The Best ESPs For eCom Businesses

Let’s face it…

Software is complicated.

Whether you’re just starting out in your email marketing journey, or are a seasoned veteran with a huge 100,000+ list, there’s no denying we’ve all found ourselves pondering the same question…

‘Of all the plethora of Email Service Providers (ESPs) out there, which one is best for my specific business?’

Based on past experiences we’ve gathered working with numerous clients in the industry, we’ve come to find the answer to that question is not as straightforward as it seems.

It largely depends on:

1. How big is your list?
2. What are the main goals you’re trying to achieve with your email marketing pursuits?

For instance, some providers suit best for bigger, established businesses with 10,000+ subscribers on their list, while others are so robust at scale they would hardly serve the needs of owners with smaller brands who just aim to start sending their first few emails.

Ideally, what you should look for is an ESP that:

• Fits with the size of your list
• Works with a tag-based system
• Gives you a great amount of data
• Makes it easy to use that data
• Contains If/then workflows
• Holds advantageous pricing
• Has a clean, easy UI/UX
• Allows for good deliverability
• Gives you the ability to create forms

But in order to put an end to this whole email marketing debacle, we’ve decided to go through some of the most commonly recommended ESPs for eCommerce businesses.

This list is in no particular order, and it’s simply a personal compilation of the platforms we considered best equipped to assist you on your email marketing efforts.

So without further ado, let’s get right into it.

Full disclosure: Email Bullseye is a Klaviyo partner, because it’s simply great. However, we did do our best to keep this article 100% unbiased. Feel free to do further research on each platform listed below & pick the one you think best suits your particular situation.

MailChimp: Switch Immediately

Sorry to go back on my word so quickly, but when it comes to MailChimp I simply can not recommend it. If you’re just running a personal newsletter or whatever, sure. But you have no business using it for eCommerce.

I’m sick and tired of seeing brands shoot themselves in the foot by continuing to use this tool — it’s like running a marathon with a broken leg.

If you are using Mailchimp that’s probably because of the free start and the marketing promising an easy to use Email Marketing Platform. And well, it is easy to use. But so is Windows 2000…

So here’s our offer to all companies using Mailchimp for their eCommerce business:

Get in touch with us, and we’ll help you transition to Klaviyo — free of charge. We’ll show you exactly what advantages Klaviyo offers over Mailchimp, and why using Mailchimp is hurting your business… severely.

Especially if your answer to this question is “I don’t know” — get in touch with us today.

Do you know what percentage of your total revenue comes from your Email Marketing Channel?

Here are some of the reasons we strongly advise against continuing with Mailchimp:

It’s marketing automation tools are very limited to say the least, and despite knowing the former are crucial for the smooth operation of one’s email campaigns, the platform has failed to add these same advanced features which are the bread & butter for other email providers in the industry.

Outside of open rates & click rates, the data Mailchimp gives you is extremely limited. It doesn’t integrate well with software like Shopify or WooCommerce (at least not to the level better tools do). Did I mention that it’s slow?

Mailchimp support is offered by email, live chat, and a large tutorials knowledge-base. However their support is often slow and no match to the quality of service other platforms provide.

It’s for these reasons that MailChimp is an okay starting point if you’re a hobbyist looking to get your feet wet in this email marketing thing, but not if you’re an established brand seeking for more advanced features & reliable support.

Pricing

Good thing about MailChimp is it’s one of the few ESPs that offers a forever free plan which allows you to send 12,000 emails for up to 2,000 subscribers. Although, this plan is fairly limited, because you don’t get access to many key features such as advanced segmentation, A/B testing, send-time optimization, etc. This plan would also require you to display MailChimp’s branding in your every email.

Their paid plans start from $10/month for up to 500 subscribers, and it increases in increments of 500 subscribers. This is reasonably cheap compared to other competitors in the industry.

But if what you’re looking for is unlimited audiences, advanced audience segmentation, multivariate testing, comparative reporting, and all the advanced features many other ESPs offer from the jump, then you’d have to move to their $299 per month plan, which is a steep price point considering the inherent limitations of the platform. Or… just stay clear of Mailchimp. Seriously.

AWeber: Good for Email Marketers, bad for eCom

AWeber has to be one of the oldest email service providers in the game, as they’ve been going strong since the late 90’s. They are a highly functional platform which email marketing services tailor to small & medium sized businesses.

It includes a drag-and-drop email editor, templates, automation and workflows, A/B testing, segmentation, autoresponders, and tons of integrations. And like MailChimp, AWeber also offers a landing page builder.

• It gives you access to a wide range of very useful tools from the jump, making it suited for smaller businesses who still want to get a leg up on their email marketing efforts.
• It comes with an AI-powered email template designer so you can create good-looking branded emails quickly.
• Its clean and drag-and-drop-based landing page builder makes it easy for you to quickly build and deploy a page along with an email campaign.
• It includes 700+ pre-built templates, ideal for quick & easy email campaigns without breaking a sweat.

Also, let’s not forget to mention, AWeber is an industry leader in email deliverability. And compared to MailChimp, its live chat support it’s considerably more reliable. Support options include live chat, phone support, email support, live webinars, and a vast library of how-tos and tutorials.

However, for all its marvels, AWeber does tend to be very slow to add new features to the platform. Even though it provides the same features to every plan, once you get to a certain size on your list, most of the functionalities become quite limited. After crossing the 2000 subscriber threshold, you’d be in need of other key features this platform lacks.

While AWeber is used by a lot of big names in the Email Marketing Industry like Ben Settle, I would not recommend it for eCommerce businesses. It’s a good tool, but not for eCom.

Here’s why:

They are severely lacking when it comes to the automation side — Email Sequences can not be split up, meaning you can not really A/B test. So, once again, you’re kind of shooting yourself in the foot here.

To add insult to injury, AWeber claims to have A/B testing, but it boggles my mind on how they came up with the way they actually implemented it — it’s completely backwards & makes no sense. Far from making it the click of a button, if you want to “split test” your automated sequence, you need to set up two different Signups for your list that each feed subscribers into a different sequence — you can then set up two sequences that are very similar to each other and see which one performs better.

I can’t imagine an actual Email Marketer being consulted when they built this. It’s so incredibly backwards, it’s not something I’d expect to see in 2021 (although, this year has been crazy so maybe it fits).

Seriously, what’s next? Sending messages via horserider? Lighting Gondor’s beacons?

Nonetheless, AWeber is an okay option if you’re relatively new in the email marketing game & have a small to medium sized list. We don’t recommend it for eCommerce though.

Pricing

AWeber has a pretty affordable, reliable and straightforward price structure. It’s strictly based on the number of subscribers on your list. In other words, you’ll get the same features whether you have 20 contacts or 20,000 contacts.

The overview of the pricing tiers would look like this:

• 0–500 Subscribers — $19 per month
• 501–2,500 Subscribers — $29 per month
• 2,501–5,000 Subscribers — $49 per month
• 5,001–10,000 Subscribers — $69 per month
• 10,001–25,000 Subscribers — $149 per month

Drip: Good Up & Coming Platform For New eCommerce

Despite being relatively new in the scene, Drip has earned it’s strides as one of the top dogs in the email marketing game.

It’s advanced CRM functionalities allows store owners to create personalized marketing, segmenting their email list based on numerous criteria, such as clicks, purchase history, email opens, and more. Not to mention, it also integrates smoothly with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento.

Just recently Drip stepped it up one notch by adding some basic SMS tools, allowing owners to connect with users no matter where they are, via email or SMS marketing channel.

• Features like it’s intelligent marketing automation tools, smarter email segmenting, split testing features, list groups, and a visual automation workflow builder allow you to reach more clients & convert them into customers.
• Drip harnesses the power of behavior-based automation. You get to track valuable commerce metrics related to customer intent and purchase behavior, and then set up automations that will trigger at the perfect time & allow for a better customer experience.
• It includes an eCommerce revenue attribution feature, which shows you exactly how much revenue you generate from each email marketing campaign.
• Drip is replete of email templates with dynamic content. Product recommendation, return to cart, price drop, discounts, flows — you name it.

Drip empowers smaller brands because it focuses on providing the same powerful automation and segmentation tools for email marketing as bigger ecommerce merchants.

The slight difference it holds to a platform like AWeber, for instance, it’s that Drip truly has every feature you need to succeed in email marketing.

Customer support doesn’t disappoint either. Anything from live chat support, webinars, automation training, detailed courses, free guides and excellent documentation — all in place to guarantee a great experience with the platform.

Only thing we would hold against Drip, is it’s pricing & the steep learning curve it takes to get used to all the features. Other than these, Drip delivers.

Pricing

Similar to most email marketing tools out there, Drip’s price structure depends on the number of subscribers you own in your list.

A normal plan in the life of Drip users could cost as high as $109/month, with pricing tiers being the following:

• 1–500 subscribers — $19 per month
• 501–2,000 subscribers — $29 per month
• 2,001–2,500 subscribers — $39 per month
• 2,501–3,000 subscribers — $49 per month
• 3,001–3,500 subscribers — $59 per month
• 3,501–4,000 subscribers — $69 per month
• 4,501–5,000 subscribers — $79 per month
• 5,001–6,000 subscribers — $99 per month
• 6,001–7,000 subscribers — $109 per month

This stretches all the way up to plans that allow for up to 140,000 subscribers before pricing becomes custom.

ActiveCampaign: Strong Automations, Weak Reporting

We couldn’t make an article without mentioning ActiveCampaign, one of the most talked-about email marketing automation tools in the market.

It initially earned its reputation solely for it’s email marketing service, but now it’s referred to as ‘a customer experience automation platform’ for numerous kinds of businesses.

It’s bread & butter, however, it’s eCommerce.

Let’s kick things off by mentioning ActiveCampaign possesses good marketing automation & CRM software.

• It’s smart marketing automation feature gives you the ability to send abandoned cart emails, win-back emails, upsell emails, re-purchase reminders, and other forms of marketing pieces which allow you to stay top of mind in your customer’s head.
• It includes an in-built CRM module within the application few other platforms provide, so you can manage and track order fulfillment, along with creating tasks, shipment stages, and deal records.
• It connects fantastically with eCommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce & BigCommerce.
• On top of advanced reporting, ActiveCampaign also provides advanced segmentation tools you can utilize for maximum effectiveness.

It also comes with a built-in landing page builder & provides access to extensive analytics, although purchase tracking statistics are noticeably absent.

But don’t let all these techie stuff scare you away from trying it out. It provides hundreds of templates & modules to choose from. You can even design your own messages or flows from scratch to give it more of a personal touch if you so prefer.

It is however a bit slow & can be a pain to work with (speaking from experience). It’s quite hard to dig out your actual statistics, especially when you want to get granular. While it can do a lot, others do it better, especially for eCommerce.

Pricing

Now, when it comes to pricing, here’s where things can get interesting.

ActiveCampaign is relatively inexpensive when you’re just starting out, as seen by it’s 9$/month Lite Plan.

However, just like many other platforms, these changes entirely once you start getting traction on your email marketing efforts.

For a mere 2,500 contacts in your list, this same Lite Plan can cost as much as $45/month (which doesn’t even include half of the key features mentioned above.)

The pricing tiers come in all shapes & forms, as it largely depends on how many subscribers you have in your list. But, unlike other ESP mentioned previously, ActiveCampaign does not offer the same functionalities for every single plan.

Let’s imagine, for instance, you had a solid 5,000 contacts who you’d like to promote your services to. This, in turn, it’s how the pricing plans would look for you:

• Lite — $79/month. This includes simple features like email marketing, subscription forms, automation, etc.
• Plus — $135/month. This includes some advanced features like CRM with sales automation, landing pages, Facebook custom audience, SMS marketing, etc.
• Professional — $199/month. This includes several other advanced features like predictive sending & learning, split automation, site messaging, etc.
• Enterprise — $359/month. Features like custom mail server domain, custom reporting, uptime SLA, etc. are also included in this package.

Again, this depends on your list size.

In all likelihood, even though many brands swear by this platform, if you’re just starting out, many of the plans shown above will naturally turn out quite pricey for you.

If you’d like to get better acquainted with the pricing tiers this platform offers, here we leave you a link to it’s the main page.

Note: It’s worth mentioning the following two platforms on this list differ from the previous ones in this regard: since their inception, they were tailored to work solely with eCom brands. Although many of the former do work extremely well for eCommerce sites, they also serve many other kinds of businesses, and not just mainly eCom. This is why, in our judgment, the next two ESPs take another tier of their own.

Omnisend: Good Multi-Channel for eCommerce

Omnisend is an all-in-one email marketing platform which caters to eCommerce brands.

What makes it different is it’s multi-channel approach. You can add several channels into the same flow to create seamless communication with your customers. Combining email, SMS, push notifications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and more.

Their easy-to-use interface helps make it easy to use & it certainly is handy to have access to a lot of your Marketing Channels on one platform, and allow for personalization of each step of the customer’s process so you build a unique relationship with them.

• Bestows as easy an integration to eCom platforms like Shopify, Woocommerce, Bigcommerce, Magento, as you can get.
• Creating eye-pleasing and brand-oriented email templates won’t be an issue. Omnisend does all the heavy-lifting for you by providing a drag & drop email builder along with several pre-built email templates.
• Omnisend has a unique feature hardly any other platform has: it generates unique coupon codes for different customers in your email campaigns.
• It comes with a myriad of reports & analytics that help you understand customer preferences. It’s marketing automation feature also allows you to send laser-targeted email campaigns to your customers after segmenting them based on purchase history, engagement, and many other criteria.
• As said earlier, Omnisend has some of the most sophisticated multiple channels communication interfaces. This means that you can update your customers via emails, Facebook messenger, push notifications, SMSs, etc with record-breaking speeds.

What’s more, you also gain access to a product picker. This tool makes it easier to choose which products you want to focus on in your email newsletters. You can A/B test new subject lines, content, track open rates, conversions, along with including dynamic sign up boxes & pop ups you can utilize to attract new leads.

Pricing

Omnisend might be a lot unlike what you’re accustomed to see from an ESP, but in pricing structure, it’s no different.

It’s based on, you guessed it, how big is your list.

Here’s an overview of Omnisend’s pricing tiers if you have, say, 3000 contacts on your list:

Free — $0

• Up to 15,000 emails / month
• Omnisend-branded email campaigns
• Signup forms, boxes, and pop ups
• Reports

Standard — $60 per month

• Up to 15,000 emails / month
• Email campaigns
• Signup forms, boxes, and pop ups
• Reports
• SMS campaigns and automation
• Audience segmentation
• 24/7 email and chat support

Pro — $120 per month

• Up to 15,000 emails / month
• $80 in free SMS credits / month
• Email campaigns
• Signup forms, boxes, and pop ups
• Reports
• SMS campaigns and automation
• Audience segmentation
• 24/7 email and chat support
• Web push notifications
• Facebook custom audiences
• Google Customer Match
• Priority support
• Advanced reporting

Enterprise — Custom pricing

• Unlimited emails
• Free SMS credits
• Email campaigns
• Signup forms, boxes, and pop ups
• Reports
• SMS campaigns and automation
• Audience segmentation
• 24/7 email and chat support
• Web push notifications
• Facebook custom audiences
• Google Customer Match
• Priority support
• Advanced reporting
• Email migration
• Dedicated account manager
• Deliverability support
• Custom IP address

Klaviyo: Best For Ecommerce Email Marketing

Klaviyo has been wired for eCommerce from the jump.

While most platforms focus on sending emails, Klaviyo was engineered to capture customer data from eCom websites first, and then utilize it for email marketing campaigns. In other words, it contains powerful segmentation functionalities which pull in data from different parts of your website, and automatically divides up your list — allowing you to segment better.

The main area that sets Klaviyo apart however, it’s their data centric approach. It offers a complete automated marketing system that includes emails and ads. You can set up all kinds of pop-ups, email campaigns, SMS campaigns, or automated workflows to increase conversions and sales. Their robust workflows can be triggered based on numerous parameters too, such as subscription dates, email list segments, site activities, or purchase history.

What Makes Klaviyo Stand Out From The Pack?

• Email personalization is one of Klaviyo’s strong suits. A personalized experienced it’s what permits for better customer relationships after all.
• From welcome sequences, order follow-ups, cart-abandonment emails, Klaviyo provides every single email flow that’s crucial for success in email marketing.
• This platform has the unique feature of syncing your segmented customer lists with your custom or lookalike lists on Facebook. Thus, you not only get to leverage emails to skyrocket conversions, but you can also create personalized social media ads within the platform as well.
• It contains pre-built marketing automation flows & autoresponders, along with an intuitive drag-and-drop builder & a wide range of user-friendly options, so you don’t have to move mountains in order to convert leads into loyal customers.

In addition, it’s easy to use for a beginner while providing an incredible amount of options for experts — you can both have an easy swim on the surface or go for a deep dive to discover hidden treasures.

In all objectivity, few platforms in the market provide such advanced features for all stages of business. While some work best for small sized lists, and others with bigger, more established brands, Klaviyo is a great option for anyone who’s ready to go all-in on their email marketing efforts.

They integrate seamlessly with most eCom platforms (especially Shopify), you can set up Data Feeds & Automations for a lot of additional apps, it just works. The customer support is usually good, and the platform, unlike a lot of other Email Marketing tools, is relatively fast & easy to use.

Now, as far as numbers go…

Pricing

Considering Klaviyo is fully equipped to provide everything you need in your email marketing journey, it’s pricing plans remain on the inexpensive side. All depends, of course, on how many contacts you own in your list.

Also, if you’d like to try it out, Klaviyo offers a free trial. This trial allows you to send 500 emails to 250 contacts. When you cross over that threshold, you’ll be prompted to subscribe to its monthly plans.

Paid plans start at $25/month for up to 300 subscribers and unlimited sends. The price increases based on the size of your list. Many users have reported prices can add up as your operations grow, so we highly encourage you to only subscribe if you’re willing to invest in your business growth.

Now, To Wrap It Up…

We hope this article truly helps you make a more sound decision when it comes time to pick the ESP that better suits your particular goals.

And as we mentioned at the beginning, if you’re still not 100% sure which platform is the right fit for your business, then by any means, feel free to keep digging & doing more research of your own — or get in touch with us & we’ll gladly help you.

Although if we have learned anything from this article, it’s that there really isn’t any ‘do-all be-all’ ESP for every eCommerce brand out there.

There are many options. Some suit best with several businesses. Others don’t.

So whether it’s Klaviyo, Drip, Omnisend, or even one that’s outside the scope of this article…

We highly encourage you to simply pick one, and roll with it. Unless it’s Mailchimp — if you’re using Mailchimp for eCommerce, get in touch with us. We’ll gladly help you transition to Klaviyo — free of charge. We’ll show you exactly what advantages Klaviyo offers over Mailchimp, and why using Mailchimp is hurting your business… severely. .

Set up your first few flows, get some traction, and you can always change your ESP later on.

The main key is getting started with your Email Marketing, and staying consistent — you’ll soon witness the huge lever it starts to pull for your business.

Because as Mark Twain would often say:

“The Secret Of Getting Ahead, Is Getting Started.”

Don’t try to get it perfect. Simply try to get it rolling.

As simple as that.

Thanks for reading.