Shopify vs. Mailchimp

Mailchimp’s small business marketing tools vs. Shopify

In the past, business owners were able to drive traffic with a few paid Google ads and a few email campaigns. Today, many businesses rely on more than two channels to make an impact. In fact, to convert a customer in the current market, you may need to make an average of seven impressions. That means reaching people where they consume content. To achieve this kind of goal, you need a multichannel marketing strategy.

Multichannel marketing guides customers through the buying journey across multiple platforms—social media, email, websites, and more—with continuity between one platform and the next. For example, if someone clicks on a Facebook ad, it directs them to the company’s website, where they sign up to receive an email. The email welcomes them and suggests relevant products based on the Facebook ad they clicked on. While these features are available with Mailchimp and Shopify, keep reading to learn more about how the features differ between the platforms.

With Mailchimp, you can easily create a website, take your business online, and start selling right away. So if you have a new product or limited-edition item—you can simply add a Stripe buy button to your website and start selling in minutes. Our goal is to simplify things for you, so that you get your product into buyers’ hands sooner. These are just examples of the kinds of experiences that a multichannel strategy can help you achieve. But to create them, you need a platform that will let you develop integrated, personalized marketing campaigns—and that’s where Mailchimp can help.

With our all-in-one Marketing Platform, you can create this kind of campaign across more channels than you can with Shopify. Mailchimp gives you access to email marketing, social media posts, Facebook and Instagram ads, Google remarketing ads, customizable pop-up forms, postcards, and websites. Shopify has similar tools—plus live chat and e-commerce stores—but does not offer customizable pop-up forms, postcards, or websites.

We’ll take an in-depth look at the features offered by each platform in a moment, but first, here’s a quick overview.

Mailchimp vs Shopify at a glance

Consider the following elements of a successful digital marketing strategy as compared between Shopify and Mailchimp.

Campaign creation

In 2018, Shopify launched Marketing in Shopify, which allows you to generate and run paid ads on Google or Facebook.

Mailchimp also lets you create campaigns across multiple channels, including email, Instagram, Facebook, and even printed postcards. All campaigns are fully customizable on our all-in-one Marketing Platform.

Customer Relationship Manager (CRM)

Shopify allows for CRM integration from third-party applications. Mailchimp’s Marketing CRM tools, however, are built right into the Mailchimp platform.

Every Mailchimp customer has access to Marketing customer relationship manager (CRM) tools that make it easy to organize audiences, analyze their behavior, and turn those insights into action. You can get similar functionality with Shopify when you connect integrations to your Shopify account. Both Shopify and Mailchimp can help you conveniently create customer segments and deliver personalized, relevant content.

Marketing Automation

According to a 2018 study by Accenture, 91% of consumers prefer to buy from brands that personalize their content. That’s why Mailchimp offers automations that help you get the right message to the right people at the right time. All you need to do is determine the type of message, the segment of your audience that you want to send to, and the action that triggers the message. Here are a few common automation use cases:

• An abandoned cart triggers a “you left this behind” message
• An ad click that doesn’t lead to purchase triggers a “still interested?” email
• A browsing session inspires an email with recommended products

Even if your store doesn’t support product recommendations, you’ll still have the option to send automations that suggest new or best selling products to customers.

Mailchimp automation tools allow you to personalize at scale without having to devote countless hours to writing messages from scratch. You can save time and money—and you don’t have to compromise on results.

Our Customer Journey builder simplifies these automation tools with features such as drag-and-drop functionality and modifying actions. In addition, the builder gives you full control to guide your contacts along a path to purchase from start to finish. Selecting starting points allows you to bring customers into a journey, and branching points lead your customers down the right path by delivering relevant messaging based on their interactions and behaviors. Our new builder allows you to scale your marketing by helping you build flexible and adaptable journeys that connect you with your customer base even when you’re busy in other parts of your business.

Shopify has automation capabilities, too, and with the help of integrations, can accomplish all these same features. Shopify’s basic automation tool, known as Kit, focuses on email marketing with social media follow-up. You can also get more complex automation workflows with Shopify Flow (starting at $2000 per month) that involve conditional rules or are based on specific events taking place to trigger email series through additional plugins.

Insights and reporting

More relevant data translates to a better understanding of your marketing campaigns. With Shopify, you can view trends in order amounts, visitor numbers, and revenue growth. If you have active marketing campaigns, you can check on those, too. Shopify also offers SEO analytics through 3rd party app integrations like the SEOMetriks app, but additional fees can apply.

Mailchimp, on the other hand, provides analytics to every user, even at the free level. On a generally more affordable plan than with Shopify, Mailchimp has an easy-to-read audience dashboard that includes clickable statistics and insights about user behavior. For customers who are on a paid plan with Mailchimp, the dashboard displays predictive audience segments, including predictive demographics and purchase likelihood. Shopify offers similar types of reports, but it’s available for customers who are on the Advanced Shopify (starts at $299 per month) or Shopify Plus plans (starts at $2,000 per month).

Mailchimp also lets you view reports on your desktop dashboard or Mailchimp's mobile app, so you can follow your campaign's success in real-time. Reports include campaign benchmarking, which lets you track the email campaigns' performance against some of your industry peers.

With Mailchimp, analytics are even more advanced for paid subscribers:

• Essentials plan users get access to A/B testing, which allows you to test different marketing messages and identify which one performs better.
• Standard plan users also get advanced audience insights, including predictions for customer lifetime value and the likelihood that they’ll make a purchase in the future.
• Premium plan users get all of the features above, plus advanced segmentation comparative analytics, and multivariate testing, refining their ability to personalize.

Shopify does offer these features and a mobile app as well; it allows its customers to manage their e-commerce business from anywhere and provides some reporting capabilities such as live sales and traffic reports.

How Mailchimp can help establish your e-commerce business

Mailchimp’s marketing tools make it easy for you to promote your business. The next step is learning how to sell online.

Building your website

E-commerce always starts with a professional website. You also have access to a free website builder that’s easy to use and customize, even if you don’t have any web design experience.

To create your website, simply select a theme and start building. Import your own images and logos (or browse our library of stock photos), add and edit written content, and then use our customization options to adjust the colors and fonts throughout the site.

And, if you’ve got something you want to sell right away—like a new product or limited-edition item—you can even add a Stripe buy button to your website and start selling in minutes.

Landing pages

With Mailchimp, you can create unlimited landing pages at no additional cost. You could, for example, have different campaigns link to separate landing pages to more effectively target your customers.

If you’re not ready to start selling just yet, that’s fine, too. There’s a “coming soon” setting for any landing page you create in Mailchimp that includes descriptions of your company and optional signup forms to help you capture early-stage visitors.

Already have an e-commerce store? It's easy to integrate most major stores, including Shopify, with your Mailchimp account.

Integrating your e-commerce store

Mailchimp’s digital marketing tools are designed to connect seamlessly with most user websites, whether you built your site with Mailchimp or used a third-party solution. If you already have a Shopify store, for instance, all you need to do is link it with your Mailchimp account using ShopSync.

ShopSync lets you bring your Shopify information directly into Mailchimp, so you can make use of our powerful marketing features—including targeted campaigns, personalized product recommendations, and advanced analytics. With Mailchimp, you can separate customers who have subscribed to email marketing from those who haven’t to help you comply with data privacy regulations like GDPR. Shopify users can also run targeted marketing campaigns, provide personalized product recommendations, and get marketing analytics and reporting features like email open and delivery rates, attribution, and conversion-related performance, directly through Shopify.

Setup is quick and managing the connection is easy, which is why thousands of Shopify customers are already working with Mailchimp as their preferred digital marketing partner.

How to choose the best solution for your business

Your choice of digital marketing platform may impact how far you’re able to take your business. Price is a key factor, but it’s important to consider cost-effectiveness, too. Which platform will give you the most options and the best cross-platform functionality for your money?

Scalability

With Mailchimp, you have your choice of plans, from the Free plan all the way up to Premium. Every Mailchimp user, including folks with a free account, has access to all seven supported marketing channels. Our fully-functional marketing CRM, complete with audience segmentation, is available for all account levels, too, so even the newest companies can offer personalized marketing. Then, as your company—and audience—grows, you can easily upgrade your Mailchimp plan and access more advanced analytics and customization options, deepening your ability to personalize.

No matter where you are in your company's development, Mailchimp has tools that work for you.

Integrations

Mailchimp offers flexibility through hundreds of integrations with different apps and web services. Connect to a tool you already use or explore Mailchimp’s integration directory to get add-ons like event invitations, rewards program information, customer satisfaction surveys, and more.

Already have an e-commerce store? Mailchimp has integrations with Shopify (via ShopSync), Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more.

Robust digital marketing

Digital marketing is how today’s businesses thrive and grow. That’s why Mailchimp’s all-in-one Marketing Platform gives you access to the channels you need, audience segmentation, campaign development tools, and a fully-functional CRM that rivals any on the market. Most importantly, Mailchimp also provides you with the reporting and analytics tools you need to track the success of your campaigns. We’ll even recommend the next steps for you to take after a campaign, so you can optimize further marketing endeavors.

The takeaway

Today’s consumers demand personalized, seamless experiences. To offer those kinds of experiences with your e-commerce store, you need integrated marketing capabilities that help you find—and grow—your customer base.

Shopify and Mailchimp both provide great marketing features and capabilities. If you already have a Shopify store, consider linking it with a Mailchimp account to fast-track your marketing and drive more business.

Whether you’re a small business that’s just getting started or an established company looking to scale, Mailchimp and Shopify can help you reach the next level. With Mailchimp, get audience segmentation tools, powerful marketing automations, and the ability to create targeted campaigns across seven channels. Mailchimp strives to give you access to more of the marketing tools you need to grow.

Ready to learn what Mailchimp can do for you? Sign up today and test our marketing platform out for yourself.

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