Why isn't the customer's name auto-populating in my test email?

Topic summary

Users are experiencing confusion when test emails display placeholder text like “{first name}” instead of actual names. The core issue is resolved: This placeholder appearance is normal behavior for test emails only.

Key clarifications:

  • When using Shopify’s personalization tool (sparkle icon), the correct variable is {{ data.customer.first_name }}
  • Test emails will always show the placeholder format, but live emails sent to actual customers will properly display their names
  • This behavior is consistent across email marketing platforms (Mailchimp, Klaviyo, etc.)

Recommended testing approach:

Create a customer segment with your own email address and send the actual marketing email to that segment—this shows how live emails will appear, unlike the test email function.

Confirmed resolution: Multiple users verified that despite the placeholder appearing in tests, live emails correctly populated customer names. One user requested information about finding a complete list of available Shopify email variables/tags for other personalization needs like displaying login emails.

Summarized with AI on November 2. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

Hello Avira,

Thank you for your good question!

Don’t worry too much. The tag “{first name}” is just for the Test email. When you send out the campaign, it will automatically insert your customer’s first name into the text. I can see you are using the correct tag. There is no need to change it.

I was having the same worry until I found out this always happens for the Test email, even for other Email Marketing Apps like Mailchimp, Klaviyo,…

You can check out the screenshot below of the Test and Sent emails from Mailchimp. it works perfectly. (The tag looks a little different from the tag in Shopify Email as each Email Apps use their own tags system)

A small tip: Try using your email to subscribe to your own store so you can see how the email actually looks like after hitting the Sent button : )

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