Sunset Flow: How to Build One in Klaviyo (With Emails)

A sunset flow is the automation that stops you emailing people who stopped reading. It is the least exciting flow in your account and one of the most valuable, because every email you send to a dead inbox makes the next email to a live one a little more likely to land in spam.

Here is what a sunset flow is, when to trigger it, how to build it in Klaviyo step by step, and what to put in the emails. This post goes deeper on the flow itself; for the wider list-hygiene process, see our Klaviyo list cleaning guide.

---

What is a sunset flow?

A sunset flow is an automated sequence sent to subscribers who have stopped engaging, giving them one last chance to stay subscribed before they are suppressed. Anyone who clicks stays on the list. Anyone who does not is removed from future marketing sends. It protects sender reputation, keeps engagement metrics honest, and in Klaviyo lowers your bill.

It is not a win-back flow. The two get confused, so here is the difference:

	Win-back flow	Sunset flow
Audience	Lapsed customers (bought, then stopped)	Unengaged subscribers (stopped opening or clicking)
Goal	Revenue: get the next order	Hygiene: confirm interest or remove
Trigger	Time since last order	Time since last engagement
Offer	Sometimes a discount	Usually none
End state	Customer reorders or moves to lapsed	Subscriber re-engages or is suppressed

Run the win-back flow first for past buyers. The sunset flow catches whoever is left, customer or not, once they have gone quiet on email entirely.

---

Why a sunset flow matters

Deliverability

Mailbox providers watch how recipients interact with your mail. Klaviyo’s own sunset flow guide warns that sending to unmonitored inboxes will hurt deliverability over time. A large block of people who never open or click tells Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook your mail is not wanted, and that verdict applies to your engaged subscribers too.

Cost

Klaviyo bills on active profiles, and suppressed profiles do not count toward that total (the count can take up to 72 hours to refresh after you suppress). Every unengaged profile you keep emailable is a profile you pay for. (Our Klaviyo pricing breakdown covers how the billing works.)

Honest metrics

Revenue per recipient, click rate and placed-order rate are all diluted by recipients who will never act. Clean the denominator and you can see what your campaigns are actually doing.

Spam traps

Addresses abandoned for years can be recycled by mailbox providers into spam traps. A sunset policy means you stop mailing them long before that happens.

---

When to sunset subscribers

There are two reasonable approaches, and the right one depends on how aggressive you want to be.

Approach 1: Klaviyo’s default (never engaged)

Klaviyo’s help centre recommends targeting profiles showing a long, sustained period of inactivity. Its prebuilt Sunset (Email) segment in the Segment Library looks for profiles that:

• Can receive email marketing
• Were created at least 180 days ago
• Have received at least 5 emails in the last 72 weeks
• Have zero opens, clicks, site activity, product views, started checkouts or orders over all time

This is conservative. It only catches people who have never engaged. It is a safe starting point, especially if you have never sunset before.

Approach 2: Engagement-lapsed (the ecommerce standard)

Most ecommerce brands need something tighter, because a subscriber who clicked once in 2023 and has ignored every email since is still hurting you. A typical definition:

• Can receive email marketing
• Joined more than 90 days ago (so new subscribers are not caught)
• Clicked email zero times in the last 120–180 days
• Active on site zero times in the last 120–180 days
• Placed order zero times in the last 180 days (or longer for low-frequency products)

Choose the window by buying cycle and send frequency. A supplement brand emailing four times a week has a much clearer signal at 90–120 days than a furniture brand emailing twice a month, which may need 180 days or more.

The Apple Mail Privacy Protection problem

Apple Mail Privacy Protection preloads emails, which registers opens that a person never made. If your sunset segment counts any open as engagement, MPP users will never be sunset. Klaviyo flags these with an Apple Privacy Open property (true or false) on Opened Email events from 20 November 2021 onwards. Either filter opens to “Apple Privacy Open equals False”, or base engagement on clicks, site activity and orders instead.

---

How to build a sunset flow in Klaviyo

Step 1: Build the sunset segment

Start from the Segment Library’s Sunset segment or build the engagement-lapsed version above. Check the count before you do anything else. If it is more than a large fraction of your list, your definition is too loose, or you have a bigger deliverability problem that needs a proper diagnosis first.

Step 2: Create the flow

• Trigger: Added to segment, using the sunset segment.
• Profile filter: remove anyone who has clicked an email or been active on site since starting the flow. Klaviyo checks profile filters before every message, so re-engaged subscribers drop out automatically.
• Delay after trigger: a day, so the flow does not stack on top of a campaign.

Step 3: Add the emails

Klaviyo recommends no more than three emails. A structure that works:

Send	Email	Subject line ideas
Day 0	”Do you still want to hear from us?” with a single button	”Should we keep in touch?” / “Still want these emails?”
Day 4–5	Reminder with preference options (fewer emails, specific topics)	“Want fewer emails instead?”
Day 9–10	Final notice	”Last email from us (unless you click)“

Step 4: Mark the non-responders

After the final email, add a wait of at least three days (Klaviyo suggests extending to 7–10 days if you send infrequently), then an Update Profile Property action that sets something like Unengaged = true.

Step 5: Suppress

Create a segment where Unengaged is true. From the segment, use Suppress current members. Make it a routine: run it weekly or monthly so the flow continuously cleans the list.

Step 6: Add past profiles

Segment-triggered flows start with people who join the segment after the flow is live. Klaviyo’s guide covers adding existing members; do it deliberately and in batches if the backlog is large, so you are not sending a big volume to cold addresses in one day.

---

What to put in sunset emails

• Be direct. The subject line should say exactly what is happening. Clever does not work on people who have stopped reading.
• One action. A single “Yes, keep me subscribed” button. The click is the signal.
• Offer a downgrade. “Fewer emails” or “only sales” retains people who were overwhelmed, not uninterested. Build this into your preference centre.
• Plain design. A text-led email from a named person often outperforms a designed one here, and it loads fast on any client.
• Skip the discount by default. The goal is to find who genuinely wants your emails. Buying clicks with a code keeps the wrong people and trains them to wait. Test an incentive only if your margin and AOV justify it.
• Say what happens next. “If we don’t hear from you, we’ll stop emailing. You can always resubscribe on our site.”

What counts as engagement?

Decide before you build: click, site visit, order, or reply. Opens are unreliable post-MPP. Clicks and site activity are the cleanest signals.

---

Sunset flow metrics to watch

• Re-engagement rate: share of entrants who click during the flow. This is the number that tells you the policy is fair.
• Suppression volume per month: should be steady. Spikes mean an acquisition source is bringing in low-quality subscribers.
• Campaign engagement after suppression: click rate and placed-order rate on campaigns should rise as the denominator shrinks.
• Active profile count and bill: should fall or grow more slowly.
• Spam complaint rate: should fall.

---

Common sunset flow mistakes

• Sunsetting recent customers. Exclude anyone who has ordered recently; a customer who buys every 60 days but never clicks emails is still a customer. Consider sending them SMS or leaving them in a low-frequency segment instead.
• Counting MPP opens as engagement. The flow never catches anyone.
• Deleting instead of suppressing. You lose purchase history and attribution. Suppress first.
• Running it once. A sunset flow is continuous. List quality degrades every week.
• Suppressing before re-engagement is tried. Hard suppression without a last-chance email throws away subscribers who would have stayed.

---

Where the sunset flow fits

The sunset flow is the last step in the lifecycle: welcome brings people in, post-purchase and replenishment keep customers buying, win-back tries to recover lapsed buyers, and sunset removes whoever is left so the rest of the system keeps reaching the inbox. It is one of the flows in our drip campaign map, and one of the ten covered in our essential flows guide.

If you want your engagement thresholds, sunset flow and suppression schedule set up properly, our flow automation team builds and maintains them, or start with a free Klaviyo audit to see how much of your list is costing you money.

---

Sources

• Klaviyo Help Center: How to create a sunset flow
• Klaviyo Help Center: How to identify iOS15 Mail Privacy Protection opens
• Klaviyo Help Center: Understanding active email profiles