In short: Shopify Flow's "Send internal email" action can't use variables in the recipient email address. It only works for notifications to staff addresses you set in advance, so it can't send an automatic email to the customer who signed up. To send automatic emails to customers, use marketing automations in the Shopify Messaging app. These automations are sent when a customer takes an action related to email marketing, such as subscribing to a newsletter or abandoning a cart, so you need the customer's consent to email marketing before anything is sent.
Key points
- Shopify Flow's "Send internal email" action can't use variables in the recipient email address and is only for notifications to staff addresses you set in advance
- To send automatic emails to customers, use marketing automations in the Shopify Messaging app
- Marketing automations are sent when a customer takes a specific action related to email marketing, such as subscribing to a newsletter or abandoning a cart
- For marketing automations to run, you need the customer's consent to email marketing before sending
- With Shopify Flow's "Customer created" trigger, you can add or remove customer tags, update or delete customer metafields, update customer notes, and send internal emails to staff
Can Shopify Flow send an automatic email to a customer as soon as they sign up?
No. Shopify Flow's "Send internal email" action lets you enter multiple recipient email addresses separated by commas, but you can't use variables in this field. It only sends to fixed email addresses you set in advance. You can write the subject and body freely, so it works well for letting a staff member or a shared team address know about a new sign-up, but you can't insert the email address of the customer who signed up.
Source: Shopify Help Center: "Send internal email"
What do you use to send automatic emails to customers?
Marketing automations in the Shopify Messaging app. Like abandoned checkout recovery, this feature sends email and SMS campaigns and automations directly to your subscriber list.
Source: Shopify Help Center: "Setting up marketing in Shopify"
Does a customer get an email just by submitting the sign-up form?
No. Shopify requires you to ask customers for consent to use their contact information before you send marketing. If your sign-up form doesn't collect consent to receive marketing, signing up alone doesn't make the customer eligible for marketing automations.
If you use an external email marketing service, you may set up automatic emails after sign-up in that service instead of Shopify Messaging. Feel free to contact us.
Source: Shopify Help Center: "Setting up marketing in Shopify"
What can Shopify Flow do when a customer signs up?
Apart from sending emails to customers, you can start from the "Customer created" trigger to add customer tags automatically, update customer metafields, and send internal email notifications to staff. You can use fields collected with the sign-up form as conditions, which makes it a good fit for automating store-side tasks at the moment a customer signs up.
Sources: Shopify Help Center: "Customer created" / Shopify Help Center: "Send internal email" / Howdy Help: "How to add a birth-month customer tag for birthday campaigns" (Japanese)
Related articles
- How to automate post-sign-up tasks with Shopify Flow: tagging and metafield updates
- How to collect newsletter consent at sign-up in Shopify: updating the subscription status
Frequently asked questions
Questions about new customer accounts? Ask us anytime.
We can help with everything from designing automations triggered by sign-up to separating what gets sent to customers from what the store handles. Our dedicated team creates customer metafields, sets up sign-up form fields, and places blocks on the profile page for free.
