Site abandonment email: what to send when they didn't look at anything

What is a site abandonment email?

Someone came to your site and left without looking at a single product or collection page. No product view, no cart, no checkout.

Klaviyo's guide describes the abandoned site flow (also called a site bounce flow) as one that "targets identifiable visitors who leave your site without viewing a product, starting checkout, or placing an order." The trigger is the Active on Site metric. Unlike browse abandonment, Klaviyo says, "this flow starts when someone is active on your site."

Site Abandonment is one of the 8 core flows I install for every brand. It's the outermost of the abandonment flows: site, then collection, then browse, then cart, then checkout.

Who does a site abandonment flow actually reach?

This is the part that changes how I'd write it.

Klaviyo's onsite tracking guide says Active on Site is tracked for "known browsers" only. Someone becomes known by clicking a Klaviyo email or SMS link, subscribing through a Klaviyo form, or being identified or cookied some other way. On Shopify, Active on Site is added through the integration or the Klaviyo app embed.

So the people in this flow are mostly:

• Subscribers who haven't bought yet. Often they clicked a campaign, landed on the homepage, and drifted off.
• Past customers. They came back for something. Maybe to reorder, maybe to check their subscription, maybe to look up how to use the product.

A stranger from an ad who's never given you an email won't enter. That's why I don't write this flow like a cold intro. A lot of the people in it already know you.

What to send in a site abandonment email

Keep each email short. They didn't look at anything, so don't throw a full pitch at them.

Klaviyo's own template is short: a 15-minute delay, one email, a 1-day wait, then a second email or one SMS. Here's the site flow I install. Three emails per path over 4 days.

Non-customer path:

1. 1 to 2 hours: introduce the brand and category. One line on who you are and one reason to look.
2. Day 2: best first product or collection. "Start here." Your best seller, variety pack or starter bundle. One button.
3. Day 4: trust, proof and use cases. A couple of reviews and how people actually use it.

Customer path:

1. 1 to 2 hours: welcome back, plus their next purchase. A link straight to what they bought last.
2. Day 2: product discovery. Something they haven't tried yet.
3. Day 4: restock and routine reasons. Why now is a good time to reorder.

This flow fires a lot, and the person showed the least interest of anyone in your abandonment flows. Three short emails, then stop. Don't chase.

On SMS: I run SMS inside Klaviyo, because keeping email and SMS in the same place makes attribution less confusing. If you use SMS here, Klaviyo's template splits on SMS consent and sends one text, and its best practice is one SMS per person, sent within 48 hours of someone abandoning the site.

How should customer and non-customer paths differ?

Every flow in my system starts with a routing check: "Placed order ever?" No goes to the non-customer path. Yes goes to the customer path. Site abandonment adds a second check: "Ordered in the last 30 days?" Recent buyers are routed out, so they only get the sequence that matters to them, like post-purchase, instead of a "come back" email a week after they ordered.

That split does a lot of work here. Non-customers came back but didn't dig in, so they need a reason to look. Customers who visit and leave without viewing a product were probably there for something specific. For a consumable brand, that's often a reorder, an account or subscription check, or a how-to question. A link to manage their subscription, if you offer one, is worth adding to the customer path.

If you run subscriptions, think about whether active subscribers should get this flow at all. A subscriber who logged in to skip a shipment doesn't need a "come back and shop" email. A conditional split or a profile filter can keep them out.

The offer. Every flow in my system carries one, site abandonment included. 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 like a bundle, or a monthly subscription offer that saves them money and gives you predictable revenue. Customers who order in large quantities are usually left out of these automations.

How do you keep site abandonment from overlapping browse and collection?

This flow sits at the outer edge, so it should be the first to let go of people.

Klaviyo recommends these filters for the abandoned site flow:

• Active On Site zero times since starting this flow
• Viewed Product zero times since starting this flow
• 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 30 days (I use 35, the re-entry window all five of my abandonment flows share)
• Added to Cart zero times since starting this flow, for Shopify and BigCommerce users with Added to Cart tracking on

Klaviyo says those filters stop follow-ups if people return to the site or take a shopping action, and that you should expect a lot of skipped messages. That's the point. Those shoppers move on to browse, cart and post-purchase.

I add one more: Viewed Collection zero times since starting this flow. On Shopify, Viewed Collection is tracked once "Track behavioral events" is on. Anyone who views a collection should leave site abandonment and go to your collection abandonment email instead.

The rule I use across all five abandonment flows: each one exits anyone who takes a step closer to buying. Site hands off to collection or browse. Browse hands off to cart. Cart hands off to checkout. I explain the cart and checkout end of that in abandoned cart vs abandoned checkout.

That re-entry window matters a lot here. Active on Site can fire every time a known visitor shows up. Without it, a loyal customer who visits weekly gets this flow every week.

Common site abandonment mistakes

• Writing it like a cold welcome email. Most people in it already know you.
• Long, heavy emails. It's the weakest signal. Three short ones over four days is plenty.
• No Viewed Collection exit. Collection browsers get the generic site email instead of a relevant one.
• No re-entry limit or recent-buyer exit. Regular visitors and last week's buyers get it on repeat.
• Sending it to active subscribers managing their account. They were there to do a chore, not shop.
• A bigger offer than your welcome offer. Then signing up is the worst deal on your site. Keep it consistent.

For the other flows in the chain, see browse abandonment 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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