How to Use MailChimp for E-Commerce
Connect your online store to MailChimp to learn more about your customers and increase your return on investment. Our e-commerce features capture detailed purchase data from your customers that you can use to create personalized campaigns and Automation workflows.
In this article, you’ll learn how to use MailChimp to support your online store.
Our suite of e-commerce features was formerly called eCommerce360. All eCommerce360 functionality is still included in MailChimp and is outlined in this article.
Things to Know
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You can use an integration or the API to connect your online store or platform to MailChimp.
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After you connect your store, turn on link tracking in each e-commerce campaign to measure subscriber purchases that come from your campaigns.
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All accounts have access to our free e-commerce features: link tracking and sales reports. Paid and Pro accounts have extra features like Automation, product recommendations, and more.
Connect Your Store
To use our powerful e-commerce features, you'll first need to connect your online store or platform to your MailChimp account, which you can do with an integration.
Use an E-Commerce Integration
An integration is an add-on that connects an outside site or service to MailChimp. Our Integrations Directory lists options for stores and e-commerce platforms that support our features. Most integrations are free, and you generally don’t need any programming knowledge or advanced computer skills to set them up.
Here are a few common examples of e-commerce platforms that integrate with MailChimp. Click the links to see your options and integration setup instructions, or browse our Integrations Directory.
After you connect your e-commerce integration to MailChimp, turn on e-commerce link tracking on the Setup step of the Campaign Builder to measure customer purchases.
Create a Custom Integration with the API
If none of the options in the Integrations Directory work for you, you can create a custom integration with MailChimp’s API. This is an advanced feature and is recommended for users familiar with custom coding. Contact your developer, or hire a MailChimp Expert if you need assistance.
Take a look at MailChimp’s API documentation for more information.
Turn on E-Commerce Link Tracking
After you connect your store to MailChimp, turn on e-commerce link tracking for a campaign or Automation workflow to track purchases.
To turn on e-commerce link tracking for a campaign, follow these steps.
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Navigate to the Setup step of the Campaign Builder.
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In the Tracking section, check the E-commerce link tracking box.
When tracking is turned on, we’ll automatically add two tags to each URL in your campaign that tell us when subscribers make a purchase from a certain campaign.
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mc_cid is the internal MailChimp-generated ID for the specific campaign.
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mc_eid is the unique, MailChimp-generated ID for each subscriber.
After your campaign is sent, we’ll track these link tags and add them as a site cookie that passes purchase information back to MailChimp. The results appear in your MailChimp reports and in subscriber profiles.
Some e-commerce platforms will push historic purchase information into subscriber profiles that didn’t result from one of your campaigns. In this case, the e-commerce data on your subscriber profile pages will differ from the data in your campaign reports.
How To Use E-Commerce Features in MailChimp
After your MailChimp account is connected to your store, there’s a lot you can accomplish with the data you collect.
Use E-Commerce Segments
Use segments to view and target subscribers who made specific purchases at your store, like everyone who ordered a certain product, or spent more than $100.
Segment a List By Purchase Activity
All the Segmenting Options: Signup Source
How to View Subscriber Purchase Data
Use A/B or Multivariate Testing on Your Campaigns
Use A/B testing to find out what subscribers prefer, and enhance the performance of your campaigns. Test different offers like coupons or free shipping deals, or multiple content variations and calls-to-action. For example, you may want to test to see if subscribers prefer a link to your store's landing page, or a specific product page.
With MailChimp Pro, you can use a Multivariate Campaign to test up to eight variations of a single campaign.
Send Targeted Campaigns or Automations
Stay in touch, let customers know when a product is back in stock, or use Automation to send your customers a series of campaigns to encourage them to make another purchase. You can even add data-driven Product Recommendations to your campaign to promote relevant products to certain subscribers.
Create a Campaign with Campaign Builder
Create an Abandoned Cart Workflow
View Results
After you send your tracked e-commerce campaign, you can view subscriber purchase data, like items purchased and total money spent, in subscriber profiles and in your campaign reports.
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Integrations may vary in the e-commerce features they support.
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Certain new e-commerce features, like Product Recommendations and Customer Re-Engagement Workflows, are only available for users who have API 3.0 e-commerce data in their account. This includes data from MailChimp for Shopify, MailChimp for Magento, MailChimp for BigCommerce, and custom API 3.0 integrations.
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Stay tuned to our blog for more information on new integrations that support our powerful e-commerce features.