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Mailchimp is a powerful email tool, but it cannot create your customer list for you. On Shopolo the customer record builds itself from every order, booking and gift card sale, and the marketable list grows whenever someone opts in at checkout or signs up for loyalty — then email campaigns on the Plus addon send to the opted-in part of it from the same dashboard.
Mailchimp figures from its own pricing page. On Shopolo, core has no monthly fee; email campaigns are the Plus addon with a monthly send cap. Subject to change.
The biggest challenge with Mailchimp for a local business is getting contacts in. You have to import CSVs, set up pop-ups, or integrate with your POS. With Shopolo, every gift card buyer, loyalty member and customer who places an order lands in your customer list with their history. Consent to email them is a separate, express step: the opt-in box at checkout, loyalty sign-up, or you ticking it on the record yourself.
Mailchimp charges based on the number of contacts in your list: free to 250 contacts, then priced by contact count, with larger lists quoted on request rather than listed. On Shopolo the Plus addon costs the same whatever the size of your list; what is limited is sending, capped at 5,000 emails a month on Plus and 15,000 on Premium. For a local list of a few thousand that is the cheaper shape, and it stops being so if you send high volume.
Mailchimp is not email-only — it has appointment scheduling and, in the US and UK, Stores. What it does not have is gift cards or a loyalty program, and its price climbs with your contact count. On Shopolo those three are free core, and email campaigns and loyalty are the Plus addon — so the comparison is a single addon against a contact-metered subscription plus whatever else you were paying for the rest.
Mailchimp is the right choice when email is your primary need and you require advanced multi-step automation — drip sequences, A/B testing, complex segmentation across tens of thousands of contacts. If you're running a digital-first brand with a large, sophisticated email program, Mailchimp's depth is valuable. For a local restaurant, café or salon emailing a few hundred to a few thousand customers with promotions and gift card campaigns, Shopolo is the simpler shape — one Plus addon rather than a subscription that grows with your contact count.
It depends on the list and the volume. Mailchimp is free up to 250 contacts, then priced by contact count — $13/month at 500 contacts up to $350+/month at 50,000. On Shopolo, email campaigns are the Plus addon whose price does not move with your contact count; sending is capped instead, at 5,000 emails a month on Plus and 15,000 on Premium. For a local list of a few thousand that is the cheaper shape; it stops being so at high send volume.
Mailchimp cannot create your list — contacts arrive by CSV import, pop-ups or a POS integration. On Shopolo, every gift card buyer, loyalty member and ordering customer lands in your customer list automatically with their history. Consent to email them is a separate, express step: the opt-in box at checkout or at loyalty sign-up.
No, deliberately — Shopolo places no tracking pixels, so opens and clicks are not recorded. Mailchimp includes open and click tracking, along with multi-step automations and A/B testing that Shopolo does not have. If you need that depth, Mailchimp is the stronger email tool.
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