Mailchimp to Klaviyo: map the columns, import the CSV
Move contacts from Mailchimp to Klaviyo: the audience export CSV matched to Klaviyo’s import headers, with a contact that repeats cleared in one pass.
How the columns map
| Mailchimp column | Klaviyo column | What changes |
|---|---|---|
Email Address | Email Address | Klaviyo takes Email Address as the email header and skips a repeated address as a duplicate, so a contact that sits in two audiences, once in capitals, must appear a single time. Or by handclick the Email Address column header → lowercase, then Remove duplicates; the repeat contact’s row is removed |
First Name | First Name | Klaviyo’s own import example writes First Name this way, so the header stays. |
Last Name | Last Name | The same goes for Last Name. |
OPTIN_TIME | OPTIN_TIME | Mailchimp writes OPTIN_TIME as year-month-day with the time of day, a layout Klaviyo reads as a date once you give the column the Date data type on its mapping screen. |
TAGS | TAGS | Klaviyo reads several values in one property only as a list written like ["vip","events"], so you map TAGS by hand and pick its data type there. |
Before and after
8,200 contacts
Do it in DocTransform
By hand: 6 stepsDocTransform: 1 sentence
- 1. Upload mailchimp_two_audiences.csv into DocTransform.
- 2. Type and press Send. Check the steps it adds; Undo takes them all back.
Lowercase Email Address and remove rows with a duplicate Email Address
Or by hand
Apply the fix: click the Email Address column header → lowercase, then Remove duplicates; the repeat contact’s row is removed. The other headers need no change. The tags are yours to map by hand: DocTransform saves no step for them.
- 3. Download the cleaned file from Export, ready for Klaviyo’s list import.
Save these steps once, then rerun them on your next Mailchimp export with one click.
Do it by hand in Excel or Sheets
- Open mailchimp_two_audiences.csv in Excel: choose Data → From Text/CSV, set File Origin to 65001: Unicode (UTF-8) and click Load.
- Next to Email Address, add a helper column with =LOWER(A2), fill it down, then copy it and paste it back over Email Address as values.
- Select the Email Address column, choose Data → Remove Duplicates and click OK, so the second Ana Ruiz row goes.
- Leave First Name, Last Name, OPTIN_TIME and TAGS as they are.
- In Klaviyo’s importer, give OPTIN_TIME the Date data type and map TAGS to a list property you choose.
- Choose File → Save As, pick CSV UTF-8 (Comma delimited) (*.csv) and click Save.
Questions
- Can Klaviyo import the Mailchimp export as it is?
- Mostly. Klaviyo accepts Email Address, First Name and Last Name as Mailchimp writes them, so the headers stay; what stops an import is a contact that appears twice, because Klaviyo keeps the first row and skips the rest.
- Does DocTransform turn Mailchimp tags into a Klaviyo list property?
- No — it saves no step for that. In Klaviyo’s importer, map TAGS to a property and choose its data type there.
- Do I redo these steps for every audience I move?
- No — save the steps once in DocTransform and rerun them on each Mailchimp audience you export.
Salesforce, HubSpot, Shopify, QuickBooks, Mailchimp, Pipedrive, WooCommerce, Klaviyo, Google Contacts, ActiveCampaign, Brevo, Zendesk, Square, Zoho CRM, and Xero are trademarks of their owners. DocTransform is not affiliated with them.