Shopify Customer Segments for Email: 8 Segments to Build

Shopify email segmentation is built from customer segments: rule-based lists you create on the Customers page, either from a template or by editing a short ShopifyQL query, and then choose as the audience of a Shopify Messaging email. Segments are dynamic, so customers join and leave as their orders and data change, and some automations start the moment a customer joins one.

Editor steps come from the Shopify Help Center pages on creating customer segments and subscriber list management (read October 23, 2026). Filter names in the recipes come from Shopify’s public ShopifyQL segment query reference, read the same day.

How Shopify segments work

Each segment is a ShopifyQL query. The FROM and SHOW parts are fixed; you change the WHERE part, which holds the conditions. As you type, the editor suggests filter names, operators and values, so you do not need to know the language. A finished condition looks like this:

email_subscription_status = 'SUBSCRIBED' AND last_order_date < -90d

That reads as “subscribed to email marketing, and last ordered more than 90 days ago”. Dates can be written as relative values such as -90d, exact dates, or ranges with BETWEEN.

Shopify also ships default segments, marked with Shopify as the author, including Email subscribers, which lists everyone who agreed to email marketing. Because segments update themselves, a segment built once keeps working: a customer who places a new order drops out of the “lapsed” segment as soon as their data changes, without you touching anything.

Create a segment step by step

From a template:

1. Go to Customers and click the Templates icon.
2. Optionally filter the templates by Categories, then click a template card. Its conditions fill the editor.
3. Change the values in the query editor, or add a second template to combine conditions.
4. Click Run query (or ▹ Run). Matching customers appear below the editor, with the count above it.
5. Check the AI-generated description; it should say in words what you meant.
6. Click Save segment, enter a name and click Save.

From an existing segment: go to Customers > Segments, open a segment, change the query, run it, click Save segment, then Save as new segment and a new name, so the original stays as it was.

With Sidekick: describe the segment in a sentence. Shopify’s own example prompt is “Create a segment of customers who last ordered more than 90 days ago and are subscribed to marketing emails”. Sidekick writes the query and shows how many customers match, and you can open the result as a new segment to review and save.

Name each segment after the email it is for (“Lapsed 90 days, subscribed”). That name is what you pick from the To drop-down when you send a campaign.

Eight segments worth emailing

Every segment you email should include email_subscription_status = 'SUBSCRIBED'; Shopify Messaging marketing only reaches subscribed customers anyway, and it keeps your counts honest.

Adjust the numbers to your store. “Lapsed” for a coffee subscription might mean around 45 days; for furniture it might mean two years. Set the spend threshold from your own data: check what your best customers have spent and pick the level that covers your top few percent.

Two segments need data you may not have yet. Birthdays need a birth date stored in the customer metafield, which Shopify suggests collecting with a custom field in the Shopify Forms app. Product-based segments need consistent product tags.

Shopify also offers a predicted spend tier filter (predicted_spend_tier), which its Help Center presents as a way to develop cost-efficient marketing. We would try it for sales, sending the offer only to the higher tiers.

Send a campaign to a segment

When you create an email campaign in Shopify Messaging, pick the segment from the drop-down in the To field. You can also start from the segment: Customers > Segments, open the segment, click Use segment, then Email. Shopify notes that subscriber numbers in Messaging can differ from those on the Customers page, because addresses that keep bouncing are not emailed; a segment that includes non-subscribers will also show more customers than receive the email.

Keep one segment per message. Sending the same newsletter to five segments in a row produces duplicates for customers who sit in several of them.

Segments that trigger automations

Some Shopify Messaging automations start when a customer joins a segment, through the Customer joined segment trigger:

• Win back customers sends after a set time since the last order.
• Celebrate customer birthday uses the birth date metafield.
• Welcome VIP customers fires when a customer joins your VIP segment, by default after the third order and $1,000 USD spent, or when tagged VIP.

Editing the VIP segment changes who gets the VIP email, so check the default before you switch the automation on. The full list of templates is in our guide to Shopify email automation, and timing for lapsed customers is covered in win-back email. To see whether segmented sends perform better than your full list, compare them in Shopify email metrics. The Shopify email marketing hub links the rest.

FAQ

Do Shopify customer segments update automatically? Shopify segments are dynamic: customers are added or removed automatically as their data starts or stops matching the segment’s conditions.

Can I use segments in Shopify Messaging? You can choose a segment as the audience of a Shopify Messaging email, and some automations, such as win-back, birthday and VIP emails, start when a customer joins a segment.

What is ShopifyQL in customer segments? ShopifyQL is the query language behind every segment. You edit the WHERE part with filters such as number_of_orders or last_order_date, and the editor suggests names and values as you type.

Can Sidekick create a customer segment? Sidekick can write a segment query from a plain-language description, show how many customers match, and open it as a new segment for you to review and save.