You will learn
Learn how to sync Shopify email subscribers to a Klaviyo list, how the sync works, and best practices. Additionally, learn who gets added to your list and why.
Before you begin
Knowledge check
If you have not already, read our guide on getting started with Shopify for step-by-step instructions on integrating before continuing with this article. When you integrate, make sure to check the setting to sync Shopify email subscribers to a Klaviyo list.
How to sync subscribers to a list
- In Klaviyo, select your account name in the lower left and click Integrations.
- Select Enabled Integrations and click on Shopify to be brought to your Shopify integration settings page.
- Check the box next to Sync your Shopify email subscribers to Klaviyo.
- Choose the list that you’d like to add subscribers to; as a best practice, add them to your main list such as your Newsletter. Note that you cannot select a segment; you must add your subscribers to a list.
- If you don't see any lists populate:
- Click the Audience dropdown and select Lists & Segments.
- Click Create List/Segment, then choose List to create a new list.
- Navigate back to your Shopify integration settings to see your new list appear in the dropdown.
- Click Update Settings at the bottom of the page.
Who will be added to my list?
Below is an example of an email subscription checkbox on a Shopify checkout page. As a best practice, we recommend not having this box checked by default.
Customers that check this box and then enter their email are added to your Email subscribers group in the Customers tab of your Shopify store.
Once you’ve checked the Sync your Shopify email subscribers to Klaviyo setting on your Shopify settings page in Klaviyo (as described in the previous section), customers from your Shopify subscribers group will only be added to your Klaviyo list if they continue to the next checkout step after checking the box.
Customers that subscribe via any Shopify sign-up form, such as a footer form, will also sync to your list. Email subscription status can be viewed on individual profiles in Klaviyo, and a Subscribed to List event is also recorded in Klaviyo.
If a profile is unsubscribed in Shopify, they are not unsubscribed in Klaviyo. If a Klaviyo profile is already subscribed but does not consent at checkout, they will not be unsubscribed in Klaviyo (no change will happen). If a profile is unsubscribed in Klaviyo, and then resubscribes at checkout, they will be resubscribed in Klaviyo.
Shopify syncs customer profiles to Klaviyo in real time.
About the Accepts Marketing property and subscribers
On December 14th, 2022, Klaviyo released an update changing the way email subscribers are synced from Shopify to Klaviyo. This sync previously relied on Shopify’s Accepts Marketing tag, but now, subscribers are synced via Shopify’s subscription model. If you are looking to understand your Shopify subscribers synced before this release, read on to learn more about the Accepts Marketing tag.
Below is an example of how the property appears on a customer's profile in Klaviyo. To find a list of profiles in Klaviyo and view their details, click the Audience dropdown and select the Profiles tab. You can also use the search bar to search for individual profiles.
To learn how the Accepts Marketing property is managed in Shopify, see their documentation. There are a few situations which can cause a pre-existing customer to have Accepts Marketing set to false, but they're still subscribed to your newsletter:
- If a customer checks out and decides not to accept email marketing at that time, but later subscribes through a Klaviyo sign-up form, they'll still be added to your newsletter list.
- If a customer checks out and does accept email marketing, they'll be added to your newsletter list. If they check out again, they'll probably decide to not subscribe again since they're already subscribed. Depending on your checkout configuration, Shopify might see this as not accepting marketing (Accepts Marketing = false.) You probably don't want to treat this customer as an unsubscribe. Rather, you'll want to keep this customer on your newsletter list.
Klaviyo will not automatically sync historical subscribers to a list when you check Collect email subscribers. If you need to add historical subscribers to your newsletter list, you can do so by uploading a CSV as outlined in How to add or combine lists without triggering a flow.
Additionally, it's important to note that a pre-existing customer who has Accepts Marketing set to false won't automatically be suppressed. To learn more about suppression, check out our article Understanding suppressed email profiles.
Leave the subscribe box unchecked by default
We strongly recommend keeping your email subscription box on your Shopify checkout page unchecked by default to avoid damaging your sender reputation by accumulating passive subscribers. This option can be adjusted by navigating to Settings > Checkout in your Shopify store admin.
Leaving this box checked by default is not a recommended practice because it can lead to people who don’t wish to receive marketing communications from you getting added to your list. They are more likely to unsubscribe, ignore, or mark your emails as spam. If these contacts ignore your emails, they will eventually filter to spam.
If a large percentage of your list consists of passive subscribers added in this way and your email engagement is low, you're putting your email deliverability at risk. By growing lists of engaged subscribers and focusing on the quality of your leads over quantity, you're setting yourself up for strong email deliverability and higher conversion rates.
Email subscribers and your welcome series flow
If a customer is added to your newsletter list by signing up to a default Shopify sign-up form, and your welcome flow is set up (as well as your Shopify integration), this customer will be queued for your welcome series flow.
If a customer is added to your newsletter list by clicking the Subscribe to newsletter box upon checkout, they will also get queued up for your welcome series flow. You can use flow filters in your welcome series flow to filter out groups of customers that you wish to exclude from this behavior.
Outcome
You've now learned how to sync Shopify email subscribers to a Klaviyo list and best practices around managing email subscribers.