Your ecommerce platform is a data decision before it's a design one
The software your shop runs on. From the outside it looks like a choice of themes. Underneath, it decides where your customer data lives and what your emails can know.
- 034Ecommerce Platform
- Software that allows businesses to create and manage online stores, handling aspects like product listings, payments, and inventory management.
- Common examples
- Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and Magento, whose paid edition is now Adobe Commerce
- What it holds
- Products, prices, stock, the checkout, orders and customer records
- What email needs
- Clean events: viewed product, started checkout, placed order, fulfilled order
- Judge it on
- Checkout, data access and integrations first, themes last
Strip the theme off and the platform is what's left
Take the design away from any online shop and the platform is what remains: the catalogue, the prices, the stock count, the checkout, every order and every customer record. The website is the part people see. The platform is the part that remembers.
So replatforming is never a design project, whatever the pitch deck says. You're moving the shop's memory, and every tool plugged into it has to come too. Your email platform is first in that queue.
Hosted, self-hosted or headless, in plain English
| Type | Examples | What you're signing up for |
|---|---|---|
| Hosted | Shopify, BigCommerce | A monthly fee. They run the servers, the security and the checkout, and you live within their rules |
| Self-hosted | WooCommerce, Magento Open Source | Full control. Hosting, updates and security are your problem, or your developer's |
| Headless | Any of these behind a custom front end | Design freedom and, done well, speed. Plus a developer for every change after launch |
For most direct to consumer shops at seven or eight figures, hosted wins on the dull stuff. The checkout keeps improving without a project of your own, and nobody gets a call about a security patch on a Sunday. Headless earns its keep in fewer shops than its fans suggest.
Every Klaviyo flow starts with an event your platform sends
Abandoned checkout fires on started checkout. Browse abandonment fires on viewed product. Post purchase fires on a placed or fulfilled order. Each of those events comes from the platform, through its Klaviyo integration, and the detail inside them decides how specific your emails can be.
- Does viewed product carry the product, the price and the image?
- Does started checkout arrive with the basket and a link back to it?
- Does placed order list every item, with the variant and the SKU?
- Does marketing consent from the checkout reach Klaviyo, or stay behind?
Changing platform sets a trap. Klaviyo keeps the new platform's events as separate metrics from the old ones, and a live flow's trigger can't be swapped, so flows get cloned and segments rebuilt. Klaviyo's guide to switching platforms walks through it. Do it before launch day, not after.
Related terms
FAQs
Which ecommerce platform works best with Klaviyo?
Klaviyo has built-in integrations for all the big platforms, so most shops can run a proper programme on whatever they've got. We're official Shopify partners, so that's the one we'll vouch for. On anything else, check the events arrive with the detail your flows need before you blame the emails.
Should we change platform to fix our conversion rate?
Rarely. Most conversion problems live on product pages, in delivery costs and in slow apps, and they move house with you. Change platform when the current one blocks something you need: a checkout you can't change, an integration that doesn't exist, or upkeep that costs more than the move.
What breaks in our emails when we replatform?
Three things, usually. Flow triggers and segments still point at the old platform's events. Product and variant IDs change, so back in stock requests and product feeds can lose their match. And links in live flows break unless every old URL is redirected. Place a real test order end to end before you switch the old shop off.
Rather we explained it on your own account?
Bring your Klaviyo account to a growth consultation. We'll walk through what this means for your numbers, in plain English, and what we'd fix first.
Half an hour with Theo, our founder.
We're all about relationships built on trust, mutual respect and a shared vision for success. If that sounds like your vibe, let's make some waves together 🌊
