Klaviyo vs MailChimp: Ecommerce Marketing Automation

Note: This is a post that contains affiliate links.

Any good eCommerce business owner knows that email is everything. Sure, social media platforms are important to your brand, but it’s your email marketing that forms the lifeblood of your business.

In a time when we’re increasingly talking about relationship marketing, it’s paramount that you see your emails as the #1 way you can connect with your customers. Often in eCommerce, you won’t meet your clients face-to-face; email is how you foster your relationships. This isn’t only about the way you communicate with them, it’s also about the data that email marketing provides you with.

This data gives you priceless insights into customer behavior. It shows you their likes and dislikes, how they interact with your product and content, what prompts them to act and what might pass them by. Having this data allows you to meet their needs and strengthen your relationship. As in any healthy relationship, you need to know them well!

With all this in mind, having the right mail platform is vital. When shortlisting platforms for eCommerce marketing automation, two names that will without a doubt be on your list are Klaviyo and MailChimp. Chances are, you’re already using MailChimp, the older of these two platforms. For us, the one we find ourselves recommending to clients, particularly eCommerce clients, is Klaviyo.

That’s not to say it’s 100% the right choice for your business and you should always take the time to trial any new options before fully committing to them. If you’ve got a substantial email list, you need to make good decisions to complement your marketing efforts.

Let’s have a look at these two platforms to figure out what might be best for you.

Active since 2001, MailChimp was built for email marketing and is probably what a lot of us started out using. It’s affordable and easy-to-use, which is ideal for small business owners just starting to make their way in the world. The free option allows you up to 2000 contacts and the pricing tiers work out as cheaper than Klaviyo.

There are also tons of integration options on MailChimp – up to 200 – although when it lost its integration with Shopify in 2019 it was a blow. You can still publish to almost any social media account and it works with Google’s application suite.

In short, MailChimp is not a poor email marketing platform by any stretch of the imagination, and if you’re working with a small email list, just starting out in business or have a limited budget, it’s going to work well for you. However, if you’ve got ambitions to grow your business then Klaviyo will help you push that.

A huge advantage Klaviyo has is that it was designed specifically for eCommerce, so every feature has those priorities in mind. It provides eCommerce businesses the opportunity to combine in-depth customer data with seamless marketing.

Let’s start with the data features because, as discussed above, data reporting and analytics is everything to marketers: it informs our decisions, helps us innovate and shows what emails are having an impact.

Klaviyo’s customizable analytics dashboard shows data cards with crucial metrics such as unsubscribe rates, opened or received emails and spam complaint rates. You can also choose how you want to view this information – in graph, chart or number form. One feature we love is that you can see what customers are doing in real-time. It’s such valuable information that helps you pinpoint the emails that are driving purchases and the most active customers. You can also tell which subscribers are clicking on which links in your emails.

MailChimp lacks this ‘deep data’ analysis. It will report on some basic analytics (and is a little less overwhelming for newbies!) but is nowhere near as sophisticated as Klaviyo. It can provide you with incredibly specific data including predictive analysis, allowing you to predict the actions that specific subscribers will take on an email or newsletter. Amazing, right? This allows you to tailor content to specific subscribers.

As we all know, personalized content is a huge trend in marketing that will only keep growing. To stand out from the crowd, you need to think about how you’re personalizing your customers’ experience. The deep data Klaviyo provides helps you do this.

It also helps you achieve this aim with its advanced email segmentation tool. Here you can make email lists segmenting by behavioral, transactional or event data, getting as in-depth as ‘people in their 20s who looked at necklaces on the weekend’. Seriously, it’s amazing how detailed you can be in your customization. It’s this kind of thing that helps you get to know your customers, even when you never meet them.

The automated workflows in Klaviyo are comprehensive and can integrate with your existing marketing data. It’s a little tricky to navigate at first but once you get the hang of adding flows together, editing the range of pre-made templates and even designing from scratch, you’ll wonder how you ever did email automation any other way!

Compared to the enormous benefits of Klaviyo’s reporting and analytics tools, its other advantages are simply added bonuses. The customized design keeps your emails looking cohesive and visually appealing. They’ve also got a great support team if you run into any problems.

For business owners who want to see their company grow, Klaviyo is the innovative platform you need to invest in. Few things will have a more positive impact on your customer relationship and therefore your sales.

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