How do you win back cancelled subscribers with Klaviyo and Zubs?
What problem does this play solve?
Cancelled subscribers already know your product, have ordered from you several times and gave you their email address. Yet many shops never contact them again after the cancellation confirmation. Some left for a reason that has since passed, such as a move, a full cupboard or a tight month, and would come back if asked at the right moment.
The metrics this play moves are new subscriptions from returning customers and, over time, net new subscriptions.
What’s the play?
A three-step sequence that starts when the subscription is cancelled and stops as soon as the customer subscribes again:
| When | Message | Offer |
|---|---|---|
| Day 14 | What’s new: products, flavors, sizes, and that next time they can skip or pause instead of leave | None |
| Day 30 | “Ready for your next delivery?” with a direct link to the product page | Optional: a small discount on the first order back |
| Day 60 | Last email of the sequence | Your strongest offer, valid for a limited time |
Adjust the days to your delivery rhythm: a weekly coffee subscription can start earlier than a quarterly skincare box. Mention skipping and pausing only if you offer them in the customer portal.
Shape the emails around the biggest cancellation reasons you see in Zubs. Someone who left with too much product wants to hear about a slower delivery interval, someone who found it too expensive about what each order brings. A discount answers neither on its own.
If your dunning ends by cancelling, keep subscribers whose payment failed out of this sequence. They never chose to leave, so a plain invitation to restart with a working payment method fits them better than a win-back offer.
Before each email, check that the customer still has no active subscription, so anyone who has come back gets no further emails. For one-off campaigns, such as a product launch, build a segment of customers who cancelled and haven’t returned.
Win-back starts after the cancellations you couldn’t prevent. To keep more subscribers from cancelling in the first place, pair it with cancellation offers.
How do you build it in Zubs and Klaviyo?
- Built in: you connect Klaviyo from Zubs with your Klaviyo login, no code.
- Built in: every cancellation reaches Klaviyo as an event that can start your flow.
- Built in: a subscriber status on every Klaviyo profile that Zubs keeps current, so the flow stops when someone comes back.
- Built in: a Shopify customer tag for customers who no longer have an active subscription.
- With Shopify: a discount code for subscription purchases, for the offer in your emails.
- With Shopify Flow: a cancellation trigger for follow-ups outside Klaviyo, such as a task for your team.
Set it up in the help center: Klaviyo events and profile properties.
What should you measure?
- In the Zubs analytics dashboard, under returning customers: new subscriptions from customers whose earlier subscription was cancelled, their share of all new subscriptions, and the revenue they bring.
- In Klaviyo: how many recipients started a new subscription after an email.
- The cost of the offer: how often the win-back code is redeemed in Shopify.
Bottom line
Win-back runs on Zubs’ signals and Klaviyo’s flows: the cancellation starts the sequence, the subscriber status stops it, and a new subscription closes the loop. Measure it with the returning-customers numbers in Zubs.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I send a different email depending on why someone cancelled?
- You see the reasons subscribers picked in Zubs. Use them to decide what your win-back emails say.
- Do I need Klaviyo?
- For a timed email sequence you need Klaviyo or another email tool. Without Klaviyo, Zubs' Shopify Flow trigger and customer tags are your starting points.
- What does a subscriber who comes back get?
- A new subscription, started through the subscription widget on your product page like any other.
- How big should the win-back offer be?
- Start without one, add a small discount in the second email and save your strongest offer for the last. Check in Shopify how often the code is redeemed, so the discount pays for itself.