Email subscriber list management

You can use email marketing to grow your business and build relationships with your customers. Sending newsletters to customers who sign up for your mailing list is a great way to let them know about new products and upcoming sales.

Collect email addresses from customers

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

After a customer accepts marketing from your online store, their email address shows on the Customers page of your Shopify admin. Click the Email subscribers segment to show only the customers who have agreed to receive promotional emails.

If a subscriber clicks the Unsubscribe link from the email that they receive, or mark an email from you as spam, then they're automatically removed from your subscriber list. When an email bounces back due to an issue with an email address, that email address is automatically suppressed from future email sends.

Collect customer emails at checkout

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout.
  2. In the Email marketing section, check Show a sign-up option at checkout. This adds a sign-up checkbox to your checkout.
  3. Optional: check Preselect the sign-up option. This preselects the email marketing sign-up box at the checkout for customers without an account. It also preselects the box for customers with accounts who are in the Email subscribers customer list. The box isn't preselected at the checkout for customers with accounts who have opted out of email marketing and aren't on the Email subscribers customer list.
  4. Click Save.

Collect customer emails from your home page

To collect customer email addresses from your home page, add a newsletter signup section to your online store. With a newsletter signup, you can collect email addresses from your customers and store them in the Email subscribers customer segment on the Customers page in the Shopify admin. Consider the journey of customers visiting your online store and offer email address collection at key points such as your homepage and at checkout.

For help with adding a newsletter section to your online store, see your theme documentation.

Contests and sweepstakes are also great ways to quickly build a subscriber list, but make sure to offer double opt-in so that the customer is aware that they're also signing up for email marketing.

If you recently acquired a lot of new subscribers, then consider creating a customer segment for new subscribers so that you can send them a welcome email. Include a discount code and a link to your store in welcome emails to encourage new subscribers to make a purchase. Welcome emails are also a friendly way for subscribers to unsubscribe from your email list.

Import customer lists

You can import a customer list, but you should review all names and email addresses on the list first. This will help you avoid errors when you send out your email campaigns.

Role-based email addresses

Role-based email addresses start with words like info@ or support@. These email addresses are usually directed to a team, not a single person. We recommend that you remove role-based email addresses manually because they are probably not monitored. This can hurt your open rate over time.

Will my emails send only to people that subscribe to my email marketing list?

Yes, you can only email people who opt in to receiving emails from your business. You will see those customers listed with an Accepts marketing indicator on their customer page. Shopify Email filters out any customers who do not accept email marketing from you.

The number of subscribers in your customer group in Shopify Email might differ from the number of subscribers in the Customers section of your Shopify admin. To maintain your sender reputation and deliverability over time, subscriber email addresses that consistently bounce back can't be emailed using Shopify Email.

Send an email campaign to a specific segment of customers

You can send an email campaign to a specific segment of customers by starting from within the Shopify Email app or from the Customers page. In this procedure, you send the email campaign from the Customers page.

Before you begin, create a customer segment that includes email subscribers.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Customers.

  2. Click Segments.

  3. From the segments index, click a customer segment.

  4. Click Use segment.

  5. If necessary, install the Shopify Email app.

  6. Click Send email.

  7. Create an email campaign.

Double opt-in

Double opt-in requires customers to click a link in an email to confirm that they want to receive email 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, and it's also a best practice when it comes to acquiring more engaged subscribers. Customers who subscribe to your mailing before you enable double opt-in are not required to confirm their status.

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

If you enable 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 like “Check your email to confirm your subscription!”.

You edit the confirmation message in your Shopify admin by going to Online Store > Themes > the ... button > Edit default theme content. Depending on your theme, the field is labeled either Confirmation under the Newsletter form section, or Post success under the Sign up section.

What are the benefits of double opt-in?

Letting customers opt-in or opt-out for receiving marketing emails can help you create a more engaged subscriber list by preventing uninterested or incorrect email addresses from being added to your email batch. It can take longer to build up your list because some users will inevitably forget to click the confirmation link sent to them, but subscribers who are genuinely interested in receiving emails from you are the most beneficial to your business.

Remove someone from your subscribers list

To remove someone from your subscribers list, go to the Customers tab in your Shopify admin, click the specific customer that you want to change, and then manually edit their Email Marketing status.

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