Email marketing for e-commerce (Shopify and MailChimp)
We recently undertook some research about how to set up unique coupon codes in Shopify that could be integrated with a MailChimp autoresponder sequence.
MailChimp does not support this functionality natively (unlike Klaviyo) but Klaviyo is a more sophisticated and expensive email marketing solution. Most of our clients are using MailChimp and don’t want to migrate solely for this deficiency.
One of the most common applications of unique coupon codes is to set up an automated sequence for new e-mail subscribers and want to offer each one a unique, limited-time offer to create a sense of urgency. You can set up bulk discount codes in Shopify, but they don’t natively integrate with MailChimp for Shopify, thus you can’t send automated emails with unique coupon codes.
The most efficient work-around had been to set up a “unique-looking” code and position it with the email subscriber as a time-limited offer, whereas in reality this “unique-looking” code would be the same one being sent to each subscriber and would not have an expiry date. That’s still the easiest way to instill a sense of urgency within the email recipient, and has limited downside.
However, if you wanted to create truly unique coupon codes with individual expiry dates and integrate them with your MailChimp autoresponder “buy-or-die” sequence, you would have been out of luck.
Until now.
Newly released to the Shopify App store, Personal Discount [link: https://apps.shopify.com/personal-discount] fills in this gap nicely. It generates unique coupon codes which can be shared between Shopify and MailChimp. If you want to try it out, a limited capacity version (up to 50 new email subscribers per month) is available. For unlimited capacity, the app is only $5 per month.
We’ve just installed it and are trying it out on a test client (Sept-2018). We’ll update this post with our experiences in using this app.
May 2019 update
You may have heard that MailChimp and Shopify no longer integrate directly. This is due to a dispute over sharing of unsubscribe data. Essentially, MailChimp refused to share unsubscribe data with Shopify, so that Shopify could alert its third-party apps not to send future emails and/or notifications to those customer profiles. As a result, MailChimp’s Shopify app was removed from the Shopify App Store.
While there are workarounds to help synchronize Shopify data with your MailChimp account, it’s a good opportunity for Shopify merchants to re-evaluate the best-in-class email marketing solution for e-commerce sellers.
We recommend Klaviyo, and have recently completed the Klaviyo Masters certification in order to support our clients as they migrate to Klaviyo. Read more about our Klaviyo Consulting services.