MailChimp: Integrating with MailChimp

AB Commerce is automatically integrated with MailChimp.  This means that when users opt-in to receive emails on your website (e.g. during the Checkout or when they click JOIN to become a member of your website), they will automatically appear in your MailChimp account under a list called ABC_WebsiteSubscribers within 48 hours.  You can then send emails to this list.  And if users unsubscribe themselves, their status will automatically change to Unsubscribed within 48 hours.

Setting up the Integration between your website and MailChimp

To set up your email integration, take the following steps:

1. Go to https://mailchimp.com/ to view the features of Mail Chimp and if you are happy with their pricing and features, create an account with them.
2. Log into the account and click on the Account Section and select the Profile option below under your login name in the bottom corner of the screen.
3. Then click Extras and click API Keys.
4. Under API Keys, click Create a Key which will create a new record in the table and then click into the LABEL textbox on this record and enter the words ab Commerce.
5. Then copy the API KEY generated and email this into the Help Desk and they will set up the integration from your website to Mail Chimp.
6. Create a subscriber list called ABC_WebsiteSubscribers

Ensuring that your Email Campaigns are tracked in Google Analytics

It is important that Google Analytics show you what traffic to your website came from emails, which emails generated the most traffic to your website, and which emails generated the most revenue to your website.  Please follow this article to set this up within Mail Chimp:

https://mailchimp.com/help/integrate-google-analytics-with-mailchimp/

MAIL CHIMP CONNECTED STORE:

We have an optional upgrade to change to real-time integration with Mail Chimp which includes all the following changes.  To turn this on, email the Help Desk.

• All AB Commerce clients will see OPT INS and OPT OUTS in Mail Chimp immediately as they happen on the website.  If there are any issues with the real-time integration, the batch job that runs nightly will bring the customer's details up to date as a backup.
• You now have an Integrated Store in Mail Chimp called ABC_WebsiteStore
  • You now have an Integrated Catalogue in Mail Chimp
    • NOTE: When integrating your AB Commerce catalogue with Mail Chimp, it uploads up to 2,500 products per day from AB Commerce into Mail Chimp - so if you have a large catalogue, it may take a few days to finish syncing the 2 catalogues.
  • You now have Integrated Orders in Mail Chimp - all orders for opted in customers are coming in for each client in real-time as the orders are made (and all historical orders are refreshed during the nightly batch job). If there are any issues with the real-time integration, the batch job that runs nightly will bring the customer's orders up to date as a backup.
    • NOTE that all products in the catalogue and customer orders use the parent product codes and never use version/variant product codes - as we feel it is more accurate for analytics to record all versions as the same product.  And also, when adding a product to an email, it is best to add the parent product with a link through to that product detail page.
    • This also means that the price you see beside a product may be the FROM price if there are multiple versions for that product.  Also, note that the prices are only updated once a day during the night.

• You now have Integrated Carts in Mail Chimp - all baskets for opted in customers are coming in for each client in real-time as they enter the ENTER DELIVERY ADDRESS page in the checkout (the page after they have entered their email address).  You can also elect to have all carts sent even if the user has not opted in (contact the Help Desk to turn this feature on).

Sending out an Email

To send an email to your customers who have opted in, just follow the steps outlined by MailChimp for sending an email & ensure you select ABC_WebsiteSubscribers

Before sending out an email, ensure that the following are in place:

1. If this is the first time sending out an email, you will see that there is a new list called ABC_WebsiteSubscribers - go into the settings for this list and ensure you have entered everything you want including your company name, address, and the default from name, from email, subject and language.
2. Send yourself a test email first and ensure that:
   
   1. The from email is correct and tested 
   2. Ensure the unsubscribe link goes to the UNSUBSCRIBE page on your website and NOT the mail chimp unsubscribe page. eg yourwebsite.com/unsubscribe

Ensuring your Email does not go into SPAM folders

The following article explains how to set up Mail Chimp to prevent your emails going into your customer's spam filters.  This improves the chances of your emails being delivered to your subscribers. 

https://mailchimp.com/help/set-up-email-domain-authentication/

As part of this you will need to add DNS records.  Help Desk can add domain records to your DNS records (provided you have given us access) .