What a Klaviyo agency actually does
Klaviyo is a tool; the agency is the team that makes it earn. For a Shopify store that means one team covering:
- Strategy and segmentation. Who gets what, how often, based on what they did in the store.
- Flows. Welcome, abandoned checkout, browse abandonment, post-purchase, winback, plus the ones your category needs (back in stock, replenishment, VIP). In our portfolio flows deliver 69% of email revenue, so this is where the first months go.
- Campaigns. Weekly sends with design and copy that look like your brand, sent to the people who will click, not to everyone.
- Popups and list growth. The offer, the timing, the mobile version. The benchmark submit rate is 4.7% of unique viewers; a good offer doubles it.
- Deliverability. SPF, DKIM, DMARC, warm-up, list hygiene, inbox placement. Invisible until it breaks.
- Reporting. Revenue dollars, not open rates. Monthly, with what was done and what is next.
If an agency offers a slice of that (“we do campaigns, you handle flows”), you are buying a freelancer with an invoice template.
What results are normal
Across the 19 Shopify stores in our 2026 benchmark, email brings a median 22% of store revenue, with a range from 3% to 57%. A store with a working account and a list above 5,000 should sit between 20% and 35%. Below 15%, something is missing, usually flows. Above 40% happens in categories with a loyal, repeat-buying audience, like the fabric store at 57%.
The lift a competent agency produces on a neglected account is large in the first 60 to 120 days (that is where our +25% guarantee comes from) and then compounds slowly. Nobody doubles a well-run account in a quarter; be suspicious of anyone who promises it.
What it costs
Prices vary by agency model. Ours are public on the pricing page:
| Package | Price | For |
|---|---|---|
| Setup (one-time) | $1,500 | A working foundation: popups, deliverability, template, segments, the 5 core flows |
| Lite | $600 a month | Lists up to 5,000. Upkeep only: 2 campaigns a month, flows monitored, no guarantee |
| Pro | $1,000 a month | Lists of 5,000 to 30,000. Full program, +25% guarantee |
| Elite | $1,700 a month | Lists over 30,000. Everything in Pro at scale, AI product visuals, +30% guarantee |
No minimum term. Performance-based engagements exist for stores that prefer to pay from results.
Agencies with offices and account managers charge $3,000 to $10,000 a month for the same scope. The difference is overhead, not output.
The 7 questions to ask before you hire
- What share of revenue does email bring in stores like mine? They should answer with a number and a range, not “it depends”. Ours is above.
- Which flows will you build in the first 30 days, and which in the first 90? If the answer is “welcome and cart”, that is a template, not a program.
- Who writes the copy and who designs? A named person for each. If the founder does everything, the quality drops with the fifth client.
- What does the monthly report show? Ask for a sample. It should show attributed revenue, share of store revenue, flow against campaign split, and what was done.
- How do you send campaigns: to everyone, or to a segment? Everyone is the wrong answer. Engaged 90-day segments with recent buyers suppressed is the right one.
- What happens when you miss? We work at half price until the target is met. Most agencies have no answer.
- Who owns the account? You. Your Klaviyo, your templates, your flows. Walk away any month with everything intact.
When you do not need an agency
- Your list is under 2,000 and you send once a month: use Klaviyo’s templates and come back when the list grows.
- You have an in-house marketer with Klaviyo experience and a designer: you need a strategist for a day a month, not a retainer.
- Your store is not on Shopify or Klaviyo and you do not plan to move: we are not the right fit, and most specialists are not either.
Next step
The free 30-minute audit reads your account against the benchmark and tells you, on the call, whether the +25% guarantee is realistic for your store. If it is not, we say so and recommend something cheaper.
The next benchmark, before it is public
Every quarter we re-pull the numbers from the accounts we run and send the summary first to the list, with the teardowns in between. No weekly newsletter, no discounts, unsubscribe in one click.