One of the easiest ways to communicate with your customers is through email. It is essential to choose an email and communication platform that fits your business goals and needs. With email newsletters averaging an open rate of 23.4%, instilling an email strategy is essential for any business. Ecommerce businesses especially will want to utilize email sequences for shopper retention and increasing transactions, as the average conversion rate for abandoned cart emails is 5%. Klaviyo and Mailchimp are two platforms that will help your ecommerce business reach your customers and achieve your revenue goals. The two platforms allow you to communicate with your customers in customizable, strategic ways, so choosing between the two platforms depends on your business size and goals.

Which email platform is best for my ecommerce business?

For businesses that are getting started, have a small number of contacts, or have a limited number of employees, Mailchimp is a good starting point. Mailchimp manages your email lists with ease. It is simple to get started and use the editor tool to make changes, even for those who are not super tech-savvy.

Klaviyo can be a little more intimidating to start with if you’re new to email marketing. The program is very analytical and uses data to look at each user to provide smart recommendations and better sequences to improve open rates. They help businesses own their marketing by storing customer data to help drive growth by creating relationships with customers, analyze trends that can create opportunities, and be more personable.

Can I Integrate with my CMS?

Klaviyo integrates directly with Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and many other large named platforms. This is important because instead of spending time on an integration project, you can spend time on your marketing campaign and making money for your business.

Like Klaviyo, Mailchimp directly integrates with BigCommerce and WooCommerce but does not directly integrate with Shopify. It is not impossible to connect the two, there are connectors such as ShopSync, another free app, that helps connect the two platforms together. Mailchimp offers more marketing channels and 250+ integrations.

Both platforms offer integrations with more than just your ecommerce platform. You can integrate social media, design platforms, survey tools, along with many other options. These integrations allow businesses to share more content and gather more shopper information for smarter campaigns.

How do they differ in price?

Mailchimp comes in as the cheaper option. Their free plan offers up to 2000 contacts and one audience, while their premium plan starts at $299 and offers 200,000+ contacts and unlimited audiences.

Klaviyo is a slightly more expensive option. Their free plan only offers up to only 250 contacts and includes 500 email sends… so essentially 2 emails per month for your contact list. Their price is on a sliding scale depending on how large your email list is. If you plan on setting up custom sequences (which you should), you’ll want to consider how large your current list is and how many new customers you get each month to figure how large of a database you’ll need to purchase.

If you exceed the number of contacts allowed on a given plan, Klaviyo will give you the option to upgrade your plan and even email you. Mailchimp will automatically bill your account for going over the limit in your current plan.

What features will I receive?

Mailchimp manages your email lists. They have a drag-and-drop builder, a content studio, marketing automations, and real-time analytics which are easy to read like a spreadsheet and chart.

Klaviyo is designed to help your ecommerce business make money. They evaluate each customer to see where they leave your website. You can review analytics and set up triggers for when customers potentially want to leave your page. They evaluate the customers’ lifetime value. Klaviyo has access to all your products and offers customers similar products based on items placed in their cart.

What type of support do they offer?

Mailchimp offers self-service guides and tutorials and 24/7 email support on all their plans. Along with chat support for paid plans and phone support on the premium plan.

Klaviyo only offers live chat support to those on paid plans. Klaviyo has a help center for those who are logged in with email support and tutorials.

Mailchimp is going to be for just getting started and getting newsletters together and starting campaigns and the more affordable option. It is also a good choice for those who do not have a technical background or anyone technical on their team. As your brand grows we would recommend Klaviyo. We have seen multiple clients and brands switch from one to the other as their brands continue to build and develop. Klaviyo is more advanced; when you already have an established email list and you want to take advantage of marketing and increase your revenue. They are both great options, it all depends on the goals of your business.

Listen to our Ecommerce Disruptors episode Klaviyo vs. Mailchimp: The Email Marketing Showdown to hear Noel and Aniel breakdown the two platforms.