In our post on best practice Klaviyo flows, we outlined key automations every DTC brand should implement to drive retention and revenue. Here, we're building on that foundation with a subscription-focused approach, looking at how Klaviyo flows and automations should be structured differently for brands using SKIO or Recharge. Subscription brands need to go beyond standard email flows—leveraging customer behaviour, product education, and proactive retention strategies to maximise lifetime value.
Tailoring the approach by brand
Subscription retention isn’t one-size-fits-all, some brands need to focus on education, while others lean into lifestyle associations:
- Education-first approach (Freja) - Customers may not immediately understand how to use the product, so flows need to educate while reinforcing health benefits. Since Freja can be used in multiple ways (e.g., baking, cooking, smoothies), onboarding should include diverse content showcasing use cases.
- Defined consumption approach (Mother Root, Pentire, Hu) - These products have clearer use cases (e.g., cocktails, mixers), meaning messaging can lean more into reinforcing consumption occasions and encouraging repeat purchase behavior.
- Health/lifestyle alignment (Eleat, Hu) - Drive retention through messaging tied to active lifestyle benefits and reinforcing nutritional value.
- Strong upsell/cross-sell model - Brands with multiple complementary SKUs should lean into cross-sell flows that make it easy to add products to future orders.
With this in mind, the right Klaviyo setup should prioritise flows that educate, engage, and increase retention based on a brand’s specific customer needs.
SKIO vs. Recharge: Key Differences in Klaviyo Setup
Both SKIO and Recharge enable brands to offer subscription products, but they differ in how they integrate with Klaviyo—particularly when it comes to event tracking, analytics, and the ability to define custom metrics.
Native Klaviyo Integration
SKIO offers native integration with Klaviyo’s event tracking, enabling more detailed subscription lifecycle flows. This allows brands to monitor key behaviours such as churn risk and skips, supporting more precise segmentation and retention strategies.
Recharge, on the other hand, requires additional configuration to push subscriber events into Klaviyo. This is often done via custom properties or API connections, making setup more manual but offering flexibility for brands with specific customisation needs.
Custom Metrics and One-Time Revenue Tracking
A key advantage of SKIO’s Klaviyo integration is the ability to track custom metrics, such as separating subscription revenue from one-time purchases. Our example shown here demonstrates how SKIO can define non-recurring revenue as a custom metric within Klaviyo, allowing brands to report on single-purchase transactions separately from subscriptions.
This level of visibility enables better performance tracking, more granular audience segmentation, and tailored post-purchase flows. Recharge may be able to achieve similar tracking through API-based custom event setups, but it would require more development work to implement effectively.
Post-Purchase Experience & Flow Optimisation
SKIO’s passwordless login streamlines the subscriber experience, reducing friction and allowing post-purchase emails to focus more on product engagement rather than account management.
Recharge provides greater API customisation, making it a strong choice for brands that require bespoke automation logic. However, its reliance on additional configuration means that subscription-specific Klaviyo flows (such as churn prevention or win-back campaigns) often require custom development.
Essential email and SMS flows for subscription brands
Klaviyo flows for subscription brands should be designed to nurture customers from the moment they consider a subscription, through onboarding, engagement, and retention. These automations should reinforce value, highlight product benefits, and encourage long-term commitment.
Acquisition & abandoned flows
These flows help convert potential customers by reinforcing the value of subscribing vs. making a one-time purchase.
- Abandoned checkout flow - Ensure messaging aligns with the subscription model (e.g., cost savings vs. one-time purchase). With SKIO, highlight the ease of managing subscriptions without logins.
- Add-to-cart & browse abandonment flows - These flows should reinforce the benefits of subscribing (e.g., convenience, cost savings, exclusive perks).
Onboarding & first-purchase experience
A well-structured onboarding flow is crucial for retention, helping customers understand how to use the product and reinforcing why they subscribed in the first place.
- Behavior-based thank-you flow - Triggered by first-time subscribers, this should introduce the brand’s mission and reinforce the value of the subscription.
- Onboarding flow - Subscription-specific onboarding varies by category:
- Freja - Educate customers on how to use the product while reinforcing health benefits. Since Freja’s use cases vary, customers need inspiration on how it can be incorporated into daily routines.
- Mother Root, Hu, Pentire - Highlight cocktail usage, but focus on reinforcing key consumption occasions.
- Eleat - With fixed usage, onboarding can focus on product benefits (e.g., nutrition, active lifestyle tie-ins).
- Product education flow - Use post-purchase automations to provide additional ways to use the product, reinforcing value.
Retention & engagement flows
Retention-focused flows ensure that customers stay engaged with their subscription, reducing churn and increasing lifetime value.
- Subscription upcoming renewal reminders - With Recharge, this requires custom properties to trigger; with SKIO, native triggers make it seamless.
- Cross-sell & upsell flows - SKIO allows for seamless one-click upsells, making cross-sell opportunities more dynamic. Recharge requires customers to log in to make changes, so timing and incentives become more critical.
- Winback & churn prevention flows
- Churn risk detection (SKIO-exclusive) - Allows proactive messaging to subscribers showing signs of churn.
- Subscription pause vs. cancelation - Messaging should focus on offering alternatives (e.g., skipping, changing frequency).
- Exclusive subscriber content & loyalty perks - Deliver VIP experiences to long-term subscribers to encourage retention.
Final thoughts
The key to effective Klaviyo flows for subscription brands is aligning automations with customer behaviour, product use cases, and business goals. While some brands, like Freja, need to focus on education and varied use cases, others, can prioritise lifestyle reinforcement and product benefits. Meanwhile, platforms like SKIO and Recharge will impact how these flows are structured, so selecting the right automation strategy is crucial.
By leveraging Klaviyo’s native functionality within SKIO and Recharge, subscription brands can drive deeper customer relationships, higher lifetime value, and reduced churn. If you're looking to refine your subscription email and SMS strategy, let’s talk.