Email and email marketing is still relevant. And using email marketing apps is imperative for eCommerce businesses. 

Why? 

For one, email is an active medium to connect with your target audience directly. You don’t need third-party or external avenues, like social media platforms to interact with your consumers.

And email marketing is a holistic marketing approach for hiking sales and conversion, as well as, staying active amongst your users. 

But, before we jump into the apps for Email Marketing, let’s see a few benefits of Email Marketing: 

3 Ways Email Marketing can Benefit eCommerce?

1. Easy way to promote, announce, launch and communicate to your customers

When sending out an email, you can promote, announce and even communicate with your customers. You can send out personalized messages that will connect your brand with them. With every email that you send out, you give customers a look into your business. 

2. More cost-effective compared to other marketing campaigns

Compared to other marketing campaigns, email marketing is more cost-effective. According to Custora E-Commerce Pulse, email accounted for 19.8% of all transactions – trailing only paid search (19.9%) and organic traffic (21.8%). When you send out an email with a personalized subject line, you compel the customer to open the email and read through. This makes email marketing the most effective way of communication with customers. 

3. Great way to build an email list and use it to connect with engaged and conversion-driven customers

When you create an email marketing campaign, you build your community. Once you get a customers’ details and email, you can send engaging, conversion-driven messages to compel customers to notice your brand. Depending on the message, you can get customers to connect with your brand and buy your products. If your message is attractive enough, you can get customers to become your advocate and refer you to others.  

Best Email Marketing Strategies for 2021

1. Cross-Sell and up-sell email campaigns offer 6.85% click-to conversion rate and increase AOV (Average Order Value) by selling additional products to customers: 

When adding email marketing to your campaigns, you need to look at cross-selling and upselling options. This will help you keep the flow of communication going and help improve AOV or Average Order Value. 

Start by showcasing complementary products to your customers. Give them an added benefit to the product they already have. This way, they can get the best utility from the products purchased.  

2. Make the most of Triggered Emails — also called Behavioral Marketing Automation. Email fired when specific events or actions are undertaken by your store visitors — making the messaging to the core relevant to your audience: 

When you create an email marketing campaign centered around a specific event or action, you create Behavioral Marketing Automation. These emails trigger emotion and connect with the customer on a different level. While most emails are made to connect with the practical aspect, while triggered emails connect more on an emotional level. 

3. Design Campaign Tagging Framework to track links that drive the highest engagement and open rate:

When creating email campaigns, you need to make sure that you design a proper campaign tagging framework. This will help you track your opening rates to see which emails work and which do not. Once you know the type of communication your customers like – the design, the content – you can work towards creating better ones.   

4. 70% of users abandon their shopping cart and leave without completing the sale. Reduce the number of Cart Abandonment Emails: 

We know that customers do not buy a product in one go. With over 70% of users abandoning their shopping cart, emails are a great way to remind them of the products they have left behind. Sending out an email to the customer post-cart abandonment is also a great way to keep customers connected to your brand. 

5. Stay out of Spam Filters if you want to save on your marketing dollars: 

If you want to make sure that your customers see your email, you need to stay out of spam folders. Getting your email sent to the spam folder will mean that not only are you wasting your money, but it is not visible to the customer. So, to stay away from the dreaded ‘Spam’ space, here are some tips: 

1. Avoid adding multiple links in the email 
2. Keep exclamations to a bare minimum 
3. Try to use default font options instead of obscure ones 
4. Compress images – if the image is too big, it won’t load 
5. Keep images to a minimum 
6. Do not use too many sale-sy words 
7. Remember to add your physical address, and an unsubscribe link 

If you have a Shopify powered store, you can churn the benefits of email marketing by integrating the best Shopify apps for email marketing, easily available via Shopify app store. 

You might ask, “But there are thousands of email marketing apps available on Shopify app store. So, which one to choose?”

Don’t worry. We’ve made your job easier. Here’s a list of Top 10 Shopify Email Marketing Apps. 

So, let’s take a look at …

The Top 10 Best Shopify Apps for Email Marketing

1. Privy:

Privy is one of the best email marketing apps for Shopify, considering it has over 23000 positive reviews. Users can not only send emails but also SMS opt-ins and close more sales. 

The app also helps reduce cart abandonment and increase order sizes with customizable discounts. 

Key Features of Privy: 

• Automations:
  • Easy to use autoresponders and reminder emails 
  • Upsell modals with newsletter emails, abandoned cart emails, add-to-cart buttons and order follow-up emails
• Integrations: 
  • Easy integration with apps like Bronto, Smile.IO, Octano.AI, Recart, Shopmessage, and Adroll 
  • Also easily integrate with Zapier, Google Analytics, Facebook and Slack 
  • Offers SMS integrations through multiple providers like Postscript, Retention Rocket, and Attentive
• List Cleaning:   
  • As Privy is more about list building, there is not much importance on scrubbing lists – but it integrates with other apps to help keep the list updated 

Pros: 

• Easy to build emails, and SMS opt-ins with pop-ups, banners, and more
• Automated email recovery and special discounts for bulk orders
• Easily connected to apps like Shopify, BigCommerce, Smile.IO.
• Customizable display triggers and multiple audience targeting rules options
• Massive variety of customizable display types to showcase your brand

Cons: 

• No A/B Testing options
• No option to clean lists 
• List duplication has to be done manually 

Pricing: 

Free Plan available. 

Starter Plan – $10/month for first 1000 contacts and $5 for every new additional 1000 contacts. 

2. Klaviyo:

Klaviyo is one of the best Shopify email marketing apps – as evident by its 800 positive reviews on the Shopify app store. The app not only helps you build your brand but also helps you transition from brick & mortar to digital by building email lists and driving in-store sales. 

Key Features of Klaviyo: 

• Automation: 
  • Pre-made, customizable templates and email autoresponders
  • Personalized email campaign creation based on behavioral data 
  • Easy creation of cart abandonment and win-back emails to recapture ‘missed’ sales 
• Integration: 
  • Mostly one-click integration supported 
  • Easy integrations with Facebook, Recharge, Zendesk, Smile.Io, Aftership, and more 
• A/B Testing: 
  • Easy testing for different subject lines, content, etc. to refine messages and optimize sent times
  • Unlimited A/B testing in the free version 
• List Cleaning:
  • Easy to remove inactive profiles from the list to reduce unsubscribe rates 
  • Simple identification of unengaged profiles to clear away bounce rates 

Pros: 

• Free unlimited A/B testing 
• Powerful data analysis 
• Easy integration with Facebook and Instagram advertising
• ROI based tracking 

Cons: 

• The free version only allows the addition of 250 contacts and 500 emails 
• The prices for additional charges are not upfront 
• Customer service needs to be worked on 
• Campaign set-up verification takes up to 24 hours by Klaviyo 

Pricing: 

Free to install up to 250 email contacts, 500 emails, and unlimited A/B testing.

Paid plan – Starting $20/month. 

3. ActiveCampaign:  

Another great Shopify, email marketing app, is ActiveCampaign. Not only does the app offer email marketing, but also Shopify email automation and special CRM tools to create an incredible customer experience. 

With the app, you can send your customers emails, newsletters, and messages that are targeted to individual interests, thereby making every campaign personal.  

Key Features of ActiveCampaign: 

• Easy Integrations: 

The app provides three Shopify email marketing integrations. But the best option is free and allows you to sync all Shopify contacts and data.  

• Simple but powerful Email Workflow Creator: 

ActiveCampaign makes sending emails easier with triggers like abandoned carts. You simply need to drag and drop any triggers in the visual workflow creator, and the app does the rest of the work.  

• Ecommerce Automation Templates: 

To make the automation workflow process easier, ActiveCampaign provides multiple automation templates to use instead of making one from scratch. Most of these are for eCommerce (like abandoned carts, product interest follow-ups) 

• Incredible flexible form creator: 

With the flexible form creator ActiveCampaign provides, you can make any type of form with a real drag-and-drop option. 

Pros: 

• The app provides easy features to handle basic email marketing, advanced market automation, behavioral automation, audience segmentation and tagging, and much more. 
• Advanced packages offer CRM aspect 
• Lead scoring also helps prioritize accounts to help create more dynamic content 
• Supports multiple eCommerce platforms easily 

Cons: 

• Highly expensive plans 
• The CRM solutions have poor functionality
• Large campaigns are difficult to process in the app 

Pricing: 

14-day free trial option. 

Pricing changes with the number of contacts. 

Lite Plan starts from $9/month. 

Plus Plan starts from $49/month. 

4. Omnisend: 

Omnisend is one of the top-rated Shopify email marketing apps available. Their marketing automation platform connects eCommerce business owners with existing and potential customers across multiple channels like email, SMS, Facebook, and Google. 

Key Features of Omnisend: 

• Multi-Channel Automation: 

Omnisend helps Shopify store owners integrate several channels into one single automation workflow. This not only helps make the process easier but also helps keep the workflow moving. 

• Complete Email Marketing Experience:  

Building emails has never been easier. Newsletters, email blasts, promotional messages, thank you notes, everything is available here. 

• Marketing Automation: 

Omnisend provides advanced automation workflows that are based more on customer data and actions to help eCommerce business owners function better. 

• SMS Marketing: 

The app provides one-off segmented text campaigns and allows users to integrate SMS into the automation workflow as well. 

• Segmentation: 

Omnisend can segment customers based on different criteria – location, demographics, etc. That way, users can send the right message to the right person at the right time. 

• Form Customization: 

Get the help you need to build email lists quicker and organically with more form customization options.

Pros: 

• Multiple templates to choose from 
• The Live View option allows users to see which products are doing better and which are being removed by customers from the cart. 
• Easy tracking options for newsletters with easy layouts 
• User-friendly interface 
• Easy app integration with Shopify  

Cons: 

• All product photos and descriptions need to be individually copied and pasted. 
• Limitations regarding audience segmentation and their use of Tags 
• Domain verification is an added service 
• Pop-ups are not easily customizable. 

Pricing: 

14 day free trial with pricing plans starting from $16/month, based on the number of subscriptions. 

5. Smartrmail: 

Another great Shopify email marketing app, SmartrMail, is good for eCommerce store owners who want to enter the marketing segment but do not have the time or resources. With their seamless integration and expert support team, email marketing is supposed to become more manageable and less time-consuming. 

Key Features of SmartrMail:

• Quick Newsletters: 

Shopify Store owners can now compose email newsletters faster with in-app product lookup options. 

• Automated Products: 

Shopify store owners can now send their automated customer emails with product details any number of times. It can be based on weekly, bi-weekly, or multiple days of the week. 

• Automated Workflows: 

Users can now automate welcome emails, cross-selling recommendations, win-back campaigns, and other advanced workflows. 

• Smarter Segmentation: 

Shopify store owners can now stop using excel sheets to maintain customer segmentation. With SmartrMail’s Shopify integrated segmentation, keeping customer details and demographics has never been easier. 

• Advanced Abandoned Cart Emails: 

Users can now upgrade their Shopify abandoned cart recovery emails and send a series of emails to customers with cross-selling recommendations. 

• Easy Email Pop-ups: 

With advanced Email capture pop-ups, store owners can grow their email lists faster and keep track easier. 

• Customizable Email Templates: 

SmartrMail has an easy template creator that can help you match your emails with your brand theme. You also have the HTML editor and WYSIWYG drag & drop options available. 

Pros: 

• Easy creation of newsletters and mailers with a smooth integration process
• Smart segmentation functionality that is based on detailed parameters
• Easy product image selection in both automated and manual process 
• Emails generated are more based on customer interests than segmentation
• Reports generated provide detailed insights as to how good or bad specific campaigns have been

Cons: 

• No automated invoice for a monthly plan for app users 
• The automated campaigns can be complex to set up
• Product Review options are still not a part of their features

Pricing: 

15 day free trial period. 

Free Plan – 1000 subscribers, 5000 emails per month, automated workflow, advanced segmentation

Standard Plan – $19/month – Sending limit 12x the email list size, automated workflows, advanced segmentation

Unlimited Plan – $99/month – Unlimited Sending, priority support, Facebook audience sync, A/B testing

6. SendInBlue:

SendInBlue is another good Shopify email marketing app that is not only powerful but also free. With the app, store owners can set up effective emails and SMS campaigns and track detailed metrics. 

SendInBlue also has easy design tools to help create emails that are beautiful and connect to the brand. Store owners can build their emails or choose from several templates. 

Key Features of SendInBlue:

• Automatic Syncing with Shopify: 

Shopify store owners can easily synchronize their Shopify customer lists with their SendInBlueaccount. The app also provides easy search, segmentation, and targeting options for contact lists. 

• Best Transactional Emails: 

The SendInBlue app allows store owners to create professional SMTP to send as confirmation emails. Users can also optimize deliverability, ensuring that the emails reach customer inboxes. 

• Powerful Email Builder: 

SendInBlue has a robust email designer that helps create emails that are not only beautiful but also effective. Users can create emails from already made templates or make their own. When creating emails, you can also use them for campaigns or transactional emails. The app also provides users with an added advantage of personalizing subject lines to add customer names and details. 

•  Send transactional text messages directly: 

With SendInBlue, Shopify store owners can reach customers through multiple channels. Other than emails, the app also provides easy text message options. Users can set up transactional text messages and get notified in real-time. 

• Real-time Data and statistics: 

Users can access real-time, and email metrics to see just when the emails were sent, opened, clicked, not opened, etc. 

Pros: 

• Easy set-up and configuration process
• Easy ability to send transactional emails 
• Good A/B Testing options 
• Fantastic review of sent/open/tracked emails 
• No coding knowledge required to send newsletters and subscriptions
• Easy list migration and verification with a high level of scrutiny for Shopify store owners. Active and inactive customers list automatically updated. 

Cons:  

• Interface loading speed is slower than other apps. 
• Not much information available for all functionality
• Unless their dedicated IP is purchased most emails will go to the spam folder
• When designing emails, images upload options are present but are basic
• Limited templates available 

Pricing: 

Free 

7. Constant Contact: 

Constant Contact is a heavy-weight in Shopify email marketing apps. You can set-up, segment, and automate email campaigns easily with the app. Most importantly, the app updates email lists to the account every 15 minutes. 

Key Features of Constant Contact: 

Pros: 

• Wide range of email and pop-up templates which are mobile-friendly
• Drag and drop editor 
• Number of coaching and educational resource 
• High email deliverability 
• Seamless integration 

Cons: 

• The app list management is not very well integrated. Selecting a contact on the home page does not mean it will link directly to the list. 
• Reporting features lack customizability 
• The folder structure is lacking as sorting through past emails are difficult

Pricing: 

Free trial period for 60 days. 

Paid plan starting from $20/month based on several contacts added. 

8. AWeber: 

As a Shopify store owner, you might want a simple email marketing app to help you get started. Although the app has fewer features than other tools, it means that users can easily integrate the app. 

Key Features of AWeber:

• Multi-Integration options for Shopify: 

AWeber provides free Shopify Integration that lets users add customer information to email lists by assigning tags. It also allows users to sync Shopify data with the app to create a more detailed segment. 

• Simple drag-and-drop email sequence builder: 

AWeber’s campaign builder is great for beginners. You can drag & drop emails or add wait blocks for the workflow process. Users can also create or edit emails and set timers as to when each email/message can be sent. 

• Shopify email stats with sales figures in one place: 

The app has a brand new yet simple reporting dashboard for store owners. Here you can check email statistics like opens, clicks, and also see the sales figures side by side.

Pros: 

• Easy interface for beginners 
• Large range of templates 
• Support options are extensive 
• In-built landing page builder 
• Facilitates AMP for email 
• Good import functionality 
• Easy time-based auto-response options

Cons: 

• Cannot include or exclude multiple segments at once 
• Does not provide A/B Testing
• Cannot use Facebook pixels/Google Analytics cookies 
• Some templates are outdated 
• The RSS for email templates are not very good and cannot be edited 

Pricing: 

Plans starting from $19/month and are based on subscriber lists. 

Subscribers	Price
Hosting and Emailing up to 500 subscribers	$19/month
501-2500 Subscribers	$29/month
2501-5000 Subscribers	$49/month
5001-10000 Subscribers	$69/month
10001-25000 Subscribers	$149/month

If you have more than 25000+ customers, then you will need to contact AWeber customer care to get a quotation. 

9. GetResponse: 

GetResponse is a great way to create advanced email workflows, especially for email marketers. While integrations are not very clear, there is no actual documentation that outlines the installation process. But the email marketing platform is a great way to connect with customers. 

Key Features of GetResponse:

• Two-way integrations to choose from: 

GetResponse is very similar to AWeber, with its free simplified integration that gives basic functionality not only to add customers to email lists. 

• Hundreds of email templates: 

While there is no search function, templates are divided into different categories e.g., restaurants, e-commerce, retail, etc. There are about 20 templates for eCommerce emails, and most of them have detailed and robust designs. 

• Powerful visual workflow builder: 

The workflow builder is clean, user-friendly, and lets users use eCommerce triggers like purchases and abandoned carts to send specific emails. 

• Automation workflow templates: 

The templates provided by the app offer basic email workflow to start with and helps guide users to advance email marketing. Many of these templates are built to help eCommerce, like abandoned cart series and post-purchase templates. 

Pros: 

• Excellent marketing automation
• GetResponse’s webinar functionality is a genuine USP 
• Comprehensive reporting features 
• Transparent deliverability rates, publishing figures on its website, and providing deliverability statistics for e-newsletters
• Custom DKIM is provided

Cons: 

• The current email creator is not very updated 
• The drag-and-drop interface for landing pages needs improvement 
• The pop-up/slide-in capture are not mobile-friendly

Pricing: 

30-day free trial

Starting Plan $5/month 

10. Machine Labs:

Machine Labs is another excellent tool for Shopify’s email marketing. With ready-to-go automation, integrated product catalog, smart segmentation, and easy email builder, the app is easy to use. 

The app helps not only create campaigns but also helps save hours by automating not only the workflow process but also the sales process as well. 

Key Features of MachineLabs: 

• Seamless Start-up: 

With a 1 click integration to import all historical data, live product feed, input sales targets, user-friendly interface, and built-in AI, the app has everything needed for an eCommerce store to run flawlessly.

• Smart Customer Segmentation: 

The app offers smart customer segmentation that refines not only mailing lists but also group customers based on order values and frequencies. 

• Pre-made Automations: 

With pre-made automation and custom flows with virtually any trigger. And users can also send super-targeted emails to make customers feel like they matter. 

• Real-time Analytics: 

MachineLabs offers real-time analytics to help understand campaign converts and audience behaviors. 

Pros: 

• One-click data integration to track all marketing campaigns 
• Automated data analysis and email segmentation 
• Easy to use drag and drop email editor with a library of over 500,000 images, GIFs, image filters 
• Easy integration of both online and offline marketing campaigns 
• Mobile-friendly email templates 
• Pre-schedule options to automatically send mails to the right list 

Cons: 

• The app provides real email marketing options but is challenging to navigate
• While smart segmentation is available, there are not many segments to categorize customers into 

Pricing: 

30 Day Free Trial up to 1000 contacts. 

Conclusion: 

When choosing any tool for your Shopify store, you need to make sure you know what your objectives are. But when selecting a tool for your Shopify email marketing strategy, you need to not only align with your business plan but also what your customers want. 

So, the easiest way is to chalk out what you want and then check a list of apps to see if they offer everything you are looking for. 

While going through the app may be a tedious task, reading reviews, and what other marketers think are great ways to weigh the pros and cons of each app. If you are still unsure, it is an excellent plan to try and use the free trials to find the app which suits you best.