Klaviyo was built for the cart. Loyalist was built for the table.
Klaviyo is one of the strongest marketing platforms in ecommerce, with branching flows, predictive analytics and attributed revenue across channels. Loyalist’s difference is a record shaped around a visit: it segments on covers and check average, writes back into Resy, and counts tables booked, not orders placed.
Klaviyo
An ecommerce marketing automation platform.
- 01A meaningful part of your revenue is e-commerce: merchandise, gift cards, meal kits, ticketing or a Shopify storefront.
- 02You want the widest channel set in one place, including mobile push and in-app, and a team that will use the automation depth.
- 03Your marketing calendar is the center of the operation, and you have someone whose job is to run it.
Loyalist
The AI platform that turns guest data into revenue.
- 01You want one profile per guest, built from all your guest data, and personalized campaigns that target covers and check average rather than carts.
- 02You want that depth without a specialist to operate it. No engineer and no warehouse in the middle keeping the profile current.
- 03You want the result to reach a person rather than a flow. The host and the server see what the campaign knows before the guest sits down.
Klaviyo and Loyalist, axis by axis.
Both unify customer data and message across channels. The split is the shape of the data: an order and a basket, or a visit and a check.
| Axis | Klaviyo | Loyalist |
|---|---|---|
| Built around | A customer record built from e-commerce and web events. | A guest profile from POS, reservations, reviews and events, so a segment can be cut by covers rather than carts. |
| Who it is for | Consumer brands across e-commerce, retail, wellness and subscription. | Full-service hospitality groups, from one room to fifty locations. |
| Native integrations | A large marketplace, led by e-commerce and advertising. | The reservation, POS, review and events systems a restaurant already runs. |
| Who you can send to | Any profile in the account, segmented on orders and browsing. | The guestbook, or a slice of it cut by covers, check average or time since a booking. |
| How results are counted | Attributed revenue across channels, with predictive analytics. | Visits and spend, tied to the journey that produced them. |
Where the two overlap, and what usually happens next.
Keep Klaviyo for the store. Loyalist takes the dining room, where the record is a visit rather than an order. They run side by side with nothing syncing between them, which suits the split: the store keeps its flows and the room gets segments cut from covers, check average and time since the last booking.
- Email and SMS flows with branching logic
- Segments from purchase and browsing history
- Flows built around a cart, a basket and a browsing session
- See the tables a campaign booked, not only the clicks it earned
- A record shaped around a visit rather than an order
- Notes and tags written back into the reservation book before service
- Private dining booked by contract, landing on the guest record
- A routed restaurant phone line that texts the caller a booking link
What you get with Loyalist.
- Build on a visit, not a basket. Who they came with, what they drank, which server had them. Klaviyo is built around an order, a basket and a browsing session, which is right for a store.
- Segment the way a room works. Average check, covers, booking cadence and time since the last visit are first-class. In Klaviyo those have to be modelled as custom properties and kept current by somebody.
- Reach the host stand, not a flow. Notes and tags reach Resy, SevenRooms and OpenTable before service. Klaviyo reaches a flow, not a host stand.
- Put banquet revenue on the guest. Tripleseat and Perfect Venue sync onto the guest record. An ecommerce platform has no concept of a contract-booked buyout.
- Measure tables, not orders. Klaviyo counts orders because that is what a store produces. Loyalist counts the tables a campaign booked.
Simple, guided migration
Our onboarding team does it with you, start to finish. You keep Klaviyo running until you decide otherwise, and there is no engineering project on your side.
- 01
Connect your existing software platforms
Your POS, reservation platform, ordering, events and reviews. Nothing to build on your side.
- 02
Let Loyalist clean up your data
Your history loads into the guest profiles you already have, cleaned of duplicates before anything merges.
- 03
You brief the floor
Notes and tags write back to your book, and the first pre-shift report lands before service.
Why operators love Loyalist.
Within two weeks the return on marketing outreach through Loyalist was so undeniably strong that there was no way we weren’t going to enroll the third restaurant.
Elizabeth Sharp Glendale Hospitality That’s been especially valuable for private events, helping us reach the right audiences with the right message.
Ellen Yin High Street Hospitality Group I have a better idea of who my guests are — who my best regulars are, who has not been back in a while, who loves wines, who comes to special events.
Cedric Nicaise The Noortwyck Top restaurant groups use Loyalist daily:
Can we keep Klaviyo and add Loyalist?
Yes, and it makes sense if you have a real online store. Klaviyo is not on our integrations hub today, so the two run side by side rather than syncing. Loyalist builds the guest record from your restaurant systems, so its segments do not depend on what is in your e-commerce list.
Does Loyalist send the email, or just decide who gets it?
Both, and WhatsApp as well, plus a VIP text line your team can answer. Klaviyo reaches further into mobile push and in-app. The difference that matters more is what decides who gets the message. Loyalist picks from spend, visit history, what they ordered and when they last booked, so a message can be narrow enough to be worth opening rather than a blast to everyone. The same record then reaches the floor, so the guest who got the email is recognized at the door and treated like the regular the data says they are.
When is Klaviyo the better choice?
When a large share of your revenue is transacted online rather than at a table. If merchandise, gift cards or meal kits are the growth story, they are built for that.
When is Loyalist the better choice?
When your revenue arrives as a table. You can send to the guests whose average check crossed a threshold, see the covers that send booked, and have the server know who they are sitting down. Klaviyo can do none of that without somebody building and maintaining the model underneath it.
Which is better for a restaurant, Klaviyo or Loyalist?
For an ecommerce store, Klaviyo, comfortably. For a dining room, Loyalist. Both report revenue, so the real question is revenue from what. Klaviyo counts orders, because that is what a store produces. Loyalist reads Resy, SevenRooms, OpenTable and Tock, so it counts the tables a campaign booked. If your revenue arrives as a party of four rather than a basket, that is the number you need.
Does Loyalist have flows and automations like Klaviyo?
Yes, with one difference worth knowing. A Klaviyo flow ends when the message is delivered. A Loyalist journey can also apply a tag or write a note back into your reservation book, so the host reading it tonight knows what the journey knew.
We run ecommerce as well as restaurants. What then?
Keep Klaviyo for the store. The two are not on the same integrations hub today, so they run side by side rather than syncing, and each covers the surface it was built for.
Can Loyalist see what a guest actually ordered?
Yes, where the point of sale exposes it. That is what makes a segment like "spent over $200 on wine in the last six months" possible without anybody tagging guests by hand.
Evaluate Loyalist against Klaviyo with an AI agent and see which one fits your business better.
