TL;DR

Shopify Email is a free (or £0-20/month) email marketing tool built directly into Shopify Admin. For stores under 10k contacts, it's genuinely free with no feature limits.
Since Shopify Email added automation in late 2025, you can set up abandoned cart, post-purchase, and re-engagement flows without Klaviyo or Omnisend.
The trade-off: Shopify Email has fewer segmentation options and lower customisation than Klaviyo. Best for stores under £1M annual revenue or those wanting to consolidate tools.
Setup takes 1-2 days. Revenue impact: expect 15-25% abandoned cart recovery and 10-15% repeat purchase increase within 30 days.

Jump to setup · Jump to automation flows · Jump to segmentation · Jump to tips

Shopify Email Marketing: Complete Setup Guide for 2026

You've got a Shopify store. You know email automation works. But you're hesitant about Klaviyo (cost) or Omnisend (complexity).

There's a middle ground: Shopify Email.

Built directly into Shopify Admin, Shopify Email is free for stores under 10,000 contacts. In late 2025, Shopify added automation workflows - abandoned cart, post-purchase, customer win-back. It's now competitive with standalone tools for basic flows.

This guide walks you through setting up Shopify Email from scratch, including automation flows that drive real revenue.

Is Shopify Email Right For You?

Use Shopify Email if:

You're under £1M annual revenue
You want to avoid juggling multiple platforms
You're starting email automation (simple flows, basic segmentation)
You want zero setup cost

Use Klaviyo or Omnisend if:

You're over £500k annual revenue and need advanced segmentation
You want SMS + email + push (multi-channel)
You need advanced dynamic content based on behaviour
You already use a CRM that integrates better with those tools

For most stores, Shopify Email is the right starting point. You can upgrade to Klaviyo later if you outgrow it.

Setup: 10 Minutes

Step 1: Open Shopify Admin → Marketing → Campaigns

Step 2: Click "Create Campaign" → Email

Step 3: Configure sending settings:

From name: Your store name
From email: noreply@yourstore.myshopify.com (or custom domain if you've set one up)
Reply-to email: your support email

Step 4: Create your first campaign

Subject line
Preview text (shows under subject in inbox)
Use the template builder (drag-and-drop blocks)
Add your products, store branding, CTA button

Step 5: Choose recipients

All customers (everyone)
Specific segment (see Segmentation section below)
Smart segment (abandoned cart, etc.)

Step 6: Schedule and send

Now
Schedule for specific time
Automation trigger (see next section)

Done. You've sent your first email.

Automation Flows: The Real Money

One-off campaigns are nice. Automation flows are where email revenue lives.

Flow 1: Abandoned Cart (3-email sequence)

Trigger: Customer adds items to cart, doesn't check out within 1 hour

Setup:

Go to Marketing → Automations
Click "Create Automation"
Select "Abandoned Cart" trigger
Build email sequence:
- Email 1: Sent 1 hour after abandonment
- Email 2: Sent 24 hours after abandonment
- Email 3: Sent 72 hours after abandonment

Email 1 Content:

Subject: You left something behind [Product name]

Hi [Customer name],

You left a [PRODUCT] in your cart. Just making sure you didn't forget!

[PRODUCT IMAGE]
[PRODUCT NAME] - [PRICE]

← Complete your purchase → [BUTTON LINK TO CART]

Still thinking about it? Reply to this email with questions.

Best,
[Store name]

Email 2 Content:

Subject: Your items are running low in stock

Hi [Customer name],

Good news and bad news. 

Good news: Your [PRODUCT] is still available.
Bad news: Only 2 left in stock.

← Buy now → [BUTTON LINK TO CART]

Best,
[Store name]

Email 3 Content:

Subject: Final offer: 15% off your cart

Hi [Customer name],

We'd love to get your order shipped this week.

Use code COMEBACK15 for 15% off everything in your cart.

← Claim your discount → [BUTTON LINK TO CART]

Best,
[Store name]

Expected Results:

Email 1: 2-3% conversion (£8-15 per cart)
Email 2: 1-2% conversion
Email 3: 0.5-1% conversion
Total recovery: 3.5-6% of abandoned carts

Flow 2: Post-Purchase (3-email sequence)

Trigger: Customer completes purchase

Setup:

Go to Marketing → Automations
Click "Create Automation"
Select "Post-Purchase" trigger
Build email sequence:

Email 1 (5 mins after purchase):

Subject: Your order is confirmed! [Order #]

Hi [Customer name],

Thanks for your order! We're processing it now.

Order details:
- Order #[ORDER_NUMBER]
- Total: £[AMOUNT]
- Estimated delivery: [DATE]

Track your order → [BUTTON LINK]

Questions? Reply to this email.

Best,
[Store name]

Email 2 (3 days after purchase):

Subject: Your order is on the way! 📦

Hi [Customer name],

Your [PRODUCT] has shipped! Track it here: [LINK]

Estimated delivery: [DATE]

Questions? Reply to this email.

Best,
[Store name]

Email 3 (7 days after purchase):

Subject: How are you loving your [PRODUCT]? + 10% off

Hi [Customer name],

We'd love to see how you're using your new [PRODUCT]!

Reply with a photo and get 10% off your next purchase.

Shop related products → [BUTTON]

Best,
[Store name]

Expected Results:

15-25% of customers make a repeat purchase within 30 days
Average repeat order: £35-60
For a 10,000-customer store: £5,250-15,000 additional monthly revenue

Flow 3: Win-Back (2-email sequence)

Trigger: Customer hasn't purchased in 180 days

Setup:

Go to Marketing → Automations
Click "Create Automation"
Select "Win-Back" trigger
Build 2-email sequence

Email 1:

Subject: We miss you! 20% off your next order

Hi [Customer name],

It's been a while. We've got new products you might love.

Use code COMEBACK20 for 20% off.

Shop now → [BUTTON]

Best,
[Store name]

Email 2 (7 days later):

Subject: Last chance: 20% off ends tomorrow

Hi [Customer name],

Your 20% discount expires tomorrow.

Shop now → [BUTTON]

Best,
[Store name]

Expected Results:

8-12% re-engagement rate
Recovering old customers is 5-7x cheaper than acquiring new ones

Segmentation: Target the Right Customers

Shopify Email lets you segment customers by:

Purchase history (spent over £X, bought specific product, etc.)
Purchase frequency (haven't purchased in X days)
Location (city, country)
Email engagement (opened, clicked, etc.)
Custom tags (if you're using Shopify tags)

Best segmentation strategy:

"High-value customers" (spent >£500)
"First-time buyers" (1 purchase ever)
"Repeat customers" (2+ purchases)
"Inactive" (no purchase in 180 days)
"VIP" (top 10% by spend)

Send different content to each segment. High-value customers get early access to new products. First-time buyers get a follow-up sequence. Inactive customers get win-back offers.

Pro Tips

1. Personalisation Tokens Use [Customer.FirstName], [Order.Number], [Product.Title] in templates for dynamic content.

2. Segment by Spend "Customers who spent over £100" is a powerful segment. Send them higher-value offers (free shipping on orders >£150, for example).

3. Mobile Optimization 60%+ of email opens are on mobile. Use Shopify's mobile preview to ensure templates look good on small screens.

4. Test Subject Lines A/B test subject lines on your campaigns. "You left something behind [Product]" beats "Abandoned Cart Reminder" every time.

5. Timing Matters Afternoon (2-3pm) works better than early morning for most e-commerce. Test and find your audience's peak engagement time.

Common Mistakes

Mistake 1: Sending emails too frequently More than 2-3 marketing emails per week = high unsubscribe rate.

Fix: Space emails out. Automation flows don't count toward this limit.

Mistake 2: Generic subject lines "Check out our new collection" has 2-3% open rate. "New items just dropped in your size" has 15%+.

Fix: Personalise. Reference past purchases, behaviour, or location.

Mistake 3: No unsubscribe link Legal requirement. Omitting it tanks your deliverability.

Fix: Shopify handles this automatically. You're fine.

Mistake 4: Ignoring mobile Your desktop email looks great. Your mobile email is broken (too wide, small text).

Fix: Use Shopify's mobile preview. Test on actual phones.

When to Upgrade to Klaviyo

You should upgrade to Klaviyo when:

You're sending >50,000 emails per month
You need SMS + email multi-channel
You want advanced dynamic content based on browsing behaviour
You want to integrate with other platforms (Facebook pixel, Google Analytics)

For 80%+ of stores, Shopify Email is enough.

Next Steps

This week:

Set up Shopify Email profile (from name, reply-to)
Create first abandoned cart automation
Monitor results (open rate, click rate, conversion)

Next week:

Add post-purchase automation
Create segmentation for your customer base
Send first segment-specific campaign

You should see abandoned cart recovery within 2 weeks. Post-purchase repeat purchase increase within 30 days.

Internal linking opportunities:

Link to "Email Automation for E-commerce"
Link to "AI for Business" for Shopify automation
Link to "E-commerce Email Automation Trends"

External references:

Shopify Email Help: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/email-marketing
Email Marketing Best Practices 2026: https://shopify.dev/
Klaviyo comparison: https://www.klaviyo.com/