Klaviyo vs Mailchimp: which email tool is right for your webshop?

Email marketing returns an average of 36 euros for every euro you invest. That makes it by far the most profitable marketing channel for e-commerce. But to realize that return, you need the right platform. The two names that come up most often: Klaviyo and Mailchimp.

Short answer: it depends

If you run a D2C webshop with more than 1,000 orders per month and you want to get serious about segmentation, flows, and personalization, then Klaviyo is almost always the better choice. If you run a smaller business or email isn't your primary channel, Mailchimp can work just fine.

But let's dig deeper, because the details make the difference.

Integration with your webshop

Klaviyo is built for e-commerce. The integration with Shopify is native and deep: products, orders, customer behavior — everything is automatically synchronized. You can set up an abandoned cart flow within minutes that dynamically displays the products someone left in their cart.

Mailchimp also has a Shopify integration, but it's more superficial. After the breakup between Mailchimp and Shopify in 2019 and the subsequent reunion, the integration never became as deep as Klaviyo's. For WooCommerce, the story is similar: Klaviyo offers a richer dataset to work with.

Segmentation and personalization

This is where the biggest difference lies. Klaviyo allows you to build segments based on virtually any data point: purchase history, browsing behavior, email engagement, predicted customer lifetime value, and more. You can create a segment of "customers who purchased more than twice in the past 90 days but haven't opened an email in the past 30 days." Try doing that in Mailchimp.

Mailchimp's segmentation has improved, but remains limited to basic characteristics. For a newsletter, it's sufficient. For a personalized e-commerce experience, it falls short.

Flows and automation

Klaviyo's flow builder is powerful and intuitive. The standard flows that every webshop should have — welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back, browse abandonment — are easy to set up in Klaviyo with the right triggers and conditions.

With our clients, we see that a well-configured Klaviyo setup can generate 20-30% of total revenue via email, largely on autopilot. That's revenue coming in without you actively working on it — as long as your flows are properly set up. You can read how we set this up on our page about Klaviyo email marketing for webshops.

Mailchimp also offers automation, but the options are more limited. Conditional splits, A/B testing within flows, and advanced timing options are standard in Klaviyo but not available — or only available in the most expensive plans — in Mailchimp.

SMS marketing

An area where Klaviyo increasingly differentiates itself is SMS marketing. Within the same platform, you can set up SMS campaigns, segmented on the same data as your emails. This makes it possible to run an integrated communication strategy across email and SMS.

Mailchimp offers limited SMS functionality, but it's not on the same level as Klaviyo's offering.

Pricing

Mailchimp is cheaper — that's a fact. For a list of 10,000 contacts, you'll pay around 100 euros per month with Mailchimp; with Klaviyo, you're quickly looking at 150-200 euros. But the relevant question isn't what it costs, but what it delivers. If Klaviyo generates 25% more revenue from email, the price difference is an investment, not an expense.

Our recommendation

For D2C brands with revenue above 500,000 euros per year, Klaviyo is the logical choice. The deeper integration, better segmentation, and more advanced flows make the difference. For smaller webshops or businesses just starting with email marketing, Mailchimp can be a great starting point.

Klaviyo vs Mailchimp at a glance

Criterion	Klaviyo	Mailchimp
Shopify integration	Real-time and deep: orders, products, browse and click behaviour	Basic sync with fewer data points
Segmentation	Unlimited, based on behaviour and predicted customer value	Mostly list-based, more limited
Flows	E-commerce templates: welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, winback	Simple journeys
SMS	Same platform, same data	Separate and limited in Europe
Reporting	Revenue per flow, campaign and segment	Mostly opens and clicks
Price for small lists	Higher	Lower
Best for	Stores that want to scale on email	Starters and non-e-commerce

What does switching from Mailchimp to Klaviyo cost?

Plan for two to four weeks: migrating lists and segments, rebuilding templates, setting up flows and warming up your sending domain so deliverability does not drop. The licence is more expensive as you grow, but that is the wrong comparison: look at revenue per email sent. Because flows run on actual shopping behaviour, that number is structurally higher in the Klaviyo accounts we manage, which means the cost per euro of email revenue actually goes down.

Frequently asked questions about Klaviyo and Mailchimp

Is Klaviyo more expensive than Mailchimp?

On licence fees, usually yes — especially above 5,000 contacts. But stores do not switch for the price; they switch for the return. Calculate the cost as a percentage of your email revenue, not as a standalone amount.

When is the right moment to switch?

As soon as email needs to become a serious channel: in practice from around 20,000 to 25,000 euros in monthly revenue, or earlier if you are hitting the limits of segmentation and automation in Mailchimp.

How much revenue from email is normal for an online store?

Healthy D2C stores generate 25 to 35 percent of revenue from email, split between flows and campaigns. Below 15 percent you are almost certainly leaving money on the table — usually in flows, not in the newsletter. Our Klaviyo approach for e-commerce therefore always starts with the flow foundation.

How long does a migration take, and will I lose revenue?

Two to four weeks. You avoid a revenue dip by running the old platform in parallel until the core flows are live and validated in Klaviyo, and only then moving campaigns over.

Can I keep Mailchimp next to Klaviyo?

Only during the migration. After that, no: your customer data fragments, you measure twice and frequency management becomes impossible. Pick one platform as your source of truth.

At Wrkt, we are an official Klaviyo Partner. We help D2C brands set up and optimize their complete Klaviyo email strategy. Curious? Check out our cases or get in touch.