Brevo for Ecommerce: Many Channels, Cheap Large Lists, and a Shopify Question

Brevo offers an online store more channels for less money than almost any rival: email, SMS, WhatsApp, push, abandoned-cart recovery, product recommendations and a loyalty programme on one account. For a WooCommerce store or a store built on its own platform, that is a strong offer. For a Shopify store, one finding comes first: Brevo's Shopify App Store listing currently reads "This app is not currently available on the Shopify App Store." ^[17] This page covers both sides.

The short answer

Brevo suits stores that want several channels in one place, send to a large customer list a few times a month, and are not built on Shopify, or that have confirmed a supported Shopify connection with Brevo. Its email-based pricing makes large, occasionally mailed customer lists cheap: 50,000 emails a month on Standard cost $97 ^[3].

It suits less well a Shopify store whose revenue depends on automated flows, until the integration question is settled, and any store that will import an old customer list without cleaning it first.

## What a store gets

From the pricing page and plan descriptions ^{[2] [5]}:

• Starter: back-in-stock alerts, web push, global data feeds and a conversion metric.
• Standard: marketing automation for unlimited contacts, A/B testing, AI send-time optimisation, advanced reports and web and event tracking.
• Professional: "Drive sales with AI recommendations, back-in-stock alerts, and coupons." ^[2], plus a recently viewed feed, WhatsApp campaigns as an add-on, mobile push and contact scoring.

The pricing page describes the e-commerce solution as a way to "Recover abandoned carts, personalize product recommendations and boost loyalty." ^[2] A loyalty programme is among the platform's capabilities.

Shopify: confirm before you commit

The Shopify App Store listing at Brevo's long-standing address now shows the app as unavailable ^[17]. Search results still display an older rating of 4.9 for it, which no longer describes anything a store can install from the Shopify App Store.

Brevo still names Shopify among its integrations ^[2]. That may mean another connection route is supported. Before choosing Brevo for a Shopify store, ask Brevo in writing which integration is supported today, install it on a development store, and confirm that customers, orders, products and abandoned carts sync.

For comparison, Klaviyo's Shopify app scored 4.7 from more than 3,000 reviews in our Klaviyo measurement. For a Shopify store, that is the benchmark Brevo now has to meet through other means.

## WooCommerce and custom stores

For a WordPress store, Brevo's official WordPress plugin scores 4.1 from 285 ratings ^[16], the best-rated official plugin among the email platforms we have measured. It connects forms and can route WordPress and store emails through Brevo.

For a custom store, Brevo's API, SDKs, SMTP relay and webhooks make it a messaging layer for orders, receipts and campaigns ^[2]. Transactional and marketing emails share the same credits ^[7], so a store can send order confirmations and promotions from one account.

What it costs a store

Brevo charges by emails sent, with a contact cap on the first three tiers ^[5]. For stores, which often keep many customers but email them occasionally, the model is favourable.

Customers	Sending	Tier	Standard monthly
2,000	twice a month	15,000 emails	$49
8,000	weekly	40,000 emails	$89
20,000	twice a month, plus flows	50,000 emails	$97
60,000	monthly	60,000 emails	$104

Prices from the vendor's published catalogue ^[3]. Standard is the usual choice for a store, because it includes automation for unlimited contacts, which abandoned-cart flows need.

## Abandoned carts and product flows

The flows that pay for an email platform in e-commerce are abandoned-cart reminders, post-purchase follow-ups and win-back emails. Standard's automation runs them for unlimited contacts ^[5]; Professional adds AI product recommendations and a recently viewed feed.

A sensible first set:

1. Abandoned cart: an email after an hour and another after a day, with the product shown.
2. Post-purchase: a thank-you and care tips, then a review request.
3. Back in stock: an alert to customers who asked for it, from Starter.
4. Win-back: one email to customers who have not bought in 90 days.

Test each with a real order before relying on it.

SMS and WhatsApp for stores

Many stores want text messages for order updates or flash sales. Brevo sells SMS as credits on every plan and offers WhatsApp campaigns as an add-on on Professional ^[5]. Running email, SMS and WhatsApp from one account and one contact list is one of Brevo's clearest advantages over email-only platforms.

Keep consent separate per channel. A customer who agreed to email has not necessarily agreed to texts.

The Black Friday problem

Sales peaks are where list quality and sending volume collide.

Brevo upgrades the plan automatically when contacts cross a tier's cap on the first three tiers ^[8], and adding emails mid-month is "charged immediately, with a pro-rated charge" ^[7]. A store that adds thousands of sign-ups through a holiday pop-up should expect the bill to follow.

The bigger risk is suspension. Campaigns to new contacts are tested on a random subset, and published triggers include a hard bounce rate above 2%, unsubscribes above 1% and complaints above 0.2% ^[13]. A first campaign to a large list of past customers who never opted in to marketing can cross those lines within hours, in the middle of the most important week of the year. A second suspension cannot be reactivated.

So: clean the list in October, warm it up with smaller sends, and keep holiday sign-ups opted in.

A worked example: a 15,000-customer store in November

A store has 15,000 customers who opted in at checkout and sends weekly.

Normal months. About 65,000 emails a month. The 80,000-email tier on Standard: $119 ^[3].

November. Two extra campaigns a week for three weeks add about 90,000 emails. The store buys a prepaid credit pack for the peak rather than raising the monthly tier; prepaid credits never expire ^[8], though they are lost if the store later downgrades ^[9].

Preparation. In October the store removes customers who have not opened in a year and sends a re-engagement email to the rest. Bounces on the first November send stay under 1%.

Consent for store customers

Stores have two lists: customers, who bought, and subscribers, who agreed to marketing. Only the second should receive campaigns.

Sync customers into Brevo for transactional email and segmentation, but mark marketing consent separately and send campaigns only to those who gave it. That is both a legal requirement in many countries and the best protection against the suspension thresholds ^[13].

Transactional email for stores

Order confirmations, shipping notices and password resets are transactional. Brevo sends them through SMTP relay or the API ^[2], and they use the same email credits as campaigns ^[7]. A custom store or a headless shop can run both from one account.

Most hosted store platforms send their own order emails, so a store on such a platform may not need Brevo for transactional email at all. Where Brevo is used, keep transactional and marketing messages on separate sender addresses, so a customer who unsubscribes from promotions still receives receipts.

On the free plan, transactional email shares the 300-a-day limit with campaigns, and once it is used, "up to 1,000 additional emails are held in a retry queue. Emails beyond this queue are not delivered." ^[6] A store should never run its receipts on a free account.

Segmenting customers

Standard includes web and event tracking, which records what customers do on the site and lets you segment and trigger messages from it ^[5]. Professional adds contact scoring, which the pricing page describes as including RFM and lifetime value measures, and AI segmentation.

For a small store, three segments do most of the work:

• Customers who bought in the last 90 days, for cross-sell.
• Customers who have not bought in 180 days, for win-back.
• Subscribers who never bought, for a first-purchase offer.

Each segment reduces sends compared with emailing everyone, which lowers the bill under email-based pricing and keeps unsubscribes down.

Loyalty and repeat purchase

Brevo includes a loyalty capability, described on its pricing page as a way to "Turn customers into loyal fans with a fully integrated rewards program." ^[2] For a store with repeat buyers, a points or tier programme run from the same contact list as email and SMS avoids a separate loyalty tool.

Check the loyalty features against your platform before relying on them, especially if the store is on Shopify, where the integration path needs confirming first.

Measuring revenue from email

A store chooses an email platform to make money, so measurement matters. Standard includes advanced email reporting, click heatmaps and geography and device reports ^[5], and one conversion metric is included from Starter. Professional adds analytics dashboards.

Track three numbers per campaign: revenue, orders and unsubscribes. A campaign that earns revenue but doubles unsubscribes is spending the list. On Brevo, unsubscribes above 1% on a campaign also bring the account closer to a suspension threshold ^[13].

A pre-launch checklist for a store

1. Confirm the store integration path with Brevo and test it on a development store.
2. Sync only customers who consented to marketing for campaigns; keep the rest for receipts.
3. Choose the email tier by contact count first, then sending volume ^[5].
4. Choose Standard if you need abandoned-cart automation for more than 2,000 contacts.
5. Verify the list and remove addresses that bounced or never engaged.
6. Warm up with the most recent customers before the first full send.
7. Set up abandoned-cart, post-purchase and win-back flows, and test each with a real order.
8. Plan peak-season volume with prepaid credits or a temporary higher tier.

Pop-ups and list growth for stores

Stores grow lists mostly through sign-up offers on the site. Brevo's Professional plan adds pop-ups as a channel, alongside WhatsApp and push ^[2], while forms are available on every plan. Each new subscriber counts toward the tier's contact cap on the first three tiers ^[5], so a generous holiday offer is also a billing decision. Plan the tier for the list you expect after the season, not before it.

## Who it fits

Brevo fits WooCommerce and custom stores, stores that want email, SMS and WhatsApp together, and stores with large customer lists mailed a few times a month, where its email-based pricing is among the cheapest we have measured.

It fits less well a Shopify store until a supported integration is confirmed, and any store that will send to unconsented or long-dormant customers.

Our composite score for Brevo is 3.58, with the highest capability score in our email set and the lowest support score. For stores, capability is the reason to choose it; list hygiene is the price of keeping it.