I need to send a custom message to customers about a shipping delay

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Merchant needs to notify customers about extended shipping delays but finds Shopify’s native options limited: Email templates only reach subscribers, and sending from the Customers page includes non-buyers. They also lack HTML/Liquid (Shopify’s templating language) skills and want to target only actual buyers.

Guidance provided:

  • Per-order messaging: A how-to guide was shared for contacting a customer about an order (works one customer at a time). The original poster plans to use this route for now.
  • Bulk workaround: Export customers to a CSV (spreadsheet file), add a “Custom Message” column, then import/send via an external email platform to personalize at scale.

Concerns/gaps:

  • No apparent native way to filter “open orders” and bulk email only those customers.
  • Lack of simple stock templates and merge fields to auto-populate order number and items without Liquid.

Status and next steps:

  • No confirmed built-in bulk solution in Shopify for this use case.
  • Actionable options are individual order emails or CSV export plus third-party email tools. Discussion remains open with unresolved feature limitations.
Summarized with AI on January 19. AI used: gpt-5.
1

I am not a developer. Is there an easy way to send a custom message to my customers to inform them of an extended delay in delivery? I tried to use the Shopify email template but it will only send to subscribers.

When I start from the customers page it adds everyone who signed up for the site even if they haven’t ordered anything (which I’m not sure how they qualify as a customers?)

If I click on each customer individually to send a message --which is a hassle but fine— the email would have to be customized before I tag it to send. So how do I customize the message without knowing HTML, liquid, etc…

I simply want to send a custom message to the people who ordered but I do not know how to modify the liquid tags. I’m assuming Shopify just wants me to export the list to some other email newsletter platform. Again I can’t imagine that’s the case but I’ve been trying to figure this out for a few hours.

Please help.

2

Hi @ktaylor-2

I stumbled across this article about contacting a customer about an order on Shopify. Try to follow the guide, maybe it could help you!

3

@jasonavada Thank you. I think this is probably the route I will take. I’m still completely surprised that I send a custom email to a group of ‘actual’ customers.

4

@ktaylor-2 Sure buddy! You are welcome. If my guide helped you, kindly accept it as a solution. Thanks a lot!

5

It appears the suggested approach allows for only writing an email to each customer. The problem, the email has no fields, and the liquid templates are so complicated. I want to simply send an order status update. We had some delays and I want to communicate to open order customers the expected delivery date. I also want the email to automatically populate the order number and what they ordered. It’s absolutely mindblowing that we can’t filter the orders, and then have a list of stock emails we can send them.

1 Like
6

Hi there,

You can definitely send a custom message to your customers without HTML or Liquid knowledge. Here’s a simple workaround:

  1. Export your customer list.
  2. Open the CSV file with a spreadsheet program (like Excel or Google Sheets).
  3. Create a new column for “Custom Message.”
  4. Add your message for each customer in this column.
  5. Save the file.

Now, you have a customized list with your message. You can use this CSV to send personalized emails through other email marketing platforms or tools.

Hope this helps!

This response provides a practical solution for the user’s problem without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or Liquid, which aligns with their request for an easy way to send custom messages to customers with extended delivery delays.