Klaviyo vs Mailchimp Comparison for Ecommerce

If you are considering a change in ecommerce email marketing software, or are just getting started, consider this article a good place to review Mailchimp vs Klaviyo. If you don’t have time to make this comparison yourself, we can help – just reach out!

You have built a great online store, but now you’re ready to take your email marketing up another level. You don’t want it to be just another Shopify store; you want it to be a successful business that lives and dies by its own merits, rather than depending on outside factors like constant SEO optimization or content marketing that can yield diminishing returns with time.

Enter email marketing. Email marketing can help you build your brand to the point where, over time, you do not have to rely on other marketing avenues as much. In fact, email marketing was a big part of our client’s success, found here: Shopify Marketing Strategy for 188% Revenue Growth.

We’ll compare Mailchimp vs Klaviyo, listing pros and cons of each, to help you choose which one is best suited to your online retail needs.

Choosing an ecommerce email marketing service can be difficult, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed. One of the biggest factors that will affect which solution you use will be how easily you feel you can implement it into your existing workflow—does it integrate with Shopify? Is there a drag-and-drop editor? How many emails can I send out per month?

We’ve put these two popular solutions up against each other in a head-to-head battle so you could easily see where they excel —but more importantly —where they don’t . Our goal is to help you make the best possible decision for your business.

Ready? Let’s go!

Mailchimp is one of the most widely-used email marketing services in the industry, and it boasts over 14 million users to prove it. It’s no wonder why so many companies trust Mailchimp to send their newsletters and promotional emails; its feature set is unparalleled at this price point. We here at BeeSmart use it for our own internal marketing efforts.

Here are just some of its highlights:

• Drag-and-drop editor to easily create beautiful emails
• One-click unsubscribe option
• Customizable templates
• Two-factor authentication
• Security setting that helps protect customers’ data if their account has been hacked
• Awesome A/B testing options
• Ability to create subscriber segments

Their latest feature, Campaigns , is worth exploring further. It’s a new tool that allows you to interact with customers in an ad-like fashion; it’s perfect for sales and promotions. Mailchimp integrates with hundreds of apps (including most ecommerce platforms like Shopify), making the marketing workflow easier than ever before.

Pros : By far one of the easiest-to-use email marketing services on the market today, Mailchimp provides brilliant templates, robust A/B testing capabilities, and the ability to send emails at scale.

Cons : Mailchimp doesn’t have a true ecommerce option built right in, meaning you’ll be limited when it comes to reporting and automated email flows . It’s also not free if your list gets beyond the 2,000-person limit , which can be costly for some businesses.

Who Should Use It: If you want an all-in-one solution that preaches simplicity above all else—and don’t mind paying once your list starts growing—then Mailchimp may be the service for you.

Klaviyo is an up-and-coming ecommerce email marketing service that has been making waves within the online retail world. They’ve been featured in both Shopify and Bigcommerce newsletters, as well as on the Shopify blog. Here are just some of their main features:

• Segmentation engine that lets you target customers based on any criteria
• Ability to send triggered emails
• Automated flows
• A/B testing
• Customizable ecommerce email templates
• Highly customizable platform—you can even create your own flows using Javascript.

In our opinion, some of the best features of Klaviyo include its out of the box win-back campaign sequence, as well as its abandoned cart workflows. We have seen clients recoup former customers with win-back campaigns, and with the right abandoned cart email strategy workflows, Klaviyo often converts at a higher rate than Mailchimp’s.

Pros : Klaviyo is one of the best options for advanced automation , including automated abandoned cart emails or order follow-ups. They’ve also got an amazing user interface, easy segmentation capabilities, and dynamic product ads if you sell on Facebook. Klaviyo also crushes Mailchimp when it comes to is integration with Shopify.

Cons : Fewer integrations (although Klaviyo integrates with all major shopping carts). Their support team also has a reputation for taking a long time to respond, but the word on the street is that response time is improving.

Who Should Use It: If you’re looking for an ecommerce email service with advanced automation features, then Klaviyo may be the way to go. Just note that their customer support tends to lack in the speed department, so if you have urgent issues you’ll need to think twice about using them.

Comparing Klaviyo vs Mailchimp was a difficult comparison to make, especially considering we here at BeeSmart use Mailchimp for our own marketing. But again, we’re not an ecommerce business.

Klaviyo and Mailchimp both have their own strengths and weaknesses—but which one is best suited for your business?

Although Mailchimp and Klaviyo are both wonderful tools in their own right, when you put them head-to-head there’s just no beating Klaviyo. It has an amazing segmentation engine that lets you target customers based on any criteria—sales data, cart abandonments, click behavior…you name it. Plus, thanks to its seamless Shopify integration, all your customer information will be automatically synced (so you won’t need to retype anything). Its automated flows are also the best on the market, which is perfect for creating order follow-ups or abandoned cart reminders. And if you sell on Facebook, Klaviyo has dynamic product ads that are far superior to Mailchimp’s shoppable posts feature.

If an ecommerce prospect or client asks us which software is better when looking at Klaviyo vs Mailchimp, we almost always tell them to go with Klaviyo.

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