Email notification

Email yourself every order containing options, using your own subject, layout, and sending service.

This workflow emails you — or anyone else you add — when a customer orders a product with options, and lists what they selected.

For a personalization business, this is usually the first automation to set up, because it puts the production details in the right inbox without anyone opening Shopify admin.

You can create one email notification workflow.

The three tabs

The workflow editor has three tabs:

Tab	What it holds
Preview	The email as it will arrive, with the subject line above it
Edit code	Email subject and Email body (HTML), plus the Liquid variable reference
Configure	Who receives it, which service sends it, and what it is sent from

Preview what will arrive, edit the template, and choose how it is sent.

Editing the email

Edit code contains the subject and the body as HTML. Both accept Liquid variables, so the email can include the order number, the customer's details, and every line item with its options.

The full list of variables is available on the page, and in Liquid variables reference.

Put the important details in the subject line, so you can read them in your inbox list:

New personalized order {{ order_name }} — {{ customer_name }}

Revert to default restores the original template. It asks you to confirm first, because your own version is discarded.

Who receives it

Recipients on the Configure tab decides where the notification goes. It works like Shopify's product tags: type an address and press Enter to turn it into a tag.

Rule	Detail
How many	Up to 10 addresses
Adding several at once	Paste a whole list — commas, semicolons, and spaces all separate addresses
Duplicates	Rejected, with This email is already in the list
Invalid addresses	Rejected before they are added
Empty list	The workflow cannot be saved. There has to be at least one address

Every address in the list gets its own copy, so each person receives the notification directly rather than seeing the others in a shared To field.

Workflows you created before this setting existed send to the store owner's email, and open with that address already in the list. Nothing changes until you save, so an existing workflow keeps working exactly as it did.

Use it to put the notification straight into the hands of whoever acts on it — your production inbox, the person who does engraving, a shared team address — instead of forwarding every order by hand.

Each address in the list gets its own copy of the notification.

Choosing how it is sent

Configure sets which service delivers the email.

Provider	Type	You need
Default	Ours	Nothing. Works immediately
Google	SMTP	Server, port, encryption, username, password
Outlook	SMTP	The same
SendGrid	API	An API key
Sendinblue	API	An API key
Pepipost	API	An API key
Amazon SES	API	Key id, secret key, region
Elastic Email	API	An API key
Mailgun	API	An API key and a domain
Zoho	API	An API key, a from address, and a bounce address

The SMTP providers fill in their usual server and port, so you normally only enter your username and password.

Custom sender information

With any provider, you can set the following:

Field	What it does
From email	The address the email appears to come from
From name	The name shown alongside it
Reply to	Where replies go

Choosing a provider

Situation	Choice
You just want the emails, today	Default
You already use a sending service	That one, so all your mail is in one place
Emails must come from your own domain	Your own provider, with the sender fields set
Emails are going to spam	Your own provider, on a domain you have authenticated
You need delivery reporting	An API provider, which gives you its own dashboard

Start with Default. It works without any configuration, and you can switch to your own provider later without changing the template.

Testing

Send test email sends the current template to everyone on the Recipients list, which is also the quickest way to confirm the list itself is right. Send test to another email sends a single copy somewhere else, which is useful for checking that it is not marked as spam.

Send a test after every change to the template or the provider. This is the only way to confirm that an SMTP password or API key is correct.

Test sending is rate-limited, so wait a few seconds between attempts.

Notes

• You can create one email notification workflow per store, with up to 10 recipients on it.

• It runs shortly after an order containing app options is created.

• A workflow set to Draft does not send anything.

• This workflow requires order data access, which you approve once when you first open the Automations tab.

• Provider credentials are stored so the workflow can send email. Where your provider offers one, use an application password or an API key rather than your main account password.