Klaviyo built around skincare routines, not generic flows
Beauty customers buy on a cycle, use products in combination, and need a few weeks before they believe something works. Standard ecommerce flows ignore all three.
Beauty is a retention category pretending to be an acquisition one
Skincare and cosmetics have unusually favourable repeat economics. Products run out on a fairly predictable schedule, routines expand naturally from one product to three, and a customer who gets a result tends to stay for years. That should make email and SMS the most valuable channel in the business. For most beauty brands it is not, because the program is a generic welcome series and a discount campaign every Friday.
A beauty Klaviyo program that works is built on two things: knowing when each product actually runs out, and knowing what a given customer is trying to solve. Replenishment timed to real container life beats a guessed thirty-day reminder. Segmentation by skin concern, shade or routine stage makes every send relevant. And the education window between purchase and first visible result is where you either build a repeat customer or lose one to doubt.
What the Klaviyo program covers
Replenishment timing
Reorder reminders built from your actual repurchase intervals per product rather than a generic thirty-day guess.
Concern and routine segmentation
Segments by skin concern, type, shade and routine stage so recommendations are relevant instead of catalogue-wide.
Core lifecycle flows
Welcome, browse abandon, cart, checkout, post-purchase, winback and sunset, written in your brand voice.
Education sequences
Post-purchase content that carries a customer through the weeks before results show, which is when most churn happens.
SMS and compliance
SMS as a distinct channel with its own cadence and consent handling, not a copy of the email calendar.
Campaign calendar and testing
A launch and promotion calendar with a real testing plan behind subject lines, offers and send timing.
How the build runs
Data audit
Pull real repurchase intervals, product affinity and cohort behaviour from Shopify and Klaviyo before writing anything.
Design the flow map
Map which flows exist, which are missing and what each is responsible for, so nothing overlaps or contradicts.
Build and write
Flows built and copy written to your brand voice, with segmentation and timing driven by the data from step one.
Test and expand
Ongoing testing on timing, offer and creative, plus a campaign calendar that does not depend on discounting.
What beauty brands usually get wrong
The same gaps show up in almost every beauty Klaviyo account I audit:
- Replenishment reminders on a generic timer instead of each product real container life.
- No segmentation by skin concern or type, so every email recommends everything.
- Nothing in the gap between purchase and first visible result, which is exactly when doubt sets in.
- Discounting as the default campaign, which trains customers to wait and erodes margin.
- SMS treated as a shorter email rather than a channel with its own rules and cadence.
Common questions
How do you decide replenishment timing?
From your own data. I pull the actual distribution of days between first and second purchase per product, which is almost never thirty days and varies a lot between a cleanser and a serum. Timing the reminder just before the real median beats guessing.
How much of our revenue should email and SMS drive?
It varies with catalogue and repeat rate, and I would rather not quote a number that sounds authoritative without seeing your data. What I will say is that beauty brands with well-built programs usually find retention revenue is well below where their repeat economics should put it.
Do we need SMS as well as email?
For most beauty brands it earns its place, particularly for launches, restocks and time-sensitive offers. It only works if it is treated as its own channel with a tighter cadence, since SMS fatigue and opt-outs happen much faster than email.
Can you work with our existing Klaviyo account?
Yes, and usually that is the starting point. Most accounts have several half-built flows and a lot of unused data. Auditing and fixing what is there is normally faster and more valuable than starting over.
Let us look at your retention numbers
Tell me what you sell and I will show you where your repeat purchase economics say the money is being left.
30 minutes · No obligation · I come prepared
