Shopify Flow Email Error: "Customer not subscribed to marketing" - Need Alternative Solution

[Abrar1]

We’re creating a Shopify Flow to send additional order update emails to keep customers informed throughout the fulfillment process. However, the flow fails with this error:

“Exception: Email not sent because {{ customerName }} is not subscribed to marketing.”

Our Use Case:
Our products take approximately 50 days to fulfill, and we need to send multiple update emails at different stages (based on order tags and other variables) to keep customers informed about their order status.

The Challenge:
The “Send email” action in Shopify Flow seems to respect marketing subscriptions, which prevents us from sending essential order updates to customers who haven’t opted into marketing communications.

Question:
Is there any way to send transactional order update emails via Shopify Flow that bypasses marketing subscription requirements?

[tim_1]

Since the action is called “Send marketing email” it only suitable to respect the marketing state property.
Use another email app?

Or, you can amend Customers subscribed status yourself like this:

This is not great though, as you’d need to, say, also add a customer tag, like “not-really-subscribed” and honor it for your real marketing e-mails…

Or, probably, wait several minutes and reset subscription status back

[Sulyman]

Hi @Abrar1,

Great question this is a very common roadblock when using the “Send marketing email” action in Shopify Flow. You’re absolutely right: that specific action is tied to marketing subscription consent, meaning it will only send to customers who are subscribed to marketing emails.

Unfortunately, there’s currently no built-in Flow action for transactional emails that bypasses marketing opt-in restrictions. The “Send marketing email” step is intentionally limited to protect compliance (GDPR, CAN-SPAM, etc.).

Here are a few workarounds you could consider:

1. Use Shopify Email + Automations for transactional messaging:

   • Instead of Flow, set up order status–based automations in the Shopify Email app or your theme’s notifications settings.

   • These emails (e.g., “Order confirmed,” “Shipping update,” etc.) are treated as transactional, not marketing, so they send regardless of subscription status.

2. Integrate with an external app or service:

   • You can use tools like Klaviyo, Omnisend, or SendGrid that support transactional email sending through Flow via webhook or API call.

   • In your Flow, replace “Send marketing email” with a Webhook action that triggers your email system instead.

3. If you must use Flow only:

   • As @tim_1 mentioned, technically you could toggle the accepts_marketing property temporarily, but that’s not recommended — it can create compliance and consent tracking issues.

In short:
“Send marketing email” = requires marketing consent.
For transactional updates = use Shopify Email automations or an external transactional email integration.

Hope that helps you move forward smoothly!

Best,
Sulyman
Shopify Specialist