What is Klaviyo?
Quick Answer: Klaviyo is an email and SMS marketing automation platform focused on ecommerce. Founded in 2012 by Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: KVYO) in September 2023. It is known for deep Shopify integration and data-driven customer segmentation.
What Is Klaviyo?
Klaviyo is a marketing automation platform specializing in email and SMS for ecommerce businesses. Founded in 2012 by Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen in Boston, Massachusetts, the company IPO'd on the NYSE (ticker: KVYO) in September 2023. As of April 2026, Klaviyo reports over 143,000 customers generating more than $800 million in annual recurring revenue.
Core Capabilities
- Email marketing: Drag-and-drop email builder, A/B testing, dynamic content blocks
- SMS and MMS: Two-way text messaging campaigns and automations
- Flows: Automated multi-step sequences triggered by customer behavior (browse, cart, purchase)
- Segmentation: Real-time segments based on purchase history, engagement, predicted lifetime value, and custom properties
- Reviews: Product review collection and display (acquired from Okendo partnership capabilities)
Ecommerce Focus
Klaviyo differentiates through deep ecommerce platform integrations:
- Shopify: Native integration as Shopify's recommended email marketing partner (Shopify invested in Klaviyo's IPO)
- BigCommerce, WooCommerce, Magento: Pre-built connectors for product catalogs, order data, and customer profiles
- Revenue attribution: Track revenue directly tied to email and SMS campaigns
- Predictive analytics: Expected next order date, churn risk, and customer lifetime value predictions
Pricing (April 2026)
- Free: Up to 250 contacts, 500 email sends/month, 150 SMS credits
- Email: From $20/month (251-500 contacts) — scales with list size
- Email + SMS: From $35/month — includes SMS credits that scale with plan
Pricing increases with contact count: 10,000 contacts costs approximately $150/month; 50,000 contacts approximately $720/month.
Competitive Position
Klaviyo competes with Mailchimp (broader marketing), Brevo (budget alternative), Omnisend (ecommerce email/SMS), and Drip (ecommerce CRM). Its advantage is depth of ecommerce data integration and predictive analytics. Its limitation is pricing, which becomes expensive as contact lists grow beyond 10,000.
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Email AutomationRelated Rankings
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Dive Deeper
How to Automate Customer Onboarding Emails with Klaviyo
A tutorial for building a 5-email customer onboarding sequence in Klaviyo. Covers trigger configuration, email content strategy for each stage (welcome, quick win, feature discovery, social proof, feedback), conditional splits, A/B testing, and performance monitoring with data from a 12,000-subscriber DTC deployment.
Drip vs Klaviyo: Complete Comparison (2026)
A comparison of Drip and Klaviyo for ecommerce email marketing in 2026. Drip offers simpler automation at 35% lower cost for small lists (2,500 contacts). Klaviyo provides predictive analytics, SMS, and deeper Shopify integration with prices converging at 10,000+ contacts. Includes revenue attribution data from migrations.
Email Marketing Automation Strategy Guide 2026
Email marketing automation uses triggered workflows, segmentation, and A/B testing to deliver targeted messages. This guide covers workflow types, deliverability factors, CAN-SPAM/GDPR/CASL compliance, and platform recommendations with ROI data from a 50,000-subscriber deployment.