This article shows how Segments, Workflows, and Campaigns work together, from the moment a customer shows buying intent to winning them back. You don’t need any prior experience with these building blocks. This example walks through the full setup from scratch so you can follow along and apply it to your own use case.
The Flow, Step by Step
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Customer behavior: a customer views a product or starts checkout but doesn’t complete the purchase within 24–48 hours.
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Segment: the customer’s profile matches your win-back segment and is added to it.
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Workflow: a workflow set to start on “Profile Added” to that segment triggers automatically. Set up a workflow →
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Campaign: the workflow’s message step sends a WhatsApp or email campaign, for example, a reminder with a time-limited discount.
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Customer response: the customer clicks through and completes the purchase.
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Closing the loop: the purchase event updates their profile, and they automatically drop out of the segment. This is visible directly in the CDP, so you can see the recovery happen.
How Each Step Works
The overview above shows the shape of the flow. Below is a closer look at each step, with tips for setting it up in your own account.
Step 1: Track the Behavior
The flow starts with an event, not a segment. When a customer views a product page or starts checkout, that action is tracked as an event on their profile, for example “Viewed product” or “Started checkout” (the exact name depends on how you’ve set it up in your own CDP). This tracking happens in the Customer Data Platform (CDP), either through CM.com’s webtracking script, TraceDock →, or via another integration or webhook from your e-commerce platform.
Tip: if you don’t have a naming convention yet, use clear event names like “Product Viewed”, “Checkout Started”, and “Purchase Completed” so this segment (and the funnel in Step 6) stays easy to set up and reuse.
Step 2: Build the Win-Back Segment
Next, build a segment that captures exactly this behavior: profiles where “Viewed product” or “Started checkout” happened, but “Purchase completed” did not happen within your chosen window, commonly 24–48 hours. Because the segment is event-based and live, profiles flow in and out automatically as behavior changes, so there’s no manual list management. Learn how to build this kind of segment in How to Create Segments Based on Events →, and use timerange filters to set the 24–48 hour window precisely.
Step 3: Trigger the Workflow
With the segment in place, build a workflow that starts on the “Profile Added” trigger for that segment. The moment a customer’s profile matches the win-back criteria set in the segment, the workflow fires automatically. From there, add a short wait step (for example, 1–2 hours) so the reminder doesn’t feel instant, and filter steps to branch by channel or language if you’re running this across markets. For the full walkthrough of triggers, steps, and goals, see the workflow setup guide →.
Step 4: Send the Campaign
The workflow’s message step is what actually reaches the customer, typically a WhatsApp or email campaign with a friendly reminder and, if it fits your brand, a time-limited discount to add urgency.
If this is the first message you’re sending on WhatsApp outside an existing conversation, it must use a pre-approved template. Note: Meta classifies a message like this cart reminder as Marketing, not Utility, even though it references something the customer already did — picking the wrong category can delay or block template approval, so choose carefully when requesting it. See How to Create a Campaign with a WhatsApp Templated Message →.
For the email version, see How to Create a Triggered Email Campaign →. Many teams branch by channel or language here too, using the same filter logic as the workflow itself. Because this is a marketing message, make sure you have the right opt-in consent for the channel you’re using — see How Do I Get Opt-In Consent for Sending Email, SMS, and WhatsApp? →.
Step 5: Customer Responds
The customer clicks through from the WhatsApp or email message, lands back on the product or checkout page, and completes the purchase, using the same checkout flow they started, so nothing extra needs to be built here.
Step 6: Close the Loop
When the purchase completes, that event flows back into the CDP and lands on the customer’s profile, using the same mechanism that started the flow in Step 1. Because the win-back segment’s criteria no longer match once the purchase event exists, the profile automatically drops out of the segment. You can confirm this in the CDP by checking the segment’s profile count, which drops as profiles exit, see Segment Overview → for how that count works, it refreshes on a short cache interval, not instantly.
Ways to Adapt This Flow
Once the basic flow is live and working, here are some ways teams commonly tweak it:
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Different timing windows: a 24–48 hour window works well for considered purchases; shorten it for lower-cost, impulse items (e.g., snacks or accessories), or lengthen it for high-ticket products (e.g., furniture or electronics).
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Add urgency, or don’t: a time-limited discount drives urgency but isn’t required; a simple reminder often performs just as well and protects margin.
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Channel fallback: send WhatsApp first, filter for “not opened” after a wait step, and fall back to email instead of sending both at once.
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Frequency capping: add a filter step that checks whether this customer already received a win-back message recently, to avoid repeat nudges.
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Multi-language: branch the workflow by locale so each customer gets the reminder, and any discount terms, in their own language.
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Measure the drop-off: use Understanding Funnels in the CDP to visualize how many profiles move from viewing a product to starting checkout to completing the purchase.
Quick Checklist Before You Go Live
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Behavior event confirmed: “Viewed product” or “Started checkout” events are firing into the CDP
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Win-back segment built with the right event criteria and time window
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Workflow trigger set to “Profile Added” to that segment, with a short wait step before sending
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Campaign(s) built and approved: WhatsApp template approved by Meta if you’re using WhatsApp
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Goal set on the workflow (e.g. “Purchase completed”) so customers exit automatically once they convert
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Verified in the CDP that profiles drop out of the segment after completing the purchase
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Opt-in consent confirmed for the channel(s) you’re using
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Correct WhatsApp template category selected (Marketing, not Utility, for reminder or discount messages)