Help · Automations
Order and shipping emails
Shopify sends some emails about an order on its own, before you build anything here. Knowing which ones is how you avoid two things: an important email that nobody sends, and the same email arriving twice.
The short version:
| Who should send it | |
|---|---|
| Order confirmation | Shopify, always |
| Shipping confirmation | Shopify, when it knows about the shipment — otherwise you, from here |
| Out for delivery | Either one — never both |
| Delivered | Either one — never both |
| Shipping update | Shopify, when it knows about the shipment — otherwise you, from here |
Every one of Shopify's emails lives in Shopify, under Settings → Notifications → Customer notifications. That is where you check what Shopify is sending and change how it looks.
Order confirmation: let Shopify send it
Shopify always sends the order confirmation. It cannot be disabled. It carries your store's logo and colors, and you can edit its words and layout in Shopify, under Order confirmation in that same list.
Leave it there. Don't build a second one here. The order confirmation is the email where payment and order details matter most, and Shopify shows them well. Shopify also changes the details it offers an order email from time to time, and any email tool outside Shopify has to keep catching up with those changes. An order confirmation built here would be a copy of Shopify's that is always one step behind it.
Shipping confirmation
Shopify sends the shipping confirmation when you buy your labels in Shopify, or when your shipping software tells Shopify to notify the shopper. Otherwise nobody sends it, so send it from here, with an automation that starts on Fulfilled Order.
Whether Shopify sends the shipping confirmation depends on how you ship.
- You buy your shipping labels in Shopify. Shopify sends the shipping confirmation, and it cannot be disabled. Nothing to do here.
- Your shipping software tells Shopify to notify the shopper. Shopify sends it. Nothing to do here either.
- Your shipping software does not tell Shopify to notify. Shopify sends nothing, and the person who bought from you never hears that the order is on its way — unless you send it.
In the third case, send it from here. Your store tells us an order has shipped whether or not Shopify emailed anybody about it, and the shipment's details come with it — the carrier, the tracking number and the tracking link. Build an automation that starts on Fulfilled Order, and its email can use those details: "Order #1042 is on its way", with a button to the tracking link.
Fulfilled Order means the whole order has shipped. When an order goes out in more than one parcel, each parcel before the last is a Partially Fulfilled event instead, so an automation on Fulfilled Order waits for the last one.
Before you build it, check which case you are in. Place a test order and ship it the way you normally do. If a shipping confirmation from Shopify arrives, Shopify is already sending it, and an automation here would send a second one.
Out for delivery and Delivered
Shopify has an on/off switch for each of these two, in the same list in Shopify. You may leave them to Shopify, or disable them in Shopify and send them from here instead — with your own words, your own layout, and the items in the parcel shown the way your other emails show products.
To send them from here, build an automation that starts on Out for Delivery, and another that starts on Delivered Shipment. The second one is named that way so it is never mistaken for Delivered on your reports, which is about an email, not a parcel.
Never have both on. If Shopify's email is enabled and your automation is enabled, the person who bought from you gets two emails about the same parcel. Disable Shopify's in Shopify first, then enable yours.
These two events are only as good as what the carrier reports to your store. Some carriers report every step and some report none, so check Analytics → Metrics to see whether your store has recorded them before you rely on one.
Shipping update
Shopify sends a shipping update when a parcel's tracking number is added or changed after it shipped. Like the shipping confirmation, it goes out only when you bought the label in Shopify or your shipping software tells Shopify to notify the shopper.
When Shopify does not send it, send it from here: build an automation that starts on Shipping Updated. It starts when your store tells us a shipment's tracking number was added or changed after we already have that shipment's shipping confirmation. It carries the new number, its tracking link, the carrier, the items in the parcel and the number it replaced. The number a shipment first ships with is the shipping confirmation's news, not this one's.
A new shipment on an order that already shipped counts too — for example, one that replaces a shipment you canceled. The shopper already has the shipping confirmation, so this is the email that tells them the new number. When exactly one shipment on the order was canceled, it carries that shipment's number as the one it replaced. A new shipment under a tracking number already sent for that order does not start it, and canceling a shipment never does — a canceled parcel is not on its way to anybody.
Some changes can be missed — for example, a change your store reports before it reports the shipment itself.
Never have both on. When Shopify knows about the shipment, it sends its own shipping update, and an automation here would send a second. Check first the way you would for the shipping confirmation: change the tracking number on a test order and see whether an email from Shopify arrives. If one does, leave this email to Shopify and don't enable yours.
Making sure your shipping email reaches everybody who bought
A new email step in an automation starts as Marketing, and a marketing email goes only to people who gave you consent to email them. A shipping email should reach everybody who bought, so set the step's Email type to Transactional on its panel.
A transactional email does not need consent, an unsubscribe link or your store's address. Keep it to the order: an email that is really a sales pitch belongs on the marketing stream, where consent is asked. Somebody marked Do not email is never emailed from here, even about their own order.
The Automations page covers everything else: how to build one, the details each shipment event carries, and how to apply your changes and enable it.