Email is the most profitable channel available to Shopify merchants, and the numbers back it up. Email marketing delivers the highest ROI for Shopify stores at 42:1, meaning every $1 invested returns $42 in revenue. Yet most store owners either skip email entirely or send campaigns inconsistently without a real system behind them. This Shopify email marketing guide covers everything you need: how to set up your sending infrastructure, which tools to use at each stage of growth, which automations to prioritize, and how to measure what actually matters.
Key Takeaways
44% of marketing professionals say email is their most effective marketing channel, ahead of social media and paid search.
In 2024, automated emails accounted for 37% of all email-generated sales, despite comprising only 2% of email volume.
Welcome series emails account for 8 to 12% of total email revenue, and a 3-email welcome series generates 90% more revenue than a single welcome email.
Domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is required for inbox placement at Gmail and Yahoo, and skipping it causes Shopify to replace your branded sender address with a generic one.
The right email tool depends on your store's revenue and complexity: Shopify Messaging for beginners, Omnisend for mid-size stores, and Klaviyo for data-intensive scaling.
Why Email Is the Core Channel for Shopify Stores
Paid ads rent you an audience. Email lets you own one. Every subscriber on your list is a direct line to a customer who has already shown interest in your brand, without paying per impression or click.
Consumers spend 128% more when shopping from emails than when using other methods. That spending uplift is partly behavioral: email recipients are warm, opted-in, and often mid-consideration when they click through.
Email marketing is expected to grow in revenue by $5.57 billion from 2024 to 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 13%. For Shopify stores specifically, a well-run email program should contribute 30 to 40% of total store revenue. If yours is contributing less, the gap typically lives in automation flows that have never been set up.
Email is the most profitable channel available to Shopify merchants, and the numbers back it up. Email marketing delivers the highest ROI for Shopify stores at 42:1, meaning every $1 invested returns $42 in revenue. Yet most store owners either skip email entirely or send campaigns inconsistently without a real system behind them. This Shopify email marketing guide covers everything you need: how to set up your sending infrastructure, which tools to use at each stage of growth, which automations to prioritize, and how to measure what actually matters.
Key Takeaways
44% of marketing professionals say email is their most effective marketing channel, ahead of social media and paid search.
In 2024, automated emails accounted for 37% of all email-generated sales, despite comprising only 2% of email volume.
Welcome series emails account for 8 to 12% of total email revenue, and a 3-email welcome series generates 90% more revenue than a single welcome email.
Domain authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is required for inbox placement at Gmail and Yahoo, and skipping it causes Shopify to replace your branded sender address with a generic one.
The right email tool depends on your store's revenue and complexity: Shopify Messaging for beginners, Omnisend for mid-size stores, and Klaviyo for data-intensive scaling.
Why Email Is the Core Channel for Shopify Stores
Paid ads rent you an audience. Email lets you own one. Every subscriber on your list is a direct line to a customer who has already shown interest in your brand, without paying per impression or click.
Consumers spend 128% more when shopping from emails than when using other methods. That spending uplift is partly behavioral: email recipients are warm, opted-in, and often mid-consideration when they click through.
Email marketing is expected to grow in revenue by $5.57 billion from 2024 to 2027, with a compound annual growth rate of 13%. For Shopify stores specifically, a well-run email program should contribute 30 to 40% of total store revenue. If yours is contributing less, the gap typically lives in automation flows that have never been set up.
Step 1: Set Up Your Shopify Email Infrastructure Correctly
Before you send a single campaign, you need your sending infrastructure configured properly. Skipping this step means your emails land in spam or, worse, your sender domain gets flagged.
Authenticate Your Domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
As of February 1, 2024, Gmail and Yahoo require you to authenticate your domain and have a DMARC record in order to send emails to customers from a branded email address. If you take no action, your sender email is rewritten to store+123@shopifyemail.com.
One of the easiest ways to build your sender reputation is by authenticating your sender email address. Authentication methods compare emails against a list of specific IP addresses (SPF), use encryption keys and digital signatures to validate email content (DKIM), and align domain information (DMARC, CNAME).
Here is how to set this up inside Shopify:
Go to Settings > Notifications in your Shopify admin
In the Sender email section, click "authenticate your domain"
Add the CNAME records displayed to your domain's DNS manager
Add a DMARC TXT record to your DNS: v=DMARC1; p=none;
Wait up to 48 hours for DNS propagation
If your domain was purchased through Shopify, your email authentication is set up automatically, and your DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records are configured for you. For third-party domains hosted on Cloudflare, GoDaddy, or IONOS, Shopify can also automatically configure your DNS records.
Set Up Shopify Messaging (The Native Email Tool)
Shopify Messaging is email marketing built for commerce, by Shopify. You can create, send, and manage your email marketing in the same system you use to run your business.
Every month, you can send up to 10,000 manual or automated emails for free. After that, you pay only $1 per 1,000 additional emails sent. For most stores just getting started, this pricing makes Shopify Messaging the obvious entry point.
Shopify Messaging pulls in your store's brand colors to dozens of email templates, and you can quickly add products and discounts from your store to emails to drive more sales.
Step 2: Build Your Email List the Right Way
A list built from genuine opt-ins outperforms a purchased list by every measurable metric. If your list includes invalid email addresses or unknown users, it signals to ISPs that your emails do not properly arrive. Practice good email list hygiene by removing unknown users with strange email addresses. Only keep engaged users on your email list to improve deliverability. Whatever you do, do not purchase or rent email lists.
Practical ways to grow a quality Shopify list:
Step 1: Set Up Your Shopify Email Infrastructure Correctly
Before you send a single campaign, you need your sending infrastructure configured properly. Skipping this step means your emails land in spam or, worse, your sender domain gets flagged.
Authenticate Your Domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
As of February 1, 2024, Gmail and Yahoo require you to authenticate your domain and have a DMARC record in order to send emails to customers from a branded email address. If you take no action, your sender email is rewritten to store+123@shopifyemail.com.
One of the easiest ways to build your sender reputation is by authenticating your sender email address. Authentication methods compare emails against a list of specific IP addresses (SPF), use encryption keys and digital signatures to validate email content (DKIM), and align domain information (DMARC, CNAME).
Here is how to set this up inside Shopify:
Go to Settings > Notifications in your Shopify admin
In the Sender email section, click "authenticate your domain"
Add the CNAME records displayed to your domain's DNS manager
Add a DMARC TXT record to your DNS: v=DMARC1; p=none;
Wait up to 48 hours for DNS propagation
If your domain was purchased through Shopify, your email authentication is set up automatically, and your DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records are configured for you. For third-party domains hosted on Cloudflare, GoDaddy, or IONOS, Shopify can also automatically configure your DNS records.
Set Up Shopify Messaging (The Native Email Tool)
Shopify Messaging is email marketing built for commerce, by Shopify. You can create, send, and manage your email marketing in the same system you use to run your business.
Every month, you can send up to 10,000 manual or automated emails for free. After that, you pay only $1 per 1,000 additional emails sent. For most stores just getting started, this pricing makes Shopify Messaging the obvious entry point.
Shopify Messaging pulls in your store's brand colors to dozens of email templates, and you can quickly add products and discounts from your store to emails to drive more sales.
Step 2: Build Your Email List the Right Way
A list built from genuine opt-ins outperforms a purchased list by every measurable metric. If your list includes invalid email addresses or unknown users, it signals to ISPs that your emails do not properly arrive. Practice good email list hygiene by removing unknown users with strange email addresses. Only keep engaged users on your email list to improve deliverability. Whatever you do, do not purchase or rent email lists.
Practical ways to grow a quality Shopify list:
Popups with a clear incentive: discount codes, free shipping thresholds, or early access to new products
At checkout: Shopify's checkout opt-in checkbox is often overlooked but converts well because purchase intent is at its peak
Post-purchase: customers who just bought are more likely to opt in for future updates
Lead capture forms: Shopify Forms is a free app to help you create engaging lead capture forms for your store with just a few clicks, and it connects with your email marketing automations with no extra setup required.
List attrition rate is 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. List growth is not a one-time project; it is an ongoing system.
Step 3: Build the Four Core Automation Flows
Automation is where Shopify email marketing generates most of its revenue. Automated email revenue accounts for 29 to 38% of total email revenue from just 2 to 5% of total sends. Set these four flows up once and they run continuously.
Welcome Series
Welcome series emails generate the highest revenue per recipient at $2.65 per email sent, and a 3-email welcome series generates 90% more revenue than a single welcome email.
Back-in-stock and welcome emails convert the most subscribers, at 5.84% and 2.84% respectively. Send at least three emails: introduce your brand story, showcase best-sellers, and offer a time-limited incentive. For a detailed walkthrough, see our welcome email sequence best practices guide.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
In 2025, abandoned cart emails had a 39.46% conversion rate, behind only welcome emails.
Send a minimum of one email per day for five days. Ecommerce customers who receive multiple abandoned cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to complete the purchase than those who receive only one follow-up email.
Timing matters: Email 1 sent within 1 hour captures the peak of purchase intent. Emails sent within the first hour have a 45% open rate and a 15% click-through rate.
Post-Purchase Follow-Up
Post-purchase flows arrive following a high-intent moment and have high open rates, providing opportunities for additional revenue. A well-constructed post-purchase email can turn a thank-you message into a cross-sell.
Only 34% of Shopify stores have post-purchase upsell flows active, despite the clear revenue opportunity. This is one of the lowest-effort, highest-return flows you can build.
Win-Back (Re-Engagement)
Win-back flows reactivate 3 to 8% of churned customers. Target subscribers who have not opened or clicked in 60 to 90 days. Offer a compelling reason to return: a discount, a new product launch, or a simple "we miss you" message that re-qualifies their interest before you remove them from your active list.
Step 4: Segment Your Audience for Higher ROI
Generic broadcast emails consistently underperform targeted ones. Campaigns that use audience segmentation see an average revenue increase of 760%.
For Shopify stores, the highest-value segments to build first are:
Popups with a clear incentive: discount codes, free shipping thresholds, or early access to new products
At checkout: Shopify's checkout opt-in checkbox is often overlooked but converts well because purchase intent is at its peak
Post-purchase: customers who just bought are more likely to opt in for future updates
Lead capture forms: Shopify Forms is a free app to help you create engaging lead capture forms for your store with just a few clicks, and it connects with your email marketing automations with no extra setup required.
List attrition rate is 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. List growth is not a one-time project; it is an ongoing system.
Step 3: Build the Four Core Automation Flows
Automation is where Shopify email marketing generates most of its revenue. Automated email revenue accounts for 29 to 38% of total email revenue from just 2 to 5% of total sends. Set these four flows up once and they run continuously.
Welcome Series
Welcome series emails generate the highest revenue per recipient at $2.65 per email sent, and a 3-email welcome series generates 90% more revenue than a single welcome email.
Back-in-stock and welcome emails convert the most subscribers, at 5.84% and 2.84% respectively. Send at least three emails: introduce your brand story, showcase best-sellers, and offer a time-limited incentive. For a detailed walkthrough, see our welcome email sequence best practices guide.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
In 2025, abandoned cart emails had a 39.46% conversion rate, behind only welcome emails.
Send a minimum of one email per day for five days. Ecommerce customers who receive multiple abandoned cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to complete the purchase than those who receive only one follow-up email.
Timing matters: Email 1 sent within 1 hour captures the peak of purchase intent. Emails sent within the first hour have a 45% open rate and a 15% click-through rate.
Post-Purchase Follow-Up
Post-purchase flows arrive following a high-intent moment and have high open rates, providing opportunities for additional revenue. A well-constructed post-purchase email can turn a thank-you message into a cross-sell.
Only 34% of Shopify stores have post-purchase upsell flows active, despite the clear revenue opportunity. This is one of the lowest-effort, highest-return flows you can build.
Win-Back (Re-Engagement)
Win-back flows reactivate 3 to 8% of churned customers. Target subscribers who have not opened or clicked in 60 to 90 days. Offer a compelling reason to return: a discount, a new product launch, or a simple "we miss you" message that re-qualifies their interest before you remove them from your active list.
Step 4: Segment Your Audience for Higher ROI
Generic broadcast emails consistently underperform targeted ones. Campaigns that use audience segmentation see an average revenue increase of 760%.
For Shopify stores, the highest-value segments to build first are:
Purchase history: separate first-time buyers from repeat customers; each group needs different messaging
Cart value: build abandoned cart segments based on the value of items in the cart so you can share appropriate offers for higher and lower-value customers
Engagement level: segment based on open and click rates, creating a "highly engaged" group for special offers or an "at-risk" group for re-engagement campaigns
Browse behavior: group subscribers who have viewed specific products or categories; if someone repeatedly views your "running shoes" collection, they are a prime candidate for a running-shoe-specific campaign
Step 5: Choose the Right Email Marketing Tool for Your Stage
The right tool depends on your store's revenue, list size, and how sophisticated your marketing needs are.
Shopify Messaging: Best for New Stores
Shopify Email offers ease and affordability for beginners or small businesses that want to launch email campaigns. In contrast, Klaviyo is a more advanced email marketing platform that delivers data-driven tools for merchants ready to scale.
The native tool covers the basics well: branded templates, basic segmentation, and simple automations like welcome and win-back flows. Its free tier of 10,000 emails per month is genuinely useful for stores in their first year.
Omnisend: Best for Growing Stores ($5k to $500k/year)
Omnisend positions itself as a marketing automation platform, not just an email tool. It combines email, SMS, push notifications, and more in one platform. If you want to coordinate campaigns across channels without juggling multiple apps, Omnisend is compelling.
For most e-commerce stores, especially Shopify and WooCommerce under $500k annual revenue, Omnisend is the smarter choice. You get everything you actually need: email plus SMS, cart abandonment, browse abandonment, welcome series, post-purchase flows, and solid analytics.
Omnisend plans start at $16/month, and even the free tier includes all standard features.
Klaviyo: Best for Data-Driven Scaling
Klaviyo is one of the most popular email marketing platforms for Shopify merchants, offering sophisticated abandoned cart recovery features that go beyond basic reminders.
Klaviyo is great for deeper personalization and A/B testing. It syncs with your Shopify customer data to run multi-step flows, offer advanced segmentation, and multichannel messaging.
Purchase history: separate first-time buyers from repeat customers; each group needs different messaging
Cart value: build abandoned cart segments based on the value of items in the cart so you can share appropriate offers for higher and lower-value customers
Engagement level: segment based on open and click rates, creating a "highly engaged" group for special offers or an "at-risk" group for re-engagement campaigns
Browse behavior: group subscribers who have viewed specific products or categories; if someone repeatedly views your "running shoes" collection, they are a prime candidate for a running-shoe-specific campaign
Step 5: Choose the Right Email Marketing Tool for Your Stage
The right tool depends on your store's revenue, list size, and how sophisticated your marketing needs are.
Shopify Messaging: Best for New Stores
Shopify Email offers ease and affordability for beginners or small businesses that want to launch email campaigns. In contrast, Klaviyo is a more advanced email marketing platform that delivers data-driven tools for merchants ready to scale.
The native tool covers the basics well: branded templates, basic segmentation, and simple automations like welcome and win-back flows. Its free tier of 10,000 emails per month is genuinely useful for stores in their first year.
Omnisend: Best for Growing Stores ($5k to $500k/year)
Omnisend positions itself as a marketing automation platform, not just an email tool. It combines email, SMS, push notifications, and more in one platform. If you want to coordinate campaigns across channels without juggling multiple apps, Omnisend is compelling.
For most e-commerce stores, especially Shopify and WooCommerce under $500k annual revenue, Omnisend is the smarter choice. You get everything you actually need: email plus SMS, cart abandonment, browse abandonment, welcome series, post-purchase flows, and solid analytics.
Omnisend plans start at $16/month, and even the free tier includes all standard features.
Klaviyo: Best for Data-Driven Scaling
Klaviyo is one of the most popular email marketing platforms for Shopify merchants, offering sophisticated abandoned cart recovery features that go beyond basic reminders.
Klaviyo is great for deeper personalization and A/B testing. It syncs with your Shopify customer data to run multi-step flows, offer advanced segmentation, and multichannel messaging.
Shopify holds an 11% ownership stake in Klaviyo and recommends it as the email marketing platform for Shopify Plus merchants. The trade-off is cost: Omnisend costs 60 to 70% less than Klaviyo at equivalent contact tiers, with Klaviyo charging $150/month versus Omnisend's $59/month for 5,000 contacts.
Step 6: Track the Metrics That Actually Drive Decisions
Most Shopify merchants track opens and clicks. The metrics that drive revenue decisions go deeper.
ROI measures the revenue or sales of a campaign against how much you spent on it. On average, email campaigns generate $36 for every $1 spent.
Key metrics to track per campaign and per flow:
Revenue per email sent (RPE): the clearest signal of a flow's health
Conversion rate: automated messages have conversion rates of around 1% to 6%, with back-in-stock and welcome emails converting the most
Unsubscribe rate: the average ecommerce unsubscribe rate is 0.19%, so aim below that
Click-through rate (CTR): the average marketing email click-through rate in 2024 was 2.62%
List growth rate: you need consistent net growth to offset natural churn
What is the best email marketing tool for Shopify?
The best tool depends on your store size. Shopify Messaging works well for new stores because it is free up to 10,000 emails per month and requires no separate integration. Omnisend gets ecommerce stores live faster with multichannel marketing features and fewer setup decisions. Klaviyo is best for stores that need advanced segmentation, predictive analytics, and multi-step behavioral flows at scale.
How do I improve email deliverability on Shopify?
Authenticate your sender email address, which tells providers that messages you send through Shopify Messaging or another email marketing service are legitimate. Authentication methods include SPF, which compares emails against authorized IP addresses; DKIM, which uses encryption keys to validate email content; and DMARC, which aligns domain information. Also remove inactive subscribers regularly and never send to purchased lists.
How many emails should I send per month to my Shopify list?
There is no universal answer, but consistency matters more than frequency. Email marketing newsletter click-through rates and open rates are highest for newsletters with a weekly cadence, which see a 48.31% open rate. For most Shopify stores, one to two campaign emails per week plus always-on automation flows is a strong baseline. Monitor unsubscribe rates as your primary signal for over-sending.
What automated flows should I set up first on Shopify?
Shopify holds an 11% ownership stake in Klaviyo and recommends it as the email marketing platform for Shopify Plus merchants. The trade-off is cost: Omnisend costs 60 to 70% less than Klaviyo at equivalent contact tiers, with Klaviyo charging $150/month versus Omnisend's $59/month for 5,000 contacts.
Step 6: Track the Metrics That Actually Drive Decisions
Most Shopify merchants track opens and clicks. The metrics that drive revenue decisions go deeper.
ROI measures the revenue or sales of a campaign against how much you spent on it. On average, email campaigns generate $36 for every $1 spent.
Key metrics to track per campaign and per flow:
Revenue per email sent (RPE): the clearest signal of a flow's health
Conversion rate: automated messages have conversion rates of around 1% to 6%, with back-in-stock and welcome emails converting the most
Unsubscribe rate: the average ecommerce unsubscribe rate is 0.19%, so aim below that
Click-through rate (CTR): the average marketing email click-through rate in 2024 was 2.62%
List growth rate: you need consistent net growth to offset natural churn
What is the best email marketing tool for Shopify?
The best tool depends on your store size. Shopify Messaging works well for new stores because it is free up to 10,000 emails per month and requires no separate integration. Omnisend gets ecommerce stores live faster with multichannel marketing features and fewer setup decisions. Klaviyo is best for stores that need advanced segmentation, predictive analytics, and multi-step behavioral flows at scale.
How do I improve email deliverability on Shopify?
Authenticate your sender email address, which tells providers that messages you send through Shopify Messaging or another email marketing service are legitimate. Authentication methods include SPF, which compares emails against authorized IP addresses; DKIM, which uses encryption keys to validate email content; and DMARC, which aligns domain information. Also remove inactive subscribers regularly and never send to purchased lists.
How many emails should I send per month to my Shopify list?
There is no universal answer, but consistency matters more than frequency. Email marketing newsletter click-through rates and open rates are highest for newsletters with a weekly cadence, which see a 48.31% open rate. For most Shopify stores, one to two campaign emails per week plus always-on automation flows is a strong baseline. Monitor unsubscribe rates as your primary signal for over-sending.
What automated flows should I set up first on Shopify?
Start with the three highest-converting flows: a welcome series, abandoned cart recovery, and post-purchase follow-up. Welcome messages and abandoned carts drove 76% of all automation orders in 2025. Once those are running and optimized, add browse abandonment and win-back flows to capture additional revenue from existing traffic.
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Start with the three highest-converting flows: a welcome series, abandoned cart recovery, and post-purchase follow-up. Welcome messages and abandoned carts drove 76% of all automation orders in 2025. Once those are running and optimized, add browse abandonment and win-back flows to capture additional revenue from existing traffic.
