One: compare sends against list size
Open the flow and compare emails sent against the people who should have received them. On one store a 13 email weekly sequence showed live for three weeks and had sent seven emails to a list of 488. On August 20, 2026, Klaviyo's own screen put it plainly: 438 of 488 had received nothing in 30 days.
Two: check what the flow triggers on
That flow triggered on Added to List, which only fires forward. The 488 were on the list before the flow existed, so almost none entered: in six weeks it reached 13 people. Removing and re adding people through the API does not fire it. The fix that held was replacing it with a scheduled weekly email, which reached 484 people on its first send.
Three: stop reading the open rate
One account showed a 92 percent open rate from 238 opens on 263 sends. Apple Mail pre fetches images and records an open whether or not anyone looked. On the same account, a 5.31 percent click rate and a $359.43 average order value both survived scrutiny.
Four: count who each flow can reach
On a store doing about 7,500 sessions a month 41 people started checkout and 33 finished in the 30 days to August 20, 2026, leaving eight people a month for an abandoned cart email. Browse abandonment had a different ceiling: the store could identify about 0.8 percent of visitors.
Five: check the platform's revenue against your orders
For August 17 to September 15, 2026 on one store, Klaviyo credited email with 23 orders. Shopify's Total sales by referrer report traced 10 orders to an email click. Klaviyo counts an order when the buyer opened or clicked an email within its window, even if they came back another way. Both numbers are defensible. Know which one you are looking at.
The proof, from one store
Straight from the case study, with the source and what it does not prove. See all five results.
Result 2 · EmailSales from email: $982 to $12,508 in 30 days
Mar 20 to Apr 18, 2026$982
→Aug 17 to Sep 15, 2026$12,508
12.7x- Baseline: the worst case before the work
- $982 from 5 orders that came in through an email, 19% of sales, March 20 to April 18, 2026.
- What we changed
- Built welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, win-back and beef share follow-up emails in Klaviyo (live July 28). Found that the weekly email used a trigger that only fires for people who join after it is switched on, so it reached 13 people in six weeks. Replaced it with a scheduled weekly email (September 4) that reached 484 people on its first send (September 8).
- Result: the best case after
- $12,508 from 10 orders that came in through an email, 35% of sales, August 17 to September 15, 2026, 12.7 times the baseline.
- Evidence source
- Shopify Analytics, Total sales by referrer, Klaviyo row, pulled September 16, 2026, beef shares at full price.
- What this does not prove
- One order was two whole beef shares, $9,480 at full price, placed 17 minutes after the buyer clicked a welcome email. Without it, email brought in $3,028, still 3 times the baseline. Klaviyo credits email with more, 23 orders for the same dates, because it counts orders placed within days of an open or a click.
- Test it on your store
- In Klaviyo, open each flow and compare recipients over the last 30 days with the size of the list it should reach. Then open Total sales by referrer in Shopify for the same 30 days and find the Klaviyo row. A flow reaching a fraction of its list, or a Klaviyo row near zero, is the place to start.
If this sounds like your store
This is what Klaviyo email, done for you fixes. See it on one store, with the before and after, in
the case study.