Shopify Launches Shopify Email App

Shopify Email launched an email marketing app in April 2020. When they first announced it, they offered the app and all sends, free of charge until October 2020. In this blog, we cover everything you need to know about Shopify's new ESP venture. From features, functionality, pricing and our advice on who is best suited, we've got it all here for you, updated for 2021.

What is Shopify Email?

Shopify Email is a simple email marketing app for Shopify. It is for store owners to be able to send email campaigns without having to integrate or export data to a third-party ESP.

Shopify Email launched globally, ahead of schedule in April 2020 and it is here now.

What lead Shopify to create Shopify Email?

Shopify used to have a directly integration into MailChimp. This stopped in 2019 after MailChimp wrote an open letter to Shopify to say that they were pulling their integration due to data privacy concerns. Mailchimp gave just a few weeks notice and this left Shopify with a problem - they had no way of empowering store owners to send email.

This problem presented them with an opportunity - create their own ESP.

What features does Shopify Email have?

Shopify say they have:

• Most of the regular tools and reporting that you'd expect to see in any ESP - we've had a look and it looks simple but nice and straight forward
• Pre-set creative email templates that import your store settings, which means you have to touch zero email code and can pretty much get started straight away
• Pre-built campaign workflows for automation and static campaigns
• Baked the platform directly into Shopify so that it's one experience and all managed from the main dashboard
• Simple interface to make email marketing easy

Who is it for?

All Shopify store owners. Looking at the costs (below), it seems this is best fit to smaller Shopify store owners and managers. We understand that to get started, there are some criteria that need to be fulfilled and that the role out is staggered.

How much does it cost?

Shopify Email was initially completely free until October 1st, 2020. After this date, Shopify Email costs $1 per 1000 emails sent. The first 2,500 emails are completely free. When we consider the pricing, this is cheap if you're a small store sending low volumes, but actually quite expensive if you're a big retailer sending lots of emails.

One perk to buying Shopify Email is the fact that there is no long term commitment or cost - you can leave at any time.

How will this affect the email marketing industry?

Shopify Email will likely have a big impact on the lower end of the email marketing industry. Smaller retailers and stores who run on Shopify, have little reason to need to continue using external tools, unless sending large volumes. The larger volume email marketers will still continue to use external ESPs, because of the increased functionality and lower cost.

What else do email marketers need to be aware of?

Shopify is not an ESP - they've built an email product, and whilst it might be amazingly convenient, is important that Shopify stores don't just adopt Shopify Email out of convenience - carefully review your ESP needs and make an informed decision about who you use for email sends.

Be mindful to take great care with deliverability with Shopify Email. Look at your inbox placement and watch how your engagement changes by staying on top of open, click, bounce and junk rates. These are the key metrics you need to be monitoring as you migrate to Shopify Email.

Has anything changed in 2021?

The pricing has kicked in, which means that the Shopify email app costs $1 for every 1,000 emails sent (after an initial free allowance of 2,500 emails).

In terms of adoption, we are not seeing many brands take up the Shopify email app. Most brands are still opting to integrate Klaviyo as their chosen ESP.