Shopify and Mailchimp Are No More

It’s never fun when we become the unfortunate collateral of two companies who don’t get along anymore. In case you haven’t heard, Shopify and Mailchimp are at an impasse and have decided to sever their relationship.

I don’t really care who did what or whose fault this is. What I care about is what we can do about it.Fortunately, you do have options but there is one important thing to know first and foremost.

On May 12th, the Mailchimp app in Shopify will no longer function.

Do I need to do anything?

Yes! Unlike some changes, riding it out and hoping they find a resolution, won’t work. If you have any connections set up with Mailchimp and Shopify such as an automatic subscribing when they make a purchase, this will no longer work. You also won’t have any data syncing with Mailchimp to monitor the success of your campaigns.

So what do I do?

You have options.
1. Keep Mailchimp – You can use third party tools to sync your sales and customer data with your Mailchimp account. Zapier comes to mind for one. It’s a nifty tool that creates a “zap” when an event is triggered. It can be a bit confusing at first, but once it’s set up, it’s pretty handy. There’s other third party tools such as apps and services, all of which can be cost effective and not if you aren’t careful.
2. Change email marketing platforms – I’ve found that Mailchimp is often the first tool companies utilize (I do) because it’s a name brand that is fairly simple to use and inexpensive. There are many other options though such as ConvertKit. As with any change, cost should be a factor and you’ll want to migrate your data over to your new platform.
3. Change e-commerce platforms – This one feels a bit extreme but it is an option. Mailchimp aqui-hired LemonStand, a competitor to Shopify. So if you’re more excited to work with Mailchimp than Shopify, this may be an option for you. I personally wouldn’t advise a move from Shopify just for this reason alone because the time and labor invested in a new platform, to me, doesn’t seem to be worth it for Mailchimp.

Don’t delay making your decision. Again, you can’t just sit and wait it out. You must make a decision, whatever that is, by May 12th or your workflows won’t work.