How to power your Shopify automations without Mailchimp

It’s no secret - automated emails are key in selling more stuff, with conversion increasing an average of 77% for ecommerce companies that adopt them. Since Shopify recently removed their Mailchimp integration, we’ve been working with brands looking for an alternative to make sure their email journeys stay up and running. This post gives a high-level overview of the important things to look for in an email provider to power your Shopify automations. (Full disclosure: you can create the following email journeys in Hive!)

Abandoned Cart

With 70% of all online shopping carts abandoned every day, the abandoned cart email journey is at the top of our list.

Features to look for:

1. Trigger emails off abandoned cart events. An obvious one - this lets you send emails right after a customer abandons their cart.
2. Exclude customers who make a purchase after abandoning. Ensure that you don’t email customers who ended up making a purchase at any point in your email journey.
3. Set custom rules. You may want to send a higher discount to customers with a larger cart size, or send different follow ups to new customers vs. repeat buyers.
4. Set custom delay period. This helps you customize your journey based on your customer’s buying cycle - send emails right when you know they’re most likely to make a purchase.
5. Add follow up emails. If a customer still hasn’t purchased, sending follow up emails 3 and 7 days later when they may be ready to buy can have a huge impact on conversion.
6. Merge in Shopify discount codes. It’s an effective strategy to include a larger incentive for purchasing in subsequent emails in your abandoned cart email journey.
7. Revenue reporting. You’ll want to see how much revenue is generated from each email in your automation to tweak the steps that aren’t working and repeat the ones that are.
8. Abandoned cart filter. See an overview of how many customers have abandoned carts to get insight into what you can do to decrease cart abandonment.

Browse Abandonment

Second to the abandoned cart email journey, browse abandonment email journeys keep customers engaged after they leave your site. Done right, this automation serves as a friendly reminder to keep checking out your store.

Features to look for:

1. Trigger emails off browse abandonment events. This lets you send emails after a customer abandons their browsing session.
2. Exclude customers who make a purchase after browsing. Ensure that you don’t email customers who ended up making a purchase at any point in your email journey.
3. Set custom rules. You may want send different follow ups to new customers vs. repeat buyers.
4. Add follow up emails based on email engagement. Keep sending to customers who are opening your emails and remove ones that aren’t from your journey.
5. Merge in Shopify discount codes. You might want to include a discount in one of the later steps of your browse abandonment email journey to encourage customers who are still on the fence after opening your first email.
6. Revenue reporting. Reporting is especially key for browse abandonment automations - you’ll want to make sure what you’re sending is coming off as a helpful reminder vs. a little creepy.

New Customer Thank You

One of the best ways to stand out in the crowded world of ecommerce and build long-term customer loyalty is sending thank you emails to new customers.

Features to look for:

1. Trigger emails off first purchase. This lets you send emails after a customer has made their first purchase with you.
2. Set custom delay period. Depending on your customer buying cycle, you may want to send a new customer thank you right after the purchase is made or after the customer has received their item.
3. Set custom rules. You may want send a different thank you depending on purchase size.
4. Merge in Shopify discount codes. A great way to say thank you is with a discount code!
5. Revenue reporting. Essential in seeing if your new customer thank you is effective and being sent at the right time.

Finding an alternative for Mailchimp’s Shopify automations that has the right amount of flexibility can be a pretty big undertaking! We’re working with ecommerce brands to bring their Mailchimp automations to Hive, ensuring they have the right rules in place to maximize revenue. If you’d like a demo of Hive to see if it’s right for your business, feel free to get in touch: hello@hive.co.