Shopify Email often finds its very close competitor in Mailchimp as the email marketing platform. Both models have some distinguished features. At last, the choice solely depends upon the goals of a business.
Summary of Shopify Email
Shopify Email is a marketing tool designed to make email marketing easy for every Shopify platform user. It was made available for public use in 2019.
Main features
Shopify Integration: It allows you to connect Shopify emails with your store to help understand customers better by tracking their activities and purchasing habits. This will help you in enhancing your targeted marketing.
Templates: The platform provides a lot of email templates that can be edited easily according to your brand requirements. It’s easy to personalize, inject dynamic content, or suggest products.
Analytics: Shopify Email brings key analytics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversion tracking. You can use this information to measure campaign success and make informed decisions.
Affordability: It bills $0.001 for each email over the 10,000 emails monthly. It is cheap enough for most small to mid-sized businesses.
Pros
- Fully integrated with Shopify
- Super intuitive – requires no setup.
- Budget-friendly for small businesses.
Cons
- Very few advanced features compared to competitors
- Basic analytics, no deep insights
Overview of Mailchimp
Overview Mailchimp is an all-in-one email marketing platform that has dominated the market for 20+ years. Its flexibility and solid feature set make it suitable for anyone from the tiny business up to the largest for different sectors.
Key Features
Full-featured: Apart from email marketing, it contains landing pages, social media ads, automation features, and many more.
Advanced Segmentation: Segment your email campaigns based on customer behavior, demographics, and engagement. Mailchimp’s segmentation is good.
A/B Testing: Advanced A/B testing features let you test different subject lines, messages, and even send times for performance optimization.
Granular analytics: It offers actionable insights on your audience, including revenue reports and customer lifetime value tracking to refine your strategy for better results.
Integration Options: While it does integrate with Shopify, it integrates with many other platforms, making it agile for growing and established businesses.
Pros
- Features for long-term marketing goals.
- Predictive analytics for segmentation and targeting.
- Detailed reports and dashboard.
Cons
- Costly, especially for bigger lists.
- Employee training is required.
- In-Detailed Comparison
Ease of Use
Shopify Email is known for its simple interface and direct integration with Shopify stores. It works great for merchants who want simplicity with no additional training.
Mailchimp is equally friendly in use, although more feature-encompassing and needs learning. Once mastered, it can drive powerful marketing for any particular need.
Verdict: Shopify Email is more suitable for simplicity-seeking users, but Mailchimp is good for advanced tool users.
Core features and flexibility
Shopify Email is designed with a primary focus on email marketing. Shopify Email has eCommerce-specific features but misses the broad value-added marketing capabilities you might expect in Mailchimp.
Mailchimp offers an all-inclusive online marketing tools covering emails, social media, landing pages, automation, and others. Advanced segmentation and A/B testing enable the possibility of running fairly sophisticated campaigns.
Verdict: By feature and flexibility, Mailchimp is a better platform, especially for businesses with more complex marketing needs.
Price
Shopify Email has competitive pricing, especially for businesses sending fewer than 10,000 emails/monthly. It would be great when on a budget and for smaller businesses starting with email marketing.
The prices for Mailchimp are multi-tiered, either by the number of subscribers or the features a client needs. Though there is a free plan, it does get expensive once a business list is larger or higher-end features are required.
Verdict: Shopify Email is more affordable for smaller businesses, while Mailchimp’s subscription rate speaks to its more extensive features.
Analytics
Shopify Email has basic analytics that is good enough to know how a campaign performs but not deep enough for more intelligent analysis.
Mailchimp shines in its analytics, providing meaningful details on customer behavior, campaign performance, and revenue impact. This information is crucial for businesses looking to upgrade their marketing campaigns.
Verdict: The analytics are where Mailchimp brings the best offering, making it the better choice for data-driven businesses.
Integration
Shopify Email’s integration makes it the best option for businesses using Shopify as their eCommerce platform.
Mailchimp integrates with different platforms as well, including Shopify. Since the partnership between Shopify and Mailchimp has changed recently, integrating may require some extra steps.
Verdict: For Shopify merchants, Shopify Email is the undisputed winner.
For broader integrations, Mailchimp is the way to go.
Practical Applications
Use Case 1: Shopify Email for a Small Business
A small online boutique selling handmade goods started using Shopify just a few months into its operation. For this company, the simplicity of the business was satisfying, and the value of the integration with the store by Shopify Email was priceless. They drove a 15% increase in email-driven sales within the first three months by delivering personalized product recommendations.
Use Case 2: Growing Business Using Mailchimp
A mid-sized apparel brand looking to grow its online presence chose Mailchimp because of its robust features. They used advanced segmentation capabilities, targeting various customer groups by purchase history and levels of engagement. By implementing A/B testing, their email campaigns improved, thus creating a 25% increase in open rates and a 20% increase in revenue from email marketing.
Shopify Email vs Mailchimp: Which Platform Should You Choose?
Your ultimate decision between Shopify Email and Mailchimp depends on specific business needs and goals.
- Use Shopify Email if you are a Shopify merchant who seeks an affordable, ease-of-use solution with seamless integration. It’s ideal for small to medium-sized businesses looking to preserve simplicity and affordability.
- Go with Mailchimp if you need a full-service marketing platform with high-end features, in-depth analytics, and scaling capabilities proportional to the growth of your business. Its best fit is for businesses with complex marketing needs.
Summing It Up
Ultimately, both are great platforms for email marketing, and each has its own advantages. That said, it really depends on what exactly your business needs. Whether ease of use, advanced features, or cost is most important to you. Learning what sets Shopify Email and Mailchimp apart will let you make a knowledgeable decision that best supports your marketing strategy.
What’s Next?
Would you like to know the features of Shopify email vs Mailchimp? Then reach out to us at support@sootraconsulting.com or visit Sootra Consulting.