How do I segment my email list in Klaviyo?

Klaviyo segments are built from conditions based on email engagement and order history. The four foundational segments are: 'Engaged 90 days' (opened or clicked an email in the last 90 days), 'Unengaged 90-180 days' (received an email but no opens or clicks in 90 to 180 days), 'Purchasers' (placed at least one order, ever), and 'Non-purchaser engaged' (engaged in the last 90 days but never placed an order). These four segments can be built in under 2 hours and form the foundation for campaign targeting and suppression.

Does segmentation improve email deliverability?

Yes, significantly. Email providers like Gmail and Yahoo use engagement rate as a primary signal for inbox placement versus spam placement. Data from Privy across 50,000+ Shopify stores shows that lists with open rates below 15 percent see 3 to 4 times higher spam folder placement than lists with open rates above 25 percent. Sending every campaign to the full list (including the unengaged 40 to 60 percent) drags down the overall open rate and can push an entire campaign, including to engaged subscribers, into spam folders.

How often should I clean my email list?

Subscribers who have not opened or clicked an email in 180 days should be suppressed from regular campaign sends or moved into a separate re-engagement track. This should be reviewed on an ongoing basis, ideally monthly, as part of a recurring list hygiene process. Suppressing unengaged subscribers does not reduce total revenue (those subscribers were not generating revenue or opens anyway) but it does improve the deliverability for the subscribers who are still engaged and would otherwise buy.

Signal E4: Email & Retention

Part of the Email & Retention signal group

Ecommerce Email Segmentation: Why Sending the Same Email to Everyone Is Costing You Opens, Clicks, and Sales

Q: What is email segmentation in ecommerce?

Email segmentation is the practice of dividing an email list into groups based on engagement and purchase behavior, then sending different content or frequency to each group instead of sending the same campaign to everyone. The core ecommerce segmentation structure has four groups: engaged subscribers (opened or clicked in the last 90 days), unengaged subscribers (no opens in 90 to 180 days), purchasers, and non-purchaser engaged subscribers. Each group gets a different cadence and message strategy.

Segmented email campaigns see a 14 percent higher open rate and more than double the click rate compared to unsegmented campaigns sent to a full list. Signal E4 is what happens when every subscriber (a 3-year repeat customer and someone who signed up yesterday and never bought) receives the exact same email at the exact same frequency.

What Is Email Segmentation in Ecommerce?

Email segmentation means dividing a subscriber list into groups based on behavior (engagement, purchase history, recency) and sending each group a different message, offer, or frequency. The opposite is a "batch and blast" approach, where every campaign goes to the entire list regardless of whether a subscriber has ever opened an email or ever bought anything.

The problem with batch and blast is not just that it is less relevant. It actively damages the email channel's performance for every subscriber, including the engaged ones, because email providers use aggregate engagement data to decide whether a brand's emails land in the inbox or the spam folder.

"Sending to your whole list is not mass reach. It is mass irrelevance to most of the list and a deliverability tax on the rest.": common finding across Klaviyo account audits

The Core Segmentation Structure for Ecommerce

These four segments form the foundation. Every other segmentation strategy (VIP tiers, product-based interest groups, geographic targeting) builds on top of this base.

Engaged (last 90 days)

Subscribers who opened or clicked an email within the last 90 days. This is the group that should receive every campaign at full frequency: they are the most likely to open, click, and buy, and sending to them protects overall list health metrics.

Unengaged (90-180 days)

Subscribers who received emails but have not opened or clicked in 90 to 180 days. This group should receive a reduced cadence or a re-engagement sequence designed to win back attention, not the standard campaign schedule. Continuing to blast this group at full frequency drags down deliverability for everyone.

Purchasers

Anyone who has placed at least one order. This group can be messaged differently from never-purchased subscribers: with replenishment reminders, loyalty content, or cross-sell campaigns based on what they already bought, rather than top-of-funnel acquisition messaging.

Non-purchaser engaged

Subscribers who are actively opening and clicking emails but have never placed an order. This group is close to converting and benefits from targeted offers, social proof, or objection-handling content rather than generic newsletter content: they need a push toward the first purchase, not a relationship-maintenance email.

The Deliverability Argument for Segmentation

Privy's analysis of more than 50,000 Shopify stores found that lists with an open rate below 15 percent experience 3 to 4 times higher placement in spam folders compared to lists with an open rate above 25 percent. Email providers do not evaluate each campaign in isolation: they track the sending domain's aggregate engagement over time and use it to decide where future emails land for everyone on the list.

This means an unsegmented send to a 10,000-person list where 6,000 people never open emails does not just fail to reach those 6,000 people. It actively lowers the deliverability of every future email, including the ones sent to the 4,000 people who would have opened, clicked, and bought. Suppressing or downshifting the unengaged segment is not just about not wasting sends on people who will not respond: it directly protects revenue from the segment that would respond.

How to Start Segmenting in Klaviyo

The four segments below can be built in Klaviyo in under two hours using engagement and order conditions that are already tracked by default:

Segment 1

Engaged 90 days

Condition: opened or clicked any email in the last 90 days. This segment receives every campaign at full frequency.

Segment 2

Unengaged 90-180 days

Condition: received an email but no opens or clicks in 90 to 180 days. Move to reduced cadence or a dedicated re-engagement flow.

Segment 3

Purchasers

Condition: placed at least one order, ever. Use for replenishment, cross-sell, and loyalty messaging distinct from acquisition content.

Segment 4

Non-purchaser engaged

Condition: engaged in the last 90 days, zero orders. Target with conversion-focused offers and social proof to push toward the first purchase.

Benchmarks to Know

14%

Higher open rate, segmented vs unsegmented

100%+

Higher click rate, segmented vs unsegmented

25%+

Open rate threshold for healthy inbox placement

3-4x

Higher spam placement below 15% open rate

180 days

Threshold to suppress unengaged subscribers

2 hrs

Time to build the 4 core Klaviyo segments

Related Signals

Welcome Flow Not Converting

Segmentation protects the relationship a converting welcome flow creates. Once a subscriber becomes a customer through E2's welcome sequence, E4's segmentation structure ensures they move into purchaser-specific messaging instead of generic acquisition campaigns.

Email Revenue Too Low

Poor segmentation is one of the root causes behind total email revenue sitting below the 15 percent benchmark. A list dragged down by unengaged subscribers underperforms across every campaign and flow, compounding into the aggregate revenue shortfall E3 describes.

Frequently Asked Questions

What to Do Next

If your list-wide open rate is below 25 percent, or every campaign goes to your entire list regardless of engagement, having someone build the segmentation structure is the right decision.

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