Attentive vs Klaviyo for Shopify Email and SMS By Rene Siller, Zobi. Compare Attentive vs Klaviyo for Shopify email and SMS. Test how each platform handles subscriber consent, shared profiles, and overlapping welcome messages. ## Quick answer Attentive is worth a demo if its SMS support covers work your team needs help with. Klaviyo is a good starting point when you want both channels on the profiles and flows you already use. If you are weighing a switch on reported SMS sales, check the counting rules first. Attentive documents a 24-hour delivery window for new customers and Klaviyo documents 12 hours for new accounts. Those windows alone can change which orders get counted after a text. Attentive attribution settings and Klaviyo message attribution . See the sources and method for the scope of this comparison. ## Compare the signup and welcome workflow Check | Ask Attentive to show | Ask Klaviyo to show Profile | How a returning visitor resolves to the existing contact. | Where the email and phone fields join on one profile. Consent | The exact SMS opt-in record for that number. | How email and SMS eligibility are stored separately. Next send | Which welcome messages are queued on the quoted setup. | How each flow checks its own channel eligibility. ## Would both reports count the same order? If you are considering moving SMS from Klaviyo to Attentive, settle how you will compare sales before the move. Ask each vendor to show what would happen to an identified subscriber who receives a text at 8 a.m. and places a Shopify order at 2 a.m. the following day. They make no tracked message clicks and use no message-specific code. The order is 18 hours after delivery. The person, message and purchase stay the same for both versions of the exercise. With the new-customer delivery windows each vendor documents, that purchase falls inside Attentive’s 24-hour window and outside Klaviyo’s 12-hour window. The example assumes each account has delivery attribution enabled, the platforms match the shopper to the order and no other eligible touch applies. Existing accounts may have different settings. Verify the actual settings and use an order the demo can match. Otherwise the vendor could be explaining a missing profile or order rather than the difference in the rules. Attentive attribution settings and Klaviyo message attribution . Do the exercise again with the same windows. Record the order ID, the delivery time, the report that counts it and the reason it qualifies. For the actual buying decision, keep a common record of Shopify orders and the rules used to count them through the change. If reported SMS sales rise under a wider window, reconcile the difference before paying for it. A report can credit an order that the shopper would have placed anyway. If the apparent gain disappears under the same rules and your Klaviyo setup already handles the work, there is less reason to move it. Attentive may still make sense if its quoted SMS support solves an operating problem you can describe. A switch based on more sales needs evidence from a comparison that can show which sales the program actually added. Download the buying worksheet ## See whether the SMS signup reaches the original profile Attentive describes recognizing shoppers across devices. Klaviyo describes running email and SMS from a shared profile. Ask each vendor to show how your form handles the same returning shopper. Attentive comparison · Klaviyo comparison Use an email subscriber who has never opted into SMS. Open the SMS form on a second device. Before completing the signup, check that the existing email journey stays in place and no SMS welcome is queued. Then finish the signup and look for the phone number, consent source and timestamp on the original profile. Consent fields to verify On the quoted setup, check that the intended SMS welcome appears after the shopper qualifies. If the phone signup creates a second profile or starts the email welcome again, ask who will fix it and repeat the test before you switch. Download the test worksheet ## Test one overlap before you move Let the two welcome messages come due close together. If both promise an offer, check whether the proposal calls for two sends or one. Ask where a marketer can change that decision and whether a replacement number, form or integration changes the result. ## Quote the same contacts, sends and service Give Attentive and Klaviyo the same counts and channel mix. Separate software, send charges and any service your team would otherwise provide. Match the proposed setup to the one you watched in the demo. ## After signup, who answers the buying question? Once signup and the welcome flow work, check what happens when a new subscriber replies about the item they are thinking of buying. Zobi is built to handle the shopper’s question and use that conversation later, including after a purchase. Evaluate it on the exchange you want covered and keep the welcome offer and reporting rules clear in whichever platform owns them. Keep your current setup if the change you need is a cleaner opt-in, a single welcome offer or more comparable reporting. Apply to join Zobi Free to apply. ## Start with what you want to change about signup Keep Klaviyo on the shortlist if email runs well there and your team wants SMS to use the same customer record. Klaviyo describes segmentation based on its customer profile . Ask the vendor to put the form, profile and welcome flow on screen together. A team that already knows how to maintain those pieces has a good reason to keep them together. Consider Attentive if changing how shoppers enroll by phone is the job and you want help running that part of the program. Attentive's comparison describes shopper recognition, mobile opt-in and onboarding support. Ask which of those are on your proposal and watch the signup with your own form copy. A returning shopper whom the system can recognize still needs to complete the SMS enrollment step you set up. Suppose a skincare store has a working email welcome and a newsletter list it wants to keep. The merchant wants to add a mobile signup for back-in-stock and offer messages. Give both vendors the same signup form and current email flow. If adding a channel forces a rebuild of the working email, make them show what problem that rebuild solves. If both handle your form, the decision may come down to who can run it with the team you have. ## Check the profile before and after SMS enrollment Use test contacts with known starting states. Check email eligibility and SMS eligibility separately in each account. A single profile is helpful only if the person who operates the flow can tell which channel the shopper actually joined. The email subscriber who leaves halfway through. Open the mobile form using a test contact already on the email list. Start the phone step and leave before completing it. The email status and existing welcome should stay as they were. Look for any SMS message queued for that number. If there is one, find out which event the flow treated as enrollment. The returning shopper who finishes on a phone. Repeat with a fresh test contact who is already subscribed to email. Complete the SMS step on a second device. Check which profile holds the phone number, which action changed the SMS status and what messages are now due. If two profiles appear, ask how the proposed setup handles that case without overwriting the original email state. The shopper who already receives texts. Start with an SMS subscriber who has yet to join email. Submit the email step. Find the new email welcome and check that the old SMS welcome is still out of the queue. This exposes a flow that treats any new form submission as permission to restart both channels. Save the form event and the eligibility status each time. If the only demonstration is a new visitor joining both channels in one sitting, you still have no answer for the returning shoppers you want to reach. ## What should the welcome say after the first order? A shopper can buy before the second welcome message is due. If the next email still offers a first-order discount, it can ask someone who just paid to make the same decision again. Tell both vendors which part of the welcome should change after an order and which part, such as product care instructions, you would keep. The same welcome flow needs two different next messages Both profiles join the same first-order welcome flow Profile A places an order The first-order offer should drop out. Check what follow-up, if any, stays queued. Profile B leaves without ordering The offer can stay queued if the shopper is still eligible. Check the actual next action on both profiles. The purchase alone does not tell you which message the platform will send. Attentive’s journey documentation describes a branch based on whether someone has purchased. Klaviyo’s flow guide says profile filters are checked before flow actions and that skipping an action can leave the shopper eligible for a later step. Ask each vendor to show which condition it would use and where the order becomes visible. In a test account, enroll two new shoppers who can receive both channels. Place a test order for one after the first message and before the second. Leave the other without an order. For each shopper, record the order event, the branch or skip reason and the message actually queued. Set the expected outcome before running the test: the buyer receives the promised care content and the other shopper can still receive the first-order offer. If either team can only stop the whole welcome, ask what it would cost to rebuild that sequence. If your current setup can handle the two paths, count that in its favor before switching. Download the purchase test worksheet ## Decide which welcome carries the offer Take the shopper who already received the email welcome. They may still have that message when they join SMS the next day. Decide whether the first text should repeat the same offer, introduce a different one or simply tell them what texts to expect. Then check which flow actually places that text in the queue. Recreate a shopper who joins both channels within the same hour. The store may want an email with the fuller introduction and one text that carries the same code. Another store might want the offer in only one channel to avoid two different codes in front of the same shopper. Pick one rule for the test, then look at the two messages side by side. If the same person can qualify twice, open the source of each welcome and inspect the form or list event that put them there. Check where your team would change the rule later. In a setup where email remains in one account and SMS is operated elsewhere, ask who owns the shared offer and what each person needs to know before a promotion changes. Otherwise both teams can do their own jobs correctly and still send a confusing pair of messages. Repeat with a returning subscriber who redeemed the first offer. If the change depends on seeing that redemption, ask when the second flow receives it. Keep the intended welcome simple until the test shows it can use that information. ## Check who opted out while the lists were moving A migration can pass on Monday's export and still be wrong on the day the new number starts sending. Ask what happens if a test shopper opts out after the first import while the old provider is still active. Show where that change arrives in the new account and whether it gets there before a welcome or campaign could send. Klaviyo's published migration sequence describes importing consent, porting or replacing the number, rebuilding priority flows and applying a final opt-out update before turning off the old sender. Ask Attentive to show its equivalent for the quoted setup. In both cases, get names for the people who own the final export, verify the channel states and decide whether the switch can proceed. Count changes by channel. A person who can still receive email and has stopped SMS needs to come across with that distinction intact. Show their latest state in the sending tool and the first message they would be eligible for. If they are in an SMS queue, stop the pilot and find whether the import, profile match or flow ignored their latest state. Carry the same test over to a different signup surface before signing off. A popup and a checkout checkbox may enter through different paths. A demo on one form does not establish what happens in the other. ## Ask both vendors to price the same signup and switch For a useful quote, separate your current email profiles from your SMS subscribers and record how many people belong to both groups. Add the expected sends for each channel, the numbers you plan to keep, the forms you must rebuild and the welcome paths you want tested. Ask for a normal month and a promotion month so the comparison includes the volume you actually plan to use. Klaviyo's pricing selector uses active profiles and shows the included sends and mobile allowance for the selected plan. Attentive's pricing page lists messages, subscriber count, channels and premium AI tools as inputs. Have each vendor turn those inputs into the proposal you can compare. Itemize any support or setup work that your team would otherwise do. Ask who changes the form and welcome sequence when you swap the offer next month. A useful onboarding package should leave an operator with the access and knowledge to make that change. If the installed tool can fix the signup and keep the current email, ask for that price before approving a move. Choose the proposal that shows the correct channel state and welcome for a returning shopper and a named owner for the migration. If either vendor cannot show where a recent opt-out goes, keep the existing program active while you resolve that step. ## Sources and method The two vendor comparisons describe their own offerings. The signup exercise is a proposed test for the quoted plans. Zobi publishes this guide. ## Publisher disclosure Published by Zobi, which offers shopper conversation software for Shopify stores.