Programs & flows
Post-purchase flow
Also known as: post-purchase sequence · after-purchase emails
A triggered email sequence after a completed purchase — order confirmation, shipping updates, delivery confirmation, usage / how-to-use content, review request, and cross-sell — designed to drive repeat purchase and reduce returns.
A post-purchase flow is the structured email sequence that follows a completed order. Typical stages: immediate order confirmation (transactional), shipping notifications (transactional), delivery confirmation + usage content (mixed), day 7-14 review request, day 14-30 cross-sell or replenishment. The early sends are transactional and nearly-guaranteed opens (60-90% open rates). The later promotional sends inherit some of that engagement signal but also start to drop as the customer returns to normal inbox attention. Well-designed post-purchase flows reduce returns (usage content prevents buyer's remorse), drive repeat purchase (cross-sell at the right cadence), and produce review velocity (request timed when the customer has had the product long enough to evaluate). The common failure: treating post-purchase as only order confirmations and missing the 7-30 day window where LTV-improving work happens.
Read next
Post-purchase emails: what to send after the receipt
Post-purchase is the highest-engagement window in the entire customer relationship and most lifecycle programs spend it sending a receipt, a generic welcome, and then silence. Here's the 30-day sequence that actually earns the second purchase.
Review request emails: the timing that actually produces reviews
A review request at the wrong time gets ignored. At the right time, it converts at 15–25% into a submitted review. Here's the timing, the message pattern, and why incentivising reviews almost always backfires.