Flow Glossary

You will learn

The glossary below defines common terms and acronyms used in Klaviyo flows.

A

Abandoned cart flow: a metric-triggered flow that begins when someone adds an item to their cart but doesn’t follow through with the purchase. In Klaviyo, these flows use Started Checkout or Added to Cart as the flow trigger.

A/B testing: a method of comparing different options to determine which is the most successful at achieving a goal (e.g., opens, clicks, or purchases). For example, a marketer may A/B test two subject lines to see which achieves a higher open rate, or test a 15% off offer and a 25% off offer to see which leads to more profit.

Actions: what Klaviyo does when a profile reaches a certain stage in a flow. For example, send an email or SMS message or update a profile property.

Active on site rate: the rate at which a contact is active on your site; the Active on Site metric is only tracked when Klaviyo onsite tracking is enabled.

Add past profiles: a way to retroactively queue qualified recipients for a flow. For instance, if someone subscribed before you set up a welcome flow, then adding past profiles will take them through the flow.

B

Bounce: when an email is unable to be delivered. There are two types of bounces: hard and soft. Hard and soft bounces occur for different reasons.

Browse abandonment flow: a metric-triggered flow that sends when an identifiable browser visits a product page and does not make a purchase. In Klaviyo, the trigger for this flow is Viewed Product.

C

Click rate: The percentage of unique recipients who clicked a link in your message. This is calculated by taking the number of unique individuals who clicked your email divided by the total number that received your email. Note that if you are exporting your data, it will include archived flows that fall within your export’s time range.

Conditional split: a component that creates two distinct paths in your flow, branching based on defined recipient properties or activities. For example, you can create two paths in your flow split around gender, so content within each path can be personalized for male or female recipients.

Cross-sell flow: a message or series of messages that show customers products similar to one they purchased. The flow trigger can be Placed Order or Fulfilled Order.

D

Date property-triggered flow: in this type of flow, people qualify to enter if they have a date-based profile property set (e.g., a birthday) and their date falls within the flow’s timeline.

Delivered: the number of emails or SMS messages that successfully made it to someone’s inbox or phone.

Draft: when a message is in draft mode, it is not active and will not send. This is the default status for a new message and is the status you should use while you're still configuring your content and adjusting settings.

E

Email action: an action that allows you to send an individual email within a flow. Each flow email has an email template and settings that can be configured. Unlike campaigns, which you use to send a batch of emails, flow emails are sent to recipients one at a time as individuals qualify for them.

F

Flow: an automated sequence of steps that is set in motion by a single trigger and can be filtered based on specific profile or trigger details.

Flow filter: a tool to restrict who enters a flow based on a profile’s behavior or attributes.

Flow trigger: what causes a flow to start; examples of flow triggers include subscribed to list, added to segment, took an action, or has date property.

L

Last click: the last time an email or SMS message was clicked.

Last open: the last time an email was opened.

List-triggered flow: in this type of flow, people will qualify to enter when they are added to a specific list and will remain in the flow as long as they remain in the list.

Live: when a flow message is in live mode, it is active and will send automatically.

M

Manual: when a flow message is in manual mode, it is active in your flow but no messages will automatically send. You will need to manually review and send all scheduled messages.

Metric: also called events. These are actions someone can take on your site or in response to a message. Each metric in Klaviyo represents a specific action (like Placed Order, Started Checkout, etc.) Metrics can be used for analyzing your data, segmenting subscribers, and triggering or splitting flows. To see all possible metrics that can trigger a flow, check out your account's Metrics tab.

Metric-triggered flow: in this type of flow, people will qualify to enter when they take a specific action (e.g., placing an order).

N

Needs Review: if your flow message is (or was at some point) in manual mode, this tab shows the total number of people who are ready to receive the message; messages to this group will not send automatically, so you must review them first.

Notification action: a flow action that sends an email to up to five people, typically used to send internal notifications to a certain team within your organization.

O

Open rate (email and push only): the percentage of unique recipients who opened your message. This is calculated by taking the number of unique individuals who opened your message divided by the number of recipients. Note that if you are exporting your data, it will include archived flows that fall within your export’s time range.

P

Post-purchase flow: a metric-triggered flow sent to customers after they complete a purchase. Examples include thank you, upsell, and cross-sell flows.

Price drop-triggered flow: in this type of flow, people qualify to enter when an item they've viewed or started checkout with lowers in price. 

S

Segment-triggered flow: in this type of flow, people qualify to enter when they are added to a segment that triggers the flow and will remain in the flow as long as they remain in that segment.

SMS action: flow action used to send a text message. Each SMS has a template and settings that can be configured.

Spam complaint rate: the number of recipients who reported an email as spam divided by the total number of recipients.

Sunset: flow used to phase out customers who are no longer engaging with messages from your brand.

T

Time delay: a flow action used to create delays — or wait periods — between components in a flow series.

Total clicks: the total number of unique recipients who clicked a link in your message within a selected timeframe. Note that unlike tracking for single campaigns, it's the unique number of total clicks that occurred. In other words, if one recipient clicks your email twice, it counts as one click. Additionally, if you are exporting your data, it will include archived flows that fall within your export’s time range.

Total opens: the total number of unique recipients who opened your message within a selected timeframe. Note that unlike tracking for single campaigns, it's the unique number of total opens that occurred. In other words, if one recipient opens your email twice, it counts as one open. Additionally, if you are exporting your data, it will include archived flows that fall within your export’s time range.

Transactional: a message meant to convey required or requested information. Examples include order and shipping confirmation flows. Transactional statuses are evaluated on a per-message basis. Transactional flows cannot contain any marketing content.

Trigger filter: a tool to restrict who enters a flow based on data associated with the triggering event. For example, with a flow triggered by Placed Order, you can use a trigger filter so that the flow only sends to those whose order is $20 or more. 

Trigger split: a component that creates two distinct paths in your flow, branching based on a defining characteristic of the trigger.

U

Unsubscribe rate: the number of recipients who unsubscribed divided by the total number of recipients for a message.

Update profile property action: an action in a flow that allows you to create, update, or delete a custom property from a profile.

UTM tracking: a way to detect how customers reach your site when snippets of code (i.e., UTM parameters) are added to URLs for messages.

W

Waiting queue: a list of profiles scheduled and waiting at a given step in a flow. When a person qualifies to enter a flow based on the configured trigger, this person is scheduled for the first step in your flow. Once someone moves through one step, they will be scheduled for the next. The Waiting queue is where you'll gain visibility into who is waiting at different steps in your flow, next to who has already moved past a given step. Potential steps include receiving a message, being evaluated at a split, and more. Learn more about how contacts move through a flow.

Welcome series: type of flow sent when someone is added to a list or, in certain cases, is added to a segment.

Winback flow: type of flow aimed at re-engaging lapsed customers.