Collecting customer contact information

You can use email and SMS marketing to grow your business and build relationships with your customers. Consider using the Shopify Forms app to grow your subscriber list. After your customers sign up for marketing, you can use an email marketing app such as Shopify Email to send newsletters to customers and let them know about new products and upcoming sales.

Grow your business

Learn more about how to grow your business with email marketing on the Shopify blog.

Collecting contact information from customers

Note

For more information about how Shopify collects, uses, and stores personal information, refer to the Shopify Privacy Policy.

For legal and privacy reasons, make sure that you send promotional content only to customers who have agreed to receive marketing from your online store. Customers can subscribe to marketing content by adding their contact information to a newsletter sign-up on your online store, or by adding their email address and checking a checkbox in the checkout. You can then have them receive a confirmation message for subscription by modifying your checkout settings for email or checkout settings for SMS.

When customers sign up for your newsletter using the checkbox during checkout, the default theme content states that they're signing up for news and offers. If your shop is set up to send abandoned cart reminders, then you need to change the information that displays next to the consent checkbox. You can change the information for the email and SMS marketing opt-in that displays next to the consent checkbox by using your theme's language editor. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout, and then in the Marketing options section, click Customize labels to edit the Checkout marketing and Order details default text.

After a customer accepts marketing from your online store, their email address or phone number is displayed on the Customers page of your Shopify admin. To list only the customers who agree to receive promotional content through email, you can click the default Email subscribers segment, or you can create a new customer segment to list specific types of customers who accept email marketing.

Consider using the Forms app to engage with your online store customers and grow your email list.

Note

If your store is located in Germany and your SMS and email marketing setup require you to send confirmation messages to your customers, then your customers must respond to these messages to be included in any marketing that you send. Activating double opt-in can help you to meet GDPR compliance requirements, and to create a list of engaged subscribers.

Collect customer emails from the checkout

You can configure the settings for the checkbox in the checkout that collects customer’s consent for receiving marketing emails. The checkbox can either be preselected by default in select customer regions, with customers being able to manually deselect it, or unselected by default so the customer can opt-in on their own.

You can choose between Shopify automatically changing the checkbox to preselected or unchecked based on the local jurisdictions of the customer's region, or you can manually select the regions where you want the checkbox preselected by default.

A customer's consent is captured when they enter their email address and the checkbox is selected. Customers don't need to complete the checkout to be added to your marketing subscribers list. If they deselect the checkbox on their own or leave it deselected, then consent is set to not consented and they aren't added to your marketing subscribers list.

Note

If your store is located in Germany, then you need to add additional customer subscription status information.

Automatically select the regions where email marketing is preselected

Shopify's automated email marketing consent setting can help you sync your store's compliance with the local jurisdiction laws of the customer's country at the time of shopping.

When you activate collecting customer’s emails for marketing and promotional offers, the Regions recommended by Shopify consent setting is active by default. You can deactivate it by switching to a manual selection of regions, or reactivate it at any time.

Caution

Automated email marketing consent settings aren't a substitute for legal advice. You're responsible for ensuring their accuracy and compliance with applicable laws. Regularly review and update your settings and content to reflect your business practices. Significant changes might require notifying your customers. Consult a lawyer when necessary.

Steps:

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout.
2. In the Marketing options section, select Email.
3. Click Regions recommended by Shopify.
4. Click Save.

iPhone

1. From the Shopify app, tap the … button, and then tap Settings.
2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.
3. In the Marketing options section, select Email.
4. Tap Regions recommended by Shopify.
5. Tap Save.

Android

1. From the Shopify app, tap the ☰ button, and then tap Settings.
2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.
3. In the Marketing options section, select Email.
4. Tap Regions recommended by Shopify.
5. Tap Save.

Manually select the regions where email marketing is preselected

You can manually select which regions have the email marketing consent checkbox preselected during checkout using the Regions you choose option in your Marketing options checkout settings. If you want the email marketing consent checkbox to never be preselected, so that all customers in all regions must manually opt-in to email marketing, then you can select no regions. By default, no regions are selected when activating the Regions you choose option.

Steps:

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout.

2. In the Marketing options section, check Email.

3. Click Regions you choose, and then click Edit.

4. Using the All tab or search function, select the regions you want to include, and then click Save. You can select no regions to make the consent checkbox never be preselected in any region.

5. Click Save.

iPhone

1. From the Shopify app, tap the … button, and then tap Settings.
2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.
3. In the Marketing options section, select Email.
4. Tap Regions you choose, and then tap Edit.
5. Using the All tab or search function, select the regions you want to include, and then tap Save. You can select no regions to make the consent checkbox never be preselected in any region.
6. Tap Save.

Android

1. From the Shopify app, tap the ☰ button, and then tap Settings.
2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.
3. In the Marketing options section, select Email.
4. Tap Regions you choose, and then tap Edit.
5. Using the All tab or search function, select the regions you want to include, and then tap Save. You can select no regions to make the consent checkbox never be preselected in any region.
6. Tap Save.

Collecting customer emails in Germany

If your store is located in Germany, then there's an additional Require customers to confirm their subscription checkbox on the Email marketing section of the Notifications settings page. Letting customers opt in to receive marketing emails helps you create a more engaged subscriber list by preventing uninterested or incorrect email addresses from being added to your subscriber's list.

Collect customer emails from your online store

You can collect customer emails by adding a newsletter signup section to your online store. With a newsletter signup on your online store, you collect email addresses from your customers without them needing to create a cart and navigate through the checkout to opt-in to email marketing. Submitted customer emails are stored in the Email subscribers customer segment on the Customers page in the Shopify admin.

Most themes have an Email signup visible by default in your online store's footer, which you can choose to hide or display to suit your needs. If you have a Shopify theme, then you can add a newsletter signup to any page template using a theme section block.

For help with adding a newsletter section to your third-party theme, refer to your theme documentation.

Collect customer phone numbers from the checkout

To collect customer phone numbers from the checkout, you need to complete the following steps:

• Activate the SMS checkout option in your Settings. For detailed instructions, refer to setting up your customer's SMS notification options.
• Set up a terms of service and privacy policy in the Policies page of your Shopify admin. Learn more about adding store policies.

For the customer's SMS marketing subscription preference to be saved, the customer needs to complete the checkout.

Note

If your store is located in Germany, then you need to add additional customer subscription status information.

Steps:

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout.

2. To add a sign-up checkbox to your checkout, in the Marketing options section, check SMS.

3. In the Customer information section, select whether it should be optional or required to add a phone number at checkout. If your payment provider or shipping carrier requires that the customer provides a phone number to complete the checkout, then set the phone number to Required.

4. Click Save.

iPhone

1. From the Shopify app, tap the … button, and then tap Settings.
2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.
3. To add a sign-up checkbox to your checkout, in the Marketing options section, check SMS.
4. In the Customer information section, select whether it should be optional or required to add a phone number at checkout. If your payment provider or shipping carrier requires that the customer provides a phone number to complete the checkout, then set the phone number to Required.
5. Tap Save.

Android

1. From the Shopify app, tap the ☰ button, and then tap Settings.
2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.
3. To add a sign-up checkbox to your checkout, in the Marketing options section, check SMS.
4. In the Customer information section, select whether it should be optional or required to add a phone number at checkout. If your payment provider or shipping carrier requires that the customer provides a phone number to complete the checkout, then set the phone number to Required.
5. Tap Save.

Activate double opt-in for subscribers

Double opt-in requires customers to click a link in an email to confirm that they want to receive email and SMS marketing from you. The confirmation email is sent automatically when someone enters their email address and subscribes in your online store. In some countries, double opt-in is required by law, but in general it's also a best practice for acquiring more engaged subscribers. Customers who subscribe to your mailing before you activate double opt-in aren't required to confirm their status.

You need to have the Online Store sales channel installed to activate double opt-in.

You can customize your double opt-in email by clicking Settings > Notifications > Customer notifications in your Shopify admin. For legal reasons, this email should not contain any marketing.

If you activate double opt-in, then you should update the newsletter form's confirmation message in your online store so that customers know to check their email for a follow-up confirmation. Updating the confirmation message can help ensure more opt-ins. For example, your confirmation message could say something such as “Check your email to confirm your subscription!”.

You can edit the confirmation message in your Shopify admin by going to Online Store > Themes. In the section for your active theme, click the ... button, and then click Edit default theme content. This field might be displayed differently depending on your theme, but in general the field is labeled either Confirmation under the Newsletter form section or Post success under the Sign up section.

Note

If you activate double opt-in for your Shopify store and use a subscription app, then you need to update the double opt-in settings in the app. If the app doesn’t have a double opt-in option, then any customers who sign up are marked as a subscriber on the Customers page.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications.

2. Click Customer notifications.

3. In the Marketing double opt-in section, select Customer marketing confirmation.