What is the Shopify alternative to Cardly?

Cardly is an Australian card-sending service for personalised occasion cards, connected by Zapier or API with no native Shopify app. TouchDrop is the self-serve retention-postcard alternative for Shopify customers in the United States, the UK, Australia and the Netherlands, with domestic mailing, Klaviyo and Omnisend segments and per-recipient attribution. Cardly remains the option for individual occasion and gifting cards.

Disclosure: this page is published by TouchDrop, which offers a competing direct mail product. Competitor facts are checked against each vendor's own live pages.

Cardly Alternative for Australian Shopify Brands

Cardly sends personalised cards, hand-stamped and posted from Australia to Australia, the UK, the USA and Canada, through a Zapier or API integration. TouchDrop runs automated postcard campaigns natively from Shopify, Klaviyo and Omnisend, no engineering required to trigger a send. Here's an honest comparison.

Written by Hylke Reitsma, co-founder of TouchDrop

Last updated: 29 October 2026. Cardly facts on this page were checked against cardly.net on 17 August 2026; details change, so confirm current terms on their site.

Cardly alternative: automated Shopify direct mail campaigns versus individually sent cards

Which should you choose?

Choose TouchDrop if you want ongoing abandoned cart, win-back or post-purchase campaigns running from Shopify, Klaviyo or Omnisend, with QR attribution and suppression built in.
Choose Cardly if you want to send a personalised, occasion-driven card to an individual, and building a Zapier or API workflow is acceptable.
Switching probably isn't worth it if you send a handful of occasion or gifting cards a year; that is Cardly's core business, and TouchDrop is built for campaigns.

Cardly vs TouchDrop — the core difference

Cardly's core business is personalised, individually sent cards for occasions, and that is where almost all of its own search visibility comes from. Sending one through Shopify or another system means building it yourself against Cardly's Zapier connector or API. TouchDrop is built the other way around: connect Shopify and Klaviyo once, set a trigger, and campaigns run automatically to the customers in that segment.

Feature	TouchDrop	Cardly
Core business	Automated ecommerce direct-mail campaigns	Personalised occasion cards, plus a separate API/Zapier send option
Setup	Shopify custom-app setup in TouchDrop	Zapier workflow or custom API integration
Retention triggers	Built in, from Klaviyo or Omnisend segments (abandoned cart, win-back, post-purchase)	Not offered — build it yourself via Zapier or API
Klaviyo segments	Yes, sync built in	Not offered
QR tracking + ROAS	Built in	Not offered
Card format	Printed campaign postcards	Handwritten-style personalised cards
Postal network	USPS Marketing Mail in the US, Royal Mail in the UK, Australia Post in Australia and PostNL in the Netherlands	Posted from Australia to AU, UK, USA and Canada

When Cardly is the better choice

You want to send a personalised, occasion-driven card to an individual, not a running ecommerce campaign.
Gifting or relationship-marketing sends where building and maintaining a Zapier or API workflow yourself is acceptable.

When TouchDrop is the better choice

Your store is on Shopify and you want abandoned cart, win-back or post-purchase postcards running without engineering time.
You use Klaviyo and want to mail existing segments automatically.
You want one platform running ongoing campaigns, not a card sent one at a time.
You want QR attribution, ROAS reporting and suppression lists built in.

Frequently asked questions

Does Cardly have a Shopify app?

No. Cardly's business pages name exactly two integration routes: a Zapier integration and a general-purpose API (checked 5 September 2026). There is no embedded Shopify App Store app and no Klaviyo integration, so triggering a send from a Shopify event means building and maintaining that workflow yourself.

Is Cardly a direct-mail marketing platform?

Cardly's core business is personalised occasion cards — birthdays, Mother's Day, Christmas, gifting — sent one at a time. Checking which keywords Cardly actually ranks for in Australia and the UK shows almost all of its organic visibility is that consumer card business, not ecommerce campaign automation.

How much does Cardly cost?

Cardly does not publish pricing on its own site. A third-party review states a price from A$3.95 per card for small orders; we have not verified this against a primary source, so treat it as indicative only. See touchdrop.com.au/guide/pricing for current TouchDrop rates.

Where does Cardly ship from?

Cardly is based in Buderim, Queensland, and states it posts cards from Australia to Australia, the UK, the USA and Canada. TouchDrop prints and lodges inside Australia via Australia Post for Australian sends.

What switching involves

Data: your Klaviyo or Omnisend segments stay where they are. Connect the account and pick the segment on the TouchDrop side, or upload a CSV from any other tool.
Artwork: supply the card to TouchDrop's artwork spec, with the right side of the back kept clear for the address block. Plan a re-layout rather than a straight resize.
Connections: connect Shopify through the custom-app setup inside TouchDrop so each card gets its own discount code and orders attribute back, and point a Klaviyo flow webhook at TouchDrop if a flow drives the send.
Test first: there are no print minimums, so mail one small segment, read the result over the 60-day attribution window, then scale.
Overlap: while both platforms run, keep the same customers out of both audiences so nobody gets two cards.

Compare other direct mail platforms

No Zapier workflow to build. Just postcards.

Connect Shopify and Klaviyo or Omnisend, pick a trigger, and campaigns run automatically.

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