The 8 Klaviyo segments every ecommerce brand needs

You are on Klaviyo. Flows are running. Campaigns go out weekly. The open rates look reasonable and the revenue from email is growing. But it is growing slowly, more slowly than the brands generating 30 to 35% of their total revenue from email.

The gap is almost always segmentation. Most ecommerce brands are sending emails to audiences that are too broad, buyers getting subscription prompts, loyal customers getting first-purchase offers, unengaged subscribers dragging down deliverability for everyone else. Broadcasting to the wrong people teaches the email platform that your content is irrelevant, which eventually makes it true.

Here are the 8 segments every ecommerce brand should have built and maintained in Klaviyo, and what to do with each one.

Why unsegmented sending is costing you more than money

The conventional argument for segmentation is personalisation. That is part of it. The underappreciated cost of not segmenting is deliverability.

Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail all use engagement signals, open rates, click rates, reply rates, to determine inbox placement. Sending to a list where 40% of recipients have not opened an email in six months drags your engagement metrics down. Your sender domain’s reputation gradually deteriorates. Eventually, your emails, including the ones to engaged subscribers who want them, start landing in promotional folders or spam.

Segmentation is not just a revenue optimisation tool. It is a deliverability protection mechanism. Both effects compound over time.

“An unengaged list is not a neutral asset. It is actively damaging the deliverability of your emails to the people who do want to hear from you.”

The 8 Segments: building the Klaviyo Segment Stack

Segment 1: Engaged subscribers, your active campaign list

Definition: Opened or clicked at least one email in the last 90 days.

This is your most important segment and the default audience for all campaign sends. Build this segment before anything else. Send campaigns to this segment. Leave everyone outside it out of regular sends.

Advanced version: sub-segment into 30-day, 60-day, and 90-day engaged tiers to track list health trend over time. If your 30-day engaged list is shrinking month over month, your content is losing relevance.

Segment 2: Active customers

Definition: Placed at least one order in the last 12 months.

Buyers convert at 3 to 5x the rate of non-buyers on any given campaign. They have trust in the brand, familiarity with the product, and a demonstrated willingness to purchase. Treat this list differently.

Campaign uses: new product launches, restock alerts, cross-sell recommendations based on previous purchase category, loyalty programme updates.

Segment 3: Lapsed customers, win-back targets

Definition: Placed at least one order; last order was 120 to 365 days ago.

These customers know your brand, have purchased before, and are at risk of churning permanently. The 120 to 365 day window is the sweet spot for reactivation, they have not bought recently but are still theoretically re-engageable.

An automated win-back flow targeting this segment should be the first flow you build after the post-purchase sequence, it typically recovers 8 to 14% of lapsed customers and pays for itself within the first 60 days.

For campaigns: a compelling re-engagement offer (free shipping or 10 to 15% discount), a “what’s new” product update, or a straightforward “we miss you” message that acknowledges the gap without being maudlin.

Segment 4: VIP customers

Definition: Placed 3+ orders OR spent above your top-15% lifetime value threshold.

VIPs are typically 15 to 20% of your customer base and generate 40 to 50% of revenue. They warrant a different relationship, early access to launches before public announcement, appreciation-only discounts (not public codes), personalised communications that acknowledge their loyalty explicitly.

Campaign uses: early sale access 24 hours before public opening, exclusive product previews, brand partnership announcements, loyalty tier updates.

Segment 5: One-time buyers, your highest-priority retention target

Definition: Placed exactly one order; last order was 30 to 90 days ago.

One-time buyers are the leakiest part of most ecommerce email lists. Getting someone to buy a second time is 3 to 5x cheaper than acquiring a new customer, but it requires actively targeting this cohort while they are still within the window of interest.

Campaign uses: “Did you love it? Here is what customers buy next” cross-sell. Replenishment reminder if the product has a natural usage cycle. Review request that doubles as re-engagement. This segment should receive dedicated attention in your campaign calendar, not just fall into the general list.

Segment 6: At-risk high-value customers

Definition: Spent over £X lifetime (your top 30%); last order more than 90 days ago.

These are valuable customers whose engagement is declining. The combination of high historical spend and recent inactivity is a specific pattern worth targeting with specific content, not the same win-back flow you send to everyone.

Campaign uses: a personalised re-engagement that references their specific purchase history where possible. An exclusive offer that signals their value to the brand. A “here is what is new in the category you love” product update.

Segment 7: Engaged non-buyers

Definition: Subscribed but never purchased; opened or clicked in last 60 days.

Your warm prospect pool. These people find your content interesting enough to stay subscribed but haven’t converted. They need a fundamentally different content approach than your customer segments.

Campaign uses: educational content, brand origin story, specific social proof from customers who looked like them before buying, a first-purchase incentive. Monitor this segment’s monthly conversion to first-time buyer as a KPI. A healthy programme converts 8 to 15% of engaged subscribers to buyers within their first 6 months.

Segment 8: Pre-lapse, about to go inactive

Definition: Last open or click was 60 to 90 days ago; has not yet become unengaged but is trending that direction.

This is proactive deliverability management. Catching subscribers before they fall into the unengaged zone with a targeted re-engagement sequence, “Is this still relevant to you? Here is what you can expect from us.”, retains 20 to 35% of this group before they require more expensive win-back activity.

Brands that actively manage this segment maintain 30 to 40% higher list-wide open rates than brands that wait until subscribers have been inactive for six months.

Building the stack

You do not need all eight segments from day one. Build in this order:

Month 1: Segment 1 (engaged subscribers) and Segment 2 (active customers). These two alone transform your campaign performance and protect deliverability.

Month 2: Segment 3 (lapsed customers) and Segment 5 (one-time buyers). Launch a win-back flow and a second-purchase campaign.

Month 3+: Add VIPs, at-risk high-value, engaged non-buyers, and pre-lapse management as your list size and email maturity grows.

The brands generating 30 to 35% of total revenue from email are not doing anything extraordinary. They have the right segments, the right content for each, and they send consistently. The segmentation is what makes the relevance possible, and the relevance is what makes the revenue.

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The free Easier Email Masterclass covers the flows that sit on top of these segments.

Related reading:

• Klaviyo vs Mailchimp for ecommerce, The platform decision that determines what segmentation is possible
• How to allocate your ecommerce marketing budget, Where email investment sits within the full channel mix
• CAC vs LTV: the two numbers that matter, How email retention improves LTV and changes what you can spend on acquisition

We build and run Klaviyo for ecommerce brands: flows, segmentation, campaigns and deliverability. See the Klaviyo service.