Why Shopify Invested $100m in Klaviyo + Full Klaviyo Review

Features Score:  9/10

Klaviyo has some really useful features to help you get started with dropshipping and generate more sales. This is where the platform outperforms competing email marketing tools.

Let’s take a look at the standout features.

• Email and SMS Marketing

  Creating attractive emails is straightforward and easy with Klaviyo. We’ll show you exactly how later on in the review.

  When you set up your account, Klaviyo uses your website URL to adjust its pre-built templates to match your existing branding automatically.

  And there’s an extensive selection of templates to choose from:

  

  Once you’ve found a template you like, you can use the drag-and-drop builder to customize it until you are happy with the design.

  Klaviyo also has great A/B testing tools to help you discover what resonates with your audience and make data-driven decisions about your email marketing campaigns.

  Unlike some competing platforms, Klaviyo also comes with SMS marketing capabilities. You can segment your customer list and create personalized SMS marketing messaging.

  Klaviyo helps you to manage audience consent, so you only send SMS and email messages to the customers that have opted-in.

• Marketing Automation

  Automation tools can help you achieve more and meet your revenue goals faster. There are a bunch of ways you can automate your dropshipping business, including marketing automation.

  Klaviyo’s marketing automation tools are one of its strongest features.

  After adding a snippet of code to your website to set up onsite tracking, you’ll be able to track your visitors and launch campaigns based on user interactions.

  The workflow builder makes it easy to set up triggers and automated actions. For example, you can quickly build and customize an abandoned cart email sequence using the workflow template.

  

  It’s easy to scale your workflows to account for the multiple customer journeys at your eCommerce store. You can build different branches based on user actions onsite and in response to messaging.

  From repeat purchase emails to abandoned carts, you can use Klaviyo’s marketing automation tools to generate sales and grow your eCommerce store.

  Want to learn more about how to reduce abandoned carts? You can learn the best practices here in our guide on abandoned cart emails.

• Personalization

  Personalization is one of the biggest trends in marketing.

  According to SmarterHQ, 72% of consumers will only engage with marketing messages that are personalized to their interests.

  Klaviyo helps you create the personalized messaging and recommendations today’s online shoppers want.

  You can use the intuitive form builder to gather more information on your customers for segmentation and personalization.

  Klaviyo also pulls user interaction data from your website to help craft personalized messaging for each customer. You can segment audiences based on purchase history, engagement, demographics, and other data points.

  

  Automation capabilities allow for personalized offers and rewards, such as onsite popup promotions, birthday discounts, and coupons.

  Klaviyo’s segmentation and automation tools are an area where the marketing platform excels and sets it apart from most email marketing providers.

• Reporting

  The last standout feature is the reporting and analytics tools.

  You can use Klaviyo’s pre-built dashboards to gain insights into campaign performance, audience segments, and revenue generated by your messaging.

  But you can also create custom reports to narrow in on specific aspects of your eCommerce store and marketing campaigns.

  

  Klaviyo’s reporting features are set up to help you get the information you need to generate more sales. It can take a little bit of time to get used to the dashboards.

  But there’s heaps of valuable information that Klaviyo collects and shares with you, including insights into your best-performing products.

  As a bonus, there’s even a predictive analytics tool that helps you to predict the risk of customer churn, customer lifetime value, and the optimal times to send out promotional messages.

  Are you looking for new dropshipping products? We’ve got you covered. Check out our list of the 50 most lucrative dropshipping products for 2023.

Ease of Use Score:  8/10

Any new tool you add to your marketing stack must be relatively easy to use.

If you have to spend days learning how to use a platform, you’re probably better off using something more straightforward.

So, how easy is it to get started with Klaviyo?

Well, the sign-up and campaign setup process are super-easy. But it can be a bit tricky if you want to create custom reports and analytics.

Let’s take a look at the sign-up and campaign launch process.

From the moment you click the “Sign up” button, the setup wizard guides you through the process.

First, you’ll need to provide details about your business:

Klaviyo also requests your eCommerce store URL. The platform uses this to customize and recommend email templates later during the campaign setup process.

Next, you’ll be asked to choose a top business goal you want to achieve with the platform:

Klaviyo uses your answers to make suggestions to improve performance when you launch a campaign.

Then, you’ll be sent a confirmation email and asked to verify your account.

Once you complete the confirmation, you can explore what the platform has to offer.

You can create your first campaign by clicking “Campaigns” in the left-hand menu and then “Create Campaign” on the next page.

You’ll be able to choose between an Email or SMS campaign.

Depending on your subscription, you may only be able to access Email campaigns as SMS is limited to plans with a higher monthly cost.

Next, you’ll need to provide some details about your campaign, including any audience segmentation.

After completing this step, you can start creating your first email.

You can choose between the drag and drop builder, text only, or HTML emails.

Then, select a template and start creating your email in the editor.

Not sure what to put in your email? You can learn the crucial components to include in our guide to email marketing.

Overall, you can complete the sign-up and start writing your first email in minutes. Klaviyo makes it super-easy to do the basics.

But it’s not always as intuitive and easy to use.

When it comes to the reporting and analytics features, you’ll find yourself switching between Klaviyo’s Help Center and the dashboard to get everything set up the way you want.

Still, ease of use is where Klaviyo does well compared to some rival platforms.

Flexibility Score:  9/10

Any new tool must work well with the existing tools and platforms that you use.

It’s why we developed SaleHoo Dropship. The tool makes it easy to add trending products to your Shopify store in a few clicks. You can find handpicked AliExpress products, add them to your store, and start selling in a couple of minutes.

That’s how your tech stack should work. Everything works together seamlessly.

You don’t want to invest in a tool that doesn’t integrate with the rest of your stack and waste your time and money.

With Klaviyo, you don’t need to worry about integrations. We’ve already discussed how the platform is becoming more connected to Shopify, but it also works well with all other major eCommerce platforms.

You’ll be able to connect your eCommerce store and start pulling real-time customer data to inform your campaigns.

Overall, the flexibility and integrations available with Klaviyo are some of the best in class.

Customer Support Score:  6/10

Customer support is an area where Klaviyo struggles.

This is a common complaint of many marketing platforms and tools, as anyone who has tried to contact Mailchimp, Wix, or other prominent vendors will be able to verify.

But it’s not as bad as some rival platforms.

There are a bunch of free live training webinars to help you get to grips with the platform. You’ll also find many guides and tutorials in the Help Center on everything from segmentation and automation to email templates and reporting.

There’s also a very active Community Forum if you get stuck with something. You can ask a question, and you’ll generally receive an answer from customer support or another user relatively quickly.

But this will be the primary way to seek support when you need help with the platform.

There is no customer support phone number you can call if you have any problems.

You can send an email or request chat support during Eastern Standard Time business hours, but this isn’t ideal if you have an issue you need to solve now.

Klaviyo’s reviews on Trustpilot are generally good, with an average rating of 3.8 out of 5. However, there is a sprinkling of bad reviews, which almost always complain about the lack of customer support.

It isn’t unusual for vendors like Klaviyo to struggle with customer support. But you would expect more support options as you climb through the pricing tiers.

Pricing Score:  7/10

We’ve covered all the standout features, ease of use, support, and more.

But for most eCommerce store owners, any decision on a new tool comes down to pricing.

So how much does Klaviyo cost?

Well, it’s difficult to give an exact cost as pricing depends on the number of contacts on your email list. The bigger you list, the higher the price.

A free tier allows up to 250 contacts and 500 emails sent per month. But that’s not enough for the vast majority of store owners.

You can use the calculator on Klaviyo’s pricing page to see how much it will cost you to use the tool.

The pricing tiers go up to enterprise-level custom plans for brands with 150,000+ subscribers.

You’ll also need to pay more for SMS marketing capabilities.

Overall, Klaviyo is competitively priced. It is slightly more than SendinBlue, MailerLite, and some other vendors.

But you get more advanced features that you won’t find elsewhere with similar tools.

And the pricing tiers are flexible, so you can easily upgrade your plan as you scale and grow your customer base.

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