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CartWatch Mailchimp Integration

Automatically unsubscribe and archive flagged bot contacts in Mailchimp, so fake checkouts stop polluting your automations — and stop counting toward the contact tier you pay for.

What the integration does

CartWatch scores every Shopify checkout for bot behavior. With Mailchimp connected and auto-suppression enabled, each flagged email address is, in every audience it appears in:

  • Unsubscribed — the contact stops receiving campaigns and automations.
  • Then archived — the contact is removed from your active audience, which is what takes it out of your billable contact count.

If a flagged checkout is later updated and scores below the threshold, CartWatch automatically unarchives the contact and restores it to the audiences it was archived from.

Why archive instead of just unsubscribe?

Because Mailchimp bills you for unsubscribed contacts. Mailchimp’s pricing is based on your total number of contacts, and subscribed, unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts all count toward the tier you pay for. Only archived, cleaned and deleted contacts drop out of it.

That means simply unsubscribing a bot would stop the emails but leave you paying to store it — and a bad bot wave can push you into a higher pricing bracket for contacts that will never buy anything. Archiving is what actually removes them from the bill.

Archiving on its own is not quite enough either. A contact can un-archive themselves by submitting one of your signup forms or interacting with your connected store, and Mailchimp restores them with their most recent subscription status. That is why CartWatch unsubscribes first and archives second: if a bot ever comes back, it comes back unsubscribed rather than subscribed.

Connecting

  1. Install CartWatch from the Shopify App Store if you haven't already.
  2. Open Settings in CartWatch.
  3. In the Mailchimp Integration card, click Connect Mailchimp.
  4. You'll be taken to Mailchimp to sign in and approve access. Choose the account whose audiences you want CartWatch to clean up.

Managing the integration

All Mailchimp-specific settings live in the Mailchimp Integration card in CartWatch Settings:

  • Auto-suppress bots in Mailchimp — toggle whether flagged checkouts are unsubscribed and archived automatically.
  • Disconnect Mailchimp — deletes the stored credentials so CartWatch stops touching your account. You can reconnect at any time.

Mailchimp does not provide a way for apps to revoke their own access, so to remove CartWatch from the Mailchimp side as well, go to your Mailchimp account’s connected-apps settings and remove it there.

Troubleshooting

  • “Mailchimp permissions were declined” — the authorization was cancelled before approval. Click Try connecting again in Settings and approve access.
  • A contact wasn't archived — suppression applies only to checkouts CartWatch flags as bots after Mailchimp is connected, and only once the contact actually exists in one of your audiences. If your Shopify store syncs contacts to Mailchimp on a delay, CartWatch keeps retrying for 24 hours until the contact appears.
  • A restored contact is still unsubscribed — Mailchimp does not allow any app to re-subscribe a contact who unsubscribed themselves. If CartWatch reverses a bot flag for such a contact, it is unarchived and returned to your audience, but stays unsubscribed until they opt back in.
  • Your contact count didn't drop — Mailchimp recalculates billable contacts on its own schedule, so the change may take a little time to show on your plan usage.