Shopify Klaviyo Integration: How to Connect, Sync, and Actually Make It Work

Connecting Klaviyo to Shopify takes about two minutes. Getting it to actually drive revenue takes a bit more, here is the full path, from the first sync to the flows that pay for themselves.

Key Takeaways

• The native Klaviyo integration syncs your Shopify customers, orders, products, and storefront activity into Klaviyo, where you can use that data to trigger emails and SMS.
• Setup is a guided connect flow inside Klaviyo, no code for the core sync. The onsite tracking snippet is added automatically when you install the Klaviyo app from the Shopify App Store.
• The integration is only as good as the flows you build on top of it. Abandoned cart, browse abandonment, welcome, and post-purchase flows are where the money is.
• Klaviyo reports that abandoned cart flows earn far more per recipient than a one-off campaign, because they fire on intent. Your numbers will vary, so check your own reporting.
• Common breakage points: duplicate profiles, missing onsite tracking, and back-in-stock or product feed issues. Most are fixable in a few minutes once you know where to look.

What the Shopify Klaviyo integration actually does

Klaviyo is an email and SMS marketing platform. Shopify is your store. The integration is the pipe between them: it pulls your store data into Klaviyo so your marketing can react to what people actually do.

Once connected, Klaviyo continuously syncs:

• Customers and profiles, email, name, location, and subscription status.
• Orders, placed, fulfilled, cancelled, and refunded events, with line items and value.
• Products and catalog, so you can drop real product blocks into emails.
• Onsite activity, active on site, viewed product, started checkout, and added to cart (this needs the onsite tracking snippet, which the Shopify app installs for you).

That last bucket is the one people forget, and it is the one that powers the highest-earning flows. No onsite tracking means no browse abandonment and weaker abandoned cart targeting.

How to connect Klaviyo to Shopify, step by step

You can start the connection from either side, but installing through the Shopify App Store is the cleanest path because it handles the onsite tracking snippet automatically.

1. Install the Klaviyo app from the Shopify App Store. Search for Klaviyo, click install, and approve the permissions. This links the two accounts and adds onsite tracking to your storefront.
2. Confirm the sync in Klaviyo. Open your Klaviyo account, go to the Shopify integration settings, and check that customers and orders are importing. The first historical sync can take a little while depending on store size.
3. Set your consent and subscription settings. Decide whether existing Shopify customers should be imported as subscribed, and make sure your settings match the consent you actually collected. Do not assume consent you do not have.
4. Verify onsite tracking is live. In Klaviyo, check that you are seeing live events like Viewed Product and Started Checkout. If they are empty after a day of traffic, the snippet is not firing.
5. Connect SMS if you use it. SMS is a separate consent and a separate setup, but it lives in the same flows once enabled.

That is the whole core setup. The integration is now feeding Klaviyo. The next part is what you do with it.

What syncs, what does not, and what to watch

The most common mistake is treating the connection as the finish line. The sync is the easy part. The flows are the work.

The flows that make the integration pay

Once data is flowing, build these in roughly this order. Each one uses the Shopify data the integration provides.

• Welcome flow. Triggers when someone subscribes. Introduce the brand, set expectations, and often include a first-order incentive.
• Abandoned cart / checkout flow. Triggers on Started Checkout without a matching order. This is usually the single highest-earning flow because it fires on strong intent. Klaviyo's own benchmarking has shown abandoned cart flows earning many times more per recipient than a standard campaign.
• Browse abandonment flow. Triggers on Viewed Product without an add to cart. Lower intent than a cart, but a large audience.
• Post-purchase flow. Triggers on a placed order. Use it for shipping reassurance, cross-sell, and review requests.
• Win-back flow. Triggers when a customer has not purchased in a set window. Uses order history to find lapsing buyers.

The pattern is the same every time: a Shopify event triggers the flow, and Klaviyo fills the email with catalog data from the sync. That is the integration doing its job.

How Hubi works on your Shopify and Klaviyo marketing

Hubi is an AI marketing coworker for your store that lives in Slack. You brief it once, then message it like a teammate. On the Shopify and Klaviyo side, Hubi audits your existing flows against your catalog and order data, flags the gaps (no browse abandonment, a welcome flow with one email, abandoned cart firing too late), and drafts the copy and product blocks for the flows you are missing.

The part most tools skip: Hubi does more than prepare copy and help you set things up. You can train it to own recurring jobs and run specific channels for you. Tell it to check your Klaviyo flows every week and report what is underperforming, keep your abandoned cart and post-purchase copy fresh, or own a channel end to end so you stop doing it by hand. It learns how you work and keeps doing it.

One thing to be clear about: Hubi is a growth, marketing, and comms coworker, not a replacement for Klaviyo or your email service provider. It does not send your campaigns or hold your subscriber list. Klaviyo does that. Hubi is the teammate that plans the flows, writes the content, and runs the recurring work you hand it, while Klaviyo stays the platform that does the sending.

Choosing your setup: Klaviyo, a lighter tool, or staying manual for now

The integration is free and you can connect it any time, so the real question is not whether to connect, it is what your store actually needs right now.

Pick Klaviyo if you are serious about flows. If you want abandoned cart, browse abandonment, and post-purchase flows driven by real Shopify data, Klaviyo is the strong default and this integration is the cleanest path. It scales with you as your list and revenue grow.

Consider a lighter tool if your needs are basic. If you only want a simple newsletter and the odd promo, Shopify Email or a lower-cost ESP can be enough and cheaper at small list sizes. The tradeoff is weaker flow logic and less granular onsite tracking. You can graduate to Klaviyo later when flows start to matter.

Move off manual email when sending becomes the bottleneck. If you are still firing order updates or promos by hand from Gmail, that is the signal to switch. The moment you are copy-pasting the same email, or you want it to trigger automatically on a cart or a purchase, a real ESP pays for itself fast. Manual sending also has no consent tracking or deliverability tooling, which gets risky as you grow.

Bring in an AI marketing coworker once the integration is live but unmanaged. Connecting Klaviyo is easy. Keeping the flows tuned, the copy fresh, and the gaps closed is the ongoing work most stores let slide. That is where Hubi comes in: train it to audit your flows, draft the missing ones, and own the recurring upkeep so the integration keeps earning instead of going stale.

How to get started

1. Install the Klaviyo app from the Shopify App Store and approve permissions.
2. Confirm customers and orders are syncing in Klaviyo.
3. Verify onsite tracking is firing (Viewed Product, Started Checkout).
4. Build the welcome and abandoned cart flows first, then browse abandonment and post-purchase.
5. Check your own flow reporting after two weeks and iterate on the ones that earn.

FAQ

Is the Shopify Klaviyo integration free?

The integration itself is free. You pay for Klaviyo based on the number of profiles and your SMS usage, and Shopify based on your plan. There is no separate charge to connect them.

Do I need to add any code to my Shopify store?

No, not for the core setup. Installing the Klaviyo app from the Shopify App Store adds the onsite tracking snippet automatically. If you use a heavily customized theme, double-check the snippet is firing.

How long does the first sync take?

It depends on your store size. A small store syncs quickly; a store with years of order history can take a while for the full historical import. New events sync in near real time once connected.

Will it create duplicate customer profiles?

It can, if you separately import lists that overlap with your Shopify customers. Klaviyo matches on email, so keep your imports clean and let the Shopify sync be the source of truth where you can.

Why are my onsite events empty?

Usually the onsite tracking snippet is not firing, often after a theme change or on a custom theme. Confirm the Klaviyo app is installed and check for live Viewed Product and Started Checkout events after a day of traffic.

Which flow should I build first?

The abandoned cart (started checkout) flow. It fires on the strongest intent and typically earns the most per recipient, so it pays back the setup time fastest.

The takeaway

Connecting Klaviyo to Shopify is genuinely a two-minute job, and that is exactly why so many stores stop there and wonder why the integration is not making money. The connection is plumbing. The revenue comes from the flows you build on top of it, welcome, abandoned cart, browse abandonment, post-purchase, each one triggered by a Shopify event and filled with your real catalog data.

Hubi is an AI marketing coworker that lives in Slack and does the work for your store. Start free, no card required. gethubi.ai

Sources

• Klaviyo, Shopify integration documentation - https://help.klaviyo.com
• Klaviyo, flow and benchmark reporting - https://www.klaviyo.com
• Shopify App Store, Klaviyo listing - https://apps.shopify.com