Unbeatable Acquisition Efficiency! Email Marketing with Shopify

We'll introduce how to leverage email marketing on Shopify. Email marketing offers an incredibly high return on investment, so please make sure to run it properly.

Conversely, it's difficult for us to help with monetization if email marketing isn't being used. That's how critical email marketing is to revenue generation.

The content introduced here covers the basics of email marketing. For a comprehensive guide on setting up Klaviyo on Shopify from scratch, please refer to the article below if you'd like to understand the full picture.

At StoreHero, we leverage our proprietary growth platform to support business growth through fine-grained operations that manual processes can't achieve, and through large-scale implementation of initiatives. If you're facing challenges with increasing sales on Shopify, feel free to reach out. =>Download our free service introduction materials here

Why Email Marketing Is Effective

There are two main reasons why email marketing is effective.

• High CVR (Conversion Rate).
• Less susceptible to platform changes.

High CVR

As you may know, email marketing has an exceptionally high CVR. It is also highlighted in Shopify's article as the channel with the highest CVR.

For cart abandonment recovery and product recommendations based on purchase history, CVR can sometimes reach up to three times that of organic search traffic.

Not Affected by Platform Changes

With advertising and SEO, algorithm changes or policy updates from Google or Facebook can cause a sharp drop in sales — but email marketing is not affected by such changes.

Based on metrics like open rates and CVR, it seems unlikely that email marketing will disappear anytime soon, even as chat apps and LINE become more widespread.

Steps for Email Marketing

The basic steps for email marketing on Shopify are as follows.

1. List Building
2. Segmentation
3. Email Creation
4. Tracking & Improvement

Let me briefly explain each step.

List Building

List building refers to collecting email addresses, which we previously covered in 19 Ways to Build an Email List on Shopify.

Using some form of incentive, you request opt-in through a form at a moment when customers are receptive.

Please refer to our previous article for specific methods.

Email List Maintenance

Without maintenance, your list's email deliverability will deteriorate.

Even with an opt-in email list, if emails go unopened repeatedly, email providers may start routing your emails through spam filters.

Once caught in spam filters, emails get sorted into junk folders and become harder to deliver to customers.

For customers who haven't opened emails for a certain period, try sending a coupon email, and if it still goes unopened, remove them from your send list.

For more thorough list maintenance, there are tools like NeverBounce that can verify whether email addresses are still active.

While these tools are paid, they can be worth using.

Segmentation

You should never send a broadcast email to your entire list without segmentation. Divide your customers into segments and approach each with messaging suited to that segment.

The finer your segmentation, the more likely you are to improve open rates and drive sales — though this also increases the effort required for setup and content preparation.

As a result, how you segment your audience is something of a craft, balancing results with operational efficiency. A practical approach is to divide the customer experience chronologically.

The diagram from Rejoiner's article, an email marketing platform, was easy to understand. It divides the customer experience into 3 broad phases and 9 detailed phases along a timeline.

Translated into English, it looks something like this.

Using this framework as a base and adapting it to your own store would be a good approach.

By the way, for Klaviyo as a Shopify app, there is documentation that explains basic segmentation approaches like those described above. Very helpful.

Email Creation

Once you've categorized your customer journey scenarios into segments, it's time to create your emails.

Email content is inherently creative, so it's hard to say definitively what works best — but here are some things I believe are effective, based on general best practices and personal experience.

The Subject Line Is Critical

The subject line is critically important. Open rates can vary significantly based on the subject line, so don't write it carelessly — put thought into it. Simple touches like using numbers, including the recipient's name, or other small tweaks can dramatically change open rates.

Use a Real Person's Name as the Sender

In my experience, using a real person's name as the sender (e.g., "Junichi Kurose") tends to yield higher open rates compared to anonymous names like "Support" or "Store Operations."

Segmentation & Personalization

The more you personalize the subject line and content, and the more finely you segment before crafting emails, the higher your open rates and CTR (Click-Through Rate) will be.

It's hard to create an email that appeals to everyone, but it becomes much easier when writing for a smaller, targeted group.

Use Preview Text Too

Email clients like Gmail display preview text. Many people decide whether to open an email based on this preview. Put effort into personalizing your preview text as well.

Make the Call to Action Clear

If a single email promotes multiple actions — such as a new product announcement, a coupon offer, and a loyalty program introduction — it becomes unclear what you want the reader to do, and CVR drops.

Keep CTAs (Calls to Action) to one type per email. Having the same CTA appear in multiple places within the email is fine.

Consistency Between Email and Landing Page

Just as with ads and landing pages, consistency between your email and its destination LP (Landing Page) is important. Even if the email is compelling, if the LP it leads to doesn't match the email's message, conversions won't happen. Pay particular attention to ensuring the LP's above-the-fold content is consistent with the email.

Make the Opt-Out Process Clear

Repeatedly sending emails that go unopened increases the chance of triggering spam filters, which degrades overall email marketing performance. Make it easy for disengaged customers to opt out.

Optimal Day and Time

Find the days and times when your emails are most likely to be opened. According to research by CoSchedule Blog, Tuesday, Thursday, and Wednesday at 10 AM, 8 PM, 2 PM, and 6 AM tend to work best.

Use research data like this as a reference, but also test to find the optimal timing for your own customer list.

(Supplement) Transactional Emails

Emails sent for informational purposes — such as order confirmations and shipping notifications — rather than for promotions, are called transactional emails.

Since transactional emails have higher open rates than promotional emails, they are sometimes used as sales opportunities.

However, if the promotional content is too prominent, email filters like Gmail may classify them as promotional emails, causing important informational notifications to go unopened.

We recommend keeping promotional content to around 20% or less of the total email, treating it strictly as secondary content.

Tracking

Make sure you can measure whether your email marketing is producing results. Shopify apps like Klaviyo and Omnisend allow you to view open rates and revenue within the app, but it's also convenient to set up Google Analytics so you can compare email performance against other channels.

UTM Parameters for Google Analytics

To track performance in Google Analytics, you'll use UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) parameters.

By setting up the parameters appended to the end of URLs as shown below, you can compare email performance against other channels and view historical trends in Google Analytics.

In Klaviyo, UTM parameter settings can be configured under Account > Settings > UTM Tracking.

You can change the default settings for utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign here. Checking "Automatically add UTM parameters to links" will automatically apply the default settings to all links in your emails.

Whether to use default UTM parameter values or customize them per campaign can be configured in the campaign editing screen in Klaviyo.

If you also want to track email A/B tests in Google Analytics, you can do so in Klaviyo by checking "Add variation letter as a UTM parameter to all links." at the bottom of the A/B test settings screen.

For detailed information on UTM parameter settings in Klaviyo, please refer to the link below. Klaviyo's documentation is thorough and very helpful for setup.

Standard Email Configurations

Here are some standard email marketing configurations worth setting up.

Welcome Email

This is the email sent immediately after a customer subscribes. It is often sent in a series of 2–3 emails, like this:

• 1st email: Welcome message and coupon gift
• 2nd email: Brand story and team introduction
• 3rd email: Useful information for getting the most out of the store

There are many example articles about welcome emails, so it may be worth checking them out for inspiration.

Cart Abandonment Email

This email is sent to customers who added items to their cart but left without purchasing. Cart abandonment emails are sometimes sent as a series of multiple notifications.

Cart abandonment emails directly impact sales, so be sure to set them up. Most Shopify apps that support email sending will have cart abandonment email functionality built in as a standard feature.

Post-First-Purchase Email / Cross-Sell Email

This email suggests coupons or related products immediately after a customer's first purchase, with the goal of driving a repeat purchase.

It's a well-established e-commerce principle that getting customers to make multiple purchases within a short period after their first one makes them more likely to continue purchasing long-term. Suggest related products, frequently bought-together items, or coupons to encourage repeat buying.

As mentioned above, be careful about adding heavy promotional content to order confirmation or receipt emails — email providers may classify them as promotional, causing customers to miss important order and receipt information.

Replenishment Email

For everyday consumables and supplements, you can predict when a customer will run out and send a timely email to encourage a repurchase.

Win-Back Email (Lapsed Customer Re-Engagement)

This email targets customers who haven't made a purchase in a while, using incentives like coupons to encourage them to buy again.

Once customers become lapsed, simply sending a coupon often isn't enough to re-engage them. Articles like the one below contain examples of win-back email campaigns, so use them as reference when planning your approach.

Re-engaging lapsed customers is challenging, so it's important to put initiatives in place to prevent customers from going dormant in the first place.

Review Collection Email

This email is sent after a purchase to collect product reviews. Review apps like Stamped.io automatically send emails like the one below after purchase to gather reviews.

Reviews help drive conversions, and even negative reviews give you an opportunity to respond quickly and prevent customer churn.

Birthday Email

This email sends a coupon as a birthday gift. Birthdays are a great occasion for offering coupons. It's a good idea to ask for the customer's birthday around the 3rd email in your welcome series.

Loyalty Program & Referral Program Announcement

If you have a loyalty or referral program, it's effective to send emails introducing the program to customers who have made multiple purchases or who have given high ratings in reviews.

Shopify apps for loyalty and referral programs — such as Referral Candy and Smile — often come with built-in email features and LP creation tools for promoting the program, which is very convenient.

We previously introduced how to set up a referral program in the article below, so please check it out for reference.

Newsletter

Rather than a pure sales email, a newsletter is a regular communication aimed at conveying your brand's worldview and sharing useful information.

The key to a great newsletter, I believe, is to write it like a love letter. (Laughs)

I once spoke with a handmade commerce operator who runs a newsletter with remarkably high open rates. They told me they regularly meet customers at events, and write each email taking into account things like the weather that day.

There are certainly techniques that can help, but what really matters is thinking deeply about the recipient and crafting an email that brings them joy.

When you run out of ideas, checking out newsletter idea collections like the one below can be helpful.

Promotional Email

These are emails announcing promotional campaigns or new product launches. Most of you running stores are probably already sending promotional emails.

One important note: if you only ever send promotional emails, open rates will gradually decline — so be mindful of that.

Thorough CRM Operations Using StoreHero

StoreHero supports merchants facing challenges with increasing sales on Shopify through thorough execution of growth initiatives.

For CRM initiatives as well, we leverage our growth platform StoreHero to utilize customer purchase history, attribute data, and product/SKU performance and inventory data to deliver product recommendations and offers via email, LINE, and My Page — enabling fine-grained operations and large-scale initiative execution that would be impossible with manual processes, and supporting continuous business growth.

We are currently offering free store diagnostics. If you have challenges with CRM or growth initiatives in general, please reach out. Click here for details on the free store diagnosis

Summary

We've introduced how to do email marketing on Shopify.

Email is sometimes said to be dead, but email has a high CVR and — unlike advertising — doesn't incur per-use costs, making it extremely profitable.

For stores that aren't running email properly yet, improving email operations alone will almost certainly increase sales. Email marketing is an initiative with that level of revenue impact.

Make good use of Shopify apps and put proper email operations in place. If you run into any difficulties, feel free to leave a comment below or reach out via our contact form.

Also, the basic setup guide for Klaviyo introduced in this article is covered in the article below, so if you're new to Klaviyo, please use it as a reference.