StoreHero's Approach to Klaviyo: Design, Setup, and Operations

This article is a comprehensive guide to implementing and operating Klaviyo for Shopify merchants supported by StoreHero.

At StoreHero, we frequently provide CRM operational support using Klaviyo. While our dedicated Growth Partners handle the technical implementation, we believe it benefits Shopify merchants to understand the fundamentals as well — it opens up more strategic options for you. We hope you find this article useful.

Designing Your CRM Strategy

Before implementing Klaviyo, it's important to organize your CRM strategy. At StoreHero, we typically categorize initiatives into four main objectives as shown in the diagram below. To avoid getting lost in tactics, take time to map out your initiatives according to purpose.

• Drive first purchase: abandoned cart emails, back-in-stock notifications, wishlist reminders, etc.
• Encourage repeat purchases: cross-sell/upsell emails, product usage tips, etc.
• Boost engagement: VIP emails, referral campaigns, etc.
• Win back lapsed customers: win-back emails, etc.

Understanding Purchase Frequency and Spend

It's also valuable to understand the number of customers segmented by purchase frequency and total spend. This makes it easier to prioritize your initiatives.

For example, the data below is fictional, but it shows customers segmented by total purchase amount and number of purchases over a one-year period. The red-outlined boxes indicate segments with a relatively large number of customers.

The next view shows total revenue by segment, where the red-outlined boxes highlight the highest-revenue segments.

By targeting segments with a large customer base or high revenue with initiatives to encourage additional purchases or increase engagement, you can run CRM programs that make a significant business impact.

Start by reviewing your store's customer data broken down by purchase frequency and spend. The direction for your strategy should become clearer.

Understanding Customer Purchase Patterns

Having data on customer purchase patterns makes it even easier to define your CRM strategy.

• The sequence of products purchased across multiple orders
• The purchase interval between specific products

Below is a sheet showing the count and percentage of product combinations across multiple orders.

In this example, regardless of what was purchased first, customers tend to buy tops on their next purchase. Additionally, customers who buy pants appear more likely to purchase skirts and pants afterward compared to other products. Using insights like these, you can build automated email/LINE scenarios to encourage repeat purchases.

Klaviyo Initial Setup

Let's walk through how to set up and operate Klaviyo. After creating your Klaviyo account, the following initial configuration steps are required:

• Timezone and currency
• Shopify and Klaviyo integration
• Form integration
• Email domain authentication
• Editing the newsletter unsubscribe and preferences pages

Timezone and Currency Settings

The timezone setting affects email send scheduling, while the currency setting affects how product prices are displayed in email content and in reports.

To set the timezone, go to Settings > Organization and find the Time zone field.

On the same screen, set your currency under Account currency.

Shopify and Klaviyo Integration

Next, connect Shopify and Klaviyo for data synchronization. Go to Integrations > Explore directory.

Select Shopify from the list of available integrations.

Enter your Shopify store URL in the Store URL field.

Choose which Klaviyo customer list Shopify data should be synced to.

Choose how customer data collected via Klaviyo signup forms should be synced back to Shopify. Selecting "All profiles" syncs all customer data including those not yet in Shopify, while "Profiles that already exist in Shopify" only syncs data for existing Shopify customers.

Next, in the Shopify theme customizer, enable the app embed.

In the Klaviyo dashboard, if the Onsite Tracking section displays "The Klaviyo app embed is enabled on your Shopify store," the integration is complete.

Email Domain Authentication

Authenticate the domain you'll use for sending emails. Without authentication, your email deliverability may suffer, so be sure to complete this step.

Go to Settings > Domains and select Connect a domain.

Enter your root domain.

Set a subdomain for sending emails.

Then copy the CNAME and TXT Host and Value records shown in Klaviyo and add them in your domain registrar's management console. Once authentication is successful, Klaviyo will show the domain status as Active.

Editing the Newsletter Unsubscribe and Preferences Pages

Customize the page that customers see when they unsubscribe from your newsletter and the page for updating their information.

Under Growth tools, go to Customize subscribe and preference pages and select Account default pages.

The Preference page is for updating subscriber information, and the Email unsubscribe page is displayed when customers opt out of your newsletter.

Use the editor to add your brand logo and description text.

List Building

Here's how to create forms in Klaviyo to collect email addresses.

Select the list you want to add subscribers to and choose a form type. There are four form types available: popup, full page, flyout, and embedded.

You can edit the form using the editor.

You can add elements by drag-and-drop. Data collected through added fields is stored as standard or custom profile properties, which can then be used for email segmentation or dynamic content personalization.

For popup and flyout forms, you can configure when they appear and on which pages. You can set triggers based on the URL, time on page (in seconds), number of pages viewed, or scroll depth (as a percentage).

When the submit button is clicked, you can assign values to the customer's profile — such as which form they signed up through.

You can also customize the thank-you message. After email signup, you can direct customers to your LINE or social media accounts, allowing you to simultaneously capture email subscribers and grow your LINE or follower count.

Creating Segments

Your collected customer list can be segmented and managed using a variety of criteria such as purchase history and customer attributes. You can send emails to segments and sync them with your ad platforms.

To create a segment, go to Lists & Segments > Create segment.

In the segment builder, you can create segments using a wide range of criteria. The example below shows a segment for "customers who have made exactly one lifetime purchase" — a natural target for repeat purchase campaigns.

Below is a segment for "customers who joined the Newsletter list within the last 30 days and have never opened an email." As this segment grows, email effectiveness tends to decline — so it's worth monitoring closely.

This is how you can create and leverage segments aligned with your CRM strategy.

Email Delivery

Klaviyo supports a variety of email delivery types. In this article, we'll cover the following:

• Broadcast campaigns
• Welcome emails
• Post-purchase emails
• Abandoned cart and checkout emails
• Wishlist reminders

Broadcast Campaigns

Campaigns allow you to send newsletters and mass email blasts. Here's how to use them.

First, go to Campaigns and select Create Campaign.

Set the campaign name and the recipient (and exclusion) lists. Sending too many emails with poor open rates can increase the risk of being flagged as spam, so recipient configuration is important. If you want to customize UTM parameters for this specific email, you can do so on this screen.

Set the email subject line and preview text, then select your email template. We recommend creating templates in advance based on your use case.

Add the elements you want to display in the email using drag-and-drop. You can also pull data from Klaviyo's custom profile properties to create personalized emails dynamically.

Once you've created the email, save it and proceed to the send settings. Klaviyo will check for any issues right before sending. Once everything shows OK, select Schedule or Send.

Choose whether to schedule for a specific date and time or send immediately, and you're done.

Leveraging Product Feeds

One of Klaviyo's standout features is the ability to use product feed data directly within emails. You can pull in a bestseller ranking feed and display it right inside your email.

You can create as many product feeds as you need under Products > Product feed. Set up multiple feeds so you can use the right one for the right situation.

For example, you might create a feed of popular products for first-time buyers to use in onboarding emails, or a feed of high-inventory items for promotional discount emails to help clear stock.

At StoreHero, we use our growth platform to create Klaviyo data feeds with a wide variety of conditions.

The screenshot below shows the StoreHero settings screen, where you can filter products from specific collections or with specific tags, and further narrow down by price or inventory level.

We create a feed of products popular with first-time buyers, sync it with Klaviyo, and set it to auto-update daily.

For sophisticated operations like this, a growth platform like StoreHero becomes essential.

Welcome Emails

Now let's set up automated emails in Klaviyo. We'll start with Welcome emails — sent immediately after newsletter signup to deliver a first-purchase coupon, highlight popular products, and introduce your brand concept.

First, go to Flows and select Create Flow.

Klaviyo provides a large library of Flow templates. Search for "Welcome" to find newsletter follow-up email templates, then select the one you like.

Enter a name for your Flow, then in the Trigger settings choose which list subscription should activate this Flow.

A Klaviyo Flow template will be displayed. Customize it to fit your scenario.

You can customize the trigger conditions by going to Profile Filters within the trigger settings.

For example, if you want to add a condition such as "has never made a purchase" on top of "subscribed to the Newsletter list," select What someone has done (or not done), Placed Order, zero times, over all time.

Next, click Edit on each email to open the editing screen. Editing an email works the same way as for broadcast campaigns.

Finally, configure the timing for each email in the Flow. Click Time Delay between emails and set the interval on the left panel.

If you don't want to send emails at night or before a certain time, select Delay until a specific time of day and set the earliest allowed send time. Similarly, to exclude specific days of the week, use Delay until a specific day(s) of the week and deselect the days you want to skip.

Welcome emails are often used to encourage first purchases, so when recommending products, it's common to feature items that are popular among first-time buyers.

If the top products for first-time buyers change based on season or new arrivals, you'll need to actively manage your feed. At StoreHero, we use StoreHero to handle automatic updates.

Post-Purchase Emails

Post-purchase emails are a great place to share product usage tips, styling inspiration, review and UGC requests, and repurchase suggestions.

The setup in Klaviyo is essentially the same as for Welcome emails. Using the "Customer Thank You" Flow template is a good starting point.

It's effective to branch the Flow based on whether it's a first purchase or a repeat purchase, or which product was bought, and tailor the email content accordingly.

For product recommendations in post-purchase emails, the next likely purchase varies depending on what was previously bought, so recommendations should be based on past purchase history. When the product catalog is large, the number of scenarios can grow unwieldy, making dynamic and personalized product recommendations a necessity.

StoreHero's growth platform can dynamically serve personalized product recommendations in Klaviyo based on customer attributes (such as tags) and purchase history.

For cross-border commerce where popular products vary by country, scenarios become even more complex, making dynamic recommendations an essential feature.

Abandoned Cart and Checkout Emails

Abandoned cart and checkout emails remind customers of the products they were considering purchasing.

The Abandoned Cart Reminder Flow template in Klaviyo is a good place to start.

The trigger for abandoned cart/checkout emails is Checkout Started, with Profile Filters set to Placed Order zero times since starting this flow and Has not been in flow in the last 7 days.

The timing of the email — how many hours or days after abandonment — significantly impacts performance. We recommend testing multiple time variants.

In abandoned cart/checkout emails, recommending related products in addition to the item left in the cart can improve performance. This is likely because customers who abandon carts are often undecided, and seeing related products helps them compare and complete their decision.

StoreHero's growth platform also suggests products from the same collection or with similar tags that customers are likely to consider together, while adjusting the recommendation logic based on performance data.

Wishlist Reminders

You can also integrate a wishlist app with Klaviyo to enhance reminder notifications. We'll use Wishlist Plus as the example app here.

By connecting Wishlist Plus with Klaviyo, you can send wishlist reminder emails, back-in-stock alerts, price drop notifications, and low-stock warnings directly through Klaviyo.

Let's connect Wishlist Plus with Klaviyo. First, open the Integration settings in Wishlist Plus and select Klaviyo.

After connecting to Klaviyo, select the triggers you want to use.

When a trigger is set to Active, the following events will send their related data to Klaviyo for use in automations:

• Signup confirmation email sent
• Product added to wishlist
• Wishlist reminder email sent
• Low stock alert for a wishlisted item
• Price drop on a wishlisted item
• Wishlist shared
• Back-in-stock notification sent

Once the Wishlist Plus and Klaviyo integration is complete, event data (such as when an item is wishlisted or its price drops) will be sent to Klaviyo automatically. Let's start by using that data to build a segment in Klaviyo.

When you select What someone has done (or not done), you'll find new options prefixed with "Swym" in the metric list. You can use these to build segments.

You can also use these events in Flows. For example, the setup below creates a Flow that automatically sends an email to customers who have added items to their wishlist but haven't yet made a purchase.

To dynamically use event data sent from Wishlist Plus to Klaviyo in your email content, there are Merge Tags available for this purpose (Wishlist Plus Merge Tags for use in Klaviyo).

The advantage of integrating with Klaviyo — rather than sending emails directly through Wishlist Plus — is the greater flexibility in Flow design and email content. Beyond reminding customers of their wishlisted items, you can also include other popular products or back-in-stock items to boost conversion.

In that case, just like with product recommendations in Welcome emails, you would leverage Klaviyo's product feed functionality.

For effective feed management, consider using StoreHero to integrate popular product feeds or to leverage personalized product recommendations based on each customer's purchase history.

A/B Testing

Just as with ads and landing pages, Klaviyo allows you to run A/B tests on email subject lines and body copy.

After creating and saving your email content, look for the Create A/B Test section on the screen before the review page and click it.

The A/B test setup screen will appear. Create the subject line or email content for Variant B.

For broadcast campaigns, you can also run a test where only the send time is changed while keeping the content the same. This is useful for measuring whether morning or evening sends result in higher open or click rates under equal conditions.

For broadcast campaigns, you can also configure how many sends to use for the test and how many to reserve for sending only the winning variant.

For automated flows, you can choose to let Klaviyo AI manage the distribution ratio, or set it manually.

Audience Data Integration

In Klaviyo, you can segment customers using a wide range of criteria — purchase count, total spend, products purchased, and more. These segments can be used not only for email delivery but also as audience data for advertising.

For example, you can target non-purchasers with ads, or run lookalike audience campaigns based on your highest-LTV customers.

In the segment you want to sync with ad platforms, select Linked integrations,

then simply Connect to the platform you want to sync with.

For use with Google Ads Performance Max (P-max) campaigns and similar, it's important to sync customer segments with high purchase rates or high LTV. To build effective segments, you can also use survey and quiz apps such as PersonalizeHero or Lantern to collect richer customer data.

Monitoring

Once email delivery is underway, monitor performance continuously and work toward improvement. To improve, you first need to define your goals.

Even if your CRM goal is revenue, set intermediate metrics as well — such as average order value and open rate. When setting goals, use your current performance as a benchmark, so gather your baseline data beforehand.

Once you have your actual performance data and goals set, you can calculate the gap between them. Design your CRM operations to close that gap — structure your email program so the combined impact of all running emails meets the target values for each metric you've defined.

Set KPIs for each email and monitor them to enable continuous improvement. It's also effective to define backup plans in case performance declines — this allows the team to react quickly with on-the-ground decisions.

In Klaviyo, you can configure UTM parameters, so setting a unique UTM Campaign for each email enables tracking in Google Analytics as well.

Once tracking is configured and operations are underway, start aggregating goal-vs-actual gaps and begin iterating on improvements.

Breaking down revenue by email type into metrics such as number of orders, average order value, CVR, sessions, clicks, and opens — and calculating the goal-vs-actual gap for each — will make the path to improvement much clearer.

Understanding which products are being purchased and which customer segments are converting through email will give you valuable input for refining your email content strategy.

For optimization, making good use of the Klaviyo features introduced in this article — Flows, product feeds, and A/B testing — will expand the range of actions you can take. In CRM, the number of levers you can pull matters.

Summary

We've covered how to set up and operate Klaviyo. Beyond what's been introduced here, Klaviyo offers many more powerful features that can expand your strategic options. Please consult your dedicated Growth Partner for recommendations tailored to your products and growth stage.

Leverage StoreHero's support to get the most out of Klaviyo and drive your growth to success.