Collecting customer contact information

You can use email, SMS, and WhatsApp 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 Messaging 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, including transactions placed in the Shop app and Shop website. 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, or by opting in when signing into their customer account. 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, or while opting in when signing into their customer account, 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 opt-in section, edit the default text.

After a customer accepts marketing from your 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 checkout and sign-in

If you turn on email marketing opt-in at checkout or sign-in, a consent checkbox is displayed to customers. You can configure whether the checkbox is preselected by default, and in which regions. When the checkbox is preselected, customers can still choose to deselect it.

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 you chose consent setting is active by default. You can deactivate it by switching to Regions recommended by Shopify, 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 opt-in section, select Email.
3. Click Regions recommended by Shopify.
4. Click Save.

Mobile

1. From the Shopify app, tap , and then tap Settings.

2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.

3. In the Marketing opt-in section, select Email.

4. Tap Regions recommended by Shopify.

5. Tap Save or ✓.

Manually select the regions where email marketing is preselected

You can manually select which regions have the email marketing consent checkbox preselected during checkout or sign-in using the Regions you choose option in your Marketing opt-in 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 opt-in 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.

Mobile

1. From the Shopify app, tap , and then tap Settings.

2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.

3. In the Marketing opt-in 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 or ✓.

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. This lets customers opt in to email marketing without creating a cart or going through checkout. Submitted email addresses are stored in the Email subscribers customer segment on the Customers page in your Shopify admin.

Consider the following options for adding newsletter signup to your online store:

• Use the Shopify Forms app to create inline or popup forms to display on your store.
• Use a Shopify theme to 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 or WhatsApp marketing subscription preference to be saved, the customer needs to submit the checkout.

The Shipping address phone number setting applies only when checkout includes a shipping address step. If customers can complete checkout without providing a phone number, then refer to troubleshooting phone number collection.

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. In the Customer information section, select whether Shipping address phone number 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.

3. To add an SMS or WhatsApp marketing sign-up checkbox to your checkout, in the Marketing opt-in section, do any of the following:

• In the SMS section, select Checkout only from the drop-down menu.
• In the WhatsApp section, select Checkout only from the drop-down menu.

4. Click Save.

Mobile

1. From the Shopify app, tap , and then tap Settings.

2. In the Store settings section, tap Checkout.

3. In the Customer information section, select whether Shipping address phone number 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. To add an SMS or WhatsApp sign-up checkbox to your checkout, in the Marketing opt-in section, do any of the following:

• In the SMS section, select Checkout only from the drop-down menu.
• In the WhatsApp section, select Checkout only from the drop-down menu.

5. Tap Save or ✓.

Select the regions where the WhatsApp and SMS checkbox display

If you have both SMS and WhatsApp marketing opt-in activated, then you can choose which regions each option displays for at checkout.

Steps:

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

2. In the Marketing opt-in section, go to Show WhatsApp instead of SMS checkbox based on region.

3. In the WhatsApp column, click the icon.

4. Do either of the following options:

• To use Shopify's default recommendations, select Regions recommended by Shopify, and then click Done.
• To choose the regions where you display WhatsApp marketing opt-in manually, select Regions you choose. Select the regions from the checklist, and then click Done.

5. The SMS column displays all other regions that weren't selected when you edited the WhatsApp regions. If you select or deselect an SMS region, then it also updates your WhatsApp regions.

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.