores get pre-built templates under "Encourage repeat purchases." You can also choose "Build your own."
2. Trigger on Placed Order. If you're building from scratch, set the trigger metric to Placed Order.
3. Filter to the product. Add a trigger filter where Items contains your product's name, so only orders with that product start the flow. I'd run one flow per product, or per group of products that last the same amount of time.
4. Stop it for people who already reordered. Add a flow filter for Placed Order zero times since starting this flow. Klaviyo's note here matters: on a product-specific flow, limit that filter to the same product, or an unrelated purchase could stop the reminder.
5. Set the delay before they run out, not after. Klaviyo's example is a 30-day supply with a reminder around day 25.
6. Write the email around the product they bought. Show the exact product with one clear "Buy again" button.
7. Turn it on. Review it, set it to Live, and save.

Klaviyo also has predictive analytics, including an expected date of next order. It only shows up once at least 500 customers have ordered, you have at least 180 days of order history with orders in the last 30 days, and some customers have placed 3 or more orders. For a product with a known supply length, I'd time the flow off the product.

When should the replenishment email send?

Short version: a few days before the customer runs out, so there's time to order and ship.

Klaviyo's rule of thumb is two reminders, then one follow-up after the expected buying cycle has passed. That last email is where an incentive can go if you use one.

Timing gets trickier with multi-packs, active subscribers and products that don't run out on a schedule. I wrote a separate post on replenishment email timing that walks through how to pick the window for each product.

What should a replenishment email say?

Keep it short. The customer already knows the product. You're not re-selling it, you're making the reorder easy.

Here's what I'd put in:

• The exact product they bought, with a photo they'll recognize instantly.
• One button that goes straight to buying it again.
• A plain line about timing, like "You're probably getting low."
• In the later emails, a reason to act now: a subscription option, a bigger size, or an offer if your margins allow it.

Klaviyo's article suggests a product block with related items too. I'd keep that out of the first reminder. One email, one destination.

Judge the flow by clicks and orders, not opens. Apple Mail inflates opens, so a strong open rate can hide a flow that isn't selling.

What are the most common replenishment flow mistakes?

These are the ones I'd check first in any account:

• No replenishment flow at all. Half the brands in my sample were here.
• One flow, one delay, every product. A 30-day product and a 90-day product can't share a reminder date.
• No reorder filter. People who already bought again keep getting nudged to buy.
• Active subscribers in the flow. They already have an order on the way. They need a pre-charge reminder instead.
• A single email. If they miss it, the flow is done. Build the follow-ups.

Where these numbers come from

The $2.23 per person, the 28x and the "2 of 4" figures come from pooled data across 4 consumable brands: 2,897 campaigns and $17.7M in email revenue. It's a small sample, so treat it as directional. The subscription wellness and skincare numbers each come from a single brand in one month.

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.

Instagram @jackintheinbox LinkedIn