
Klaviyo now handles much of the customer-data work that once justified a standalone platform. For ecommerce teams, Segment should solve a specific data problem - not satisfy a vague fear of missing infrastructure.

Reviewers call Klaviyo expensive far more often than Mailchimp. Ecommerce teams keep paying because the real contest is not software cost - it is what each subscriber is worth.

Mailchimp is the cheaper, friendlier default. Klaviyo makes its higher bill defensible when a store can turn live shopping behavior into timely, profitable messages.