Communicating with customers is extremely important when running an online store on Shopify. Among the various approaches, email marketing stands out as one of the most effective methods.
In this article, we'll take a detailed look at "Klaviyo", a newsletter delivery app that pairs well with Shopify, covering its features, functionality, pricing, and initial setup.
Please also see the article below for the benefits of email marketing on Shopify and our recommended newsletter delivery apps.
What is Klaviyo?
Klaviyo is an email marketing tool built for ecommerce sites. By integrating with Shopify, it lets you send emails powered by your customer and product data.
It's equipped with a wide range of features essential for email marketing, including segmented sending based on customer data, drip campaigns, scenario-based emails, and analysis of delivery results.
It also comes with an editor that lets you build HTML emails intuitively, so you can create rich newsletters even without specialized knowledge.
Klaviyo's key features
Klaviyo has three main features
- A wide range of functionality
- Usable with no code
- Free to get started
We'll cover each in detail
A wide range of functionality
Beyond simply sending newsletters, Klaviyo offers a wide range of functionality, including a form builder for collecting email addresses, an automation feature for automatically sending newsletters based on set conditions, and an analytics feature for analyzing the newsletters you've sent.
Intuitive, no-code operation
If you've ever touched "notifications" in the Shopify admin, you probably know that customizing the email body requires a certain level of HTML and CSS knowledge. And there are probably many people who gave up trying to customize it.
Klaviyo comes with an editor that lets you create emails easily, so you can intuitively build freely customized HTML emails (rich emails).
Free to get started
Klaviyo is free to use for up to 250 emails and 50 SMS messages.
This also means you can try it out and get a feel for whether it's a genuinely usable app, all without spending any money.
Klaviyo's main features
Klaviyo's basic functionality comes down to the following 4 points
- Collecting email addresses
- Managing email addresses
- Sending newsletters
- Analyzing sent newsletters
We'll cover each in detail
Collecting email addresses
To send a newsletter, you need email addresses to send it to.
With Klaviyo, you can easily create a newsletter signup form to collect email addresses and embed it in your Shopify store.
Managing email addresses
You can manage collected email addresses along with associated information such as "how they were collected", "whether they're subscribed to the newsletter", and "whether they've made a purchase".
By using this information, you can also send segmented emails based on conditions.
Sending newsletters
With Klaviyo, you can create a newsletter and send it to a specified customer list.
It also supports creating HTML emails, letting you intuitively build rich emails that include images and buttons via drag and drop.
Analyzing sent newsletters
With Klaviyo, you can check the open rate, click rate, and revenue contribution of the newsletters you've sent.
Analyzing your delivery results helps you improve your email content and send timing going forward.
Klaviyo's pricing
Klaviyo can be used for free, but the price changes based on the size of your email list and the number of emails you send.
Reference pricing is shown below. For the latest pricing and details, please check the pricing simulator on Klaviyo's official website.
Benefits of using Klaviyo
Automatically integrates with Shopify data
One of the main reasons many Shopify stores choose Klaviyo is its automatic integration with Shopify data.
Since it integrates with your Shopify customer list and product data, you can skip the hassle of manually migrating email addresses from Shopify to Klaviyo.
It also reduces the work of finding products in Shopify to feature in newsletters and copying and pasting product information.
Easily create HTML emails
Building HTML email, so-called rich email, without an editor takes a lot of effort.
With Klaviyo's editor, you can create HTML emails simply by dragging and dropping elements like images and buttons and fine-tuning the content.
It also comes with a wide range of templates, so using a template suited to your purpose lets you put together a newsletter in a short amount of time.
Automatically send newsletters
Drip campaigns and scenario-based emails are important delivery methods in email marketing.
On the other hand, managing send timing manually is best avoided, given the workload and risk of human error involved.
Klaviyo has a feature that automatically sends newsletters based on set conditions. Once configured, drip campaigns and scenario-based emails will be sent automatically.
Drawbacks of using Klaviyo
It costs money
Klaviyo can be used for free, but costs arise as your email list or number of sends grows. Depending on the size of your store, the monthly fee can become substantial.
Weigh the benefits of building customer relationships and boosting sales through newsletters against the cost of Klaviyo, and consider whether it's a good fit for your business.
We recommend checking the latest pricing on Klaviyo's official website or the Shopify App Store.
The admin is in English
Klaviyo's admin screen doesn't currently support Japanese.
The English used in the admin is fairly simple, but if you're not confident with English, it may feel a bit hard to use at first.
That said, even though the admin is in English, you can still send newsletters in Japanese. So Shopify stores that want to send emails to customers in Japanese can still use it with confidence.
Klaviyo initial setup and configuration
- Install the app on your Shopify store
- Create a Klaviyo account
- Sync Shopify and Klaviyo
We'll go through each step in detail below
1. Install the app on your Shopify store
2. Create a Klaviyo account
3. Sync Shopify and Klaviyo
When you create a Klaviyo account via the Shopify App Store, it's already linked with your Shopify store, and product data is synced by default. However, customer data (your email address list) isn't synced by default, so follow the steps below to also set up customer data syncing.
How to set up restock notifications with Klaviyo
In a separate article, we cover how to set up restock notifications using Klaviyo.
If you'd like to see the specific steps — displaying a notification form for out-of-stock products, setting up email delivery, obtaining an API key, and inserting a snippet into your theme — please use it as a reference.
Shopify apps that extend Klaviyo even further
RuffRuff 予約販売
"RuffRuff 予約販売" is a Shopify app that helps reduce opportunity losses from out-of-stock products, products not yet on sale, and products awaiting restock.
You can easily add pre-order functionality to your Shopify store, with no limit on the number of pre-order items you can register or the number of pre-orders you can accept.
You can also restrict customers from ordering pre-order and regular items together in the same order, and set up restock notifications for products whose restock date is undetermined.
It also comes with unique features rarely found in other pre-order apps, such as a "deferred payment" feature that lets you collect payment before the item ships.
Using RuffRuff 予約販売's restock notification feature, you can extend Klaviyo's restock notifications as follows.
- Add restock notifications to pages beyond just the product page
- Display and customize the restock notification button
- Show different restock notifications per product
- Easily set up and customize restock notifications
If needed, feel free to also check out how to connect Klaviyo with RuffRuff 予約販売.
Klaviyo Reviews
Klaviyo Reviews is a review app developed by Klaviyo, which provides an email delivery app for Shopify.
Its biggest strength is seamless integration with Klaviyo, making it easy to both collect reviews and put the collected review content to use.
Pricing starts free, though the amount may vary depending on your order volume. Please check the Shopify App Store for details.
See more details on Klaviyo Reviews here
Finally
Klaviyo is a tool that powerfully supports email marketing for your Shopify store. It offers many benefits, including its wide range of functionality, intuitive operation, and excellent integration with Shopify.
On the other hand, there are a few things to check before adopting it, such as costs that scale with your store's size and the fact that the admin is in English.
Using Klaviyo effectively can help strengthen customer relationships, improve repeat purchase rates, and boost sales. We encourage you to find and put into practice an email marketing strategy that fits your Shopify store.
Beyond Klaviyo, there are also many Shopify apps that can help with customer acquisition, growing sales, and expanding your blog content. Depending on your goals, it's worth checking out other recommended apps as well.
