Attentive’s Rumored Agency Poaching Campaign Is Rattling Klaviyo’s Partner Network
Sources close to the matter say Attentive is running an aggressive, behind-the-scenes campaign to flip Klaviyo's top agency partners — and several mid-market DTC shops are reportedly caught in the crossfire.
By Ryan Wilson ·
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6 min read
Something unusual is happening inside the retention marketing ecosystem, and it’s making agency principals nervous. According to multiple sources close to the matter, Attentive has been quietly running a structured outreach campaign targeting Klaviyo’s Platinum- and Gold-tier agency partners — offering co-marketing budgets, preferred migration support, and what one agency founder described as “unusually generous” revenue-share terms to shops that move client books off Klaviyo and onto Attentive’s combined email-plus-SMS platform.
The campaign, which sources say has been active since at least May 2026, is reportedly being led out of Attentive’s partnerships organization under the direction of Brian Long’s growth team. Long, Attentive’s co-founder and CEO, has been publicly bullish on the company’s AI-driven send-time optimization and its “Attentive AI” personalization layer since a widely-discussed keynote at Shoptalk Spring 2026. But sources say the private playbook is considerably more aggressive than the public messaging suggests.
Which Klaviyo Agency Partners Are Reportedly Being Targeted?
Sources with direct knowledge of the outreach describe a tiered targeting list that focuses on agencies billing more than $500,000 per year in Klaviyo platform fees across their client portfolios. The alleged pitch centers on three offers: a migration concierge team that handles technical ESP transitions for free, a co-branded case study program that gives agencies guaranteed editorial placement in Attentive’s content engine, and a rev-share structure that reportedly runs 15–20% higher than Klaviyo’s current partner tier payouts.
“We got a call from an Attentive partnerships rep in June,” said one agency principal who asked not to be named because of active Klaviyo platform agreements. “They knew our book of business better than I expected. They quoted our approximate MRR, named two of our anchor clients by vertical, and led with a migration offer that would have covered our entire transition cost. That’s not a cold pitch — that’s homework.”
“They knew our book of business better than I expected. They quoted our approximate MRR, named two of our anchor clients by vertical, and led with a migration offer that would have covered our entire transition cost. That’s not a cold pitch — that’s homework.” — Agency principal, identity withheld
💡 Article Summary
Key Insights
1
Which Klaviyo Agency Partners Are Reportedly Being Targeted?
2
Is There Tension Inside Klaviyo’s Partner Organization Over the Threat?
3
What Does Attentive’s AI Push Have to Do With the Agency Play?
4
Are Any Named Merchants Reportedly Switching?
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How Is Klaviyo Reportedly Responding Internally?
Source: Ecommerce Times
Attentive declined to comment on the specifics of any partner outreach program. A Klaviyo spokesperson said the company does not comment on unconfirmed competitive activity, but noted that Klaviyo’s partner retention rate “remains at an all-time high.” Ecommerce Times could not independently verify that claim.
Is There Tension Inside Klaviyo’s Partner Organization Over the Threat?
According to two sources separately familiar with Klaviyo’s partner operations, there is reportedly elevated concern inside the company’s partner success team. The sources say that at least six agencies — four in the U.S. and two in the U.K. — have quietly begun dual-stack testing, running Attentive on a subset of client accounts while maintaining Klaviyo as their primary platform. That kind of hedging is apparently unusual enough to have triggered internal escalation flags within Klaviyo’s account management systems.
One source described an internal Slack message — allegedly forwarded from a Klaviyo partner success manager — that characterized the Attentive outreach as “coordinated and not opportunistic.” The message, which Ecommerce Times could not authenticate, allegedly referenced a Klaviyo leadership review scheduled for late July to assess partner churn risk. Klaviyo has not confirmed any such review.
Allegedly six agencies in active dual-stack testing as of mid-July 2026
Attentive’s migration concierge offer reportedly covers full technical ESP transition at no cost
Rev-share terms being offered to departing partners reportedly 15–20% above Klaviyo’s current Platinum-tier structure
Attentive reportedly armed reps with partner portfolio data including approximate MRR figures
At least two enterprise Shopify brands — reportedly in the apparel and home goods verticals — are said to be evaluating full platform switches
What Does Attentive’s AI Push Have to Do With the Agency Play?
The timing of the alleged partner campaign is not accidental, sources say. Attentive has been leaning heavily into its AI personalization narrative since early 2026, and the company’s combined email-plus-SMS platform has reportedly closed the feature gap with Klaviyo in several areas that agency operators care about most: abandoned cart sequencing, predictive send-time optimization, and cross-channel suppression logic.
“Eighteen months ago, a Klaviyo-to-Attentive migration pitch would have been a hard sell because the email product wasn’t there,” said Cody Plofker, CMO at Jones Road Beauty and a widely-followed voice in DTC marketing circles, reached for comment on the broader competitive landscape. “That’s genuinely less true now. If Attentive’s AI flows are performing the way some of the benchmarks suggest, the migration math gets a lot easier for agencies to justify to clients.”
“Eighteen months ago, a Klaviyo-to-Attentive migration pitch would have been a hard sell because the email product wasn’t there. That’s genuinely less true now.” — Cody Plofker, CMO, Jones Road Beauty
Plofker emphasized he has no direct knowledge of the alleged poaching campaign and was speaking to the competitive dynamics generally. Jones Road Beauty uses Klaviyo and has no announced plans to switch platforms.
Are Any Named Merchants Reportedly Switching?
Ecommerce Times was unable to confirm specific brand migrations on the record. However, sources in the agency community allege that at least one mid-eight-figure Shopify brand in the activewear category — described as a longtime Klaviyo showcase customer — has been in migration scoping conversations with Attentive since Q2 2026. A second source mentioned a direct-to-consumer supplement brand that had reportedly been featured in a Klaviyo case study as recently as 2025 and is now allegedly running a 90-day parallel test with Attentive handling its SMS flows.
Neither brand has made any public announcement, and Ecommerce Times could not verify these accounts independently. The supplement brand reference, if accurate, would carry particular symbolism — Klaviyo has prominently featured retention metrics from the health and wellness vertical in its investor communications since its 2023 IPO.
How Is Klaviyo Reportedly Responding Internally?
Sources say Klaviyo has not been passive. According to one agency founder who received an Attentive outreach and disclosed it to their Klaviyo partner success rep, the response was immediate and included an offer to revisit contract terms, an invitation to join an early-access program for an unannounced product feature, and a personal call from a senior Klaviyo partnerships leader. The agency ultimately did not engage further with Attentive, the source said, though they attributed that decision partly to switching-cost concerns rather than purely to Klaviyo’s retention effort.
Klaviyo’s product roadmap for H2 2026 is also reportedly being scrutinized in light of the competitive pressure. Sources familiar with internal Klaviyo discussions say the company is accelerating work on what is described internally as a “unified inbox” feature that would consolidate email, SMS, and push notification management in a single workflow view — a direct response to one of the perceived UX advantages Attentive’s platform currently holds. Klaviyo has not announced this feature, and its existence is unconfirmed.
“Klaviyo’s retention play right now is essentially: make the platform stickier faster than Attentive can make migration cheaper. Both sides are spending real money on that race.” — Retention agency founder, identity withheld
What Should DTC Brands and Agencies Watch for in Q3?
For DTC operators and agency leaders, the immediate practical question is whether the competitive pressure between Attentive and Klaviyo will produce pricing relief or accelerated feature development — or both. Several agency principals contacted for this story said they plan to use the competitive dynamic as negotiating leverage at their next Klaviyo contract renewals, a tactic that at least one founder described as “the most obvious arbitrage opportunity in retention marketing right now.”
The broader implication is structural. The ESP and SMS platform consolidation that analysts predicted would reshape the retention stack in 2024 and 2025 is apparently now happening at the agency-relationship layer, not just the product layer. If Attentive successfully flips even a handful of high-volume Klaviyo agency partners, the downstream effect on brand migrations could be significant — agencies tend to standardize their client stacks on one or two primary platforms, meaning a partner-level switch carries a multiplier effect that direct brand outreach never would.
For now, the alleged campaign remains unconfirmed by either company. But the number of agency principals who independently described similar Attentive outreach experiences — and the specificity of the details they shared — suggests that whatever is happening, it is organized, it is funded, and it is not over.
Ecommerce Times has reached out to Attentive and Klaviyo for full comment. This article will be updated as additional information becomes available.
