8 Best Email Marketing Software for Ecommerce Growth in 2022
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Not all email marketing software is created equal.
While they’re all handy for sending out email marketing campaigns, different platforms lend themselves to different use cases. While some email service providers work best for entrepreneurs and small businesses, others are better suited for governmental and nonprofit organizations.
If you’ve got a retail or ecommerce business and are looking for the perfect email marketing platform for your needs, then this is the article for you.
Get unlimited email sends & subscribers with Flodesk
We’ll never increase pricing because your email list is growing
In a rush? Here’s a breakdown of our top 8 ecommerce email marketing software
The top 8 email marketing software for ecommerce brands
Without further ado, let’s dive right into the best eight email marketing services for the ecommerce world.
1. Flodesk
Flodesk is one of the fastest-growing email marketing platforms out there. It’s especially popular with design-obsessed entrepreneurs and small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs).
Key features
- An intuitive drag-and-drop email builder that’s easy for anyone to use
- A huge selection of the most beautiful email, landing page, sign-up form, and pop-up templates you’ll find on the market. They’re designed for everything from welcoming new subscribers to launching products to driving sales
- The ability to create stunning graphics within the platform, so no need for third-party apps like Canva
- Ready-to-use workflows like sales sequences and lead magnet deliveries
- Powerful audience segmentation features that let you send out highly-personalized content
- A landing page, sign-up form, and pop-up builder
- A direct integration with Shopify
- Informative reports and analytics
- Fantastic learning resources like blog posts and Flodesk University
- A helpful Flodesk Insiders Facebook community to help with your marketing strategy
- A great ConvetKit alternative
Pricing
Flodesk has a 30-day free trial so new users can try out our platform without any strings attached.
If you decide to choose Flodesk as your ecommerce email marketing software, our pricing system is very straightforward. Rather than offering complicated tiers of paid plans or charging more as your subscriber list grows, we’ve got one affordable flat rate plan.
For $38/month, you get access to our full range of features no matter how many emails you want to send or contacts you have.
You’ll also get one month for free if you sign up for an annual plan.
Best for
Anyone who’s passionate about excellent design and wants an affordable flat rate plan that doesn’t increase no matter how big your subscriber list gets.
It also doesn’t hurt that Flodesk is one of the fastest-growing email marketing platforms in the industry and it’s ideal for ecommerce businesses.
2. Klaviyo
Klaviyo is a popular marketing automation software that was founded in 2012. They’re especially well-known for their SMS marketing capabilities.
Key features
- Both email marketing and SMS marketing capabilities that can be used together or separately
- Ecommerce automations like welcome series campaigns, abandoned cart emails, browse abandonment messages, and post-purchase emails
- Powerful segmentation based on customer engagement, behavior, and other properties
- A large library of templates for everything from automations to emails to SMS
- A sign-up form builder
- Over 200 integrations with some popular ecommerce platforms like Shopify, Salesforce, and WooCommerce
- Real-time subscriber profiles and predictive customer data
- Custom reporting, revenue attribution reporting, and peer benchmarks
Pricing
Klaviyo has free plans for both email marketing and SMS. Here’s the breakdown of what they include:
- Free email marketing plan: Up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends
- Free SMS plan: Up to 50 SMS contacts and 150 SMS or 50 MMS sends
Businesses only pay for what they need with Klaviyo’s pricing scheme. Your plan’s cost depends on whether you’re planning to send SMS or emails (or both) and how many you want. For instance:
- 500 email contacts per month costs $20
- 500 SMS contacts per month costs $20
- 1000 email contacts per month costs $30
- 1000 SMS contacts per month costs $40
Best for
Klaviyo is a great all-around choice for ecommerce platforms because their features are intentionally designed with the industry in mind.
Their platform is also ideal if you’re interested in SMS or MMS marketing.
3. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most well-established names in the email marketing world. Their platform’s combination of user-friendliness and powerful features has helped them stand the test of time.
Key features
- A free website builder you can use to create your own ecommerce store
- The ability to set up a custom domain for emails, websites, and landing pages
- Complex automations based on website engagement and purchase activity
- Advanced audience segmentation
- Great personalization features
- Easy to connect an existing ecommerce store if you already have one
- Over 250 handy integrations like Stripe, Squarespace Commerce, Quickbooks, and Zendesk
- Sign-up form and landing page builders
- Digital advertising features so you can set up social media ads on Facebook and Instagram
- Built-in reporting and analytics
Pricing
If you want to use Mailchimp for their email marketing features, they’ve got a free plan available. It includes a maximum of 500 subscribers and 2500 monthly email sends.
Mailchimp also has three tiers of paid plans:
- Essentials plan: $11/month
- Standard plan: $17/month
- Premium plan: $299/month
Mailchimp also has a different range of plans if you want to use their platform to build your website and carry out commerce activities:
- Core plan: $10/month
- Plus plan: $29/month
Best for
Those who want to create a commerce website or online store quickly and easily. If you already have an ecommerce store set up, Mailchimp is still a great email marketing solution with features that are specifically designed for ecommerce platforms.
Compare the top Mailchimp alternatives for an in-depth look at which email marketing software is best for your business
Get unlimited email sends & subscribers with Flodesk
We’ll never increase pricing because your email list is growing
4. Sendinblue
Sendinblue is a fantastic all-around digital marketing platform that has features for email marketing, SMS marketing, live chat, customer relationship management (CRM), and everything in between.
Key features
- The ability to send both transactional and email marketing messages
- Ecommerce-specific marketing automations like abandoned cart emails
- Can be used as a customer relationship management (CRM) tool
- Conversion tracking tools
- Advanced personalization features
- Powerful contact segmentation and retargeting
- SMS marketing features
- Sign-up form and landing page builders
- A/B testing
- Facebook ads
- Custom-built integrations with top ecommerce platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and PrestaShop
Pricing
Sendinblue has a popular free plan that includes unlimited contacts and up to 300 email sends per day. After that, they have three paid plans to choose from:
- Lite plan: €19 per month (based on 20,000 monthly email sends)
- Premium plan: €49 per month (based on 20,000 monthly email sends)
- Enterprise plan: By request
Their pricing scheme is unique because it’s based on email sends rather than subscriber count.
Best for
People who want a top ecommerce email marketing tool and a CRM within one platform.
Sendinblue is also a great option for those who want a paid plan based on email sends rather than subscriber count.
5. Omnisend
Omnisend is a relatively new email service provider (ESP), having been founded in 2014. Their aim is to provide ecommerce businesses with a digital marketing platform that’s straightforward, affordable, and powerful all at once.
Key features
- Omnichannel marketing capabilities with email, SMS, web push notifications, and Facebook/Google retargeting sync
- Shoppable email templates built specifically with ecommerce brands in mind
- Dynamic discount codes like cart percentage discounts, fixed amount discounts, and free shipping to add to marketing emails
- Pre-built workflows and marketing automations like cart recovery and customer reactivation
- In-depth customer data and analytics relating to customer lifecycle stages, message engagement, and on-site behavior
- Conversion tools like pop-ups, sign-up forms, landing pages, and wheels-of-fortune
- A sales dashboard
- More than 80 integrations including Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce
Pricing
Omnisend has a free plan that includes up to 250 contacts, 500 monthly email sends, and 60 SMS messages. After that, they’ve got two paid plans to choose from:
- Email plan: $16/month (based on 500 contacts)
- Email & SMS plan: $59/month (based on 500 contacts)
Best for
Any ecommerce business looking for a budget-friendly email marketing provider. Their customer support also has a great reputation.
6. Constant Contact
Constant Contact dates all the way back to 1995. Its founder set out to create a simple online marketing platform for small businesses, but their software has since evolved into a comprehensive email marketing service with unique features.
Key features
- Advanced email automation features
- Customer list management features like tags, segmentation, and custom fields
- A sign-up form builder and a landing page builder
- The ability to create and run Facebook, Instagram, and Google Ads
- Social posting functionalities
- Niche event management features like polls, surveys, and RSVPs
- A large library of professionally-designed email templates
- The possibility of ordering custom-branded email templates
- Thorough reports and analytics on engagement, campaign comparison, click-tracking, and mobile open rates
- A long list of built-in integrations like Eventbrite, BigCommerce, and Quickbooks
Pricing
Constant Contact doesn’t have a free plan, but they have a free trial you can use to get to know their software. Once you’re ready to upgrade to a paid plan, they’ve got two digital marketing options:
- Core plan: $9.99/month (based on 500 contacts)
- Plus plan: $45/month (based on 500 contacts)
Both Constant Contact’s paid plans go up in price as your subscriber count increases.
Constant Contact also offers a separate all-in-one CRM platform, which starts at $399/month.
Psst: Looking for Constant Contact alternatives? Check out our write-up!
Best for
Anyone who wants an intuitive email marketing service with a great mobile app for on-the-go work.
They’re also a great option if you plan events and are interested in their event management features, which not many email marketing tools have.
7. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign defines themselves as a customer experience automation platform. They specialize in customer engagement and omnichannel marketing with tools for email marketing, SMS, chat, social media, and more.
Key features
- Omnichannel digital marketing experiences with email, SMS, chat, social media, and more
- Lots of different email types like broadcast, triggered, targeted, autorespond, and scheduled
- Over 600 pre-built automations, some of which are designed for ecommerce and retail
- Automatic lead segmentation
- A built-in sales automation CRM
- Contact management and lead scoring
- A great mobile app for both iOS and Android
- Responsive email templates for everything from customer service to reviews feedback to abandoned carts
- Integrates with popular ecommerce web apps like Shopify, WooCommerce, and Magento
Pricing
ActiveCampaign doesn’t have a free plan, but they’ve got a free trial available. Otherwise, they’ve got four different paid plans to choose from:
- Lite plan: $15/month (based on 500 contacts)
- Plus plan: $70/month (based on 1000 contacts)
- Professional plan: $187/month (based on 2500 contacts)
- Enterprise plan: By request
Like most of the email service providers mentioned in this article, the cost of ActiveCampaign’s paid plans varies based on how many subscribers you have.
Best for
Anyone who’s interested in the best of the best when it comes to omnichannel marketing. ActiveCampaign truly does it all with email, SMS, messaging, chat, social media, web personalization, and WhatsApp.
8. Aweber
Aweber is another email marketing platform that’s been around for a long time—since 1998, in fact. Today, they’re an all-in-one marketing solution that’s popular for tons of different use cases, including ecommerce and retail.
Key features
- The possibility to automate email content creation
- Ecommerce-specific email templates you can use as they come or customize according to your business’s needs
- Aweber Ecommerce lets users sell products and services within emails and on landing pages
- Advanced segmentation capabilities based on data like tags, clicks, purchases, visits, and locations
- Automated workflows and targeted emails like abandoned cart and post-purchase upsell
- The ability to set up a custom domain
- Some of the best deliverability rates in the industry
- A wide range of popular ecommerce integrations like PayPal, Shopify, WooCommerce, and Etsy
- Lots of learning resources like a knowledge base, video tutorials, and a podcast
Pricing
Aweber has a free plan that you can use as long as you like. It includes up to 500 subscribers and lots of features that work well for ecommerce if you’re just starting out.
When you want to use Aweber’s full range of features, you’ll have to upgrade and start paying. They’ve only got one paid plan that varies in price depending on how many contacts you have, but it starts at $19.99/month for 500 subscribers.
Here’s how their pricing changes as your subscriber list grows:
- $29.99/month for up to 2500 subscribers
- $49.99/month for up to 5000 subscribers
- $69.99/month for up to 10,000 subscribers
Best for
Those who want to set up shoppable emails and landing pages with their email marketing service. Aweber is also a great platform for those who want high-level customer service as they’ve got some of the best in the industry.
The benefits of email marketing for ecommerce businesses
Without a doubt, email is one of the most important parts of any ecommerce store’s marketing strategy. Here are just a few of the biggest reasons why:
- It has high return-on-investment (ROI): In the digital marketing world, emails give businesses a lot of bang for their buck. On average, they bring in $38 for every $1 spent.
- It builds ownership of your contact list: If you rely too much on building your customer base on social media, you’re at risk of losing them all with little or no notice. Remember the great Instagram and Facebook outage of 2021? Don’t be the victim of those kinds of social media pitfalls and build a subscriber list you own with an email marketing software instead.
- It allows for a high degree of personalization and targeting: Advanced personalization was one of the biggest email marketing trends for 2022. The best email marketing services have features that make sure subscribers receive relevant content designed just for them.
- It provides useful metrics: Email marketing campaigns produce metrics that are a lot more specific and actionable than other strategies like social media posts or paid ads. For instance, open rates, click-through rates, spam rates, conversion rates, and bounce rates all uncover whether emails are resonating with your audience or missing the mark.
- It contributes to brand experience: Your email marketing content should be consistent with your business’s overall branding. That way, your newsletters will be instantly recognizable and help build a richer experience for your customers.
The above benefits can also help you choose the best ecommerce email marketing platform for your needs.
Be sure to choose a platform like Flodesk that doesn’t get too expensive as your subscriber list grows, has great personalization features, includes detailed analytics and reporting, and lets you create on-brand digital content.
Get unlimited email sends & subscribers with Flodesk
We’ll never increase pricing because your email list is growing
Choosing the best ecommerce email marketing software for you
Email marketing strategies are the bread and butter of ecommerce businesses. They help them communicate with their customers, promote products, offer promotions, build loyalty, drive sales, and gather feedback, just to name a few.
Because ecommerce marketing is so important, it can be tricky for brands to find the right email service provider for their needs. They need to make sure they find a powerful yet user-friendly software that delivers the features they want and helps them achieve their goals.
While there are lots of great ecommerce email marketing software out there, we’d recommend giving Flodesk a try. We:
- Specialize in helping businesses send out stunning, on-trend emails that would stand out in any inbox
- Have a flat rate plan that doesn’t increase in price no matter how big your contact list gets
- Offer a 30-day free trial
- Provide ecommerce marketing tools like ready-to-use templates, landing pages, pop-up forms, and automations
Sign up for a free trial and check out our platform for yourself, no strings attached.
FAQs about email marketing software for ecommerce
How do I choose an email marketing software for ecommerce?
There are tons of email marketing software out there, but they’re not all ideal for ecommerce businesses. The best solutions have features that are specifically designed with the ecommerce and retail industry in mind.
Before you begin your search, take note of how many subscribers you have (or plan to have in the future), what your budget is, and what key features you’re looking for. That’ll make it much easier to narrow down your options and choose which free trials to try out.
Now that you’ve got that figured out, check out the following platforms. They’re some of the best ecommerce email marketing tools out there:
- Flodesk
- Klaviyo
- Mailchimp
- Sendinblue
- Omnisend
- ConstantContact
- ActiveCampaign
- Aweber
How can email marketing increase sales?
Email marketing can boost sales for ecommerce businesses in a variety of different ways. Here are three of the biggest ways they do so:
- They communicate information to a large number of people: Emails are one of the best ways to share news and promotions with customers. People often miss announcements on social media or don’t remember to visit ecommerce websites manually, but they always receive emails in their inbox. When you connect with more people, you’ll have lots more opportunities for sales.
- They drive traffic to your website: The advent of buttons, linked photos, and shoppable emails is a beautiful thing. Marketing emails are a great way to drive traffic to your website because you can direct customers to the specific products that you showcase in your emails. This removes customer blockers and streamlines the whole purchase process.
- They showcase your products and services in new, interesting ways: Ecommerce stores have the challenge of bringing their products and services to life online. Viewing traditional ecommerce photos on online stores doesn’t always foster the most inspiring browsing experience for customers. Email campaigns give companies the opportunity to provide context and feature their products from different perspectives.
Which type of email is useful for ecommerce?
There are many different types of ecommerce emails. The best kind to use depends on factors like your email campaign objectives and where your email subscribers are in their customer journey.
Here are some of the most popular kinds of ecommerce emails:
- Welcome emails
- Subscription confirmation emails
- Freebie, discount code, and/or lead magnet delivery emails
- Sale announcement or other promotional emails
- Cart abandonment and cart recovery emails
- Subscriber re-engagement emails
- Product launch emails
- Pre-order emails
- Order confirmation or shipping notification emails
- Feedback request or survey emails
- Educational emails
- Holiday-specific emails
- Thank you emails
