How to Get More Email Subscribers on Your Shopify Store

If your Shopify store's only email sign up is a footer form saying "get updates", you are leaving your most valuable marketing channel almost unused. Across the stores we have built and optimised, the difference between collecting 20 to 30 subscribers a month and collecting 300 to 400 comes down to three things: where the sign up forms sit, what they offer, and what happens in the first email. This guide covers all three, with the steps in Shopify and Klaviyo.

Key Takeaways

• Three things separate a store collecting 20 to 30 subscribers a month from one collecting 300 to 400: form placement, the offer and the first email.
• Of the last 50 startup stores we took on, 37 had no welcome flow live, so they were collecting addresses and doing nothing with them.
• Across 198 client stores, email accounts for a median of 30% of total revenue, and you own the list.
• Across our Klaviyo clients, the welcome series and the abandoned cart and checkout flows are normally the best performing flows by total revenue and conversion rate.
• Popup timing matters more than design: trigger on scroll depth or exit intent, not on arrival.
• A competition with a prize tied to what you sell grows a list fast: one coffee client went from 1,200 to 9,800 subscribers in a month.
• A smaller, double opted in list outperforms a larger cold one in revenue and deliverability.

Quick Answer

To get more email subscribers on Shopify, fix three things in order. First, replace a vague "get updates" offer with something specific, such as a discount, a useful guide, early access or a free sample. Second, move sign up forms out of the footer: turn on the email sign up option at checkout, add a popup triggered by scroll depth or exit intent, and embed forms on product pages. Third, connect a welcome flow so every new address is worth something straight away. Then add a signup landing page, a referral programme and double opt in. Expect subscriber numbers to move within a fortnight and your sign up rate to settle by month two or three.

Table of Contents

• Why List Growth Should Be a Priority
• Why Most Shopify Lists Stay Small
• Add Email Sign Up at Checkout
• Replace Your Sign Up Offer
• Use Popups with Smart Triggers
• Add Forms to High Traffic Pages
• Create a Signup Landing Page
• Run a Relevant Competition
• Build a Welcome Flow
• Run a Referral Programme
• Use Double Opt In
• Consent, GDPR and PECR
• How Long It Takes
• Why Matters Perspective
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Thoughts
• Related Articles

Why List Growth Should Be a Priority

Email is the highest return channel for most Shopify merchants, and the reason is ownership as much as performance. Across 198 client stores, email accounts for a median of 30% of total revenue. Unlike a social following, your list cannot be taken away by an algorithm change or a platform decision.

It also protects the traffic you already pay for. Baymard Institute calculates an average cart abandonment rate of 70.22% across 50 studies. Without an email address, an abandoned cart is simply a lost sale; with one, it is the start of a conversation. If you are also working on keeping the customers you have, our guide to getting Shopify repeat customers covers the retention side.

Why Most Shopify Lists Stay Small

Three causes come up again and again in our store builds:

• A weak or missing offer. Nobody wants another newsletter. People sign up for something specific and valuable.
• Forms only in the footer. Most visitors never scroll that far, so a footer form is present but rarely seen.
• No welcome sequence. Of the last 50 startup stores we took on, 37 had no welcome flow live, by far the most common gap we find.

Fix those three and list growth speeds up before you change anything else.

Add Email Sign Up at Checkout

Checkout is the highest intent moment in your store, because the visitor is already buying. In your Shopify admin, open the checkout settings and turn on the email marketing sign up option, so customers can subscribe as they buy. If you use Klaviyo, connect it to Shopify so those subscribers flow into your lists and start the welcome flow automatically.

Do not pre tick the sign up box. People who did not mean to join unsubscribe and complain, and those complaints damage the deliverability of every email you send.

Replace Your Sign Up Offer

Swap "get updates" for something specific. It does not need to be elaborate: a two page guide takes a couple of hours to write and can change your sign up rate. Offers that work for Shopify stores include:

• A discount or free shipping code, commonly 10% to 20%
• A download relevant to your product, such as a recipe guide for a food brand or a care guide for skincare
• Early access to new launches
• A free sample with the first order
• A spin to win form, where the email is entered before the spin

The test is simple: would someone who has never heard of you trade their email address for it?

Use Popups with Smart Triggers

Popups usually collect more sign ups than embedded forms, but timing matters more than design. A popup that fires the moment someone lands tends to underperform one that waits for a sign of interest. A practical setup:

• Welcome popup after 8 to 10 seconds, or at 40% scroll depth, whichever comes first
• Exit intent popup when the cursor heads for the browser bar, with a last offer
• Cart popup when someone adds a product but has not yet subscribed, offering a discount before checkout

The free Shopify Forms app builds popup and embedded forms without code and syncs them to your Shopify customer list, while Klaviyo's own forms offer deeper targeting if you already use it. Because a popup is a conversion element like any other, read our guide to why your Shopify conversion rate matters alongside this one.

Add Forms to High Traffic Pages

Embed forms on your homepage, about page, blog and especially product pages, where visitors have already shown interest. The simplest high intent form is a "notify me when back in stock" option on sold out products: it captures an address at the moment of disappointment and gives you a reason to email that the customer asked for. If you want your forms designed and tested for you, see how we handle email marketing for Shopify stores. For turning that traffic into orders more broadly, see how to increase Shopify conversions.

Create a Signup Landing Page

A dedicated address such as yourstore.com/vip gives you somewhere to send social followers, paid traffic and partners, instead of hoping they find a footer form. Keep the page focused on one job: no navigation, no competing buttons, just a clear headline, three short points on what subscribers get and one email field. If you need traffic for it, see how to get more traffic to your Shopify store.

Run a Relevant Competition

A competition that asks entrants to join your list can add a large number of subscribers quickly, provided the prize is something only your customers would want. One of our clients, a Shopify coffee brand, ran a Facebook competition offering a year's coffee subscription, with joining the newsletter as one of the entry requirements, and put paid budget behind it. Its list grew from 1,200 to 9,800 subscribers in one month. Because every entrant wanted coffee, the new subscribers were relevant rather than generic.

A generic prize such as a tablet attracts people who want a tablet. Tie the prize to what you sell, collect consent clearly in the entry form, and send every entrant into your welcome flow straight away. Our Shopify email marketing guide covers running one alongside your other campaigns.

Build a Welcome Flow

This is the step most often missing, and it decides whether an address is worth anything. Across our Klaviyo clients, the welcome series and the abandoned cart and checkout flows are normally the best performing flows by total revenue and conversion rate. A simple four email welcome flow in Klaviyo looks like this:

• Email 1, immediately: deliver the offer or code and introduce the brand
• Email 2, day 2: your story, what makes you different and customer reviews
• Email 3, day 4: best sellers, personalised where possible
• Email 4, day 7: a reminder if the code has not been used

A real result. An organic cosmetics client grew its list from 67 to 298 subscribers in three months with a Klaviyo welcome flow and an exit intent popup, a 345% increase with no paid spend on subscriber growth.

For the wider email setup, see our Shopify email marketing guide, and if you sell subscriptions, the Klaviyo flows every Shopify subscription brand should build.

Run a Referral Programme

Your subscribers are your most credible recruiters. Give each one a referral link and reward both people when a friend signs up and ideally buys, and your list grows without extra ad spend. Apps such as ReferralCandy and Smile.io connect to Shopify and handle tracking and rewards. If you sell subscriptions, pairing referrals with a subscription offer is one of the strongest growth loops available; our Shopify subscriptions service explains how we set these up.

Use Double Opt In

Double opt in asks new subscribers to confirm by clicking a link in an email. It produces a smaller list and a far more engaged one: 2,000 confirmed subscribers who open your emails will outperform 10,000 who do not, both in revenue and in the sender reputation that decides whether you reach the inbox. In Klaviyo, you set it per list in the list's settings, and it is worth turning on for any list fed by cold traffic. Our guide to stopping Shopify emails landing in spam explains how inbox providers judge senders.

Consent, GDPR and PECR

Consent is a legal requirement, and people who chose to join behave better than people who were added. For UK and EU merchants:

• Get clear, affirmative consent before adding anyone to a marketing list; pre ticked boxes do not count.
• Link your privacy policy from every sign up form.
• Include a visible unsubscribe link in every email.
• Honour unsubscribes promptly, ideally immediately.
• Past customers are the exception: the soft opt in lets you email them about similar products without separate consent, provided you offered a simple opt out when you collected their details and in every message since. The ICO's guidance on electronic mail marketing sets out the conditions.

Klaviyo records consent and manages suppression lists automatically, but the form wording and consent language are yours to get right.

How Long It Takes

Once the full sign up setup is in place, we aim for 2% to 5% of sessions to produce a subscriber. Below that, the offer is usually the problem rather than the form.

Why Matters Perspective

The gap between stores that build a list and stores that do not is rarely effort; it is order. Merchants start with the popup because it is the visible part and leave the welcome flow for later, which is backwards. Of the last 50 startup stores we took on, 37 had no welcome flow live, so every address they collected sat unused until someone remembered to send a campaign.

Across our Klaviyo clients, the welcome series and the abandoned cart and checkout flows are normally the best performing flows by total revenue and conversion rate. That is why we build the welcome flow first and the popup second: it costs the same and every address captured from then on earns its keep. List size is also the wrong target. Our cosmetics client's 298 subscribers opened emails and bought, and with inbox providers as strict as they are now, a large disengaged list actively hurts your ability to reach the people who care.

If you want help building the sign up setup and the flows behind it, email us at info@whymatters.co.uk. We offer a 3 month guarantee on development projects.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good email sign up rate for a Shopify store?

Once the full setup is in place, we aim for 2% to 5% of sessions to produce a subscriber. If you are under 1%, look at your offer before your forms.

Should I use Shopify Messaging or Klaviyo?

Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, handles campaigns and a set of ready made automations. Klaviyo adds deeper behavioural segmentation and more flexible flows. For a store treating email as a revenue channel, Klaviyo is the stronger long term choice.

Does Shopify have built in email sign up tools?

Yes. The free Shopify Forms app builds popup and embedded forms that sync to your customer list, and Shopify Messaging, formerly Shopify Email, handles sending. Most stores outgrow them once segmentation and flows start to matter.

Is it worth buying an email list?

No. Bought lists breach UK consent rules, damage your sender reputation with Gmail and Outlook, and rarely produce sales. The complaints they generate can also stop your emails reaching the subscribers who did opt in.

Why am I collecting emails but not making sales from them?

Almost always because the welcome flow is missing or weak. Of the last 50 startup stores we took on, 37 had no welcome flow live, and a subscriber who hears nothing for three weeks has forgotten you by the first campaign.

Which Klaviyo flows make the most money?

Across our Klaviyo clients, the welcome series and the abandoned cart and checkout flows are normally the best performing flows by total revenue and conversion rate.

Where should email sign up forms go on a Shopify store?

At checkout, in a triggered popup, on product pages and on a signup landing page for social and paid traffic. Keep the footer form, but never rely on it alone.

Final Thoughts

List growth comes down to three decisions made in the right order: offer something worth having, put forms where people actually are, and make sure the first email arrives while they still remember signing up. Most stores get two of those right and skip the third. Build the welcome flow first, then drive sign ups into it.

If you want a second opinion on your sign up setup before you pay for traffic to feed it, email us at info@whymatters.co.uk.

Related Articles

• How to Optimise Your Shopify Email Marketing
• How to Stop Your Shopify Emails Landing in Spam
• Klaviyo Flows Every Shopify Subscription Brand Should Build
• How to Get Shopify Repeat Customers: A Practical Implementation Guide
• How to Increase Shopify Conversions: 10 Proven Strategies
• Your First 90 Days: A Marketing Plan for New Shopify Stores