If you’ve been thinking about moving to Klaviyo for your email marketing or you’re setting up your Shopify store’s email marketing for the first time, you’re in the right place. The good news is that connecting Klaviyo to your Shopify store is one of the more straightforward integrations you’ll do as a store owner. The even better news is that once it’s set up correctly, it starts working for you almost immediately.
This guide walks you through every step for setting up the Klaviyo and Shopify integration, from creating your account to launching your first automated flow. Let’s get into it.
Step 1: Create Your Klaviyo Account
Head to Klaviyo.com and sign up for a free account. You’ll be asked for your business name and website URL during signup. Klaviyo’s free plan covers up to 250 contacts and 500 email sends per month, which is plenty of room to get started and test everything before you’re paying for anything.
Once you’re in, take a few minutes to get familiar with the dashboard. The main navigation includes Flows, Campaigns, Lists and Segments, and Analytics. These are the four areas you’ll spend most of your time in, and we’ll touch on all of them before this guide is done.
Step 2: Install the Klaviyo App in Shopify
This is where the magic happens. Open your Shopify admin, go to the App Store, and search for Klaviyo. You’re looking for the official Klaviyo: Email Marketing and SMS app. Install it, and when prompted, log in with the Klaviyo account you just created.
Once connected, Klaviyo will begin syncing your Shopify data automatically. This includes your existing customer list, order history, product catalog, and customer behavior going forward. That sync is what makes Klaviyo so powerful for e-commerce. It’s not just an email tool with a list of names. It now knows what your customers have bought, when they last ordered, how much they’ve spent, and what they’ve been browsing.
Give the sync a few minutes to complete before moving on, especially if you have an established store with a large customer history.
Step 3: Authenticate Your Sending Domain
Before you send a single email, you need to set up domain authentication. This step is non-negotiable if you want your emails to land in inboxes and not spam folders.
In Klaviyo, go to Account Settings and find the Email Sending Domains section. You’ll add your domain and then update your DNS records through your domain provider (GoDaddy, Namecheap, Google Domains, or wherever your domain lives). Klaviyo gives you specific CNAME and TXT records to add. Once those propagate, your domain is authenticated.
This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to 24 hours depending on your domain provider. Do this early so it’s done by the time you’re ready to send.
While you’re in settings, also confirm your From Name and From Email address. Your From Name should be your brand name, and your From Email should match your authenticated domain. Something like hello@yourbrand.com or team@yourbrand.com both work well.
Step 4: Set Up Your Email List and Opt-In Form
Klaviyo automatically creates a default email list called Newsletter when you set up your account. This is where your subscribers will live. You can rename this list to whatever makes sense for your brand, but the important thing is that it’s connected to your opt-in forms and flows.
Next, create your first sign-up form. In Klaviyo, go to Sign-Up Forms and click Create Form. A popup is the most effective format for most stores. Set it to appear after a few seconds on the page or when a visitor is about to leave (exit intent).
Your form should do three things: offer something in return for the email address (a discount, free shipping, or exclusive access), be on-brand visually, and make the ask clear. Keep it simple. A headline, one field, and a button is all you need. Overcomplicated forms convert poorly.
Once your form is live and set to active, new subscribers will start flowing into your list automatically.
Step 5: Set Up Your Welcome Flow
Your Welcome flow is the single most important automation you can have in Klaviyo for your email marketing, and it should be one of the first things you build. This is the sequence of emails a new subscriber receives right after they opt in, and it consistently delivers some of the highest open and conversion rates of any email you’ll send.
In Klaviyo, go to Flows and click Create Flow. Search for the Welcome Series template in the library. Klaviyo provides a solid pre-built version you can customize to fit your brand.
At a minimum, your Welcome Flow should include a first email that delivers on whatever you promised in your opt-in form (the discount code, the freebie, or the warm introduction), a second email a day or two later that tells your brand story or highlights your best-sellers, and a third email a few days after that with a gentle nudge for anyone who hasn’t purchased yet.
Customize the copy and visuals to match your brand voice, then set the flow to Live. It will now trigger automatically for every new subscriber going forward.
Step 6: Set Up Your Abandoned Cart Flow
After your welcome series, the Abandoned Cart flow is your biggest revenue opportunity. Studies consistently show that 70% or more of online shopping carts are abandoned before checkout. A well-timed email sequence can recover a meaningful percentage of those sales on autopilot.
Go back to Flows, click Create Flow, and search for Abandoned Cart. Again, Klaviyo has a template ready for you. The key settings to pay attention to are the trigger (it should fire when someone starts checkout but doesn’t complete it) and the timing of the first email (45 minutes to one hour after abandonment tends to work well).
A strong Abandoned Cart sequence includes three emails: the first is a simple reminder sent within the hour, the second follows up 24 hours later with a little more urgency, and the third goes out around 72 hours later and may include a small incentive if the purchase still hasn’t happened.
Customize each email with your product imagery, a clear link back to the cart, and copy that feels human rather than automated. Then set it to Live.
Step 7: Import Any Existing Contacts
If you’ve been collecting customer emails before Klaviyo, now is the time to bring them in. Klaviyo already pulled in your Shopify customer data during the initial sync, but if you have additional contacts from other sources (a previous email platform, a spreadsheet, a CRM), you’ll want to import those manually.
Go to Lists and Segments, open your Newsletter list, and click Manage List, then Import Contacts. You can upload a CSV file with your existing subscribers. Make sure your list only includes people who have genuinely opted in to hear from you. Importing cold or purchased lists will hurt your deliverability and isn’t worth the short-term list boost.
Step 8: Send Your First Email Campaign
With your integration live, your forms collecting subscribers, and your first two flows running, you’re ready to send your first campaign.
Go to Campaigns, click Create Campaign, and choose Email. Select your list, write your subject line, build your email in the drag-and-drop editor, and schedule it. For your first send, a simple introduction to the brand or a highlight of your best products works perfectly.
You’re officially up and running. From here, the priority is building out the rest of your core flows, growing your list consistently, and sending regular campaigns that give your audience a reason to keep opening.
If you want to make sure everything is set up correctly from the start, or you’re not sure what to prioritize next, we work with Shopify brands on exactly this kind of setup and would love to help.
Continue reading: The 6 Klaviyo flows every e-commerce store needs and Email marketing ROI: What e-commerce brands can realistically expect.