What is the alternative to the discontinued Kit App on Shopify?

Seal-Extrusions
Excursionist
12 0 42

Had an email from Shopify saying the "Kit" app is being removed and will end on August 31st? is there an alternative to this or any reason why its being removed? Its such a handy little app' I use it all the time?

Replies 112 (112)
Body_shapers
Visitor
1 0 11

Very disappointed that Shopify and Kit can’t come together for the betterment of its users.  You don’t have anything available that is close to KIT.  It makes my life so much easier.  They send daily thank you emails to all of my customers who make a purchase which has helped a lot.  Again, very disappointed that SHOPIFY doesn’t care about its customers.  

larussell
Visitor
2 0 6

Hello Shopify - It looks to me that the Shopify marketing will not send the Thank you emails as the Kit app.  This was an important feature.  Please explain exactly how the Shopify marketing tools can send a thank you email that will not appear to be email marketing and be sorted into a customers junk or 'other'  email.  Thank you.

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Hi, everyone.

Julie here from Shopify Support. I'm just stepping in for Brie. 

First off, I want to thank you all for your feedback. I completely understand your pain points and I want to assure you that I’ll be passing your comments over to our developers.

While there are some workarounds mentioned above, like using the order confirmation email, Shopify Email, a different email marketing app, or Zapier, I do appreciate that these aren’t exact replica solutions. I think this would be a great feature for Shopify Email, so as mentioned, I’ll be sharing this with our developers for their future consideration and awareness. 

To touch on your question, @larussell, there are definitely some things you can do to prevent your emails from showing up in spam or junk folders. We have some information on how to avoid spam filters with Shopify Email that should help you out.

Thanks again for all of your feedback! 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

Seal-Extrusions
Excursionist
12 0 42

It would be fantastic if we could tie something in before this is discontinued, just to give an example of just how important this is to me below is a message received from one of my customers after they have received my automated followup email message sent via Kit app. I get several of these a day from happy customers.

Hello Stuart,

Thank you for your email, very good customer relations, I was pleased with your product and will certainly use you again

Stay safe

 

Thanks

Stu

Dillydan
Tourist
4 0 15

Why remove something that was so useful? Is this progress?

c5
Tourist
3 0 5

Just throwing my hand in the air and saying that I agree with everyone here. Out of all the apps I have, that one was my favorite. I am frustrated that there's nothing to take its place that does everything Kit did. Bring back Kit or a comparable app that actually replaces Kit please. The solutions offered here only fill some of the gaps the app now leaves us with.

MrPaul_McCaw
Excursionist
15 0 7

Same here. I get daily emails back from customers who love the fact I'd thanked them (Using Kit thank you emails) and this feature is the reason I get so many repeat customers, the fact KIT has helped me with thank you emails (the day after their order)

Dillydan
Tourist
4 0 15

SHOPIFY DOES NOT CARE!

Seal-Extrusions
Excursionist
12 0 42

@Julie Just wondered if you will be able to provide us with any update information on this at before the Kit switch off? Or would it be possible that the kit switch off is halted until a solution has been found?

Thank you Stu

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Hi, Stu.

Thanks for joining the conversation and sharing your feedback.

At present, Kit is still slated to be automatically removed from all Shopify stores as of August 31, 2021. Unfortunately, there is no way around this and you will need to take advantage of one of the workarounds mentioned above should you wish to send customers automated Thank You emails. 

However, I do understand that Kit's Thank You emails have been very beneficial to merchants like yourself, and I have shared the concerns in this thread with our developers. As mentioned above, I think this feature would be a great addition to Shopify Email. Since Shopify Email is relatively new and constantly evolving, I am hopeful that we will see automated Thank You emails being introduced sometime in the near future. 

You can keep an eye on the latest updates over in our changelog in the meantime.

Thanks again, Stu! 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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Seal-Extrusions
Excursionist
12 0 42

@Julie Is there any reason why Kit cannot be held in place for the time being until Shopify is able to offer a full alternative? As you can see by the following on this subject a lot of your customers use and value the "Kit" app and removing it without anything anywhere close as useful is going to effect my business and I am sure others on here as well?.. Surely a stay in execution could be placed on removing the app' for say until Jan' 2022, give both Shopify or another App' developer time to offer something?

 

Thanks

Stu

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Hi, @Seal-Extrusions

Thanks for your feedback.

Kit won't be sunset until September 1st, 2021, at which point the app will no longer be accessible. Our developers have decided to sunset Kit in September as most of Kit's marketing capabilities are already available directly through your Shopify admin.

If you’d like to keep using Kit until September 1st, you'll need to switch from Ping to SMS as your preferred method of communication. We have a video that walks you through the process here.

Merchants should have ample time to implement alternative solutions before September 1st. There are some workarounds for the "Thank you" emails previously mentioned in this thread, so I recommend taking advantage of some of the options outlined there. 

Although there is no specific timeline, our developers are working on implementing "Thank you" emails with Shopify Email, so hopefully this feature can be introduced shortly after Kit is sunset. You can keep an eye on the latest updates over in our changelog in the meantime.

Thanks again for your feedback, Stu. 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

Lokah_Luv
Excursionist
18 0 26

@Julie Hi! One reason stores are bummed about kit being "sunsetted" is the fact it was an all in one solution for shopify admin that streamlined the process of marketing, running and handling a store.  Busy store owners are now being reduced to having separate apps for each task, that is time consuming and cumbersome.  I have been trying the last few months to figure out how to operate without kit and I will tell you my efforts have not been fruitful- even after multiple support calls and messages and even this thread have only added to my frustration of why is shopify killing such a great product??? I have all but given up on marketing through shopify.  My customers have noticed that I am not engaged with them like I used to be and even asked "is everything ok?"  Kit was the number one reason I decided to re-open my store on shopify (i had alternate options and almost went with them but they didn't have the all in one solutions like kit) and much to my dismay, kit is no longer.  Now, I rarely send text campaigns and emails.  With kit i did all the time and it was fun to, I actually enjoyed it - which made me a super happy shopify customer.  

smartsips
Tourist
6 0 4

Shopify - would the developers of Kit be willing to release their code so someone else could take a look at the app and replicate it? At least the 1st and 2nd email portion of the code?

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29
I would love the whole app back. Maybe a Kitlet?
Seguno_brian
Tourist
4 0 4

Hey @smartsips,

I completely understand wanting to keep Kit going, but if you're looking to replace the 1st and 2nd purchase thanks, Seguno can send thank you emails for new and repeat purchasers. We've got a full step-by-step guide available here, a 10-day trial for all new installs, and have a free plan available for shops with fewer than 250 subscribers.

We have a ton more features and automations available in the app, and if you have any questions, please send an email to help@seguno.com, and we'll get right back to you! Of course, feel free to send me a direct message too.

Best,

Brian

cc: @MicheleYSW @MrPaul_McCaw @Seal-Extrusions @larussell 

 

Brian, Customer Success | Seguno: Email Marketing Inside Shopify | seguno.com
smartsips
Tourist
6 0 4

Hi @Seguno_brian,

Thanks for your response. These thank you emails are currently sent out the next day for all 1st time and 2nd time customers so they are processed in bulk the day after. They are not tied to any subscriber list as some purchasers may not be subscribed yet. How does that work with the pricing since they are not tied to subscribers?

 

Seguno_brian
Tourist
4 0 4

Hi @smartsips,

Our platform is for all email marketing, so the new and repeat purchaser automations are part of being able to send newsletters and other marketing automations like Welcome, Abandoned Checkout, Review Request, Lapsed Purchaser, etc. Since we're solely focused on commerce marketing, we only send to subscribed purchasers. We've actually had quite a few shops make the change when Kit's sunset was announced and most of them said they were initially surprised that they had little to no decrease in responses and customer engagement when they made the swap, and most of them said that once they realized they weren't missing out on much, they feel better only sending emails to people who've subscribed.

As for the timing, it's configurable to match what you're doing right now, but you can also build it as part of a multi-email series so the first email is a personalized thank you, and then a week or two later send a second, more marketing-focused email to encourage them to make another purchase.

Pricing-wise, everything comes in at $10/1000 subscribers per month. We don't have any additional charges for increased sending volume or feature tiers.

If you want to take a look at the app, feel free to install through the Shopify app store. Every new install gets a 10-day trial and there's no commitment, so you can uninstall at the end of the 10-days or just not accept the charges while you continue to look around 🙂 We also have free support through cases and live chat available 9a-5p ET during business days

Let me know if you have any other questions!

-Brian

Brian, Customer Success | Seguno: Email Marketing Inside Shopify | seguno.com
AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@Seguno_brian That’s a great suggestion, but it only addresses one of a multitude of tasks that the Kit app performed. Have you worked any of the other functionality into the Seguno app? Like FB posts and advertising campaigns?

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@Julie Is it possible to have some Shopify videos posted that show how to accomplish some of the same tasks that Kit did for us? That would be very helpful with this transition.

Imogen
Shopify Staff
1482 182 268

Hi there, @AshlynD and everyone else within the thread! My name is Imogen and I'm stepping in here for Julie. I've taken some time to read through everyone's comments and I can really feel the love everyone had for Kit as an all-in-one automation tool. 

 

At this time, there are no updates to report from our Development Team regarding the information Julie passed along. Something I always like to tell folks is that if you have a great idea for some functionality, reaching out to our live support team and letting them know is always appreciated. The 'Thank You' email suggestion we've seen here is an example of something that we have passed along internally to our Development Team, and with folks from this thread chiming in with their wish to have this back, it's likely a matter of time before it's built into the Standard Shopify Email functions. We can't comment on timeframes specifically - but the more folks let us know they desire a certain functionality, the more likely it is we'll see something come down the pipeline. 

 

In terms of your video suggestion, what sort of things would you like to have videos on? With many of Kits features now being organic pieces of the Shopify Admin, much of what it was capable of are things users naturally align with and use now. We also have several help documents that cover these standard functions, and additional resources like what Brie posted originally at the beginning of this thread. If you have some specific examples, I'd love to take those down and pass them along. 

 

I noticed, Ashlyn, that you specifically mentioned you were missing the automatic features Kit had in relations to Facebook and Instagram Advertising. Although the automation is missing, you're still able to achieve the same functionality with your Facebook and Instagram ads via the marketing section of your Shopify Admin through a linked Facebook Ads Account. The caveat here is that you'd have to be mindful of your best sellers, slow movers, new products, etc and then build ads manually to showcase these products. You'd build your ads and publish them, and then they'd run for their allotted time. Further, you can see engagement with these ads via your campaigns in your marketing section of your admin, as well. I really wanted to make sure I touched on this functionality for you, Ashlyn, as I felt like this specifically wasn't address throughout the entirety of the thread. 

 

All in all, there is nothing new to report on the Kit front. However, we truly do recognize the sentiments shared here in this thread and with support in general regarding Kit. I want to thank everyone for being open and honest with the information and feedback that you've shared and passed along to us. 

Happy Holidays! 

Imogen | Social Care @ Shopify 
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 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog

Seal-Extrusions
Excursionist
12 0 42

Just wanted to share a prime example of a reply to my kit email that I have received today, just maybe you can understand from this why it is such an important tool to us sellers.. and maybe you could give us some hope that a replacement tool will be available before or shortly after that will do "Exactly" the same job with out having to download another new app' and pay some stupid amount of money each month...

Good morning

Stuart I would not usually bother answering emails For a purchase But yours I feel I have to do If you treat all your customers with such respect I can only hope that you carry on the way you are And your business goes from strength to strength How nice to be sent a message like yours And I have only ordered a small quantity from you Yes I will put you as a contact at the top of my list And when it arrives and I have the feedback To answer , trust me , I will give you as many first class credits as is possible Thank you for your reply And hope your weekend goes well Take care First class operation keep up the way you are 😊

Chris 

This is one of many replies I receive each day from customers, but this one I felt captured exactly how good the kit email system is...

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@Seal-Extrusions Thanks for posting real life examples of customer responses you’ve received. I understand how important this tool was and also received positive feedback from customers. I’m still missing this app.

Lokah_Luv
Excursionist
18 0 26

What Shopify is missing here is recognizing that kit was an business Assitant to us all.  She helped us find reports, personalize thank you’s for individual purchases (not using auto ones that repeat over and over).  The new route Shopify has us undergoing is completely clunky and with no personal  finesse at all. You gave us an awesome product and then took it away and gave us nothing even remotely close to replace it with.  It’s such a huge disappointment. 

Christinelang
Shopify Partner
2 0 1

So disappointing!!!

MUJKA
Visitor
1 0 3

We already have other paid email marketing program and were using Kit to send our new releases weekly as automated emails.

Kit was pulling new listed products from the store and place in a nice template and send. Now there is no replacement for this and I'm not sure why Kit is removed with all the functions are working great and return was also great because customers can follow new releases weekly.

Please offer something really replaces the Kit's automated functions where it can pull new products or best sellers and creates an email that is not manually created every time.

 

Thank you.

Dillydan
Tourist
4 0 15
This is such a shame. So many of us like Kit and would love to have it stay
because it IS so efficient in our stores - you can sort of “set it and
forget it.”

We are out here begging and pleading for something that IS good for our
businesses. Something is wrong with that picture.
Irene_Otto
Shopify Partner
18 0 12

Also agree with everyone here, why is the kit app retiring? I loved it a lot, all the functions that it posted on FB sent out emails and did all these different things we did not even have to think about it because kit would send the message and do it all. so easy and so sad it is going away.

 

But Why is it going away? can we get another app like kit? I want it back.....

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@Irene_Otto I totally agree with you. Here it is November and I’m still missing that powerful little app. I wish they would reinstate it - even with an initial fee.

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@Dillydan I asked on the Shopify YouTube channel if they would post a video showing how to duplicate some of the Kit features using other options. All I got was a link to this thread.

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@MUJKA I liked that feature, too. It was a very useful tool. I still miss Kit terribly.

MicheleYSW
Visitor
2 0 5

Thank you emails was the best part of Kit. over 90% of my clients responded to the automated thank you with praise and thanks of their own. They really felt it was me sending it. We need this addressed before Kit retires or you should ask her to stay on and postpone her retirement! LOL

Jim_Drysdale
Tourist
9 0 14

So 5 months have gone by since this information was shared with developers, is it being added to Shopify Mail app?

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@Julie has there been any progress made on the referral you made to the developers? An update would be much appreciated.

Joan_Fedoruk
Visitor
1 0 7

Hi Brie, 

Thanks for the extensive list of articles to review in replacing 1 user friendly, effortless app. I fail to see how this has made my life any easier. As artist, business owner, administrator, bookkeeper, I now have lost a very valuable time saving tool. This is counter productive. 

c5
Tourist
3 0 5

Just here again to express my agreement with Joan and Irene and literally every single other person who has commented their massive disappointment in Kit being eliminated. 

The extensive list of a dozen manual replacements for an app that did everything automatically for us at the touch of a text is frustrating that it's even being presented as suitable. 

Not that anyone at Shopify actually cares! I don't even know why I'm commenting, the replies are just placating everyone's frustrations. 

Don't bother responding, Shopify. Giving me or anyone else a huge list of things that could maybe replace Kit's functionality in a dozen different methods is just reaffirming why everyone here is upset. How is that helpful? It's not. 

NetPros
Visitor
1 0 1

Yep, the abandoned cart e-mails and several other features are sorely missed. What can we do to replace kit? THis has impacted our business. 

YellowSally
Visitor
1 0 0

Hello,

Will we be able to set up thank you emails through the Shopify email app? 

Lokah_Luv
Excursionist
18 0 26

@YellowSally @Hello!  Shopify email is like a Mailchimp and doesn’t yet support tiered auto marketing like we used when we had kit.  Smartrmail is a great app for crreating auto emails that are targeted toward specific client actions.  Shopify email is more for campaign etc. the only thing Shopify email has going for it is that there is a phone app (very limited).  Currently, there is no email platform that allows us to use Shopify’s auto emails and edit them before sending like we used to do when we had kit.  

TChan
Visitor
1 0 0

hello Brie, I have previously installed their app and I need to remove the snippets and lines of codes (if any).  Do you have any information?  or you still have their contact?  thanks.

 

Kind regards,

 

Terence

Joseph_Symond
Tourist
7 0 6

The Kit app was very powerful, and saved a fortune in time and frustration in setting up marketing campaigns and quick ads to drum up more business. By comparison, Shopifys alternative is laborious and ineffective.

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

I agree.  I love this little app.  I’m a very small business and I use it for my Facebook posts.  It’s nice to be able to set up free posts for current subscribers.  And, it’s so easy to use.

Seal-Extrusions
Excursionist
12 0 42

Little bit disappointed that "Shopify" has not come forward with any constructive comments on this? One of the major points being the follow up email system which works with kit "Extremely" well will be lost and we have nothing to take its place once its removed? Yes there may be paid for App's that do something similar, but that is not the point, you have a tool here that works and works well, sometimes changing things for the sake of change is not what your customers want.

Rathoetoys
Visitor
1 0 3

I use this app all the time especially for Facebook Advertising. Its so handy, sends you a test message with different options and does the work for you. It saves so much time. Pity its going away and even though Shopify say all its features are available through the E Commerce website, I dont think its near as good

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

@Rathoetoys I used Kit for this function, too. I LOVED how effortless it was. I recommended Shopify to others because of the tools that were included. I haven’t done that since Kit was retired.

Seal-Extrusions
Excursionist
12 0 42

Well had the final reminder from shopify today to prove 100% that shopify does not listen to its customers or care what they actually want!.. Thanks Shopify for the massive support you have shown your customer base by doing this... 

This is a final reminder that Kit will be removed from your Shopify store, the-seal-extrusion-company.myshopify.com, after August 31. 

August 31 is the last day Kit will be able to create and run marketing campaigns for you. After this date, Kit’s functionality will be removed from your Shopify store and Kit will officially retire. 


Lokah_Luv
Excursionist
18 0 26

a sad day for us all.  Kit was my hero....oh did shopify tell you you can upgrade for a $1,000 a month to get service similar to kit? I was so bummed.

dstaton79
Visitor
2 0 0

Did you ever find an alternate app? I cannot find one myself. Thanks 

AshlynD
Excursionist
18 0 29

No, sadly there is no new app to replace this one.

Lokah_Luv
Excursionist
18 0 26

@dstaton79  sadly, no.  Nothing exists to replace KiT and it seems that there are a lot of changes that are happening with Shopify.  They suggested I hire a Shopify developer to create an app like kit. Such a bummer.  Nothing I have done has come close to kits abilities.  Wish I had better news for you.