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Receiving email & SMS marketing opt-in with Shopify
Receiving email & SMS marketing opt-in with Shopify
Updated over a month ago

For Shopify POS, eCommerce and Plus merchants

To build a successful customer list that you can send campaigns to, it's mandatory to get the customer's permission before they can receive marketing emails and/or SMS from your store. Permission is required by International Law (including GDPR, TCPA, TCIA & CCPA) and our Terms of Use.

As mentioned in the SMS Marketing Compliance Introduction and GDPR Introduction, to collect SMS and Email Marketing opt-in from your customers, there may be some changes that you need to make to your Shopify store.

⚠️ Important: These settings apply to all Shopify products, no matter how you you are using Shopify POS, eCommerce or Plus experiences.


Before you get started

Here are some things to know:

  • For Marsello to collect mobile numbers as subscribers for SMS messages, you will need to make changes to your Shopify settings including; your store account creation form and your online checkout settings and language (step-by-step instructions on how to do this below).

  • With Shopify you can capture the customer's marketing opt-in at POS and at eCommerce. However, it is important to note that the opt-in you can capture varies per source:

    • Shopify POS’s “Accepts marketing” consent at the checkout will impact only the email subscription.

    • Shopify eCommerce has two separate settings, one for SMS marketing and one for email marketing. These are mapped to the SMS and email marketing opt-in fields in Marsello.

  • TCIA prohibits any illegal or improper promotion to persons under 18 years of age. Based on the practices and standards of your industry and community, you may need to discourage visitors under a certain age from browsing your Shopify store. One way you can help prevent these visitors is by adding an age selection form to your storefront. Here's more information on how to add an age gate to your Shopify store.

  • In addition, we advise you to always include the ability for customers to opt-out from receiving marketing. By default, Marsello automatically includes an 'unsubscribe' link on all email templates and 'Reply STOP to unsubscribe' on all SMS templates.

We also still encourage you to consult a legal advisor familiar with GDPR, TCPA and TCIA before gathering contacts or sending promotional emails or text messages.


How customers opt-in to marketing via Marsello's sign-up forms

Marsello has two different types of sign-up forms, these form templates come with a text disclaimer that lets the customer know that by submitting the form, they are opting in to receive both transactional and promotional email and SMS messages from your store.

Default text disclaimer:

*I agree to receive transactional and promotional emails and text messages (to the email address and phone number provided). Consent is not a condition to purchase. You can opt out or change your email and SMS preferences anytime.

⚠️ Important: If you are using another app for sign-up forms, you need to update your forms to also include such a disclaimer that informs the customer that by submitting the form, they are opting-in to receive both email and SMS marketing from your store.


Capture customer's marketing opt-in preference in-store via Shopify POS

⚠️ Important: To use Marsello on your Shopify POS, please enable the required sites under the Integrations page.

As mentioned in the Marketing Compliance Introduction, consumers have to provide “express written consent” before they can receive marketing via email or SMS.

When a customer makes an in-store purchase, it's important that staff ask if they want to join their database and receive marketing via email and SMS.

⚠️ Important: By default, customers do not accept marketing, and they must opt-in to receive marketing through Marsello.

The staff member can record the customer's accepts marketing preferences by following these steps:

1. Add the customer to the sale

2. Add your customer to the sale by searching for them by name, email address or mobile number

3. Under Customer options, next to Accepts marketing you can indicate the customer's marketing preferences.

If they accept marketing via email and SMS: Check the check boxes for each option

  • The customer will be able to receive store emails and SMS marketing via Marsello.

  • If they don't accept marketing via email and SMS: Ensure the toggle is set to OFF.
    The customer will not receive store emails or SMS marketing via Marsello.

4. Tap Save, the customer will then be added to the sale

5. Complete the sale. The customer will be automatically added to your Marsello customer database, including their details, accepts marketing preference, and sales data.


Capture customer's marketing opt-in preference in-store via Shopify eCommerce

⚠️ Important: To use Marsello on your Shopify online store, please enable the required site under the Integrations page.

As mentioned in the Marketing Compliance Introduction, consumers have to provide “express written consent” before they can receive marketing via email or SMS.

⚠️ Important: By default, customers do not accept marketing, and they must opt-in to receive marketing through Marsello.

There may be several updates that you need to make to your Shopify eCommerce store in order to receive full consent from the customer. The settings that you need to update are addressed in the following sections:

✔️ At checkout: Allow your customers to enter their mobile number
✔️ At checkout: Allow your customers to give consent to receive marketing

⚠️ Important: The below changes are vital steps towards compliance. Please follow and complete each section.

How to edit your online checkout & account creation process

✔️ At checkout: Allow your customers to enter their mobile number

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout

2. Scroll to the Customer contact method section, then select Customers can check out using either their phone number or email

3. Scroll to the Customer Information section, under Shipping address phone number, select Optional

4. Scroll down to the Marketing Options and select both Email and SMS opt-in options to add a marketing opt-in checkboxes to your online checkout

5. Click Save

📝 Note: If your payment provider or shipping carrier requires that the customer provides a phone number to complete the checkout, then set the phone number to Required.


Your customers' experience

Your customer will then have the option to check out with their email address or mobile number and can choose to opt-in to email and/or sms.

✔️ At checkout: Allow your customers to give consent to receive marketing

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout


2. Scroll down to the Marketing Options select an option(s) to subscribe at checkout to add a sign-up checkbox to your checkout

💡Pro tip: Leave the Preselect the sign-up option under email unselected. This is important to ensure that your customers' opt-in themselves.

3. Click Save

4. Scroll to the Checkout language section, then click Manage checkout language

5. Under Theme Content, enter Marketing into the filter text bar

6. Under Checkout & System > Checkout marketing > Accept Marketing checkout label enter the text:

💬 Text example: "Subscribe to stay up to date on news and exclusive offers via email and text messages"

7. Click Save


8. Under Contact Information on your store's online checkout, the customer will now be able to opt-in to receive marketing emails and SMS from your store by selecting the checkbox.

This will automatically update the customer's accept marketing preferences in both Shopify and Marsello.

✔️ At checkout: Update your privacy policy

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Policies > scroll to Privacy Policy

2. Add the following text to your privacy policy:

💬 Text example: Text Marketing and notifications: By subscribing to text notifications you agree to receive recurring automated marketing text messages at the phone number provided. Consent is not a condition of purchase. Msg and data rates may apply.

3. Click Save

✔️ At checkout: Configure checkout footer

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Checkout

2. Scroll to Checkout Language, click Manage checkout language

3. Under Theme Content, enter Checkout into the filter text bar

4. Scroll down to Checkout & system > Checkout marketing disclaimer and under Privacy Policy enter the text and edit to include your store's name:

💬 Text example: By checking this box, I consent to receive automated marketing from [YOUR STORE NAME] by email and text message at the email address and mobile number provided. Consent is not a condition to purchase.

5. Click Save and keep editing

✔️ At account creation: Allow your customers to give consent to receive marketing

When the customer clicks through your loyalty widget or clicks the account icon on your online store to creates a store account, it opens a sign-up form for the customer to enter their first name, last name, email address and create a password.

In order for customers to be able to opt-in to receive your email and SMS marketing, you will need to edit your Shopify account creation sign-up form to add a checkbox to that lets customers indicate whether they want to receive marketing from your store.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store > Themes

2. Next to your Current Theme, click on the three dots to open a drop-down menu. Then click, Actions > Edit code


3. In the Templates directory, use control+f and search for customers/register.liquid

4. Click into the customers/register.liquid

4. Find the code that contains the password form field. The code will look similar to this:

<label for="CreatePassword" class="label--hidden">##{{ 'customer.register.password' | t }}</label><input type="password" name="customer[password]" id="CreatePassword" class="input-full {% if form.errors contains 'password' %} input--error{% endif %}" placeholder="##{{ 'customer.register.password' | t }}">


5. Below the code that contains the password field, and above the {% endform %} liquid tag, add the following code:

<div><input type="hidden" name="customer[accepts_marketing]" value="" /> <input type="checkbox" name="customer[accepts_marketing]" checked="unchecked" /> Subscribe to stay updated on news and exclusive offers via email and text message</div>


6. Click Save. This will update your customer account creation form to have the checkbox to allow customers to opt-in to receive marketing emails and SMS messages from your store.

The customer will be automatically added to your Marsello customer database, including their details, accepts marketing preference, and sales data.


🎉 Congratulations

You can now start collecting customers' consent to receive email and SMS marketing via Marsello and Shopify POS and/or eCommerce.


What's next?

As your subscriber list begins to grow, you can create marketing campaigns to help increase sales and further drive customer loyalty.

Marketing initiatives:


Disclaimer: The information provided here is intended to be educational and should not be construed as legal advice. Marsello encourages all of our users — and all merchants – to seek legal advice for counsel on how they specifically should prepare for GDPR, TCPA and TCIA.


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