One of the most important comparisons to check out when you’re running a store on Shopify is whether you should use Klaviyo or Shopify Email for email marketing and automation flows. To run campaigns efficiently, you have to choose the best platform for your business. It’s also important to consider long-term goals, as the easier solution might not always be the best.
Main Features Comparison
Both Klaviyo and Shopify Email offer basic email marketing features, including abandoned cart and post-purchase emails, tracking, reporting, and personalized newsletters. They have user-friendly dashboards and easy integration with Shopify.
Klaviyo and Shopify Email come both with easy integration with Shopify and have user-friendly dashboards.
One of the main advantages of using Shopify Email is that you don’t have to worry about whether or not it will integrate perfectly with your store. On top of that, it would also be more cost-efficient since your store is built on Shopify.
One of the downsides of Shopify Email is that, in comparison with Klaviyo, it is not fully developed yet and it doesn’t compare to what Klaviyo has to offer. Shopify Email is more of a tool to get started as a business with basic email automation and campaigns without investing too much money or time into it.
Klaviyo’s Main Features:Klaviyo offers fully automated email sequences, the most advanced list segmentation, tracking tools, popups, SMS marketing, and a wide range of integrations, making it a comprehensive solution for email marketing.
Shopify’s Main Features: One of the main advantages of using Shopify Email is that you don’t have to worry about whether or not it will integrate perfectly with your store. On top of that, it would also be more cost-efficient since your store is built on Shopify. It is best for startups or beginners who want to get things up and running with branded emails, well-covered data reports, and analytics. With recent updates, Shopify Email now allows users to send email campaigns directly from product pages in the Shopify admin, making it easier to launch product-specific campaigns.
Pricing Comparison
Shopify Email: Shopify Email is built for Shopify and takes the lead with 10,000 free emails. Additional emails cost only $0.001 per email, which means you can send 1,000 emails for $1. This extremely competitive pricing makes it the best option for new stores or e-commerce brands that want a low-cost way to get started with email marketing.
Klaviyo: As far as Klaviyo is concerned, they have a subscription-based system in which you have to pay not only for the number of emails you’re going to send but also for your list of contacts. For example, an email-only package will let you send 15.000 emails per month with a maximum of 1500 contacts. This will cost 45$/month and is especially worth it for brands that are serious about email marketing. Let’s not forget that you will be able to run SMS and email marketing at the same time, so it’s definitely an advantage.
Email Automation
Shopify Email: You cannot create advanced automated email sequences. The basic flows are still available and are a good option for someone starting with email marketing, but as your business grows, Klaviyo’s advanced email automation sequences might be more suitable.
Shopify Flow has recently introduced multiple templates for marketing automation, simplifying the setup process for users. Additionally, Shopify Flow now allows users to trigger automation when customers join or leave a segment, making targeting specific customers easier.
Klaviyo: Klaviyo has the most advanced automated email sequences, making it an excellent choice for businesses looking for the best in email marketing automation.
One of the unfortunate facts about Shopify Email is that you cannot create advanced automated email sequences. The basic flows are still available and they’re a good option for someone that’s starting up with email marketing, but as your business grows, you may want to consider Klaviyo’s advanced email automation sequences.
Segmentation
Both platforms have segmentation, but Shopify Email provides only basic segmentation options, which are automated and don’t allow for deeper customization. It has recently added segment-triggered automation, allowing businesses to automate marketing based on customer behavior.
On the other hand, Klaviyo allows segmentation based on various customer behaviors both on and off-site. Klaviyo also enables users to create Audiences for Google and Meta.
This is why Shopify Email is best for a smaller business that is just starting out with email marketing. Klaviyo really stands out as the to-go option for larger Shopify stores and more established e-commerce brands.
Ease of Use
Shopify Email: According to user reviews, Shopify Email is user-friendly and allows the creation of beautiful emails. However, issues arise when subscriber lists grow beyond 10,000, leading to potential limitations.
Klaviyo: The platform can be user-friendly once you learn the basics; however, it is definitely harder than Shopify Email. Klaviyo has so much more to offer for email marketing that it’s worth spending those extra hours learning how different things work, especially because they offer a lot of learning materials in Klaviyo’s Help Center.
Design Features and Templates
Shopify Email: You have a set of templates, and with recent updates, image editing is possible directly within Shopify Email, eliminating the need for external tools like Photoshop or Canva. This includes cropping, resizing, background removal, and color adjustments. However, customization options are still limited.
Klaviyo: Klaviyo outshines Shopify Email with its email design features, as you can build your perfectly branded emails from scratch and customize them for desktop and mobile separately. This means you have better options for mobile optimization.
Analytics and Data
Shopify Email: Includes a marketing analytics dashboard where users can track spending and ROI for email campaigns, showing exactly how much revenue each campaign generates. It also includes custom UTM tracking, which allows users to apply tracking parameters to all links in the email for better performance analysis in external analytics tools like Google Analytics.
Klaviyo: Has strong analytics with smooth integrations into other tools, ensuring businesses have all the necessary data for optimizing their email strategies.
Signup Forms
Signup forms and popups are your number 1 tool when it comes to collecting email addresses for your list.
Shopify Email: Doesn’t have this feature, but you can always install a separate application for that; there are lots of those available on the app store. Depending on your needs, you can always install a free basic one to get things up and running, but it’s also worth considering those that have more functionalities for a monthly fee.
Klaviyo: Comes with built-in signup forms and popups, offering over 60 templates to choose from, with the ability to create custom forms.
Integrations
Shopify Email: Part of Shopify, making it easy to create email campaigns using Shopify data.
Klaviyo: Integrates with Shopify and multiple other e-commerce platforms like Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, providing businesses with greater flexibility
Conclusion
Which email marketing application to use? As mentioned at different points in this article, it all depends on your brand’s needs, however, as of now, Klaviyo is the clear winner when it comes to email marketing automation. Do you want the best of both worlds? Migrating to Shopify gives you access to both Shopify email and Klaviyo.
Still not sure what to choose? Reach out to us for a complete audit and assessment of your email marketing plan and our experts will be more than happy to help!
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