The Best Email Marketing Platforms for Shopify Stores

If you’re looking for a broader framework on what makes email marketing effective, beyond just the tools, our guide to Email Marketing Best Practices breaks down the strategies, metrics, and foundations that underpin high-performing email programs.

Just want the results without the hassle? We hear ya. At CodeCrew, we’ve saved the day for email campaigns more times than we count, averaging over 1300% ROI for our services. BOOM! ZOOM! WHOOSH! That’s the sound of your results soaring.

Meet the Best Email Marketing Platform Contenders for Shopify Stores

Shopify Messaging

“Shopify?! Wait a second, I thought we were looking at email marketing platforms?” If you didn’t already know, Shopify Messaging is included with all Shopify plans, so whether you’re a small fashion start-up or a multinational e-commerce giant, you have immediate access to Shopify’s built-in email marketing suite already.

It allows you to send email and SMS campaigns directly from a single dashboard, use pre-built templates, and set up standard e-commerce automations, making it an easy entry point for those getting started with email marketing.

It’s also designed to remove friction, not overwhelm you with options. Let’s take a closer look…

It’s built into your Shopify site: Got a Shopify store? Then you’ve got immediate access to the email suite. Perfect to dip your toes into the world of e-commerce email marketing if you’re just starting out…

Quick to get up and running: Shopify Messaging offers easy-to-use, drag-and-drop template editors, allowing you to make eye-catching emails in less time than it takes to make a cup of coffee. No coding required!

Pre-built automations, all the results and less of the faff: Welcome emails, winback/re-engagement options, upsell and cross-sell emails… you name it! All the e-commerce fundamentals you expect from a Shopify Email Marketing Platform are already set up and ready to use.

Free (up to a point): No extra monthly subscription payments to use the service; you only pay for the emails that you send. And you get up to 10,000 emails for free per month… early-stage brands, that’s a compelling starting point.

Limited analytics and segmentation options: Surface-level segmentation gets real old, real fast. If you don’t want to bore, but go the full hog with your e-comm emails, you may find yourself searching for more insights to understand and segment your mailing list effectively – especially as the number of subscribers grows.

Basic automation segmentation options: While basic winback, abandoned cart, and up-sell automations may be handy to start with, if you’re looking to cook up some real tasty email flows, you may find yourself limited on options with what you can do.

No real A/B testing suite: Shopify Messaging lacks robust A/B testing capabilities, making it harder to optimize subject lines, content, and timing at scale.

Shopify Messaging works well for small e-commerce brands or email marketing beginners who want a simple, low-cost way to start sending campaigns and basic automations. However, as soon as email becomes a meaningful revenue channel, and things like segmentation, testing, and reporting start to really matter, most brands will quickly outgrow Shopify’s native capabilities and need a more advanced email marketing platform.

TL;DR: Easy-to-use, up to 10,000 free emails per month, basic automation and template set-up options that are perfect for small businesses or email marketing beginners. The experienced wizards and sourcers of email marketing among us may find the platform limited, however.

Shopify and Klaviyo

Klaviyo is an e-commerce-focused email and SMS marketing platform designed for brands that want to use customer data to drive more targeted, revenue-led campaigns.

It connects with Shopify in just a few clicks, and pulls in detailed behavioral, transactional, and product data, making it a strong option for businesses that want to move beyond basic email campaigns and build more advanced lifecycle marketing strategies.

We know you want the best email marketing platform for your Shopify store. And we may be a little biased as Klaviyo experts –  but we’ve done the research, so let’s cut the Silicon Valley sermon and tell it like it is…

Get email template designs, fast: Klaviyo offers a suite of email templates that are easy to edit and adjust to your needs.

Built specifically for e-commerce: Klaviyo is designed with e-commerce use cases in mind. And Shopify themselves class Klaviyo as a premium partner and the recommended choice for Shopify Plus users. Its integration allows brands to access real-time customer data, including browsing behavior, purchase history, and product interactions, without complex setup.

A wealth of features: We’re talking A/B testing, revenue reporting, automation templates, customer review requests, powerful segmentation options with logic operators… everything you need to build a powerful e-commerce email marketing campaign. We especially love Kalviyo’s multivariate testing tools and inbox placement previews.

Get stuck, help is on hand: We know what it’s like to start from scratch with email automation and marketing platforms. Fortunately, Klaviyo has a wealth of documentation and help guides for you to find the exact support you need. And with over 170,000 businesses trusting Klaviyo worldwide, you’re in safe hands with intel and guides to explore.

As much as we love Klaviyo as an email marketing agency, we know it’s not for everyone and is highly dependent on your situation…

Steep learning curve: When it comes to setting up more intricate e-commerce email strategies, Klaviyo can take some getting used to. You will have to spend time to get to grips with the features and functionality to truly take hold of its full potential (unless you hire an email marketing agency to do it for you…)

Can be more than some brands need: For smaller Shopify stores running simple campaigns, Klaviyo’s advanced functionality may feel excessive compared to lighter-weight platforms. Sure, a wealth of automation flows and advanced features can be great, but for basic setups? A simpler system may suffice.

Costs increase as you scale: Powerful functionality can come with a price. While there are free plans available, pricing is based on list size and usage (starting from $45 per month for 15,000 emails), so costs rise as your subscriber base grows. For brands generating meaningful revenue from email, this is often justified, but it’s still an important consideration.

Klaviyo is a strong choice for Shopify brands that see email as a core revenue channel and want more control.

While it can certainly carry out the basics of welcome emails and abandoned cart reminders, the freedom of choice for subscriber segmentation and complex user journey mapping makes it a great option for businesses with existing mailing lists who are looking to make full use of e-commerce email marketing.

For brands focused on long-term growth and personalization, Klaviyo is often the most flexible option.

Shopify and Omnisend

Omnisend is an email marketing platform designed for e-commerce websites and businesses, with Shopify as one of its core integrations. The platform promises a host of email marketing features, including template builders, automation flows, segmentation options and more.

With more than 150,000 brands worldwide using Omnisend for their email marketing setups, it’s clear this email marketing platform is a big dawg in the market. But although it’s a popular choice for Shopify brands, is it right for you? Or will it be sniffed out for causing a rough time…

Intuitive email builder: Like other email marketing platforms, Omnisend allows you to build email templates using an intuitive email builder, or pull from existing templates perfect for sales events, product launches – you name it. Simply add buttons, integrate products directly from your Shopify site, and add content where you want – without the coding skills.

Interactive monitoring and clear data: This is a biggy. Omnisend provides clear data breakdowns for everything from open rates, deliverability, and clicks to sales and revenue by email campaign. With e-commerce email marketing, the proof is in the pudding, and clear data reporting allows you to optimize strategies for the best results.

Pop-ups for signups: Email sign-up pop-ups? Check. Spin-to-win pop-ups? Check. Customizable forms to rocket your subscriber numbers and sales into the stratosphere. Ding, ding, ding! We love these features for growing your email list, alongside running campaigns for your existing customers.

Multi-channel support: In addition to email, Omnisend supports SMS and other messaging channels, allowing brands to coordinate campaigns across multiple touchpoints from one platform.

Limited testing tools: A/B testing can help turn your e-comm email strategies into money-making magnets. All those little tweaks you make – agonizing over button placements, copy, and personalization – advanced testing tools like these allow you to see what your subscribers actually resonate with and roll it out accordingly.

But while Omnisend supports A/B testing, its testing and experimentation tools are a little stripped back when compared to platforms like Klaviyo. For seasoned email marketers and Shopify brands wanting to scale, you may be looking for more.

Less flexibility for complex journeys: Omnisend works well for standard e-commerce flows, but brands looking to build highly customized, logic-heavy lifecycle journeys may find the platform restrictive as they scale.

Templates can be restrictive: Omnisend is a purebred e-commerce email marketing platform, optimized for promotional and product-driven emails. But there’s much more to the world of email. Brands wanting editorial-style newsletters or highly bespoke design may feel constrained by the available templates.

Omnisend is a great choice of email marketing platform for owners of Shopify sites that want to strike a balance between data-heavy platforms like Klaviyo and more simplistic systems like Shopify Messaging.

Bottom line: Omnisend is well suited to growing stores that need better reporting, automation, and list growth tools than Shopify Messaging provides, but don’t yet require the depth of segmentation and testing offered by enterprise-level platforms.

Mailchimp for Shopify

Mailchimp is one of the most widely known email marketing platforms and is often the first tool e-commerce brands encounter when starting out.

While it offers basic email campaign and automation features, Mailchimp is not built specifically for e-commerce in the same way as platforms like Klaviyo or Omnisend, which can affect its suitability for growing Shopify stores.

But does it still hold up, and would we recommend it for your Shopify site? Let’s find out…

Drag and drop functionality: Mailchimp has recently updated its email builder, and as one of the first no-code email platforms, it still holds up well. You have access to over 250 email templates, which is great to get the ball rolling.

Large user group: This is less about the platform, but more about the community. Or as Dom from Fast & Furious would say… family. Since Mailchimp has around 14 million active users, it comes with a wide range of tutorials, documentation, and community resources available to help you learn and set up campaigns your way.

Easy-to-use automation: Automation flows and logic are simple to implement and easy to visualize. Subscribers have not purchased but have visited your sale and product page? Bam, product reminder. Stack ‘and/or’ logics with email templates easily, and get your e-commerce strategies running in no time.

Limited e-commerce-specific feature: Compared to other platforms with e-commerce-first mindsets, MailChimp is more of an everyman – a perfectly good allrounder. However, this does mean they offer less flexibility around segmentation, customer data usage, and revenue attribution for Shopify stores.

Value for money does not grow with your mailing list: Remember back to your dreary math lessons, spotting trend lines with proportionality? Just bear with us, it’s worth it! Mailchimp charges based on the number of contacts (or subscribers) that you have in your mailing list. As you build up your mailing list, the price goes up – that to us seems like inverse proportionality, especially when value for money is concerned (see, junior math does have real-world applications). Most email marketing platforms charge based on how many emails you send, not your number of contacts…

Email send limits can restrict campaign frequency: Limits?! Sadly, it’s true. For standard plans, it’s 12 times the amount of contacts that you pay for (so if you pay for 1,000 contacts, that’s 12,000 emails per month). Scale up with more contacts, and the price starts to build (we’re talking $800 per month for 100,000 contacts on the standard plan). If you’re a brand that likes to stay in contact with your customers, especially if you want email strategies to excel, this could have you paying over the odds compared to alternative options.

If you’re just starting out with email marketing, Mailchimp could be a good option for your Shopify store if you want a familiar, easy-to-use platform to get started. However, you may find much better value in the built-in options such as Shopify Messaging (free 10,000 emails per month?!).

But if you’re an e-commerce brand focused on growth, personalization, and revenue-driven email strategies, we’d recommend checking out either Klaviyo or Omnisend first, as they offer long-term flexibility and value from the get-go.

How CodeCrew Can Help Your Shopify Store

Choosing the right email marketing platform for your Shopify brand comes down to where your business is now, and where you want it to go next.

Each of these three platforms have its strengths, but the real impact comes from how well your email strategy is set up, segmented, and optimized over time. That’s where experience makes the difference.

If you want a second opinion on which platform is right for your store, or help getting more out of the tools you’re already using, our friendly team at CodeCrew is always happy to talk through your options and recommend a path forward that fits your goals.

Want to Send Your Email Results Soaring?

Klaviyo, Omnisend, Mailchimp, Sailthru… you name it, we work with it, and deliver impressive results for Shopify brands. From bespoke strategies, campaign audits, and template coding, to automation set-ups, full-service campaign management, and everything in between, we’re the Jedi masters of email marketing, helping you turn email into a reliable revenue channel, not just another box to tick.

So if you’re ready to take your email marketing further and want the guidance and skill of the masters to wield the true email marketing force – speak to us today!