A good email welcome series sends three or four emails in the first seven days. Send the first one immediately and make it deliver whatever your sign-up form promised. Send the second a day or more later to explain who you are and why people buy from you. Send the third around day three with your best sellers and answers to the questions that stop first orders. Send a fourth around day seven only to subscribers who have not bought yet. Klaviyo’s own recommended cadence is three emails over a week: immediately, after three days, and four days after that.
Below: what Shopify Messaging and Klaviyo set up for you, a day-by-day plan, what to write in each email, the timing settings that quietly break welcome series, and what the sends cost. Platform details come from Shopify’s and Klaviyo’s help pages, checked on November 1, 2026. We have not run these flows in a live store, and the cost figures are a hypothetical model.
What Shopify Messaging and Klaviyo give you out of the box
You do not have to build a welcome series from a blank page. Both tools ship templates, but they make different choices about timing and about who gets the last email.
Template name Welcome new subscribers with a discount series (also a single-email version) Welcome series (pre-built flow)
What starts it A customer subscribes using a form on your online store The Added to list trigger on your main subscriber list
Number of emails 4: a discount email, 2 brand-building emails, then a discount reminder 3 recommended
Timing Not stated on the Help pages; open the template and click Edit workflow to see and change the waits Immediately, after 3 days, then 4 days after email 2 (about one week after sign-up)
Stops for buyers? The reminder is sent only if no purchase is made Only if you add a filter or split, such as Placed Order zero times since starting this flow
Where to find it Apps > Messaging > Automations > Create automation Flows, using the pre-built welcome series
Plan needed Basic plan or higher; Shopify Flow app installed for full functionality Free plan available (250 active profiles, 500 email sends a month)
Built from Shopify Help Center pages on Shopify Messaging automations and requirements, and Klaviyo Help Center and pricing pages, checked November 1, 2026.Two differences matter in practice. Shopify’s template leads with a discount, so it assumes your sign-up form offered one. Klaviyo’s three emails are a recommendation, not a rule: its Academy guidance says to adjust the number of messages to suit your brand and to leave at least a one-day delay between emails.
A seven-day welcome series, day by day
This is our editorial plan. It follows the vendor guidance above and adds one extra email for stores that need to answer practical questions before a first order.
1. Welcome Immediately (after confirmation if you use double opt-in) Deliver what the form promised: the code, the guide, the early access Every new subscriber
2. Why us Day 1 or 2 Explain who you are, what makes the product different, and show real proof Every new subscriber
3. Help me choose Day 3 or 4 Point to best sellers and answer the shipping, returns and sizing questions Every new subscriber (or non-buyers, if your tool allows)
4. Reminder Day 7 Remind them of the offer or deadline once, plainly Only subscribers with no order since they joined
Editorial plan by E-commerce Partners, based on Klaviyo and Shopify guidance checked November 1, 2026. Not a measured benchmark.If you only have time for three emails, merge emails 2 and 3. That gives you Klaviyo’s recommended shape: welcome, value, then a final nudge about a week after sign-up.
What to write in each welcome email
Email 1: deliver the promise, fast
This email exists because someone just asked for something. Put the discount code or download link near the top, say how to use it, and say when it expires if it does. Klaviyo’s guide says that if you offer an incentive on your sign-up form, include it in the first email of the series.
- Subject line: say what is inside, such as “Your 10% code is here.”
- One main button to the shop or the collection most people start with.
- A sender name and reply address that a real person reads.
- One line on what to expect next: how often you email and what about.
Email 2: why someone should buy from you
Klaviyo’s guide suggests sharing your brand’s story and mission in a welcome series, and Shopify’s template calls these middle emails “brand-building”. Keep it short and concrete: who makes the product, what problem it solves, and what you do differently. If you show reviews or customer photos, use only real ones you have permission to use.
Email 3: remove the reasons not to order
Practical questions can hold up a first order as much as the product itself. Answer them before people have to ask:
- Delivery times and shipping costs by region.
- Your return or exchange window, in one sentence, with a link to the full policy.
- Sizing, compatibility or “which one is right for me” help.
- Three to six best sellers, so people do not have to browse the whole catalog.
Email 4: one honest reminder for non-buyers
Shopify’s template sends its last email only if no purchase is made, and it uses that email as a discount reminder. Copy that logic in any tool. Mention the offer once, mention the real expiry date if there is one, and stop. Do not invent a deadline or a stock shortage.
Timing settings that quietly break welcome series
Most welcome series problems are not about copy. They come from settings that decide when, or whether, an email goes out.
Double opt-in moves “day 0”
Klaviyo says every list is double opt-in by default. The subscriber is added to the list, and the welcome series starts, only after they click the confirmation link. If someone confirms two days later, their day 0 is two days later.
Shopify also offers double opt-in. You turn it on under Settings > Notifications > Customer notifications, in the Marketing double opt-in section, and it needs the Online Store sales channel. Shopify says the confirmation email should not contain any marketing, so do not try to squeeze your welcome offer into it.
Klaviyo Smart Sending can skip a welcome email
Smart Sending skips a marketing message if the person received another one recently. Klaviyo’s default window for email is 16 hours, and it is on for flow messages in many pre-built flows. Klaviyo says skipped messages are not rescheduled.
Here is the risk. Someone subscribes at 9 a.m. and your newsletter reaches them at 6 p.m. the same day. If welcome email 2 is set for one day after sign-up, it is due at 9 a.m. the next morning, 15 hours after the newsletter and inside the 16-hour window, so it can be skipped for good. Check the setting on each welcome message and decide whether it should apply.
Two welcome automations mean twice the email
Shopify’s requirements page gives this exact example: if you turn on two welcome email automations, customers receive twice as many emails. The same happens if you run a welcome flow in a separate email platform and leave Shopify’s template on. Pick one tool for welcome emails.
Imports can trigger the series for old subscribers
Klaviyo warns that if your welcome series is live and you import a list, everyone imported will be scheduled for the first message, even if they subscribed months ago. Set the series to manual before you import, then set it live again. Klaviyo also says someone can receive messages in a list-triggered flow only once, so a re-subscriber will not get the series twice.
What a welcome series costs to send
Welcome emails count toward your sending limits on both platforms. Shopify says its email marketing automations count toward the 10,000 free emails each month; only abandoned checkout emails are exempt. Beyond 10,000, Shopify charges $1 USD per 1,000 emails up to 300,000, with lower rates above that. Unused free emails do not roll over.
Campaigns: 4 sends to 8,000 subscribers 32,000 32,000
Welcome series: 1,500 new subscribers x 4 emails 0 6,000
Total counted emails 32,000 38,000
Above the 10,000 free emails 22,000 28,000
Shopify Messaging charge at $1 per 1,000 $22.00 $28.00
Hypothetical store; subscriber and campaign counts are our assumptions. Pricing from Shopify’s Messaging email pricing page, checked November 1, 2026. Calculated with exact fractions and again with decimals in Python.In this model the welcome series adds $6 a month. The count is a ceiling: Shopify’s reminder email goes only to non-buyers, so real sends will be a little lower.
On Klaviyo’s free plan, the limit bites sooner. The free plan allows 500 email sends a month. A four-email series uses all 500 sends for 125 new subscribers, and a three-email series uses them for about 166, before you send a single campaign. If you are deciding between platforms, our Klaviyo vs Omnisend comparison covers paid pricing and automation features.
Should the first email include a discount?
Shopify’s template assumes it will, and many sign-up forms promise one. The catch is that the code also goes to people who would have bought at full price. The discount has to bring in enough extra first orders to cover the margin you give away on all of them.
We worked through that break-even formula in our guide to setting up abandoned checkout emails in Shopify. The same maths applies here. With a 50% contribution margin, a 10% welcome code needs 25% more first orders just to break even, and a 20% code needs 66.7% more. If your margin is thinner, the required lift is bigger.
Alternatives that cost less margin: free shipping on the first order above your normal threshold, a buying guide, early access to new products, or a small gift with the first order. Our guide to customer lifetime value from profit helps you decide how much a new customer is worth before you set the offer.
Using AI to draft the series without losing your voice
An AI writing tool can produce a first draft of four welcome emails in minutes. It does not know your shipping times, return window, product facts or which reviews are real. Use it for structure and wording, and supply the facts yourself.
- Give the tool a short brief: what you sell, who buys it, your tone, and the job of each email from the plan above.
- Paste in the real facts: shipping times, return window, best sellers, the exact offer and its expiry.
- Ask for two subject lines per email and keep the plainer one.
- Check every claim against your store settings and policies before you schedule anything.
- Remove anything the tool invented, such as testimonials, statistics or urgency.
If you already use Shopify Flow, our guide to the Shopify Flow automations worth setting up first explains how Flow triggers and waits behave, which helps when you edit the welcome workflow.
Consent rules are separate from this checklist
Commercial email rules differ between the United States, Canada and other markets, including how you collect consent and what every marketing email must contain. This article covers timing and content, not legal requirements. Read the FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide and the CRTC’s CASL FAQ before your first send, and get advice if you are unsure how they apply to you.
Common welcome series mistakes
- A slow first email. If the code arrives a day late, the moment has passed. Send email 1 immediately.
- Sending everything in 48 hours. Klaviyo’s Academy suggests at least a one-day delay between emails.
- Reminding buyers about a code they already used. Add a purchase exit or filter before the last email.
- Running two welcome flows. Turn off Shopify’s template if another platform sends your welcome series.
- Measuring only the first email. Look at orders from new subscribers across the whole week, and compare them with the cost per subscriber you pay to acquire them. Our guide to calculating customer acquisition cost correctly shows how.
What you should check next
- Open your sign-up form and write down exactly what it promises. Email 1 must deliver that.
- Check whether a welcome automation is already on in Shopify Messaging and in any other email tool.
- In Shopify, open the welcome template and click Edit workflow to see the real waits. In Klaviyo, check each delay and the Smart Sending setting.
- Add a purchase exit before the reminder email if your tool does not do it for you.
- Send yourself the whole series as a test subscriber and read it in order.
- After a month, compare first-order rates and margin for subscribers who got a code with what you expected.
Frequently asked questions
How many emails should a welcome series have?
Three or four is a sensible start. Klaviyo recommends three over about a week, and Shopify’s discount series template sends four. Add more only if each email has a distinct job.
Does Shopify charge for welcome emails?
They count toward the 10,000 free Shopify Messaging emails each month on Basic and higher plans. Above that, Shopify charges $1 USD per 1,000 emails up to 300,000.
Why did a new subscriber not get my Klaviyo welcome email?
Common reasons are that they have not clicked the double opt-in confirmation yet, or that Smart Sending skipped the message because they received another marketing email inside the 16-hour default window.
Can someone receive the welcome series twice?
In Klaviyo, no: a person can receive messages in a list-triggered flow only once. In Shopify, two separate welcome automations will both send, so keep only one turned on.
Should the welcome series be different for customers who already bought?
Yes, if your tool supports it. Someone who ordered before subscribing does not need a first-order code. In Klaviyo you can split on whether a profile has placed an order; Shopify’s template only skips the final reminder for buyers.
The takeaway
Send the promised offer immediately, use the next two emails to explain why you and answer practical questions, and send one reminder at day seven only to people who have not bought. Then check the settings that decide whether those emails actually arrive: double opt-in, Smart Sending, duplicate automations and imports.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center, “Creating and managing marketing automations in Shopify Messaging”. help.shopify.com
- Shopify Help Center, “Shopify Messaging marketing automations”. help.shopify.com
- Shopify Help Center, “Requirements and considerations for creating marketing automations”. help.shopify.com
- Shopify Help Center, “Shopify Messaging email pricing”. help.shopify.com
- Shopify Help Center, “Collecting customer contact information” (double opt-in). help.shopify.com
- Shopify Changelog, “Welcome email series templates in marketing automations”, May 9, 2023. changelog.shopify.com
- Klaviyo Help Center, “How to create an email welcome series”, updated October 7, 2026. help.klaviyo.com
- Klaviyo Help Center, “Getting started with flows”, updated October 7, 2026. help.klaviyo.com
- Klaviyo Help Center, “Understanding Smart Sending in Klaviyo”, updated October 22, 2026. help.klaviyo.com
- Klaviyo Academy, “Best practices for flows”. academy.klaviyo.com
- Klaviyo, “Pricing”. klaviyo.com
- Federal Trade Commission, “CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business”. ftc.gov
- CRTC, “Frequently Asked Questions about Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation”. crtc.gc.ca
Last reviewed: November 1, 2026. Template names, admin paths, default timings, Smart Sending defaults and email pricing match Shopify’s and Klaviyo’s help and pricing pages as checked on that date.
How this article was made: researched and drafted with AI assistance, with every factual claim checked against the sources above. The seven-day plan is our editorial recommendation, and the 8,000-subscriber store, its campaign volume, 1,500 monthly sign-ups and 50% margin are hypothetical assumptions used for modelled figures, not measured results.
Related guides
- How to set up abandoned checkout emails in Shopify
- Klaviyo vs Omnisend: pricing, automation and deliverability
- Best Shopify apps for increasing repeat purchases