How do you combine multiple trigger conditions?

Imagine you sell outdoor gear. Someone browses a tent, adds it to their cart, then disappears. You want to send a cart abandonment email, but only if they haven't already bought something else that day, and only if they're not already inside a separate flow. That's where combining trigger conditions comes in.

Most Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, and Customer.io flows let you stack conditions in a few different ways. Here's how each one works, with a real example alongside each.

AND conditions mean every condition has to be true before the flow fires. Example: "Abandoned cart AND has not purchased in the last 24 hours AND is not already in a cart abandonment flow." If any one of those is false, the email doesn't send. AND logic keeps your messaging precise and avoids piling on someone who already bought.

OR conditions mean any one condition is enough. Example: "Abandoned cart OR viewed the same product three times OR added to wishlist." OR logic casts a wider net. It's useful when there are multiple signals that suggest someone is interested but hasn't committed yet.

Sequential conditions require events to happen in a specific order. Example: "Downloaded the camping guide, THEN visited the tents category, THEN did not buy within 48 hours." This one is powerful for behavioral triggers because it maps to an actual journey rather than a single moment.

Exclusion conditions stop a flow from firing when something is true. Example: "Trigger cart abandonment flow UNLESS customer purchased in the last 7 days." Think of these as your guardrails. They prevent you from emailing someone with "You left something behind!" when they actually completed a purchase on a different device.

Priority rules decide which flow wins when a contact qualifies for more than one at the same time. Most platforms let you rank flows so a higher-priority flow (say, a post-purchase sequence) blocks a lower-priority one (a re-engagement nudge) from firing simultaneously.

You can also combine these types together. A real cart abandonment flow might look like: "Abandoned cart (AND) is not a VIP customer (AND) has not purchased in 7 days (AND) is not already in a win-back flow (UNLESS) they just bought something in the last 2 hours." That's four conditions working together to make sure the right person gets the email at the right moment.

And the goal isn't complexity for its own sake. It's protecting your subscribers from over-messaging while making sure nobody who's genuinely interested slips through. Start simple, then layer in conditions as you see where your flows overlap or fire too broadly.

If you're not sure where your current flows might be double-triggering or missing contacts, our SOS hotline is free and we're happy to look at your setup with you.