If you’re googling klaviyo vs mailchimp ecommerce, you’re probably not looking for “features.” You’re looking for revenue: better segmentation, smarter automations, and fewer campaigns that land with a thud. Here’s the blunt take: for ecommerce, the platform that understands purchase behavior usually beats the platform that’s great at newsletters.
1) Data model: ecommerce events vs lists
For ecommerce email, your tool is only as good as the data it can act on.
Klaviyo is built around events and properties: Placed Order, Started Checkout, Viewed Product, plus custom events. That event-first model makes it easy to target people based on what they did, not just what list they’re on.
mailchimp historically revolves around audiences/lists and tags. It can absolutely do segmentation, but for ecommerce stores the friction shows up when you want “people who bought X, didn’t buy Y, and viewed Z twice in 7 days.” You can get there, but you’ll feel the edges sooner.
My rule of thumb:
- If your store is small and you mostly send promos/newsletters, mailchimp is fine.
- If you want lifecycle automation tied to behavior, Klaviyo’s data model is the cleaner foundation.
2) Automations that actually move revenue
Ecommerce automation isn’t optional anymore. The baseline flows most stores need:
- Welcome series (with conditional splits)
- Browse abandonment
- Cart/checkout abandonment
- Post-purchase cross-sell
- Winback
Klaviyo tends to make these flows more behavioral (and therefore more profitable). For example, you can branch based on categories purchased, AOV thresholds, discount usage, predicted next order date, etc.
mailchimp can run automation journeys too, but it’s commonly used more like “Campaigns + a few automations.” That’s not a knock—just how many teams end up using it.
Where this matters: if you’re doing decent volume, the difference between “one abandonment email” and “a 4-step abandonment flow with dynamic product logic and tight exclusions” is real money.
3) Segmentation + personalization: where the work happens
Segmentation is where ecommerce email stops being spam and starts being a system.
With Klaviyo, you’ll generally spend your time creating segments like:
- Repeat buyers with AOV > $X
- Bought in last 60 days but not last 30
- Viewed product more than 2 times but never purchased
- Purchased category A but not category B
mailchimp segmentation can be strong, but the mental model is different and (in my experience) teams often default to broader segments because it’s “good enough.” Broad segments = lower relevance = lower conversion.
Also worth mentioning: alternatives like activecampaign can be excellent when your “ecommerce” is really “commerce + sales pipeline + CRM.” If you need deep CRM automations, activecampaign is often more natural than forcing mailchimp into that job.
4) A practical example: RFM-style segments (copy/paste logic)
You don’t need a PhD in data science to do profitable segmentation. Start with a simple RFM approach (Recency, Frequency, Monetary). Even if your platform calls it “segments” or “audiences,” the logic is similar.
Here’s a pseudo-SQL segment definition you can translate into your tool’s filters:
-- "VIPs" segment (RFM-lite)
-- Goal: high-value customers who bought recently
SELECT customer_id
FROM customers
WHERE orders_count >= 3
AND total_spent >= 300
AND last_order_date >= CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '90 days';
-- "At-risk" segment
-- Goal: previously active customers who went quiet
SELECT customer_id
FROM customers
WHERE orders_count >= 2
AND last_order_date BETWEEN (CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '365 days')
AND (CURRENT_DATE - INTERVAL '120 days');
Actionable way to use this next week:
- Send VIPs early access + low discount (protect margin).
- Send At-risk a “what’s new” campaign first, discount only on non-openers.
This is where Klaviyo generally feels more at home: lots of small behavioral segments powering always-on flows.
5) So… which should you choose (and what about other tools)?
Here’s the opinionated breakdown for ecommerce teams:
Choose Klaviyo if:
- Email/SMS is a core revenue channel, not an afterthought
- You want aggressive lifecycle automation (not just newsletters)
- You care about product-level personalization and behavior-based targeting
Choose mailchimp if:
- You’re early-stage, sending simpler broadcasts
- Your team wants the quickest path to “send campaigns reliably”
- You don’t want to invest much time in building a segmentation system yet
Consider alternatives when your needs aren’t purely ecommerce:
- activecampaign: best when CRM + pipelines + sales automation matter as much as ecommerce flows.
- brevo: often a pragmatic pick if you want email + transactional messaging in one place and you’re watching costs.
Final note (soft, not a pitch): whichever platform you pick, the biggest gains usually come from doing the unsexy work—cleaning events, setting exclusions, tightening segments, and writing emails that sound like a human. Klaviyo tends to reward that effort faster for ecommerce, while mailchimp rewards simplicity and speed. Pick the one that matches how serious you are about lifecycle marketing today.
