Klaviyo is the default email and SMS platform for most Shopify Plus brands, and it is usually the single biggest owned-channel revenue line on the dashboard. It is also one of the easiest tools to underuse. A Klaviyo account running the default welcome and abandoned cart flows plus a weekly campaign blast looks busy, but it leaves most of the platform's segmentation and predictive data untouched.
What Klaviyo Does
Klaviyo pulls order, browsing, and product data from Shopify in near real time and turns it into segments and automated flows: welcome series, abandoned cart and browse abandonment, post-purchase, replenishment, and winback. Its predictive fields, such as expected next order date, predicted lifetime value, and churn risk, let a marketer target customers by where they are likely headed rather than only by what they have already done.
Klaviyo has also expanded well past email. It now positions itself as a B2C CRM, with marketing, analytics, and customer service products (including a signed-in Customer Hub for order tracking and returns) built on the same customer data. That matters for ownership, because the tool increasingly touches the customer experience team as well as marketing.
Why It Needs a Real Owner
Klaviyo's attributed revenue numbers are generous by design, so a dashboard full of flow revenue does not prove the flows are driving incremental sales. The person who owns Klaviyo should be running holdout tests, managing list health and deliverability, and deciding when to send less, not just building more campaigns. Sender requirements from the major inbox providers have made deliverability a real skill rather than an afterthought.
Who Should Own It
At Plus-tier volume, Klaviyo belongs with a Retention or Lifecycle Marketing Manager. At an earlier-stage brand, a strong eCommerce Manager can own it alongside other channels, but once email and SMS represent a meaningful share of revenue, splitting it out into a dedicated role usually pays for itself. If the brand adopts Klaviyo's service features, the lifecycle owner and the Customer Experience Manager need a clear agreement on who controls which parts of the account.
What to Screen For
- Flows built at volume, with segment logic the candidate can explain, not just templates they launched.
- Deliverability knowledge, including authentication, list hygiene, and sunset policies for unengaged contacts.
- Holdout and incrementality testing, so the candidate can separate real lift from attributed revenue.
- SMS compliance awareness, including consent collection and quiet hours.
- Comfort with predictive fields and a point of view on when they help and when they mislead.
A strong answer describes a holdout group and a comparison against it. A weak answer points to the attributed revenue number in Klaviyo's dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Klaviyo need a dedicated hire?
Not at every stage. An eCommerce Manager can run Klaviyo well at an earlier-stage brand. Once email and SMS drive a meaningful share of revenue on Shopify Plus, a dedicated Retention or Lifecycle Marketing Manager typically produces better segmentation, better deliverability, and clearer measurement than a generalist splitting time across channels.
Who owns Klaviyo when the brand also uses it for customer service?
Marketing usually keeps ownership of the account, data, and lifecycle flows, while the Customer Experience Manager owns the service features. The important part is agreeing on that split in writing, so changes to shared customer data or messaging do not collide.
More Shopify Plus Apps
For how all of these fit together, and which roles to hire at each growth stage, see The Top Shopify Plus Apps for 2026, and the eCommerce Talent You Need to Run Them, or browse the full Shopify Plus apps guide.