Klaviyo isn't detecting your visitors: how profile identification works

Klaviyo only sees "known browsers"

In its onsite tracking guide, Klaviyo explains that its script only records browsing activity from "known browsers": browsers that have already been identified or "cookied". A browser becomes known when the person:

• at some point clicked a Klaviyo email or SMS and landed on your store,
• subscribed or filled out a Klaviyo form,
• logged in to your store (if you installed logged-in user tracking),
• or entered their email at checkout.

Everything a visitor does before one of those moments isn't tied to any profile. And a flow can't write to an event with no profile.

How Klaviyo remembers a person (and why it forgets them)

Identification lives in a first-party cookie called __kla_id, which Klaviyo's own script creates in the browser. When someone clicks one of your emails with email-to-site tracking turned on, Klaviyo adds a _kx parameter with an encrypted identifier to the URL; the script reads it and leaves the person cookied for future visits. That's how Klaviyo's help center describes it.

The system is reasonable. The problem is that everything depends on that cookie existing, staying alive and being on the same browser. And in a LATAM e-commerce store, that fails often:

• Instagram's browser. A big chunk of your traffic comes from ads or stories and opens the store inside the app. That browser has its own cookie jar: your loyal customer shows up as a stranger.
• Safari. WebKit announced in 2019, with Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.1, that persistent cookies created from JavaScript are capped at seven days. If your customer comes back after a week without going through an email, Klaviyo no longer recognizes them.
• Ad blockers. If they block klaviyo.js, there's no cookie, no event and no flow.
• Device switching. They subscribed from their laptop and abandon the cart on their phone. That's two browsers, and to Klaviyo, two people.

What to check in your Klaviyo account

• Onsite tracking turned on. It sounds obvious, but confirm that klaviyo.js loads on every page (product, collection, cart) and not just the home page.
• Email-to-site tracking. Make sure it's on, so every click in an email identifies the person. A campaign with good links is the cheapest way to "re-cookie" your list.
• Logged-in users. If your store has customer accounts, install the logged-in user tracking Klaviyo describes. It's free identification.
• Forms with a reason. A pop-up that offers something concrete identifies visitors before checkout. The earlier you recognize them, the more flows can reach them.
• More than one trigger. If your integration records Added to Cart, use it in addition to Started Checkout: according to Klaviyo's documentation, Started Checkout only fires once the customer has entered their contact details and moved on to shipping. And add Browse Abandonment with Viewed Product.
• Measure the gap. Compare your store's abandoned checkouts over one week with the profiles that entered your flow. That difference is people who abandoned and never received anything.

What changes with Escalafy's Klaviyo Pixel

Native tracking identifies most people only when they type their email at checkout. By that point, almost everyone who abandons is already gone.

The Escalafy pixel is first-party and processes every event server-side, so it doesn't depend on a script a blocker can shut off or on a cookie Safari deletes after 7 days. When someone has already given you their email —in a purchase, at checkout or in a pop-up— we recognize them for much longer and across many more visits. And we send every complete event to Klaviyo through the official integration: product viewed, cart, checkout started and purchase, with the identified profile and the product data.

The same flows you already built start going out to many more people. You don't rewrite a single one. On average, that's double the email revenue.

Escalafy doesn't send emails or create contacts who haven't given you consent: it only identifies people who already gave you their email. Klaviyo keeps applying its own consent and frequency rules. And since Escalafy already connects to Klaviyo, you see that extra revenue in your dashboard, right next to your real profit.