Best email marketing tools for WooCommerce and Shopify in 2026

General email marketing tools are fine for newsletters and basic sequences. For an online shop, they’re often not enough.

E-commerce email marketing is a different discipline from content email marketing. It’s less about building a relationship through regular newsletters and more about using your store’s data to send the right message to the right customer at exactly the right moment – when they’ve abandoned a cart, when they’ve just bought, when they haven’t purchased in three months, when a product they browsed came back in stock.

The email tools that do this well are specifically built for it. The general-purpose tools that technically support e-commerce often do it adequately rather than excellently.

This guide covers the best email marketing tools for WooCommerce and Shopify, specifically what each one does, how well it integrates with your store, what it costs in both the US and UK, and who it’s right for.

Why e-commerce email marketing is different

Before the platform comparison, it’s worth understanding what makes e-commerce email marketing distinct from general email marketing

because this shapes which tools are worth using.

Data integration. An ecommerce email tool connects to your store and uses customer behaviour data, such as what they bought, what they browsed, what they put in their cart, and how much they’ve spent, to trigger and personalise emails. A general email tool doesn’t have access to this data without significant manual setup.

Revenue-driven automations. The most valuable ecommerce email sequences, abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase follow-up, and win-back campaigns, are triggered by customer actions in your store, not by time-based sequences. These automations require tight integration between your email tool and your store.

Revenue attribution. Knowing exactly how much revenue each email campaign and automation generates, down to the individual email, is standard in good ecommerce email tools. In general email tools, this level of attribution requires significant setup or isn’t available at all.

Segmentation by purchase behaviour. Being able to send different messages to customers who’ve bought once vs three times, high-value customers vs low-value customers, customers who bought a specific product category vs others, this level of segmentation drives email performance significantly above what list-based segmentation in general tools provides.

Deliverability at e-commerce scale. E-commerce stores send high volumes of transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping updates) alongside marketing emails. Managing deliverability across both types at volume requires infrastructure that’s specifically tested for e-commerce sending patterns.

With that context in mind, here are the best email marketing tools for WooCommerce and Shopify stores.

1. Klaviyo – best overall for e-commerce email marketing

Free plan: Up to 250 contacts, 500 emails/month. Paid plans from: USA ~$19/month, UK ~£15/month (up to 500 contacts). Best for: Shopify stores, established WooCommerce stores, serious ecommerce operations. Shopify integration: Native, deeply integrated. WooCommerce integration: Native plugin, strong

Klaviyo is the e-commerce email marketing platform that serious online stores use. It’s not the cheapest option on this list, and it gets significantly more expensive as your list grows, but the depth of its ecommerce integration and the sophistication of its automation capabilities justify the cost for stores where email is a meaningful revenue channel.

The Shopify integration

Klaviyo’s Shopify integration is the most comprehensive available from any email tool. Install the Klaviyo app from the Shopify App Store, connect your store, and Klaviyo immediately begins pulling in your customer data, order history, product catalogue, and real-time browsing behaviour.

Within minutes of connecting, Klaviyo has enough data to:

• Identify customers who’ve abandoned carts in the last 24 hours
• Segment customers by total spend, order frequency, and last purchase date
• Trigger automations based on specific products viewed or purchased
• Show you which products are generating the most email revenue

This depth of integration is available out of the box, with no custom setup required.

The WooCommerce integration

Klaviyo’s WooCommerce integration via the official WordPress plugin is strong, if slightly less seamless than the Shopify integration. The plugin syncs customer data, order history, and product information. Real-time browsing behaviour tracking (browse abandonment, product view tracking) requires additional setup but is fully supported.

For an established WooCommerce store generating meaningful revenue, Klaviyo’s WooCommerce integration provides the same core capabilities as the Shopify integration, including abandoned cart flows, post-purchase sequences, win-back campaigns, and revenue attribution.

Key automations

Abandoned cart flow – emails triggered when a customer adds products to their cart and leaves without completing the purchase. Typically three emails: an immediate reminder, a follow-up 24 hours later, and a final nudge with a small incentive 48–72 hours later. Industry averages suggest abandoned cart emails recover 5–10% of abandoned carts at scale, which is significant revenue.

Welcome series – emails sent to new subscribers or first-time customers introducing your brand, your values, and your products.

Post-purchase flow – emails sent after a purchase. Thank you for the product care instructions, cross-sell recommendations, and review request. Builds loyalty and drives repeat purchases.

Browse abandonment: triggered when someone views a product page without adding it to the cart. More subtle than cart abandonment but effective for products with longer consideration periods.

Win-back campaign – targets customers who haven’t purchased in a defined window (typically 90–180 days) with re-engagement content and often a discount or incentive.

Sunset flow – gradually removes unengaged subscribers from your list before they damage your deliverability by never opening your emails.

Pricing reality

Klaviyo’s pricing scales with contact count and can become expensive for larger lists.

Contacts	Monthly price (USA)	Monthly price (UK)
Up to 500	~$19/month	~£15/month
Up to 1,000	~$38/month	~£30/month
Up to 5,000	~$101/month	~£80/month
Up to 10,000	~$165/month	~£130/month
Up to 25,000	~$316/month	~£250/month

At larger list sizes, Klaviyo’s cost is high, in both markets. The justification is that a store with 10,000 email subscribers, using Klaviyo properly, should be generating meaningful email revenue, making $165/£130 a month a reasonable investment. If your email programme isn’t generating revenue at that scale, the tool isn’t the problem; the strategy is.

2. Omnisend – best alternative to Klaviyo for WooCommerce

Free plan: Up to 250 contacts, 500 emails/month + 60 SMS/month. Paid plans from: USA ~$15/month, UK ~£12/month (Standard, up to 500 contacts). Best for: WooCommerce stores that find Klaviyo too expensive, and multi-channel sellers. Shopify integration: Strong. WooCommerce integration: Official plugin, strong

Omnisend is the closest direct competitor to Klaviyo, built specifically for ecommerce, with strong WooCommerce and Shopify integrations, and sophisticated automation capabilities at a generally lower price point, particularly for larger lists.

The key practical difference is that Omnisend includes SMS marketing in its plans alongside email, whereas Klaviyo charges extra for it. If SMS is part of your marketing mix or you want to add it, Omnisend’s combined email and SMS pricing is often a better value than Klaviyo’s.

WooCommerce integration

Omnisend’s WooCommerce integration is among the strongest available from any email tool. The official plugin syncs customer data, order history, and product information. Abandoned cart tracking, product review triggers, and purchase-based segmentation all work out of the box.

For WooCommerce stores, Omnisend is often the stronger recommendation than Klaviyo; the integration quality is comparable, the pricing is generally lower, and the inclusion of SMS adds multi-channel capability at no additional cost.

Key features

All the core ecommerce automations, abandoned cart, welcome series, post-purchase, browse abandonment, and win-back are included and well-implemented.

Product picker – insert products directly into email templates from your store, with live inventory and pricing. Particularly useful for promotional campaigns.

SMS and push notifications – included in paid plans. Send SMS follow-ups alongside email sequences from the same platform.

Segmentation – flexible segmentation by purchase behaviour, browsing history, email engagement, and customer properties. Comparable to Klaviyo at this level.

Reporting – revenue attribution, campaign performance, automation reporting. Less detailed than Klaviyo’s but solid.

Pricing comparison with Klaviyo

Contacts	Omnisend Standard		Klaviyo
	USA	UK	USA	UK
500	~$15/month	~£12/month	~$19/month	~£15/month
1,000	~$23/month	~£18/month	~$38/month	~£30/month
5,000	~$70/month	~£55/month	~$101/month	~£80/month
10,000	~$114/month	~£90/month	~$165/month	~£130/month

At most list sizes, Omnisend is meaningfully cheaper than Klaviyo, in both markets, while providing comparable core ecommerce email capability. For stores where budget matters and the most advanced Klaviyo-specific features aren’t critical, Omnisend is the stronger value proposition.

3. MailerLite – best budget option for smaller ecommerce stores

Free plan: Up to 1,000 subscribers, 12,000 emails/month. Paid plans from: USA ~$10/month, UK ~£8/month Best for: New WooCommerce stores, budget-conscious sellers, simple ecommerce email needs Shopify integration: Via third-party integration (Zapier or ShopSync) WooCommerce integration: Official plugin

MailerLite is the tool we recommend for general blogging and content-site email marketing, and for smaller WooCommerce stores in their early stages, it’s a credible option at a price point significantly below that of Klaviyo and Omnisend.

The WooCommerce integration via the official plugin handles basic subscriber management, order-triggered emails, and simple segmentation. It’s not as deep as Klaviyo or Omnisend; you won’t get browse-abandonment tracking or the level of product-specific personalisation, but for a store that primarily uses email for newsletters, welcome sequences, and basic post-purchase follow-up, it does the job.

The free plan’s 1,000 subscriber limit is genuinely useful for a new shop getting started. You can run basic email automations for free until your list grows beyond that.

Limitations for e-commerce:

MailerLite’s Shopify integration is less seamless than Klaviyo’s or Omnisend’s; it requires a third-party connector, such as ShopSync or Zapier, rather than a native integration. For Shopify stores specifically, this makes MailerLite less convenient.

Abandoned cart emails via MailerLite require more manual setup than dedicated ecommerce tools and don’t provide the same real-time cart data.

Revenue attribution is more limited than with Klaviyo and Omnisend.

When MailerLite makes sense for e-commerce: A new WooCommerce store that’s primarily focused on content and audience building alongside selling, where email volume is low, and budget is tight. Once the store is generating meaningful revenue and email marketing becomes more central to growth, upgrading to Omnisend or Klaviyo is the natural next step.

Read our full MailerLite section in the email marketing tools guide →

4. Drip – ecommerce CRM and email combined

Free plan: None – 14-day free trial Paid plans from: USA ~$32/month, UK ~£25/month (up to 2,500 contacts) Best for: WooCommerce stores that want CRM-level customer data with email Shopify integration: Strong WooCommerce integration: Official plugin, strong

Drip positions itself as an e-commerce CRM rather than just an email marketing tool, the distinction being that it tracks the full customer journey and relationship, not just email interactions.

The WooCommerce and Shopify integrations are strong. The customer data model is more detailed than most email tools, tracking a wider range of customer events and properties for segmentation and personalisation.

Drip is well-regarded in the WooCommerce community. It’s a natural choice for store owners who’ve outgrown simpler email tools and want deeper customer data without the enterprise complexity of platforms like HubSpot or Salesforce.

Pricing is competitive at smaller list sizes, in both the US and UK, but becomes comparable to Klaviyo at larger sizes.

When Drip makes sense: Established WooCommerce stores where customer lifetime value, retention, and relationship depth are primary concerns. Stores doing meaningful email revenue that want CRM capability alongside email marketing.

5. Shopify Email – the built-in option worth knowing about

Free plan: 10,000 emails/month free Paid: ~$1.30 per 1,000 emails (USA) or ~£1 per 1,000 emails (UK) above 10,000 Best for: Shopify stores just getting started, low-volume senders Shopify integration: Native – built into Shopify WooCommerce integration: N/A – Shopify only

Shopify Email is Shopify’s built-in email marketing tool included in every Shopify plan, with 10,000 free emails per month.

For a new Shopify store in its early stages, Shopify Email is worth using before committing to a paid email tool. It handles basic newsletters, promotional campaigns, and simple automations. The integration is as native as it gets; your products, customer data, and order information are immediately available.

The limitations:

Shopify Email’s automation capabilities are significantly less sophisticated than Klaviyo or Omnisend. Segmentation is basic. Reporting is limited. As a serious email marketing platform for a growing e-commerce business, it’s not competitive.

The honest recommendation: Use Shopify Email for your first few months as your store gets started. Once you’re generating consistent revenue and email marketing is a meaningful growth lever, typically once you have 500+ subscribers and are doing regular promotional campaigns, switch to Klaviyo or Omnisend for the automation depth and data integration that drives real email revenue.

Setting up abandoned cart emails – a step-by-step overview

Since abandoned cart emails are the highest-ROI email automation for most ecommerce stores, here’s a brief overview of setting them up with Klaviyo. The principles apply to Omnisend and most other ecommerce email tools.

In Klaviyo for Shopify

1. Connect Klaviyo to your Shopify store via the Shopify App Store
2. In Klaviyo, go to Flows → Create Flow → Browse Flow Library
3. Find the “Abandoned Cart” flow template and select it
4. The flow is pre-built with three emails with sensible default timing
5. Customise the email content to match your brand voice
6. Adjust the timing if needed, typical: Email 1 at 1 hour, Email 2 at 24 hours, Email 3 at 72 hours
7. Activate the flow

Klaviyo will automatically send these emails to any customer who adds products to their cart and leaves without purchasing.

In Klaviyo for WooCommerce

1. Install the Klaviyo WooCommerce plugin
2. Enable the Add to Cart tracking script (in the plugin settings)
3. In Klaviyo, create your Abandoned Cart flow as above
4. Use the Klaviyo trigger “Started Checkout” for WooCommerce carts

Note: WooCommerce cart abandonment tracking requires customers to be logged in or to have entered their email address. Guest cart abandonment tracking for anonymous visitors is more limited on WooCommerce than on Shopify.

Choosing between Klaviyo and Omnisend

Since these are the two strongest dedicated e-commerce email tools, the Klaviyo vs Omnisend decision deserves a direct comparison.

Choose Klaviyo if:

You’re on Shopify – Klaviyo’s Shopify integration is the most mature and deeply integrated available.

You want the most sophisticated segmentation and personalisation available. Klaviyo’s data model and segmentation capabilities are slightly more advanced.

Your store is generating significant email revenue, and you want the deepest analytics and revenue attribution.

Choose Omnisend if:

You’re on WooCommerce – Omnisend’s WooCommerce integration is comparable to Klaviyo’s, and the pricing is generally better.

SMS marketing is part of your strategy – Omnisend includes SMS in its plans, while Klaviyo charges extra.

Budget matters – Omnisend is consistently cheaper than Klaviyo at equivalent list sizes, in both the US and UK.

You want strong e-commerce email capability without paying Klaviyo’s premium.

The honest summary: For Shopify, Klaviyo is the default recommendation. For WooCommerce, Omnisend is often the stronger value choice. Both are excellent tools, and the difference in output quality for most stores is smaller than the marketing of each suggests.

What about general email tools for e-commerce?

A brief note on using general email tools – MailChimp, Kit, Brevo – for e-commerce.

It works. Thousands of e-commerce stores use general email tools and do fine. The tradeoffs are:

• Less seamless store data integration
• More manual setup for e-commerce-specific automations
• Less sophisticated revenue attribution
• Abandoned cart tracking that’s either unavailable or requires significant configuration

For a new store with modest email ambitions, general tools are adequate. For a store where email is a primary revenue driver, and where abandoned cart recovery, post-purchase sequences, and customer lifecycle campaigns are central to your strategy, dedicated ecommerce tools are worth the cost.

The upgrade path most stores follow: start on MailerLite or Shopify Email → move to Omnisend or Klaviyo when email revenue justifies the investment.

Transactional emails vs marketing emails

One important distinction for e-commerce stores that this guide hasn’t covered yet.

Transactional emails – order confirmations, shipping notifications, delivery confirmations, and password resets are sent in direct response to customer actions. They’re expected, have high open rates, and are legally required for most purchases.

Marketing emails – newsletters, promotional campaigns, abandoned cart recovery, and win-back campaigns are sent to drive engagement and revenue.

Most email marketing tools handle marketing emails. Transactional emails are often handled separately.

For Shopify: Shopify’s built-in notification emails handle transactional messaging. You can customise them in Settings → Notifications. Klaviyo and Omnisend can also handle transactional emails if you want them on the same platform.

For WooCommerce: WooCommerce’s built-in emails handle order confirmations and shipping notifications. Customise them under WooCommerce → Settings → Emails. The free Email Customizer for WooCommerce plugin significantly improves the design of these emails.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best email marketing tools for WooCommerce and Shopify? Klaviyo is the strongest choice for Shopify, thanks to its native, deeply integrated app. Omnisend is often the stronger recommendation for WooCommerce, with comparable integration quality at generally lower pricing. MailerLite and Shopify Email are solid starting points for new, budget-conscious stores. See the full breakdown above for how each compares.

Which email tool is best for a new Shopify store? Start with Shopify Email (free, built-in) for your first few months. Once you have consistent revenue and a growing list, upgrade to Klaviyo for its superior automation depth and Shopify integration. Many stores do this transition at around 500 subscribers or when monthly revenue hits $2,500–$3,800 (USA) or £2,000–£3,000 (UK).

Which email tool is best for WooCommerce? For most WooCommerce stores, Omnisend is the strongest recommendation, with strong WooCommerce integration, competitive pricing, and SMS included. For stores that want the most sophisticated segmentation and are generating significant email revenue, Klaviyo is worth the premium.

Can I use MailerLite for my e-commerce store? Yes – MailerLite works for smaller WooCommerce stores with basic email needs. The WooCommerce integration handles subscriber management and basic automations. For Shopify, the integration is less seamless (requiring third-party connectors). Upgrade to a dedicated e-commerce tool when email marketing becomes a meaningful revenue driver.

What is an abandoned cart email, and how much revenue does it generate? An abandoned cart email is sent automatically when a customer adds items to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase. Industry averages suggest these emails recover 5–15% of abandoned carts. For a store with $12,700/month (USA) or £10,000/month (UK) in abandoned cart value, that’s $650–$1,900 (USA) or £500–£1,500 (UK) in additional monthly revenue from a single automated email sequence.

Do I need to comply with email marketing laws when selling online? Yes, and the specific requirements depend on where your customers are. In the UK, UK GDPR requires that marketing emails be sent only to contacts who have given explicit consent, though you can email existing customers about similar products under the soft opt-in rule provided your checkout includes a clear marketing consent option. In the US, the CAN-SPAM Act takes a different approach: it doesn’t require opt-in consent before emailing, but it does require a clear way to unsubscribe, honest subject lines, and your business address in every marketing email. Transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping updates) are exempt from marketing consent rules in both markets, as they’re part of fulfilling the purchase. If you sell to customers in both regions, your setup needs to satisfy both sets of rules.

What’s the difference between Klaviyo email and SMS? Klaviyo offers both email and SMS marketing. SMS messages are sent to customers’ mobile phones, typically short messages for time-sensitive offers, abandoned cart reminders, or shipping updates. SMS has higher open rates than email but lower engagement for longer content. Klaviyo charges separately for SMS usage based on message volume. Omnisend includes SMS in its paid plans.