Creating a customer account email subscription

[JB00]

Hi all,

When someone creates a customer account in our shop (https://shop.survivalinternational.org/account/register), there is no consent tick box for them to give consent for email marketing. However, we have found that customer accounts have Marketing preferences that are automatically set to Email subscribed. This is obviously not explicit consent.

Is there a way within Shopify for customers to give explicit consent for email marketing when creating an account?

Many thanks.

[Lana]

Hello, @JB00!

It is indeed possible to get explicit consent from customers before they sign up for email marketing. This can be done through double opt-in, by taking the following steps:

• In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications 
• Scroll down to the Marketing section
• Click to check the box next to Email subscription:

Since you shared the link, I was able to have a closer look at your store, and I am very impressed!

I can see you're affiliated with Survival International, is this in support of Indigenous Communities? I think it would be very interesting for you to add an About us page to further build on this, by following these steps here. This would further highlight the important mission behind your store. 

[JB00]

Thank you, Lana!

I just tested this and the Marketing preferences now say "Pending." If the customer does not react to the double opt-in email, will it change to "Not subscribed" ? If so, after many days will that change take affect?

Kind wishes.

[Lana · Accepted solution]

Happy to help!

The Pending status will remain until such time as they actually go through with the double opt-in, so this does not expire. 

Pending is essentially the same as Not Subscribed in terms of that customer not receiving marketing emails until after the double opt-in.

[Kate_Rachel_Loz]

Is there away to follow up with these pending customers to remind them to opt into my email newsletter list?  So many don't remember or don't "get" the double opt-in.  Thanks, Kate

[JB00]

I don't think so. They get the double opt-in email, which may go to their spam/junk folder as you imply, and that's it. We can't email them again (until they subscribe) as we don't have explicit consent under GDPR. Thanks.

[Kate_Rachel_Loz]

Yeah, I figured.

Meanwhile I no longer sell on Etsy and want to invite these folks to my email newsletter with coupon enticement.  Other than a direct email I don't know how to accomplish this.

[JB00]

Yes, the rules around consent re email marketing are very strict now !

[Kobe_D]

Hi Lana,
Thanks for the reply! Just to clarify. If I do NOT use the double opt in, then new profiles / customers do not get an 'extra' email asking them to subscribe to our emails. So by this they are automatically NOT scubribed for the emails, right?

For example, I now see at my store that I can only give customers the option to indicate if the they want to subscribe or not, during checkout. If customers just want to create a profile they only get the option to enter their name, email address and password. Not the option to choose whether they want to subscribe or not. So all these people who create an account that way (and the double opt in is off) are automatically NOT subscribed? 

[Ollie]

Hey @Kobe_D.

Thanks for reaching out.

That is a great question! If you enable double opt-in for subscribers - this means that your customers will need to click a link in an email to confirm that they want to receive email and SMS marketing from you. This is also recommended as a best practice when it comes to engaging with your customers. If you do not use the double opt-in from the Shopify checkout - your customers should not be automatically subscribed to email marketing. 

Let us know if you have any questions. 

[DeclanC]

Hi @Ollie,

Just to clarify from the original msg in this thread by @JB00, is it still the case that all new customer accounts have "marketing preferences that are automatically set to Email subscribed"?  Or has this recently changed where the creation of a new customer account is now separate to being email subscribed?

I have a Marketing Automation setup in Flow where customers receive an automated email from us when they create a new account (triggered by when the customer subscribes to email marketing).   As new customer accounts have been default-subscribed to email marketing, our automated emails have been working fine in Flow.

I've noticed recently however that a lot of new customer accounts are no longer marked as email subscribed by default, meaning they don't receive our automated welcome email.  It's only happening for some new customers, not all.  How can I review this to ensure all new accounts are default-subscribed to email marketing so they receive our initial automated welcome email when they create a new account on our store?

[Shay]

Hi @DeclanC 

To answer your question we would need to be able to review how these customer accounts are being created on your store. Depending on the apps you are using and your customer account setup flow, the answer could definitely change. I recommend connecting with our authenticated chat support team for a deeper look into this process. To access our authenticated support, please follow this link: Shopify Help Center. Open the AI chat window and type "Contact Support" to get started. 

[Brett_Helium]

Hey @JB00,

Another possible way to do this would be using an app such as Helium Customer Fields which allows you to create a fully customized registration, including adding a checkbox for email marketing consent. You can take advantage of other features such as collecting custom data, requiring email verification or account approval, and letting customers edit or update their own account information.