What is ecommerce marketing? A guide to growing your online store

Ecommerce marketing is the end-to-end practice of attracting, converting, and retaining customers for your online store using connected, data-driven marketing channels.

Unlike general marketing, which includes paid ads, social media, and other channels you don’t fully control, ecommerce marketing focuses on building one-to-one relationships with customers.

With more brands vying for attention online, and operational costs continuing to rise, the cost of reaching new customers has skyrocketed. Research from UpCounting shows that in 2023–2025, customer acquisition costs surged 40% for ecommerce brands on average, and many brands are now losing money on every new customer they acquire.

Instead of constantly paying for customer attention, strategic ecommerce marketing helps you build lasting relationships with customers through brand channels like email, text messaging, and mobile push—turning first-time buyers into repeat customers who cost less to retain and spend more over time.

What are ecommerce marketing best practices?

The best ecommerce brands deeply understand their customers, and stay on top of the latest marketing and customer experience trends. And today, customers want curated shopping experiences.

When the Amazons of the world have smart AI assistants to help shoppers find what they need, and create custom campaigns for every promotion and audience, other brands need to follow suit, or customers will go elsewhere.

To get ahead of the curve and over-deliver on customer expectations, follow these best practices:

• Direct, omnichannel communication and relationship building: Today, ecommerce brands need channels that they control, like email, text messaging, WhatsApp, and mobile push. That way, you have final say over when and how your audience receives messages, without having to navigate algorithm changes or platform policies.
• Personalized experiences across the customer journey: Since ecommerce brands can now collect data in real time from every customer interaction in a B2C CRM, you can personalize experiences in the moment throughout the shopping journey, like offering individualized recommendations or complementary items based on previous orders.
• Integrated marketing and customer service: Marketing and customer service are intertwined for ecommerce brands. A customer might reach out via WhatsApp to ask about an order, right after receiving a promotional message about a new product that just dropped. Marketing and customer service teams that are aligned and working from the same data are better positioned to create the kind of seamless experiences that build relationships with customers over time.
• AI-powered marketing and customer experiences: Ecommerce brands need to move fast and be scrappy to keep up. AI marketing agents empower you to create and launch on-brand campaigns faster, and AI customer agents are 24/7 shopping assistants that serve as a dedicated concierge for every customer.

How do you build an ecommerce marketing strategy?

Without a clear understanding of who you want to reach, where they’re active, and what they expect, you’ll burn through your marketing budget and drive up your operating costs. This isn’t sustainable in an age where 73% of B2C marketers say their CACs are rising, according to Klaviyo’s 2025 State of B2C Marketing report.

And today, customers expect personalized experiences: Klaviyo’s 2025 Future of Consumer Marketing report reveals 74% of consumers expect more personalized experiences from brands.

Here’s how to efficiently target your ideal customers by focusing on the right channels and exceeding customer expectations.

1. Grow your marketing lists

People who opt in to your marketing—email subscribers, text message and WhatsApp contacts, and mobile app users—are some of your most valuable assets. These channels are efficient revenue-drivers and help build better relationships with your audiences. According to Litmus, for example, 65% of companies see $10–$50 in ROI for every $1 they spend on email marketing.

Here are a few ways to grow your marketing lists:

• Sign-up forms: Collect email addresses and phone numbers by using web forms with welcome incentives for first-time visitors, embedded forms on high-traffic pages like blog posts, or exit-intent forms that catch people before they leave.
• List-building email campaigns: Send emails to your existing subscribers encouraging them to sign up for text messaging, WhatsApp, or mobile push. Consider segmenting these sends to VIPs or loyalty program members who are most likely to appreciate the extra communication.
• Consent at check-out: Add text message opt-in language to your check-out flow, at the same time they’re already inputting their contact information to complete their order.
• Social media giveaways: Promote giveaways or contests on social media, directing your followers to a landing page where they sign up for marketing in order to enter. You can also use SMS subscribe links in your social posts, or even allow people to sign up for texts through Instagram stories.

Offer real value in exchange for contact information, and always get explicit consent to send messages to customers. Be clear about what you’ll send and how often, and make it easy for people to update their preferences or opt out.

2. Segment and personalize marketing using customer data

Ecommerce shoppers have different intentions and profiles. Some are new shoppers browsing for bargains, and others are long-time brand loyalists who don’t mind paying full price. Treating them the same means missed opportunities to connect in ways that resonate.

To personalize effectively, you need a system that automatically collects and unifies your customer data from every touchpoint. An ecommerce CRM brings the following data points together in a single customer profile:

• Past purchases and browsing history
• Email and text message engagement
• Website behavior (browsing, abandoned carts)
• Customer preferences and profile information
• Customer service interactions

Once you have customer data flowing into your CRM, dynamic segmentation automatically puts audiences into groups based on rules you set. For example, someone who just made their first purchase automatically moves into your “new customer” segment, while a VIP who hasn’t bought in 60 days automatically gets added to your win-back segment.

Here are a few types of segments that are particularly useful for ecommerce brands:

• Customers who browse multiple times without making a purchase: Message window shoppers with product or category-specific offers, educational guides, or customer testimonials to get them to take the next step and make a purchase.
• Customers who live in a certain location: Send messages to customers who live in cold-weather locations with season-specific promotions for winter.
• Customers who shop with you infrequently: Encourage these shoppers to repurchase by sending them special offers like a “welcome back” discount or free shipping.
• Customers who move from one lifecycle stage to another: When a customer turns from an active shopper with you to a loyal one, reward them with messages that offer early access to sales or introduce them to your VIP program.

3. Craft and send automated flows

While campaigns go out to a targeted audience, automated flows trigger when a subscriber does something specific, like signing up for your marketing, visiting a product page without buying anything, or completing a purchase. Flows are based on what’s important to the customer and their real-time actions, making them effective at driving engagement and revenue.

Rather than treating each flow as a standalone tactic, lifecycle automations organize them around the stages your customers naturally move through, from first hearing about your brand to becoming a loyal buyer.

Klaviyo’s latest marketing benchmarks reveal that automated flows can generate significant engagement and revenue for brands:

• Apparel and accessories brands average a 4.31% click rate, a 1.38% placed order rate, and $1.75 in revenue per recipient (RPR).
• Health and beauty brands average a 3.96% click rate, a 1.39% placed order rate, and $1.18 in RPR.
• Jewelry brands average a 4.39% click rate, a 1.16% placed order rate, and $1.71 in RPR.

Here are just a few of the most important marketing automations for ecommerce:

• Welcome flows: The first message a customer receives after subscribing sets the tone for your relationship. Instead of just saying “Thanks for subscribing,” send a few messages that tell your brand story or give them a discount on their first order.
• Browse abandonment flows: When someone looks at products but doesn’t add anything to their cart, send a gentle reminder, along with customers’ reviews about the products they were looking at. Or, give them a heads-up if stock is running low.
• Abandoned cart flows:Remind customers of what they left behind with follow-ups across channels. Encourage them to complete their purchase by highlighting limited-time discounts or free shipping.
• Post-purchase flows: Thank customers ASAP, then nurture the relationship with helpful tips on how to use their purchase. Or, highlight other items you think will pair well with it.
• Review request flows: Once a customer has had enough time to use a product, ask for a review while the experience is still fresh. These reviews become powerful social proof, helping other shoppers feel more confident when buying.
• Loyalty and reward flows: Automatically celebrate loyal customers by notifying them when they unlock new rewards, reach new tiers, or gain early access to exclusive sales or launches.
• Win-back flows: Re-engage customers who haven’t shopped in a while and remind them of products they liked before, or why they enjoyed your brand to begin with.

4. Meet ecommerce customers wherever they are with omnichannel messaging

Most customers don’t just visit your site once and buy. They interact with your brand in lots of different places before they’re ready to purchase. A typical ecommerce journey could look something like this:

1. Someone discovers your brand through an Instagram ad.
2. They visit your site and opt in to email and text messages to get a discount.
3. After browsing a few products, they leave your site without buying.
4. An hour later, they get a browse abandonment email with messaging that proves the value of the products they were considering—think social proof (reviews) or urgency (limited-time sale) .
5. They add those items to their cart but get distracted.
6. A text reminder with free expedited shipping brings them back to complete the purchase.
7. Shipping updates keep them informed across email and text messages.
8. After delivery, a post-purchase email asks for a review.

All of these interactions should feel like a natural next step, which is why it’s so important for your messaging to be consistent. Our Future of Consumer Marketing report shows that when shopping across different channels, the biggest frustration consumers have is inconsistent pricing and promotions, followed by different product availability in different places.

When your ecommerce marketing is coordinated across channels like these, you can lead the customer to complete their purchase without overwhelming them with repetitive or irrelevant messages:

• Email: Email marketing is ideal for sending detailed and personalized content at scale. Its setup allows for branding, multiple visuals, and long-form storytelling.
• SMS and RCS: Text message marketing works best for last-minute deals and urgent updates. Send time-sensitive CTAs, like flash sales, VIP offers/loyalty rewards, and real-time updates on shipping and delivery.
• WhatsApp: Deliver branded, interactive messages—like product carousels, back-in-stock alerts, and limited-time offers—inside tap-to-reply conversations.
• Mobile push: Reach high-intent shoppers who have downloaded your app and opted in. Mobile push delivers short, personalized alerts like time-sensitive CTAs, relevant notifications, and more.

For a deep dive on integrating multiple channels in your omnichannel marketing strategy, check out our guide to coordinating cross-channel campaigns and flows.

5. Use AI to work more efficiently

According to research from KPMG, over half (51%) of organizations are exploring the use of AI agents, with another 37% piloting AI initiatives. But only 12% have deployed AI agents at scale, creating a massive opportunity for forward-thinking ecommerce brands.

Whether you’re a startup or an established ecommerce business, AI is making enterprise-level personalization possible for teams of all sizes. It’s becoming an engine that powers the next generation of shopping experiences, shifting ecommerce from a transactional process to a dynamic, personalized journey that builds loyalty and drives sustainable growth.

Here are just a few ways AI can improve your ecommerce marketing:

• AI marketing agents can analyze your website and launch your first forms, set your must-have flows live, and create fully designed, on-brand campaigns, across channels, in minutes—no prompting required. They can also help you brainstorm ideas based on the latest industry, competitive, and seasonal trends, and automatically refine messaging for specific audiences.
• AI customer agents do more than just handle routine customer service inquiries, like order status updates and return initiation. They can also up-sell and cross-sell, answering questions that would otherwise prevent people from buying and recommending products based on a customer’s history with your brand.
• Predictive analytics can help you understand what individual customers might want and when they’ll want it, then send messages when and where individual people are most likely to engage with them.

6. Measure marketing performance using analytics and omnichannel attribution

Any number of factors can make a customer hit “buy” on your website. Here are a few ways to figure out which marketing efforts actually influence customers’ decisions to buy when they’re constantly jumping between different channels:

• Build a data-first culture. Make decisions based on evidence. Look for patterns in customer behavior, test your ideas before acting, and weave analytics into your daily work.
• Track metrics regularly. Marketing reporting shows you what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve. Keep an eye on metrics important to ecommerce, like click rate, conversion rate, revenue per recipient (RPR), and deliverability.
• Practice continuous testing. Start with subject lines, send times, offer types, and audience segments. Test one piece at a time and give each test enough time to collect meaningful results.
• Monitor cross-channel performance with omnichannel, linear multi-touch attribution. Understand how customers interact with each touchpoint. This shows which channels influence purchases and helps you optimize your marketing mix based on impact.
• Measure seasonal impact. Track how seasonality affects metrics like order rate, RPR, and repeat purchase rate. Pay special attention during Black Friday Cyber Monday.
• Benchmark performance. Look at what your competitors are doing. What types of messages are they sending? On what channels? During which times? Spot gaps in your own strategy, and see where you can improve.

Power your ecommerce marketing with unified data and AI-driven intelligence

Modern ecommerce marketing success comes down to knowing your customers and reaching them at the moment that matters, with a message that resonates. But doing that manually across email, text messaging, mobile push, and more gets complicated fast.

Starting your ecommerce marketing strategy shouldn’t be difficult. With Klaviyo B2C CRM, you can send personalized and relevant cross-channel messages that strengthen customer relationships and drive conversions. Klaviyo makes life easier for ecommerce marketers by bringing data, marketing, customer service, and analytics under one roof, with:

• Klaviyo Email: Stand out in inboxes with emails personalized to each customer, at scale.
• Klaviyo SMS: Reach, convert, and retain customers worldwide with personalized, timely conversations.
• Automated flows: Send targeted messages that respond to customer data and real-time behavior.
• Predictive analytics: Identify your best customers and biggest churn risks, and forecast what’s next.
• Segmentation: Use segments to personalize sign-up forms and marketing campaigns, tailor on-site experiences, and more.
• K:AI agents: With agentic AI for both marketing and customer service, your data can automatically create on-brand, launch-ready campaigns, resolve customer issues, and sell 24/7.