Email marketing is one of the most effective revenue channels available to Shopify store owners, yet most merchants use only a fraction of its potential. Email marketing delivers the highest ROI for Shopify stores at 42:1, meaning every $1 invested returns $42 in revenue. If you're building or scaling a Shopify store, learning how to do email marketing on Shopify is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make.
This guide covers everything: which tools to use, how to build your list, the automations that generate the most revenue, segmentation strategies, and how to measure what works.
Key Takeaways
Email marketing campaigns have an average ROI of 36 times, meaning businesses earn $36 for every dollar they spend.
Shopify's built-in tool, Shopify Messaging, gives you 10,000 free emails per month and pre-built automations for welcome flows, abandoned carts, and post-purchase sequences.
Automated email flows account for 29 to 38% of total email revenue from just 2 to 5% of total sends.
Campaigns that use audience segmentation see an average revenue increase of 760%.
The most important flows to set up first are welcome, abandoned cart, and post-purchase, in that order.
What Is Shopify Email Marketing?
Shopify email marketing refers to using email campaigns and automated workflows to communicate with customers directly from your Shopify store. It is a marketing channel used by ecommerce businesses on the Shopify platform to communicate with customers and promote products through email campaigns and personalized workflows. The goal is to engage customers, drive sales, increase brand awareness, and build long-term customer relationships.
What makes Shopify email marketing different from generic email marketing is the native data connection. Email marketing applications can access important data in real-time, like a history of customer purchases, browsing behaviors, and preferences, to create highly personalized marketing campaigns that drive results.
44% of marketing professionals say email is their most effective marketing channel, a greater percentage than for any other channel. For ecommerce specifically, the case is even stronger. In 2024, 50% of consumers said they purchased directly from an email, more than from social media posts or ads.
Email marketing is one of the most effective revenue channels available to Shopify store owners, yet most merchants use only a fraction of its potential. Email marketing delivers the highest ROI for Shopify stores at 42:1, meaning every $1 invested returns $42 in revenue. If you're building or scaling a Shopify store, learning how to do email marketing on Shopify is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make.
This guide covers everything: which tools to use, how to build your list, the automations that generate the most revenue, segmentation strategies, and how to measure what works.
Key Takeaways
Email marketing campaigns have an average ROI of 36 times, meaning businesses earn $36 for every dollar they spend.
Shopify's built-in tool, Shopify Messaging, gives you 10,000 free emails per month and pre-built automations for welcome flows, abandoned carts, and post-purchase sequences.
Automated email flows account for 29 to 38% of total email revenue from just 2 to 5% of total sends.
Campaigns that use audience segmentation see an average revenue increase of 760%.
The most important flows to set up first are welcome, abandoned cart, and post-purchase, in that order.
What Is Shopify Email Marketing?
Shopify email marketing refers to using email campaigns and automated workflows to communicate with customers directly from your Shopify store. It is a marketing channel used by ecommerce businesses on the Shopify platform to communicate with customers and promote products through email campaigns and personalized workflows. The goal is to engage customers, drive sales, increase brand awareness, and build long-term customer relationships.
What makes Shopify email marketing different from generic email marketing is the native data connection. Email marketing applications can access important data in real-time, like a history of customer purchases, browsing behaviors, and preferences, to create highly personalized marketing campaigns that drive results.
44% of marketing professionals say email is their most effective marketing channel, a greater percentage than for any other channel. For ecommerce specifically, the case is even stronger. In 2024, 50% of consumers said they purchased directly from an email, more than from social media posts or ads.
Choose the Right Email Tool for Your Shopify Store
Your first decision is which platform to use. The right answer depends on your store's size and complexity.
Shopify Messaging (Native)
Shopify Messaging is a built-in email marketing software for Shopify that makes it easy to create, send, and track professional emails, all without leaving your Shopify dashboard.
It gives you 10,000 free emails per month, and then charges $1 per 1,000 emails after that. As of March 2026, it holds a 4.7/5 rating on the Shopify App Store based on over 3,000 reviews.
Marketing automations are included on Shopify's Basic plan and above, and you can use pre-built templates to automate key marketing moments like welcome emails, post-purchase upsells, abandoned carts, and more based on the data you have about your customers.
It is a solid starting point. It is a no-cost starting point and works well in the early stages, but is not a long-term email marketing solution once a store is generating consistent revenue. Most merchants outgrow it within three to six months.
Third-Party Platforms
For stores that need more advanced automation and segmentation, the most widely used alternatives are:
Klaviyo: Deep behavioral segmentation, predictive analytics, and over 350 integrations. Pricing starts free for up to 250 contacts, with paid plans from $20/month for email. Best for scaling stores that want advanced data-driven campaigns.
Omnisend: An all-in-one platform designed for multichannel campaigns, offering email, SMS, and push notifications. Has a free plan supporting up to 500 emails a month, with paid Shopify-integrated plans starting at $16/month.
Brevo: A cost-effective platform offering email, SMS, and chat features, with paid plans starting at $8/month.
Build Your Email List
No tool generates revenue without a quality list. A strong subscriber list is the foundation of every successful Shopify email marketing program. Without a quality list, even the best-designed emails won't deliver results.
Pop-ups remain the highest-converting email capture method for Shopify stores. BDOW's email signup benchmark data shows that the average pop-up opt-in rate sits around 4%, with top performers clearing 6% or higher.
You can install Shopify Forms to create lead capture forms, like overlays on your store or standalone pages to capture customers' email, name, phone number, and more. You can also use Shopify Inbox to build your list, since customers can opt into email marketing directly from the chat window.
Effective list-building tactics for Shopify stores include:
Choose the Right Email Tool for Your Shopify Store
Your first decision is which platform to use. The right answer depends on your store's size and complexity.
Shopify Messaging (Native)
Shopify Messaging is a built-in email marketing software for Shopify that makes it easy to create, send, and track professional emails, all without leaving your Shopify dashboard.
It gives you 10,000 free emails per month, and then charges $1 per 1,000 emails after that. As of March 2026, it holds a 4.7/5 rating on the Shopify App Store based on over 3,000 reviews.
Marketing automations are included on Shopify's Basic plan and above, and you can use pre-built templates to automate key marketing moments like welcome emails, post-purchase upsells, abandoned carts, and more based on the data you have about your customers.
It is a solid starting point. It is a no-cost starting point and works well in the early stages, but is not a long-term email marketing solution once a store is generating consistent revenue. Most merchants outgrow it within three to six months.
Third-Party Platforms
For stores that need more advanced automation and segmentation, the most widely used alternatives are:
Klaviyo: Deep behavioral segmentation, predictive analytics, and over 350 integrations. Pricing starts free for up to 250 contacts, with paid plans from $20/month for email. Best for scaling stores that want advanced data-driven campaigns.
Omnisend: An all-in-one platform designed for multichannel campaigns, offering email, SMS, and push notifications. Has a free plan supporting up to 500 emails a month, with paid Shopify-integrated plans starting at $16/month.
Brevo: A cost-effective platform offering email, SMS, and chat features, with paid plans starting at $8/month.
Build Your Email List
No tool generates revenue without a quality list. A strong subscriber list is the foundation of every successful Shopify email marketing program. Without a quality list, even the best-designed emails won't deliver results.
Pop-ups remain the highest-converting email capture method for Shopify stores. BDOW's email signup benchmark data shows that the average pop-up opt-in rate sits around 4%, with top performers clearing 6% or higher.
You can install Shopify Forms to create lead capture forms, like overlays on your store or standalone pages to capture customers' email, name, phone number, and more. You can also use Shopify Inbox to build your list, since customers can opt into email marketing directly from the chat window.
Effective list-building tactics for Shopify stores include:
Exit-intent popups with a first-order discount (10 to 15% off converts well for impulse-friendly products under $100)
Checkout opt-in: Enable email marketing opt-in at Shopify checkout via Settings > Checkout > Marketing consent.
Lead magnets such as size guides, buying guides, or exclusive access to new collections
Embedded forms in blog posts and high-traffic product pages
One important rule: never buy email lists. Buying email lists may seem like a shortcut, but they're almost always filled with cold, uninterested, or fake contacts. The result is low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, and damage to your sender reputation, meaning your real emails could start landing in spam, even for subscribers who want to hear from you.
Automation is where Shopify email marketing generates the bulk of its revenue. Automated email flows are the engine of email ROI. They run 24/7 without manual effort and consistently outperform campaign broadcasts. Welcome series revenue accounts for 8 to 12% of total email revenue, while cart abandonment flows recover 5 to 12% of abandoned carts, averaging $5.81 per recovered order.
Start with these three flows before anything else:
1. Welcome Series
Welcome emails have a 52.4% open rate, which is 2.4x higher than campaign emails. A three-email welcome series generates 90% more revenue than a single welcome email.
Set up a 3 to 5-email sequence that introduces your brand, highlights your best products, and delivers the incentive promised at signup. For more on structuring this, see our guide on welcome email sequence best practices.
2. Abandoned Cart Recovery
Abandoned cart emails have an open rate of 45%, and out of them, 11% lead to abandoned cart recovery.
Send reminders at 1 hour, 24 hours, and 72 hours after abandonment. The first email should simply remind them what they left behind. The second can address potential objections like shipping cost or return policy. The third can include a small discount if your margins allow.
3. Post-Purchase Flow
A Shopify post-purchase email is any email you send after a customer purchases a product. Its purpose is to nurture and retain customers through constant communication.
Only 34% of Shopify stores have post-purchase upsell flows active, which makes this one of the most underused revenue opportunities in ecommerce. A basic post-purchase sequence should include an order confirmation, a product usage or care tip email, and a cross-sell recommendation 5 to 7 days after delivery.
Segment Your List for Higher ROI
Sending the same email to your entire list is one of the most common and costly mistakes in Shopify email marketing. Unlike non-segmented campaigns, which send the same message to everyone on your email list, segmented emails allow you to efficiently send custom emails that target the needs and pain points of specific groups.
Exit-intent popups with a first-order discount (10 to 15% off converts well for impulse-friendly products under $100)
Checkout opt-in: Enable email marketing opt-in at Shopify checkout via Settings > Checkout > Marketing consent.
Lead magnets such as size guides, buying guides, or exclusive access to new collections
Embedded forms in blog posts and high-traffic product pages
One important rule: never buy email lists. Buying email lists may seem like a shortcut, but they're almost always filled with cold, uninterested, or fake contacts. The result is low open rates, high unsubscribe rates, and damage to your sender reputation, meaning your real emails could start landing in spam, even for subscribers who want to hear from you.
Automation is where Shopify email marketing generates the bulk of its revenue. Automated email flows are the engine of email ROI. They run 24/7 without manual effort and consistently outperform campaign broadcasts. Welcome series revenue accounts for 8 to 12% of total email revenue, while cart abandonment flows recover 5 to 12% of abandoned carts, averaging $5.81 per recovered order.
Start with these three flows before anything else:
1. Welcome Series
Welcome emails have a 52.4% open rate, which is 2.4x higher than campaign emails. A three-email welcome series generates 90% more revenue than a single welcome email.
Set up a 3 to 5-email sequence that introduces your brand, highlights your best products, and delivers the incentive promised at signup. For more on structuring this, see our guide on welcome email sequence best practices.
2. Abandoned Cart Recovery
Abandoned cart emails have an open rate of 45%, and out of them, 11% lead to abandoned cart recovery.
Send reminders at 1 hour, 24 hours, and 72 hours after abandonment. The first email should simply remind them what they left behind. The second can address potential objections like shipping cost or return policy. The third can include a small discount if your margins allow.
3. Post-Purchase Flow
A Shopify post-purchase email is any email you send after a customer purchases a product. Its purpose is to nurture and retain customers through constant communication.
Only 34% of Shopify stores have post-purchase upsell flows active, which makes this one of the most underused revenue opportunities in ecommerce. A basic post-purchase sequence should include an order confirmation, a product usage or care tip email, and a cross-sell recommendation 5 to 7 days after delivery.
Segment Your List for Higher ROI
Sending the same email to your entire list is one of the most common and costly mistakes in Shopify email marketing. Unlike non-segmented campaigns, which send the same message to everyone on your email list, segmented emails allow you to efficiently send custom emails that target the needs and pain points of specific groups.
For Shopify stores, tracking actions provides a goldmine of segmentation opportunities: purchase history (based on what customers bought, how frequently, and how much they spent), and cart abandonment (creating a segment for users who added items to their cart but didn't complete the purchase, since this is a high-intent group that often just needs a nudge).
Key segments to build from day one:
First-time buyers vs. repeat customers
High-AOV customers: Offer premium bundles, early access, or membership perks.
Lapsed customers: Those who haven't purchased in 60 to 90 days and need a win-back sequence
Engaged non-buyers: Subscribers who open emails but haven't converted yet
Stores with automated welcome series, browse abandonment, and post-purchase flows generate 2 to 3x more revenue per subscriber than those using only campaign emails.
The best automation in the world fails if no one opens the email. Two elements drive most of your open rate: your sender name and your subject line.
47% of people will open an email based on the subject line, and 69% of individuals will regard emails as spammy based on the subject line.
Keep subject lines specific and relevant to the segment receiving them. Emails with personalized subject lines can increase open rates by 26%.
For the email body itself:
Lead with the most important point, not a long preamble
Use one clear call to action per email
Keep copy short on mobile (most Shopify traffic is mobile)
Consumers spend 128% more when shopping from emails than when using other methods, so tie your content directly to product discovery
For more on subject line strategy, see our guide on email subject line best practices that boost open rates by 27%.
Measure Performance and Improve
The email metrics you track will depend on your goals and the type of campaigns you're running. Common email metrics include deliverability rate, open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, and return on investment.
Benchmarks to use as a baseline:
Ecommerce email open rates reached 30.7% in 2025, up from 26.6% in 2024.
In 2024, the average marketing email click-through rate was 2.62%.
The average ecommerce unsubscribe rate is 0.19%.
For Shopify stores, tracking actions provides a goldmine of segmentation opportunities: purchase history (based on what customers bought, how frequently, and how much they spent), and cart abandonment (creating a segment for users who added items to their cart but didn't complete the purchase, since this is a high-intent group that often just needs a nudge).
Key segments to build from day one:
First-time buyers vs. repeat customers
High-AOV customers: Offer premium bundles, early access, or membership perks.
Lapsed customers: Those who haven't purchased in 60 to 90 days and need a win-back sequence
Engaged non-buyers: Subscribers who open emails but haven't converted yet
Stores with automated welcome series, browse abandonment, and post-purchase flows generate 2 to 3x more revenue per subscriber than those using only campaign emails.
The best automation in the world fails if no one opens the email. Two elements drive most of your open rate: your sender name and your subject line.
47% of people will open an email based on the subject line, and 69% of individuals will regard emails as spammy based on the subject line.
Keep subject lines specific and relevant to the segment receiving them. Emails with personalized subject lines can increase open rates by 26%.
For the email body itself:
Lead with the most important point, not a long preamble
Use one clear call to action per email
Keep copy short on mobile (most Shopify traffic is mobile)
Consumers spend 128% more when shopping from emails than when using other methods, so tie your content directly to product discovery
For more on subject line strategy, see our guide on email subject line best practices that boost open rates by 27%.
Measure Performance and Improve
The email metrics you track will depend on your goals and the type of campaigns you're running. Common email metrics include deliverability rate, open rate, click-through rate, conversion rate, unsubscribe rate, bounce rate, and return on investment.
Benchmarks to use as a baseline:
Ecommerce email open rates reached 30.7% in 2025, up from 26.6% in 2024.
In 2024, the average marketing email click-through rate was 2.62%.
The average ecommerce unsubscribe rate is 0.19%.
If your unsubscribe rate is above 0.5% consistently, your emails are not relevant enough to the segments receiving them. If your open rate falls below 20%, examine your subject lines, sender reputation, and list hygiene.
List attrition runs at 22 to 30% annually through unsubscribes and bounces, so you need to capture 2 to 3% new subscribers per month just to maintain net list growth.
Run A/B tests on subject lines, send times, and CTAs. Marketers who A/B test their emails often increase email ROI by 86% compared to those who never do.
Shopify Email Marketing: What to Do First
If you're starting from scratch on Shopify, here is the sequence that gets you to revenue fastest:
Install Shopify Messaging (or Klaviyo if you expect rapid growth)
Add a popup to your storefront with a first-order discount or lead magnet
Enable checkout email opt-in
Set up your welcome email series (at least 3 emails over 7 days)
Build your first segments (new buyers, repeat buyers, lapsed customers)
Review open rates, CTR, and revenue per email every two weeks
For most Shopify stores, 1 to 3 emails per week works well. Weekly is the minimum for maintaining engagement; more than 4 per week risks increased unsubscribes unless your content is exceptional.
For a full strategic framework, our email marketing strategy template walks through campaign planning, flow sequencing, and KPI setting in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Shopify have a built-in email marketing tool?
Yes. Shopify has a built-in email marketing and SMS tool called Shopify Messaging, formerly known as Shopify Email. It is a strong starting point for merchants sending their first campaigns. With Shopify Messaging, you get a drag-and-drop editor with pre-built Shopify email templates to get started quickly. The tool also provides basic segmentation, native customer data sync from your store, and campaign analytics.
How much does email marketing cost on Shopify?
Shopify Messaging is free for up to 10,000 emails per month. After that, you pay $1 per 1,000 emails, with dynamic pricing that decreases the more you send. Third-party tools like Omnisend start at $16/month and Klaviyo starts free for small lists, scaling based on contact count.
What emails should I set up first on Shopify?
Start with the three highest-ROI automations: a welcome series, an abandoned cart sequence, and a post-purchase flow. Start with the basics (welcome, abandoned cart, and order confirmation and status updates), and work out from there. These three flows generate the majority of automated email revenue for most Shopify stores and require minimal maintenance once live.
How often should I send emails to my Shopify list?
If your unsubscribe rate is above 0.5% consistently, your emails are not relevant enough to the segments receiving them. If your open rate falls below 20%, examine your subject lines, sender reputation, and list hygiene.
List attrition runs at 22 to 30% annually through unsubscribes and bounces, so you need to capture 2 to 3% new subscribers per month just to maintain net list growth.
Run A/B tests on subject lines, send times, and CTAs. Marketers who A/B test their emails often increase email ROI by 86% compared to those who never do.
Shopify Email Marketing: What to Do First
If you're starting from scratch on Shopify, here is the sequence that gets you to revenue fastest:
Install Shopify Messaging (or Klaviyo if you expect rapid growth)
Add a popup to your storefront with a first-order discount or lead magnet
Enable checkout email opt-in
Set up your welcome email series (at least 3 emails over 7 days)
Build your first segments (new buyers, repeat buyers, lapsed customers)
Review open rates, CTR, and revenue per email every two weeks
For most Shopify stores, 1 to 3 emails per week works well. Weekly is the minimum for maintaining engagement; more than 4 per week risks increased unsubscribes unless your content is exceptional.
For a full strategic framework, our email marketing strategy template walks through campaign planning, flow sequencing, and KPI setting in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Shopify have a built-in email marketing tool?
Yes. Shopify has a built-in email marketing and SMS tool called Shopify Messaging, formerly known as Shopify Email. It is a strong starting point for merchants sending their first campaigns. With Shopify Messaging, you get a drag-and-drop editor with pre-built Shopify email templates to get started quickly. The tool also provides basic segmentation, native customer data sync from your store, and campaign analytics.
How much does email marketing cost on Shopify?
Shopify Messaging is free for up to 10,000 emails per month. After that, you pay $1 per 1,000 emails, with dynamic pricing that decreases the more you send. Third-party tools like Omnisend start at $16/month and Klaviyo starts free for small lists, scaling based on contact count.
What emails should I set up first on Shopify?
Start with the three highest-ROI automations: a welcome series, an abandoned cart sequence, and a post-purchase flow. Start with the basics (welcome, abandoned cart, and order confirmation and status updates), and work out from there. These three flows generate the majority of automated email revenue for most Shopify stores and require minimal maintenance once live.
How often should I send emails to my Shopify list?
For most Shopify stores, 1 to 3 emails per week works well. Weekly is the minimum for maintaining engagement, while more than 4 per week risks increased unsubscribes unless your content is exceptional. The key is consistency and value: every email should offer something useful, not just sell.
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For most Shopify stores, 1 to 3 emails per week works well. Weekly is the minimum for maintaining engagement, while more than 4 per week risks increased unsubscribes unless your content is exceptional. The key is consistency and value: every email should offer something useful, not just sell.
