Drip Campaign Examples: 8 Sequences Every Ecommerce Store Needs

Drip campaigns, pre-written email sequences triggered automatically by subscriber behaviour, are how the top-performing ecommerce stores generate 30 to 40% of their email revenue without writing a new email every week. Each sequence below represents one layer of the automated revenue architecture. Stores running all 8 are capturing revenue at every stage of the customer journey. This guide covers exactly what each sequence does, how many emails it contains, and what triggers it.

1. Welcome drip (7 emails, 14 days)

Triggered by: subscriber signup via any capture widget. The highest-ROI sequence in ecommerce because it reaches subscribers at peak attention immediately after signup. The full structure is covered in our welcome email series guide. Summary: deliver the signup incentive immediately, introduce your brand story, show social proof, handle objections, and close with urgency on the original incentive. Average open rate: 58%. First-purchase conversion from sequence: 18 to 22% of subscribers.

2. Abandoned cart drip (3 emails, 72 hours)

Triggered by: cart abandonment event from your connected store. The abandoned cart sequence is the highest revenue-per-email automation in ecommerce. Three emails: a helpful reminder at 1 hour, social proof and objection handling at 24 hours, and a discount at 72 hours. Average recovery rate: 15.2% of abandoned carts. Revenue impact on a £50,000/month store: £15,000 to £20,000 in recovered sales per month.

3. Post-purchase drip (4 emails, 60 days)

Triggered by: order completion event. The most under-utilised drip sequence in ecommerce. Customers who just purchased are at their highest trust and satisfaction point with your brand. The four emails:

1. Day 2 (delivery confirmation): Order shipped, tracking link, what to expect. Builds anticipation and reduces support queries.
2. Day 7 (product tips): How to get the most from their purchase. Reduces returns and builds confidence in the product.
3. Day 14 (review request): Ask for a review while the product experience is fresh. Review email converts 12 to 18% of recipients.
4. Day 30 (cross-sell): "Customers who bought X also love Y". Based on actual purchase history of similar buyers. Click rate: 4 to 6%.

4. Browse abandonment drip (2 emails, 48 hours)

Triggered by: 3+ page views of a specific product without adding to cart. Lower intent than cart abandonment but catches the consideration phase. Two emails: a feature highlight for the viewed product at 24 hours, followed by a review or comparison at 48 hours. Average click rate: 3.5%. Lower than cart abandonment but runs automatically for every high-intent browse session, making it a significant volume driver.

5. Win-back drip (3 emails, 30 days)

Triggered by: 180 days since last purchase. Targets the lapsed buyer segment from your email segmentation strategy. Three emails over 30 days: a personalised reactivation email featuring new arrivals or a "we miss you" message, a discount offer mid-sequence, and a final "last chance before we remove you" email. Win-back sequences recover 5 to 10% of lapsed buyers. Without this sequence, these customers generate £0 in future email revenue.

6. VIP loyalty drip (4 emails, 90 days)

Triggered by: subscriber crossing a purchase value threshold (e.g., £300 lifetime spend). The top 10% of customers by lifetime value generate disproportionate revenue and deserve a different experience. This drip gives them early access to new collections, exclusive discounts, and personal notes from the founder. The goal is not conversion; it is relationship deepening. VIP subscribers churn at 60% lower rates than standard subscribers and refer 2.4x more new customers.

7. Birthday and anniversary drip (1 email, day of event)

Triggered by: subscriber birthday (if collected) or the anniversary of their first purchase. A single email with a personalised offer ("Happy birthday, here's your gift: 15% off for the next 7 days") feels genuinely personal even when automated. Birthday emails average 45% open rates and 8% click rates, among the highest of any single email type. The setup cost is 15 minutes. The revenue runs automatically every day someone on your list has a birthday.

8. Subscription renewal or replenishment drip (2 emails)

Triggered by: purchase of a consumable product + estimated usage period. For stores selling consumables (supplements, skincare, cleaning products, pet food), the replenishment drip is pure incremental revenue. Email 1 sent 5 days before the estimated run-out date: "Time to reorder your [product name]". Email 2 sent on the estimated run-out date with a slight discount for reordering. Replenishment emails convert 18 to 24% of recipients and are the foundation of a subscription-without-a-subscription model.

What 8 drip campaigns look like in practice

A store with 10,000 active subscribers, 5,000 monthly visitors, and £50,000/month in total revenue running all 8 drip campaigns will typically see:

• Welcome sequence: £4,000 to £6,000/month in first-purchase revenue
• Abandoned cart: £8,000 to £12,000/month in recovered sales
• Post-purchase cross-sell: £1,500 to £2,500/month
• Browse abandonment: £500 to £1,000/month
• Win-back: £1,000 to £2,000/month
• Replenishment (consumables): £2,000 to £4,000/month
• Combined drip revenue: £17,000 to £27,500/month from automations running 24/7

That represents 34 to 55% of the store's total revenue from automated sequences that required a one-time setup. The incremental cost of sending those emails on Visisto's £49 flat plan: £0 additional per sequence.

The bottom line

Drip campaigns are the difference between email marketing as a channel you manage and email marketing as an asset that generates revenue without ongoing effort. Each of the 8 sequences above runs automatically, forever, for every subscriber who meets its trigger condition. Visisto's automation builder includes templates for all 8 sequence types, connected directly to your store's purchase and browse data with no middleware required.