Automated Post-Purchase Review Flow: Klaviyo + Trustpilot
Timothy Olukoya
Building a Scalable Email Marketing & Trustpilot Review System From Scratch
Overview
This Scent is a fast-growing Scandinavian fragrance brand serving customers across Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Despite having over 35,000 customers, the brand had almost no email marketing infrastructure in place when this project began.
The original request was simple:
Build a Trustpilot review flow that encourages happy customers to leave reviews while redirecting unhappy customers toward private feedback channels.
However, after auditing the business, it became clear that the real challenge was much deeper.
The client had:
A brand-new Klaviyo account
No sender reputation
No SPF, DKIM, or DMARC authentication
A cold customer list with no prior email history
No segmentation structure
No deliverability setup
Launching campaigns from this environment immediately would have damaged domain reputation and pushed emails into spam.
The project evolved into a complete email infrastructure and deliverability build.
The Challenge
The biggest issue wasn’t email design — it was email trust.
The brand had:
7,552 subscribed contacts
Only 200 Trustpilot reviews
A 4.2 TrustScore
14% one-star reviews
No safe sending infrastructure
Without proper setup, sending large campaigns could have caused:
Spam folder placement
High complaint rates
Domain blacklisting
Long-term deliverability issues
The goal became:
Build a safe sending environment
Warm up the account correctly
Segment audiences strategically
Improve Trustpilot review collection
Create scalable automation systems
Strategy & Research
A full audit was conducted across:
Shopify customer data
Trustpilot reviews
Competitor email flows
Deliverability risks
Customer purchase behavior
One key insight immediately stood out:
Out of 7,552 subscribers:
3,002 customers had purchased within the last 30 days
731 customers had purchased within the last 7 days
117 VIP customers had spent over $1,000
This gave the project a strong active audience to safely begin warming the account.
A competitor analysis also revealed that leading fragrance brands were using very simple post-purchase Trustpilot requests instead of overly complex flows — influencing the final strategy significantly.
Infrastructure & Technical Setup
Before sending a single campaign, the full email infrastructure was rebuilt.
Setup Included:
Klaviyo account configuration
Shopify integration
Sending subdomain setup
SPF authentication
DKIM authentication
DMARC configuration
DNS troubleshooting via GoDaddy
Deliverability verification
A critical DMARC issue was discovered during setup:
the DNS record had been configured incorrectly using “@” instead of “_dmarc”.
Once corrected, all authentication records passed successfully.
Final verification confirmed:
SPF: PASS
DKIM: PASS
DMARC: PASS
Emails were successfully inboxed through Gmail with verified authentication and 1-second delivery speed.
dmarc inital check
Segmentation & Warm-Up Strategy
To protect deliverability, the customer base was segmented into multiple engagement tiers.
Segments Included:
VIP High Value Buyers
Recent Purchasers
Active 30-Day Customers
Lapsed Customers
Dormant Customers
Evergreen Post-Purchase Review Audience
Cold and dormant audiences were intentionally suppressed during the early stages to:
Protect sender reputation
Improve engagement rates
Stay within Klaviyo plan limits
Prevent spam complaints
A structured 6-week warm-up plan was then created, gradually increasing send volume while monitoring:
Open rates
Click behavior
Inbox placement
Engagement quality
Seed testing was also performed manually across Gmail and Outlook accounts to generate positive engagement signals before live customer sends.
Trustpilot Review Flow
After the infrastructure was stabilized, the Trustpilot review system was launched.
The final flow used:
A clean single-column email layout
Personalized greetings
Direct 5-star rating buttons
Mobile-optimized design
Pre-filled Trustpilot review links
Automated follow-up logic
The automation flow included:
Trigger: Fulfilled Shopify Order
Delay: 2 days post-delivery
Follow-up email for non-openers
180-day resend protection
This ensured customers were only asked for reviews after having enough time to experience the product.
Results
The project successfully transformed This Scent’s email setup from zero infrastructure into a scalable, authenticated email marketing system.
Key Outcomes
Fully authenticated sending domain
Safe Klaviyo sending infrastructure
Deliverability-focused segmentation system
Automated Trustpilot review collection flow
Improved inbox placement
Positive Trustpilot reviews generated from launch campaigns
Long-term lifecycle email foundation established
The success of the project also led to discussions around expanding into:
Welcome flows
Browse abandonment
Cart abandonment
Checkout abandonment automations
Key Takeaways
This project demonstrates that successful email marketing starts long before the first campaign is sent.
By focusing on:
Deliverability
Authentication
Segmentation
Warm-up strategy
Customer experience
the business was able to launch email marketing safely while building a scalable system designed for long-term growth.
What started as a simple Trustpilot review flow ultimately became a complete email marketing infrastructure build that positioned This Scent for future retention and revenue growth.
Like this project
Posted Apr 3, 2026
Built a fully automated Klaviyo post-purchase flow for a Shopify brand that filters by satisfaction before requesting Trustpilot reviews.
Likes
6
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Timeline
Mar 8, 2026 - Apr 15, 2026
