5 Email Marketing and Automation Tools for eCommerce

Almost everything changes in online marketing: channels, platforms, strategies... but there is one thing that has always been linked to digital marketing from its beginnings, albeit with logical updates: email marketing.

 

Logically, it has changed and become much more sophisticated, but essentially it remains the same tool that works due to its proximity, privacy, and because it involves a voluntary and proactive action on the part of the user by giving "permission" for the online store to include them in their records.

 

In this article, we will focus on telling you about some of the best alternatives on the market so that you can either start using them or migrate from the platform you are currently on (if you are not completely satisfied).

 

Let's get to it.

There are a multitude of different solutions on the market, which is why we wanted to make this short list, highlighting the main advantages of each of the most popular tools, those whose use is most widespread.

 

Any of the 5 will meet the minimum objectives, but you will see how some have features (or a price) that fit better with your project. In the end, it depends a lot on how sophisticated you want the strategy to be and the volume of your mailing lists.

Although this is not a ranking as such, Mailchimp is the top 1 for many, the best email marketing tool for eCommerce by far compared to its competitors. For me, personally, it is the best due to possibilities for automation, integration, ease of use, the power of its editor, the depth of analysis, and reports...

 

Anyone with minimal computer use experience can set up the tool for basic use within minutes. The design of the emails themselves is basically dragging and dropping blocks of information, so you will not need a designer or a programmer; you can do it yourself by editing its predefined templates.

 

In terms of automation, logically, the use of the tool becomes more complex. Still, it remains accessible. If we compare the effort it takes to learn to use Mailchimp with what we can achieve, it is well worth it.

 

You will see how setting up automatic flows based on customer interaction is more about planning than execution.

 

Obviously, such power, sub-tools, and its position as market leader make this email marketing tool for eCommerce not the cheapest (although it is not the most expensive either).

 

It has a free option, perfect for small businesses and for tinkering, limited to 1,000 monthly sends, and with 500 contacts.

 

From there, depending on the number of contacts you have on your list and the monthly sends, the prices of the different plans vary.

A more than worthy contender for the throne of email marketing tools for eCommerce. So much so that, in many respects, it is on par with Mailchimp.

 

Active Campaign for online stores is a tremendously complete solution.

 

Perhaps the user experience is slightly below other options, but it compensates for this with good integration capacity with other tools and a lot of really interesting options.

 

For example, with Active Campaign, it is pretty straightforward to activate a campaign to recover abandoned carts, cross-sell, send coupons... as well as set up other automations.

 

If you ask me about prices, it is not that affordable. We start at a basic plan with a cost of $29 monthly and go up to $149 for the professional plan with 1000 contacts. As with this type of tool, if the contact list grows the price goes up steadily.

If the first two tools reviewed can be classified as email marketing tools for eCommerce with automation functions, Connectif is a bit the other way around: its starting point is automation.

 

The most notable strong aspects are largely in its omnichannel features. It allows to unify communication in different channels (email, push notification, SMS...) very smoothly.

 

Also very notable is the use of AI for all kinds of automations and personalizations in communication: from the creation of flows or triggers (action triggers), to the content itself.

 

You may be wondering how much this marvel costs, well I am sorry to say that, in this case, there are no pre-set plans.

 

You will have to contact the tool itself and they will make you an offer based on your store and your needs. In any case, calculate a minimum of about $39 per month.

Klaviyo is another tool focused on automation, offering email marketing features for eCommerce.

 

This is great because it allows you to perform much more complex strategic actions. However, keep in mind that it is not an easy tool to use. It requires practice and time to fully exploit its enormous potential.

 

Strictly speaking of email marketing for online stores, we are looking at a more than capable platform in the design of the emails themselves, with very interesting AI-based features such as: email subject generation, A/B Testing, an integrated dynamic product recommender, predictive segmentation, report generation…

 

There is a free version that allows you to test the tool, but it is quite functional for very small projects (500 monthly shipments).

 

If you are only interested in emailing, you can start working with Klaviyo for 45 dollars a month and for 60 dollars if you are also interested in integrating SMS.

We conclude with a pure email marketing tool for eCommerce (although it also allows sending SMS, surveys, and creating landing pages). It is a good platform, somewhat basic compared to the rest of the reviewed software, but ideal for those who want to start quickly and without spending much time getting it up and running.

 

This simplicity is, at the same time, one of its main competitive arguments, as it takes it to the extreme in every aspect. For instance, inspired by the simplicity of Mailchimp's email design, Acumbamail has a drag-and-drop element editor that is very practical.

 

A very good feature of this tool is that it allows to use the free version with the possibility of making up to 2,000 sends each month to 250 subscribers. The basic rate, which is quite interesting already, jumps to 20,000 monthly sends.

 

A totally recommendable and affordable option to start your first email marketing campaigns for your online store.