# Mailchimp

In this document, you’ll learn about the Mailchimp plugin, what it does, and how to use it.

## Overview

[Mailchimp](https://mailchimp.com) is an email marketing service that can be used to create newsletters and subscriptions.

By integrating Mailchimp with Medusa, customers will be able to subscribe from Medusa to your Mailchimp newsletter and will be automatically added to your Mailchimp subscribers list.

:::note

This plugin is only used to allow your customers to subscribe but does not actually do any email sending. If you want to send emails to customers based on specific events, for example, when an order is placed, you should check out our [SendGrid plugin](./sendgrid.mdx) instead.

:::

## Prerequisites

Before going further with this guide make sure you have a Medusa server set up. You can follow our [Quickstart guide](https://docs.medusajs.com/quickstart/quick-start).

You also need a Mailchimp account, so please [create one](https://mailchimp.com/signup) before you start.

## Obtain Mailchimp Keys

To integrate the plugin into Medusa you need 2 keys: The API Key and the Newsletter list or Audience ID. The API Key acts as a credential for your account, whereas the Newsletter list ID determines which audience should the subscribed customers be added to.

You can follow [this guide](https://mailchimp.com/help/about-api-keys/#Find_or_generate_your_API_key) from Mailchimp’s documentation to obtain an API Key.

You can follow [this guide](https://mailchimp.com/help/find-audience-id/) from Mailchimp’s documentation to obtain your Newsletter list or Audience ID.

## Install the Plugin

In the directory of your Medusa server, run the following command to install the Mailchimp plugin:

```bash npm2yarn
npm install medusa-plugin-mailchimp
```

### Add Keys

Open `.env` and add the following keys:

```bash
MAILCHIMP_API_KEY=<YOUR_API_KEY>
MAILCHIMP_NEWSLETTER_LIST_ID=<YOUR_NEWSLETTER_LIST_ID>
```

Make sure to replace `<YOUR_API_KEY>` with your API Key and `<YOUR_NEWSLETTER_LIST_ID>` with your Newsletter list or Audience ID.

### Add Plugin to Medusa Config

Open `medusa-config.js` and add the new plugin into the `plugins` array:

```js
const plugins = [
  ...,
  {
    resolve: `medusa-plugin-mailchimp`,
    options: {
      api_key: process.env.MAILCHIMP_API_KEY,
      newsletter_list_id: process.env.MAILCHIMP_NEWSLETTER_LIST_ID
    }
  }
};
```

## Test it Out

This plugin adds a new `POST` endpoint at `/mailchimp/subscribe`. This endpoint requires in the body of the request an `email` field. You can also optionally include a `data` object that holds any additional data you want to send to Mailchimp. You can check out [Mailchimp’s subscription documentation](https://mailchimp.com/developer/marketing/api/list-members/add-member-to-list/) for more details on the data you can send.

### Without Additional Data

Try sending a `POST` request to `/mailchimp/subscribe` with the following JSON body:

```json
{
  "email": "example@gmail.com"
}
```

If the subscription is successful, a `200` response code will be returned with `OK` message.

![Postman](https://i.imgur.com/tpr7uCF.png)

If you check your Mailchimp dashboard, you should find the email added to your Audience list.

![Email Added](https://i.imgur.com/ALz6WUq.png)

### With Additional Data

Here’s an example of sending additional data with the subscription:

```json
{
    "email": "example@gmail.com",
    "data": {
        "tags": ["customer"]
    }
}
```

All fields inside `data` will be sent to Mailchimp’s API along with the email.

## Use Mailchimp Service

If you want to subscribe to users without using this endpoint or at a specific place in your code, you can use Mailchimp’s service `mailchimpService` in your endpoints, services, or subscribers. This service has a method `subscribeNewsletter` which lets you use the subscribe functionality.

Here’s an example of using the `mailchimpService` inside an endpoint:

```jsx
const mailchimpService = req.scope.resolve("mailchimpService")

mailchimpService.subscribeNewsletter(
  "example@gmail.com",
  { tags: ["customer"] } // optional
)
```

:::tip

You can learn more about how you can use services in your endpoints, services, and subscribers in the [Services documentation](https://docs.medusajs.com/advanced/backend/services/create-service#using-your-custom-service).

:::

## Add Subscription Form

This section has a simple example of adding a subscription form in your storefront. The code is for React-based frameworks but you can use the same logic for your storefronts regardless of the framework you are using.

You’ll need to use [axios](https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=axios+github&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8) to send API requests, so if you don’t have it installed make sure you install it first:

```bash npm2yarn
npm install axios
```

Then, in the component you want to add the subscription form add the following code:

```jsx
import axios from 'axios'
import { useState } from "react";

export default function NewsletterForm() {
  const [email, setEmail] = useState("")

  function subscribe(e) {
    e.preventDefault();
    if (!email) {
      return;
    }

    axios.post('http://localhost:9000/mailchimp/subscribe', {
      email
    })
      .then((e) => {
        alert("Subscribed sucessfully!")
        setEmail("")
      })
      .catch((e) => {
        console.error(e);
        alert("An error occurred");
      })
  }

  return (
    <form onSubmit={subscribe}>
      <h2>Sign Up for our newsletter</h2>
      <input type="email" name="email" id="email" placeholder="example@gmail.com"
        value={email} onChange={(e) => setEmail(e.target.value)} />
      <button type="submit">Subscribe</button>
    </form>
  )
}
```

This will result in a subscription form similar to the following:

![Subscription Form](https://i.imgur.com/JHIFEwe.png)

If you try entering an email and clicking Subscribe, the email will be subscribed to your Mailchimp newsletter successfully.

## What’s Next 🚀

- Check out SendGrid plugin for more Email functionalities.
- [Learn more about plugins.](https://docs.medusajs.com/guides/plugins)