The post purchase flow that turns a first order into a second
They've bought once. This is the sequence that decides whether they ever buy again.
From the first order to the second, in nine days
Every delay, every check and every way out.
A first order lands
It fires on a customer's first order, so only first-time buyers get in. Anybody already on their second belongs in a different flow.
The thank you
Subject line · Thanks for your first purchase!
Two days after the order, not two minutes after it. The receipt has already confirmed the purchase, so this one has room to welcome somebody into the brand instead.
Has a second order been placed in the last five days?
The invitation back
Subject line · Shop our new arrivals and get [OFFER] off your next order
Seven days in, and the first real ask. It leads on what's new, not on what they already own, and the offer sits behind that.
Has an order been placed in the last two days?
Has anything in this flow been opened?
The reminder
Subject line · Your [OFFER] is waiting
Nine days in, and only to profiles that have opened something. The offer is the whole email, and after this the flow drops it.
The profile leaves the flow
A second order, the open check, or the third send. Every route ends here, and the campaign calendar and the repeat buyer flows take it from there.
The two, five and two day delays are starting points. We move them to your delivery times and your reorder window inside the first month. Subject lines get rewritten in your voice, and the size of the offer is a margin call we make with you, never a template default.
What a first-time buyer opens next
Not one of these asks for a second order in the first screen. Somebody who's just paid you is owed something before they get sold to again.
Where the second order quietly goes missing
Three of them, and a campaign report shows you none.
A second order doesn't show up in the campaign calendar. It shows up in the flows half of the month, earned by sequences nobody touched that week.
Three things go wrong in that half. Every one costs you real money, and none of them leaves a mark where you'd look for it.
A receipt, and then nothing
On most stores the last thing a first-time buyer hears is the order confirmation. Then the brand goes quiet, at the one moment it's actually been paid for.
A thank you with no ask behind it
One friendly send with nothing behind it leaves the second order to a campaign written for everybody. First-time buyers aren't everybody.
An offer that follows somebody who already bought
Take the order checks out and somebody who reordered on day six still gets the discount on day seven. That's how you teach your best buyers to wait.
Which delay to move first, and what to leave alone
Three tests, one at a time. How long the first delay runs, whether the offer belongs in email two or waits for email three, and what email two leads on. Each one runs until second orders decide it. Opens will not.
What the second order was worth to one brand
Shadow Foam, Q3 2025. Eight percent of their customers, in the case study.
FAQs
What is a post purchase flow?
A post purchase flow is an automated sequence that sends after somebody's first order, with one job: getting them to a second. Ours runs three emails across nine days from that first order, with a repeat order check between the sends, so anybody who buys again drops straight out. It decides whether a customer you've already paid to acquire is worth more than one basket.
How long after the first order should the first email send?
Two days, in the build we run. The order confirmation has already thanked them and said what's coming, so another send an hour later is just noise. Two days lands while the order is still travelling and the purchase still feels like a decision they made. That's the moment to say who you are. On slow delivery windows we push it out to land near the parcel.
What is the difference between a post purchase flow and a welcome flow?
The trigger. A welcome flow starts when somebody joins your list, and its job is a first order. A post purchase flow starts when somebody buys, and its job is the second. The exits in each one are there so nobody sits in both at once.
Should the second order come with a discount?
Usually yes, and our playbook says so: a first-time buyer has no habit to fall back on yet. How big it gets is a margin call, not a template default, so we set it with you against your own numbers. If your margin's thin, free delivery or early access to the new range does the same job for less.
Can we email customers who bought but never subscribed?
In the UK the soft opt-in in PECR covers marketing similar products to somebody who bought from you, as long as they were offered a refusal at the point of sale and get one in every send. That's what this flow is. We still record where the profile came from, keep one-click unsubscribe in every email, and never run it against bought data.
How do you know the post purchase flow is working?
Second order rate, and revenue per recipient across the nine days. The flow report on its own flatters itself, because some of those people would have reordered anyway, so we read the whole store's repeat purchase rate beside it. Opens tell you the subject line worked. That's the smallest question this flow answers.
Twelve pages of decision trees, free to take
The eCommerce Email Automation Playbook
Twelve pages of flow diagrams, one per evergreen automation, each with its own trigger, delays, splits and exits.
The rest of the automations behind a repeat customer
One automation each. The real trigger, the real delays, and the checks that decide who stops hearing from you.
- WelcomeThe first sequence after signup
- Site searchSearched, then went no further
- Category browseBrowsed a category, opened nothing
- Browse abandonmentViewed a product, then left
- Back in stockThe moment the stock lands
- Price dropOnly the people already watching
- Abandoned cartBasic and advanced, on one page
- Checkout abandonmentStopped at the payment step
- BirthdayOne date, given on purpose
- ReplenishmentTimed to the reorder window
- Cross sellThe second product, not the same one
- VIPYour best customers, kept close
- WinbackThe dormant shopper, before sunset
- SunsetThe profiles that stopped reading
- The flow libraryAll fourteen, in one place
It all runs inside email marketing and the whole stack is drawn out in the Automation Playbook. Lifecycle strategy is the map behind it.
Ready to make the second order automatic?
Bring your Klaviyo login to the first call. We'll look at what happens after a first order on your account, and tell you which of these sends is missing. If none of them are, we'll say that too.
Book a call with our founder.
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