Does Shopify own Klaviyo? What the partnership means for your store

This is for Shopify founders who keep hearing "Shopify bought Klaviyo" and want to know whether it's true, and whether it changes anything about how they should run email.

Did Shopify buy Klaviyo?

No. Shopify invested in Klaviyo and partnered with it. It didn't acquire it.

Here's the timeline from the public record:

• July 2022: Shopify and Klaviyo entered a seven-year partnership in which Shopify would recommend Klaviyo's email services for its Shopify Plus merchants, according to The Logic. The partnership is made up of three agreements: revenue sharing, a common stock warrant and a stock purchase.
• July 28, 2022: Shopify bought about 3 million Klaviyo shares for about $100 million, or $33.88 each, per The Logic. Modern Retail reported the same $100 million figure.
• September 2023: Klaviyo went public, with shares set to begin trading on the NYSE on September 20, per The Logic. Modern Retail reported then that Shopify Strategic Holdings, the entity Shopify invests through, had an 11.2% stake. The Logic described that 11.2% as Shopify's maximum stake, counting purchases, options and warrants.
• August 2026: Shopify filed Amendment No. 4 to its Schedule 13D on Klaviyo, reporting 20.83% beneficial ownership.

The jump from 11.2% to 20.83% doesn't mean Shopify bought another chunk of the company. Read the next section before you repeat either number.

How much of Klaviyo does Shopify own?

The honest answer: it depends how you count.

The August 2026 filing lists Shopify's 33,405,047 beneficially owned shares as three things:

1. 17,317,491 shares of Series B common stock held directly
2. 344,382 warrants set to vest and become exercisable on October 28, 2026
3. An investment option exercisable for an additional 15,743,174 shares

So almost half of that total is an option Shopify could use, not shares it holds. The 20.83% is also measured against Klaviyo's Series A class, with Shopify's Series B shares, warrants and option counted as if converted. That's how SEC beneficial ownership math works. It's a ceiling.

Two other details from The Logic's reporting on the original deal: Klaviyo gave Shopify warrants to buy up to about 15.7 million shares at a penny each, and the partnership agreement renews automatically one year at a time, with Shopify able to terminate it if Klaviyo is acquired by a competitor.

None of that is control. Shopify is a large shareholder and a partner. Klaviyo runs its own business, reports its own results and sells to brands on other ecommerce platforms too.

Is Klaviyo Shopify's email tool?

No. Shopify has its own email product, and Klaviyo is a separate company whose app you install. What the partnership does give you is a closer fit between the two:

• Klaviyo Starter lives inside the Shopify admin. Per Klaviyo, it's a free, embedded email tool for early-stage stores with under 250 contacts and 0 to 100 orders a month. When you outgrow it, you install the main Klaviyo Shopify app, which creates a full Klaviyo account. I cover the limits in my Klaviyo Starter post.
• Shopify recommends Klaviyo to Plus merchants, per the partnership terms The Logic reported.

If you're deciding between Shopify's own tool and Klaviyo, that's a different question, and I answer it in Klaviyo vs Shopify Email.

What does the partnership mean for my store?

Less than the headlines suggest. My take: care about how well your data flows from Shopify into Klaviyo, and ignore the stock story.

What to care about:

• Your integration. Orders, checkouts, product views and subscribers all come from Shopify. If that sync is broken, your flows run on bad data. My Klaviyo setup for Shopify guide walks through what has to be connected.
• Your flows. The partnership doesn't build your welcome series, abandonment flows or reorder reminders. Those are where the revenue is. Across 4 consumable brands I work with, replenishment flows earn $2.23 per person, about 28x the best campaign. Only 2 of the 4 had one.
• Your plan. Klaviyo prices by active profiles, and it's free up to 250. If you're small, start with the basics in email marketing for small Shopify stores.

What you can ignore:

• Ownership rumors. There's been no acquisition. Klaviyo is a public company, so a deal like that would be announced publicly and you'd have time to react.
• Stake percentages. Whether it's 11% or 21% doesn't change a single email you send this week.

Should I worry about being locked into Shopify and Klaviyo together?

Not much. Klaviyo's own help center lists integrations for BigCommerce, Magento and WooCommerce alongside Shopify, so the pairing isn't exclusive. The bigger lock-in risk, in my view, is long contracts with tools or agencies that hold your data hostage, not the Shopify and Klaviyo pairing. Whatever you build in Klaviyo, the flows, segments and forms, should belong to your brand.

If you're curious what leaving would look like, my Klaviyo migration checklist covers what moves and what doesn't.

FAQ

WRITTEN BY Jack White

Founder of Bardown Digital, a Chicago-based Klaviyo email and retention agency for Shopify brands. He's worked with brands doing $500K to $100M a year, with $100M+ in email-attributed revenue across them.

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