The Lift
Strategies worth betting your budget on.
Latest articles
The Modern Ecommerce Email Stack: Why Two Tools Beat One in 2026
The 2026 ecommerce email stack is two tools, not one. An ESP for sends and deliverability, plus an automation layer for identity, cross-channel orchestration, and the cart, browse, and post-purchase flows the ESP cannot see. This guide explains why the all-in-one model is breaking, what each layer does, and how the split-stack architecture maps to WooCommerce specifically.
Klaviyo Alternatives for WooCommerce in 2026: The Complete Shortlist (and the Option Most Stores Miss)
The 2026 shortlist of Klaviyo alternatives for WooCommerce stores — Omnisend, Brevo, Drip, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, MailerLite, HubSpot, AutomateWoo, FunnelKit, FluentCRM — with real 2026 pricing, WC integration depth, and the third option most stores miss: keep your existing ESP and add an automation layer instead of migrating at all.
WooCommerce Email Marketing 2026: The Complete Stack
The 2026 WooCommerce email marketing playbook for stores on Mailchimp, Klaviyo, HubSpot, or SendGrid. Real benchmarks, real flows, and the automation-layer model that adds Klaviyo-class cart, browse, and winback automation without switching ESPs. 4.17 million WC stores leak 60-80% of recoverable email revenue because their ESP fires the wrong email at the wrong moment.
Browse all articles
Post-Purchase Email: The Flow That Turns One-Time Buyers Into Repeat Customers
70-80% of first-time ecommerce customers never come back. The post-purchase flow changes that.
Welcome Email Best Practices for Ecommerce: First Impressions That Convert
Welcome emails get 50-80% open rates and most stores waste them on a single generic email.
The 7 Essential Ecommerce Email Flows (And How to Build Each One)
Most stores run two email flows. The ones generating 30–50% of revenue from email run all seven. Here's what each flow does, when to build it, and how they connect into one system.
Mailchimp Abandoned Cart Email for WooCommerce: Setup and Plugin Guide (2026)
Most cart recovery guides assume Shopify and Klaviyo. If you are on WooCommerce and Mailchimp, the advice gets thin. Mailchimp can run a three-email flow — but you need the Standard plan, and the setup has traps. Caching plugins silently kill cart tracking. Guest checkout goes untracked unless the JS loads right. The automation sometimes connects to staging instead of production. Full setup, the five things that break it, and when Mailchimp is enough vs. when you have outgrown it.
WooCommerce Abandoned Cart Email: Complete Setup and Plugin Guide for 2026
WooCommerce has no built-in cart recovery and most advice assumes Shopify. The free Cart Abandonment Recovery plugin gets a three-email flow running in 5 minutes. AutomateWoo ($119/yr) adds Klaviyo-level logic inside WordPress. Or skip plugins and connect your ESP. The catch: caching plugins silently break cart tracking, and guest checkout goes untracked by default — 70-80% of shoppers invisible. Full setup for both paths plus the WooCommerce-specific fixes nobody warns you about.
Ecommerce Email Marketing: The Complete Strategy Guide for 2026
Most ecommerce brands generate 10–15% of revenue from email. The ones running all seven lifecycle flows hit 35%+. Here's the complete system — flows, metrics, and the mistakes costing you the most.
Browse Abandonment vs. Cart Abandonment vs. Checkout Abandonment: The Complete Email Recovery Playbook
Most stores run one abandonment flow and miss two-thirds of the funnel. Browse abandonment catches window shoppers who never carted (1-3% conversion, massive volume). Checkout abandonment catches people who entered payment info and bailed (10-15%). Stack all three with suppression and a store doing $15K/month in cart recovery jumps to $33K. The trick is frequency capping so nobody gets 8 emails about the same product. Full playbook for running all three flows without over-emailing.
Abandoned Cart Email Design: Templates, Layout, and CTA Best Practices for 2026
The cart emails that look best often perform worst. Hero banners, lifestyle photos, recommendation grids — beautiful, terrible for conversions. The emails recovering 3x more carts are simple: one large product image, one CTA above the fold, under 150 words. 80% of abandonment is mobile, so single-column and 44px tap targets are not optional. Dark mode breaks 39% of inboxes if you skip testing. CTA button design, mobile templates, and layout by brand type — luxury to DTC to B2B.
How to Set Up Abandoned Cart Emails in Klaviyo + Shopify: The Complete Flow Guide
Klaviyo's default abandoned cart flow ships with one email at whatever timing the platform set. That recovers about half of what it should. The fix: three emails across two flows. Started Checkout for high-intent abandoners (30 min, 24 hrs, 48 hrs) and Added to Cart for browsers. Add conditional splits by cart value and customer type, disable Shopify's native email, and move from the $3.65 average RPR toward the $28.89 top 10%. Step-by-step setup with templates, splits, and A/B tests.
Abandoned Cart Email Discounts: When to Offer, What to Offer, and When to Hold Back
Half the industry says always discount. The other half says never. Both have data, both are partly wrong. Free shipping converts 2x better than percentage off. At 80% margin, 10% off barely hurts. At 20%, it eats half your profit. The framework: no discount in email 1 (most recover at full price), value-adds in email 2, conditional incentive in email 3 only if the math works. Plus the margin calculator, discount alternatives, and how to stop training customers to abandon on purpose.
Why Customers Abandon Carts in 2026 (And How to Fix Every Reason)
Cart abandonment gets treated like one problem. It is not. A customer who left because shipping was $12 needs a different email than one who bounced at mandatory signup. Baymard tracked the reasons across 49 studies — unexpected costs (48%), just browsing (43%), forced accounts (26%), security fears (25%). Each has an on-site fix and an email fix. The stores hitting 10%+ recovery rates diagnose the reason first, then write the email. This covers both fixes for all seven reasons.
Abandoned Cart Email vs. SMS: Which Actually Recovers More Revenue in 2026?
SMS converts at 15-20%. Email converts at 5-10%. Easy call — until you check your SMS list. Most stores can only text 20-40% of abandoners, while email reaches everyone. Email still drives more total recovered revenue for most brands. The real play in 2026 is both: SMS at 15 minutes for speed, email at 1 hour for depth, alternating through 72 hours. Full timing playbook, cost per recovery math, and the TCPA rules that can cost you $1,500 per non-compliant text.