FIELD GUIDE
The email automation map: six core flows and who offers them
Most email programs run on six automations, not dozens: welcome, cart recovery, post-purchase, re-engagement, date or anniversary, and drip. Knowing which six you need tells you which platform fits, because a creator tool and a store-first tool draw the line in different places. This map defines each flow and shows, in broad terms, which of the nine platforms cover it.
The six core automations
Six flows cover most of what a list needs. Welcome greets a new subscriber and sets expectations. Cart recovery emails someone who added to a basket and did not buy. Post-purchase follows a sale with confirmation, onboarding or a cross-sell. Re-engagement targets contacts who have gone quiet, asking them to stay or letting them go. Date or anniversary fires on a birthday, renewal or signup date. Drip delivers a fixed educational or nurture series over time. Everything fancier, scoring, deep branching, CRM handoff, is a variation or combination of these six. Decide which you will actually run before judging any platform's automation depth.
Which platforms cover which
All nine platforms here, MailerLite, Moosend, Brevo, Kit, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Omnisend and Sender, handle the always-on flows: welcome, drip, re-engagement and date-based sends are table stakes. The split appears on the store flows. Cart recovery and post-purchase need order and browse data, so the ecommerce-oriented tools, Omnisend, Brevo, Mailchimp, GetResponse, ActiveCampaign and Moosend, cover them most directly, with the deepest store logic on the store-first ones. Creator-first Kit centres on sequences, broadcasts and product sales rather than cart mechanics. Where a platform technically supports a flow but only via a workaround or a higher plan, treat that as a partial fit, not a full one.
The ecommerce and creator split
The cleanest way to read the map is by business model. If you sell physical or digital products through a store, cart recovery and post-purchase are core revenue automations, and you want a platform that ties them to real order events, the store-first tools. If you are a creator or publisher, welcome, drip and broadcasts carry the weight, and cart mechanics barely matter, so a creator-first tool fits even though it skips ecommerce flows. Automation-first platforms sit above both with deep branching, useful when your six flows each need conditions and scoring, overkill when they are simple. The ecommerce flows guide goes deeper on the store side.
Choosing by the flows you need
Choose by the flows you will run, not the ones a feature list advertises. List your needed automations from the six, mark which are revenue-critical, and check each candidate covers those directly rather than through a fragile workaround. A tool that nails your two essential flows beats one that offers all six shallowly. If cart and post-purchase are on your list, weight the store-first platforms; if not, do not pay for ecommerce depth you will never trigger. When you are ready to test one flow rigorously, the stop-after-purchase protocol shows the level of proof to demand before trusting an automation.
Questions people also ask
Do I need all six automations?
No. Most lists run two or three of the six well and ignore the rest. The point of the map is to identify which flows are revenue-critical for your model, then choose a platform that covers those directly rather than one that offers all six shallowly.
Which platforms skip cart and post-purchase?
Creator-first tools like Kit focus on sequences, broadcasts and product sales rather than cart mechanics, so cart recovery and post-purchase are not their strength. The ecommerce-oriented and store-first platforms are the ones that tie those flows to real order events.