Email

Flows

Automated email sequences triggered by visitor behaviour or a recurring schedule.

Flows are automated email sequences that run without manual input once they are activated.

A flow starts when a specific trigger fires — a visitor abandoning their cart, completing an order, entering an audience segment, or a recurring schedule you define. From that trigger, you build a sequence of emails, delays, and conditions that branch based on how each recipient interacts.

Unlike AI Newsletters, which are one-time sends, flows keep working in the background indefinitely.

How a Flow Works #

Every flow has three building blocks:

Trigger — the event that starts the flow for a recipient. Each flow has exactly one trigger type.

Steps — the actions that follow the trigger. Steps run in sequence and can include emails, delays, and conditions.

Paths — conditions can split a flow into branches, so recipients who opened an email follow a different path from those who did not.

Flow Types #

When creating a flow, you choose one of the following trigger types.

Abandoned Cart #

Fires when a visitor adds at least one product to their cart but leaves without completing a purchase.

The email can show the exact cart items, or use a product logic to suggest related alternatives. This requires cart tracking to be set up in Clerk.js.

Abandoned Session #

Fires when a visitor browses the site without placing an order.

Use Visitor Recommendations as the product logic to show a personalised selection based on what they viewed during the session.

Fires when a visitor makes at least one search and then leaves without buying.

The email shows the results from their most recent search. This trigger requires Search to be active on the site.

Welcome Email #

Fires when a visitor becomes a subscriber.

The email is sent immediately after sign-up, while their browsing intent is still fresh. Use Visitor Recommendations to show products based on what they browsed before subscribing.

Made an Order #

Fires immediately after a customer completes a purchase.

Use Recommendations Based on Orders to show products that complement what they just bought. Works especially well if customers can add items to an existing order before it ships.

Recurring / Scheduled #

Fires on a schedule you define, rather than in response to a visitor action. This is how recurring email sends — weekly newsletters, monthly selections — are handled in Flows.

Configuration options:

  • Frequency — Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
  • Repeat every — the interval between sends (e.g. every 1 week, every 2 months).
  • On days — for weekly schedules, the specific days of the week to send.
  • Send time (UTC) — the hour at which the send goes out.
  • Target Audience — leave empty to send to all subscribers, or select a specific Audience to limit recipients.

Audience Entered #

Fires when a customer enters a specific Audience segment — for example, when they cross a loyalty threshold or are identified as at-risk of churning.

Audience Exited #

Fires when a customer leaves an audience segment.

Steps #

After the trigger, a flow is built from three types of steps.

Email #

Sends an email to the recipient. Each email step has:

  • A design controlling the visual layout.
  • A product logic controlling which products are shown.
  • A subject line and preview text.

Delay #

Pauses the flow for a set number of hours or days before moving to the next step. Use delays to space out emails — for example, a 1-hour delay before the first abandoned cart email, followed by a 24-hour delay before a follow-up.

Condition #

Branches the flow based on how the recipient interacted with the previous email. Common conditions include whether they opened the email, clicked a link, or took no action.

Each branch continues independently from that point, so different recipients follow different paths through the same flow.

Design #

Emails inside flows use MJML designs, the same as AI Newsletters.

Designs can be built manually in the MJML editor, or created by Ask Clerk.io — by describing what you want, uploading an image of your existing email design, or having it scan your site for colours and branding.

With Ask Clerk.io #

Ask Clerk.io can build and activate entire flows from a plain-language description.

Telling it “Set up an abandoned cart flow with a 1-hour delay and a follow-up after 24 hours” is enough for it to configure the trigger, add the delay steps, create the email content, and enable the flow — ready for your review before it goes live.

It can also help with individual parts of a flow, like writing subject lines or adjusting a condition, without rebuilding the whole thing.