How to create and send a Shopify email newsletter like an expert marketer?

Sending Shopify email newsletters is the key to connecting with your customers beyond just making a sale using email marketing for online stores. 

It is more important than ever to build a relationship with customers that is more than a transactional one, using e-commerce newsletter best practices.

Whether you’re announcing a new product launch, sharing tips, or recommending curated blogs, your Shopify newsletter template can be a powerful touchpoint that enhances customer loyalty and encourages repeat business using Shopify customer engagement emails.

In this step-by-step guide to Shopify email newsletters, we explore why Shopify newsletter campaigns are important and how to send newsletters in Shopify with examples.

Let’s dive right in.

What is a Shopify Email Newsletter?

Shopify email newsletter is an email marketing campaign that a Shopify store sends periodically to subscribers using Shopify email marketing tools. 

It often contains a mix of content such as news updates, insightful articles, industry trends, and product information using e-commerce email newsletter strategies.

The objective of sending a Shopify newsletter is to inform, educate, and engage the audience over time rather than prompt immediate action like making a purchase using newsletter engagement tips.

So, this is like laying the groundwork for the future while sending promotional emails to Shopify campaigns.

Consequently, these nurtured customers are more receptive to sales messages as they feel a stronger connection to your brand using Shopify customer engagement emails.

4 Types of Shopify Email Newsletters That Drive Sales in 2025

Email newsletters can be categorized into various types based on their content, purpose, and target audience using e-commerce newsletter best practices.

The 4 types of Shopify newsletters using email marketing that drive sales in 2025 are:

• Informational Shopify Newsletters: Build Authority & Trust
• Curated Content Newsletters: Position Your Brand as an Expert
• Company News Newsletters: Keep Customers Engaged Long-Term
• Promotional Shopify Newsletters: Drive Sales Without Being Pushy

Let’s learn what kind of content and the target audience are required by each type of Shopify newsletter campaign.

• Informational newsletters
  These Shopify customer engagement emails are sent to educate and inform customers about various topics related to the brand’s products or industry, using e-commerce newsletter best practices.
• Curated-content newsletters
  This type of Shopify email newsletter positions the brand as a valuable resource for discovering trends, insights, and related content.
• Company news and updated newsletters
  These types of Shopify customer engagement emails are sent to keep subscribers informed about the latest happenings within the company, including new product launches, company milestones, or events, using Shopify order update emails.
• Promotional newsletters
  While promotional in nature, this type of Shopify email campaign balances sales-driven content Ideal for customers – both new and repeat ones – looking for a good deal and are motivated by promotions to make a purchase using e-commerce newsletter best practices.

Proven Benefits of Shopify Email Newsletter Marketing

Here are 5 benefits that Shopify email newsletters offer to e-commerce stores:

• Improves customer engagement by 65%
  Engaging content creates an engaged audience.
  When customers find your content interesting, informative, or entertaining, they’re more likely to interact with it by clicking on links or exploring your offerings using Shopify customer engagement emails.
• Create Compelling Product Stories That Convert
  Through valuable content in Shopify newsletter email, you can subtly weave in narratives about your products, educating your audience about their benefits without sounding salse-y by using e-commerce email newsletter strategies.
  Hence, email newsletter holds an important position in the realm of Shopify email marketing.
  When you send newsletters from Shopify to customers with the product context and more likely to be interested in purchasing.
• Drives repeat sales with Regular Communication
  Regular communication through Shopify customer engagement emails thus retaining customers by keeping them informed and engaged with your brand using newsletter engagement tips.
  As newsletters are more than sales pitches, they also help in building a loyal customer base that returns to your store repeatedly,  using e-commerce newsletter best practices.
• Reduce Marketing Costs While Maximizing ROI
  Sending Shopify email newsletters using email marketing for online stores is a cost-effective way to reach your customers periodically – thanks to the high ROI of email marketing compared to other marketing channels.
• Personalize at Scale with Smart Segmentation
  By integrating with a Shopify email marketing app, you can segment your Shopify audience for newsletters based on demographics, customer behavior, and purchase history by using Shopify customer email segments.

8 Essential Elements Every High-Converting Shopify Newsletter Needs

Creating an email newsletter in Shopify using e-commerce newsletter best practices involves incorporating several essential elements to engage subscribers at best.

Here’s a look at these crucial components:

Build a Clean, High-Quality Shopify Email List

Sending newsletters to a clean Shopify email list means you’re reaching subscribers who are genuinely interested in your products or content. This targeted approach significantly improves engagement metrics like newsletter open rate in Shopify, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

Furthermore, to build a Shopify email list, you can use popups or newsletter sign-up forms and offer value through lead magnets.

Compelling Subject Lines For 45% Higher Open Rates

The first thing recipients see. Well-crafted Shopify newsletter subject lines spark curiosity or offer value, compelling the reader to open the email. It should be concise, personalized, and direct to increase the newsletter open rate on Shopify.

Smart Email Segmentation for Better Results

Sending the same message to your entire Shopify subscriber list can lead to lower engagement rates.

Thus, Email segmentation is imperative for creating Shopify email newsletters that are targeted to customers who would find the content more relevant.

For example, sending a product usage guide to those who haven’t bought a product wouldn’t be relevant using segment your Shopify audience for newsletters strategies.

Segment your audience based on their interactions, preferences, and purchase history to deliver more targeted and relevant content using your customer email list.

Email Personalization Strategies That Increase CTR 

Shopify audience segmentation and personalizing Shopify email newsletters for better engagement go hand in hand. You can segment the customers into groups based on a criterion and tailor your email newsletters to meet the distinct needs and preferences of each group.

While creating Shopify email newsletters, beyond just addressing the recipient by name, email personalization tailors content based on customer behavior, purchase history, and preferences.

This approach increases relevance and engagement, thus making each subscriber feel valued and understood. That’s why personalization is one of the most effective email marketing strategies too.

Design Newsletter Templates That Reflect Your Brand

The design and tone of your Shopify newsletters should reflect your brand’s identity. Following that, consistency in colors, fonts, and messaging reinforces brand recognition and builds trust with your audience.

Create Engaging Content That Keeps Subscribers Hooked

High-quality content is pivotal. This can range from new product announcements to educational content, how-to guides, and customer testimonials.

Hence, the key is to provide value that keeps subscribers interested and engaged.

Optimize CTAs for Maximum Click-Through Rates

Every Shopify newsletter email should have a clear objective guided by a compelling CTA using e-commerce newsletter best practices.

Whether it’s to shop now, learn more, or claim an offer, the CTA should be visually distinct and strategically placed to guide subscribers toward taking action.

Sending a follow-up Shopify newsletter confirmation email

This is a necessary step to take after customers complete Shopify newsletter signup.

A Shopify newsletter confirmation email reinforces trust by confirming the subscriber’s successful registration. It also sets the stage for future communication, ensuring subscribers are aware and looking forward to your Shopify newsletters.

Additionally, you can consider this as a Shopify newsletter welcome email by introducing subscribers to your brand story, values, and what they can expect in terms of content, offers, and frequency.

How to Send Newsletters in Shopify: 6-Step Setup Guide (2025)

You can send Shopify email newsletters using Shopify’s in-built email marketing tool called ‘Shopify Email’.

Shopify Email allows you to create and send email newsletters without leaving Shopify, and it is a good choice if you are just starting your email marketing journey.

Let’s see how you can send Shopify email newsletters using Shopify Email.

Step 1: Go to Shopify Admin

To send Shopify email newsletters:

• Open your Shopify Admin
• Go to Marketing -> Campaigns.
• Click ‘Create Campaign’.

Then, you will be asked to choose the marketing channel to create your Shopify newsletter campaigns. Select “Shopify Email”.

Step 2: Customize the Shopify newsletter template branding

Then, you will be asked to customize the template by choosing a logo, brand name, typography, and color.

While creating an email newsletter in Shopify, you have to make sure that your newsletter template matches your brand’s identity and tone.

Step 3: Choose the newsletter email campaign template

Following that, you will be asked to choose the Shopify newsletter campaign template. Hence, let’s choose ‘Newsletter’ and design professional email newsletters in Shopify.

Step 4: Choose the audience

In this step,  choose which Shopify customer should receive your newsletter.

Shopify Email shows default customer segments like All subscribers, customers who haven’t purchased or purchased at least once.

You can also create new segments or segments you have already created by visiting the ‘Segment’ page.

For example, using filters on the ‘Segment’ page, you can group the customers in a segment who have purchased a specific product.

Step 5: Craft the email content

As we have customized the template regarding branding in the second step, the only thing left is crafting the content of the email and formatting it.

Now, you can customize each element – text, image, CTA – with the options appearing on the right panel.

Step 6: Send the test email

To check if everything has come out as you intended, send a test email to your preferred email address.

As you can see, the scope for customization of your email newsletter template is very minimal in Shopify Email.

Hence, this is where the email marketing apps come in – to give you more options to customize, more templates, and more segmentation options.

Let’s see how to create email newsletters for Shopify using an easy-to-use email marketing app – Retainful.

Create Professional Shopify Newsletters in Minutes using Retainful

Retainful is an email marketing app for Shopify that simplifies creating personalized Shopify email newsletters.

You can send personalized Shopify newsletters easily with automation using:

• Pre-designed Shopify newsletter templates
• Drag-and-drop email editor
• Shopify audience segmentation based on purchase history, demographics, email engagement, and more.

Let’s see how we can create and send a newsletter in Shopify with Retainful using a step-by-step guide.

Step 1: Install the app

Install Retainful and connect your Shopify store.

In the dashboard, go to Campaigns -> Create Campaigns.

Step 2: Set up email properties

Firstly, you can set up the fundamentals of sending emails – From address, To address, Subject line, and pre-header text.

Step 3: Choose the newsletter template

Retainful has a template library where you can choose a pre-designed template that suits your Shopify newsletter campaign’s purpose.

For now, let’s choose the Shopify newsletter template for product launch from the lot.

Step 4: Customize the newsletter email content

For editing every element of the template effortlessly, Retainful has a drag-and-drop email editor.

You can add additional elements like discount coupons, social media buttons, images, and more.

You can customize the existing elements by changing the dimensions, typography, background color, and more.

Step 5: Choose the audience

To choose the recipients of the Shopify email newsletter, you can select either ‘All contacts’ option or a customer segment you have already created.

In Retainful, it can be done in a few simple steps. Thus, you can choose pre-defined email segmentation templates like abandoned cart customers, inactive customers, VIP customers, new customers, and active Email subscribers, or you can create your own rules from scratch.

For example, to make our product recommendation newsletter relevant, we can send it to customers who have bought a similar product.

You can implement this in Retainful by adding a simple rule like below.

Step 6: Go live

That’s it. Your Shopify email newsletter campaign is ready to be sent.

5 High-Converting Shopify Newsletter Examples That Boost Sales

Let’s look at some examples of Shopify newsletters you can send to your customers using email marketing for online stores.

1. Company Updates Newsletter: Build Brand Authority (Example)

One objective of sending Shopify newsletters is to provide resources that enrich customers’ knowledge and understanding of your products.

By carefully selecting curated content that aligns with your audience’s interests and needs using newsletter engagement tips, you demonstrate an understanding of their challenges and interests.

For example, see how Hairtage does it.

Why does this Shopify newsletter email example stand out?

People subscribe to newsletters because they have a genuine interest in staying up-to-date with what a company is doing.

This template highlights new improvements and meets this need directly, providing content that is both anticipated and appreciated.

Including curated blogs in your Shopify newsletter shows that you’re not just focused on selling or self-promotion but are also invested in providing useful or entertaining content.

2. Product Recommendation Emails: Drive Discovery & Sales

Even with familiar brands, customers may not be aware of the full range of products available.

Product recommendation newsletters serve as a curated guide, encouraging subscribers to explore items they might not have found on their own.

This discovery process can reinforce a positive brand image and spur additional sales.

Why this Shopify newsletter example stand out?

For many customers, finding products they love can be time-consuming and overwhelming.

This Shopify newsletter example cuts through the noise to highlight their best courses and its benefits, making it easier and more enjoyable for customers to discover new products and make informed purchasing decisions.

3. Educational Content: Position Yourself as the Expert

Consumers appreciate learning how to use their purchases to the fullest.

A product usage guide that gives a better understanding of the product can lead to more efficient use and fewer frustrations using e-commerce newsletter best practices, creating a positive post-purchase experience.

Why does this Shopify newsletter example stand out?

Providing useful content like this Shopify email newsletter template does help customers enhance their experience with a product and keeps them engaged with your brand.

This post-purchase engagement can lead to higher open and click-through rates as subscribers look forward to receiving valuable insights and tips.

4. Usage Tips Newsletter: Maximize Customer Value

Including product usage ideas in Shopify email newsletters can educate customers on features they might not be aware of, helping to maximize the value they get from the product.

This type of Shopify email newsletter positions your brand as helpful and informative.

Why this Shopify newsletter email stand out?

Customers appreciate learning how to get the most out of their purchases.

By offering innovative usage tips like this Shopify email newsletter, you’re adding value beyond the initial sale, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

This email newsletter example doesn’t stop there. It goes on to mention what’s new and provides educational content on how to use their product to the fullest.

This is a testament to the fact that a Shopify newsletter can be your one-stop solution to nurture your customers periodically in multiple ways.

5. Thought Leadership: Become the Go-To Industry Voice

By sharing in-depth knowledge, innovative ideas, and industry foresight, a thought leadership newsletter establishes the sender as an authority in their domain.

This builds credibility and trust among readers, who are likely to engage more with content from a recognized expert.

Why does this Shopify newsletter example stand out?

Each James Clear newsletter, like the above, is crafted to leave the reader with actionable takeaways.

It excels at breaking down the topics into actionable steps thus readers can implement immediately.

By providing unique insights and takeaways like this, you can build a niche audience that would most likely pay for the subscriber-specific content you produce.

Wrapping up!!

It’s clear that Shopify email newsletters are much more than just messages – they are crucial to positioning your brand as a pro in what you do and fostering deep connections with your audience using e-commerce newsletter best practices.

This step-by-step guide to Shopify email newsletters equips you with the necessary knowledge to create and send a newsletter and lists the best newsletter examples thus inspire you to create one of your own using a newsletter campaign. 

Learn more about doing successful email marketing:

• How to Create a Successful Email Marketing Campaign?
• 10 Best Email Marketing Examples and Templates

Frequently Asked Questions