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Shopify email marketing automation: every built in automation, what it costs, and the order to switch them on

Shopify Email is now Shopify Messaging. Here are its automation templates, the pricing rule that makes abandoned checkout free, and when Flow or a dedicated platform is worth adding.

Published by AI Knows Us · Updated 21 October 2026

Shopify email marketing automation runs in the Shopify Messaging app, which Shopify renamed from Shopify Email. Go to Apps, then Messaging, then Automations, pick a template such as Recover abandoned checkout or Welcome new subscribers, edit the email, send a test and turn it on. Shopify ships templates for abandoned browse, cart and checkout, welcome series, thank you, upsell, win back, birthday and VIP emails. Every store on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans gets 10,000 free emails a month, and abandoned checkout emails never count toward that limit. Start with abandoned checkout and a welcome series, then add the rest one at a time.

Everything here comes from Shopify's Help Center, read on 21 October 2026.

The automations Shopify Messaging includes

GroupAutomationWhat triggers itChannels
Recover site visitorsConvert abandoned product browseViewed at least one product, did not add to cart or buyEmail, SMS
Recover site visitorsRecover abandoned cartAdded to cart, did not start checkoutEmail, SMS
Recover site visitorsRecover abandoned checkoutStarted checkout, did not complete the orderEmail, SMS
WelcomeWelcome new subscribers with a discount emailSubscribed through a form on your storeEmail
WelcomeWelcome new subscribers with a discount seriesSame, followed by 2 brand building emails and a discount reminder if no purchaseEmail
Post purchaseThank customers after they purchaseFirst and second purchasesEmail
Post purchaseUpsell customers after their first purchaseFirst purchaseEmail
Post purchaseWin back customersA set time since the last orderEmail
Post purchaseDrive online customers to your nearby retail locationsFirst time online buyers near one of your shopsEmail
Customer appreciationCelebrate customer birthdayThe birth date field on the customer recordEmail
Customer appreciationWelcome VIP customersJoining the VIP segmentEmail

By default the VIP segment is a customer's third order with $1,000 USD or more spent in total, or a VIP tag. The retail location email needs at least one retail location with a valid address. The birthday email needs birthdays collected, which Shopify suggests doing with a custom field in the Shopify Forms app.

What it costs

  • 10,000 free emails each calendar month on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, shared across campaigns and automations. Unused emails do not carry over.
  • After that, $1 USD per 1,000 emails up to 300,000, then $0.65 per 1,000, and $0.55 per 1,000 after 750,000.
  • Abandoned checkout emails are always free and do not count toward the 10,000.
  • SMS automations are charged per message.
  • Emails are counted per address: one email to 800 subscribers is 800 emails. You can set a monthly spending threshold that alerts you when combined email, SMS and WhatsApp costs reach a figure you choose.

Because abandoned checkout is free, there is no cost reason to leave it off. A store sending one weekly campaign to 2,000 subscribers uses about 8,000 to 10,000 emails a month on campaigns alone, so plan the welcome and win back flows into that budget.

Before you start: three requirements

  1. The store is on the Basic plan or higher.
  2. For full functionality, the free Shopify Flow app is installed.
  3. The person building them has both the Marketing and Flow app permissions on their staff account.

Shopify Messaging also requires Shopify Network Intelligence to be on in your privacy settings. Build on a desktop: on the mobile app you can create only the three abandonment automations, and editing needs a desktop.

How to set one up

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Apps, then Messaging.
  2. Click Automations, then Create automation.
  3. Choose a template, for example Recover abandoned checkout.
  4. Select Email as the channel.
  5. Click Edit email to change the copy, add your branding and products, and click Send test to see it in your own inbox.
  6. Click Turn on. If you want to finish later, choose Save without turning on.

Automations send only to customers subscribed to email marketing, by default. Abandoned checkout is the exception you can change: in its editor, the To field can be set to All customers. Check what your local email law allows before you widen it.

The order to switch them on

  1. Recover abandoned checkout. Free to send and aimed at people who were one step from buying.
  2. Welcome series. Pair it with a Shopify Forms sign up form. Use the series version if you can write two useful brand emails; otherwise the single discount email.
  3. Recover abandoned cart. Next highest intent.
  4. Thank you and upsell. These turn a first order into a second one.
  5. Win back. Set the delay from your real repeat purchase cycle, which your order history shows.
  6. Abandoned browse, birthday and VIP. Useful once the core flows are running and you have watched the numbers for a month.

One trap Shopify calls out: automations do not know about each other. Two active welcome automations means every new subscriber gets twice the emails. Keep one live automation per moment and turn off old versions when you replace them.

When to use Shopify Flow or Autopilot instead

Shopify Flow is Shopify's own automation app, free on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. Shopify's help says to use a Flow workflow when you want a custom automation or one that involves a third party app. Flow works with triggers, conditions and actions, so you can, for example, tag a customer after a certain order and send them into a segment.

Campaign Autopilot, under Growth, then Autopilot, can recommend email tactics such as abandoned checkout, abandoned cart, abandoned browse and welcome series, generate the emails with your branding, and activate them in Shopify Messaging once you approve. Its limits are worth knowing: Autopilot picks the segment and you cannot change the target audience, and you can ask it to regenerate a subject line but not type your own. Shopify reminds merchants that they remain responsible for email law, such as the US CAN-SPAM Act and the GDPR where it applies, for Autopilot emails too.

When a dedicated platform makes sense

Shopify Messaging covers the core automations for most stores. Stores move to a dedicated email platform, such as Klaviyo or Omnisend, when they want deeper branching inside one flow, more detailed testing, or reporting across many flows and channels. If you are comparing them, our review of email marketing automation software sets out how to test branching and tier limits before you choose. Whatever you use, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC on your sending domain. Google's sender guidelines require more of anyone sending over 5,000 messages a day to Gmail addresses, including one-click unsubscribe.

Questions about Shopify email automation

Is Shopify Email still available?

Yes, under a new name. Shopify's help says Shopify Messaging was formerly known as Shopify Email, and now covers email, SMS and WhatsApp.

Are Shopify abandoned checkout emails free?

Yes. Recover abandoned checkout emails do not count toward the 10,000 free monthly emails and are not charged.

Do I need Shopify Flow for email automations?

Shopify says Flow must be installed for full functionality of Messaging automations. Flow is free, so install it before you build.

Can I send automations to customers who did not subscribe?

Automations send to subscribed customers by default. Only the abandoned checkout automation lets you change the recipients to all customers.

Can I build email automations on my phone?

Only the three abandonment automations. Welcome, post purchase and appreciation automations, and any edits, need a desktop.

The message your flows never get to send

Every automation above starts after a shopper has found the store. More shoppers now begin with a question in ChatGPT or Gemini, such as which brand makes the best travel mug, and act on the few names in the answer. A store that is not among them never gets the browse, the cart or the checkout that triggers a flow. That earlier step is measurable, and AI Knows Us measures it: whether the assistants name your store when buyers ask, and which pages and listings shaped the answer.

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