Shopify Email Templates: Every Section in Shopify Messaging
Shopify email templates live in the Shopify Messaging app: you build each campaign from sections such as Header, Product, Discount and Footer, style them once through template branding, and save the result as a custom template for the next send. There are 15 section types for campaigns and three more that appear only in abandoned-cart, abandoned-checkout and abandoned-browse automations.
Every limit below comes from Shopify’s Help Center page on Shopify Messaging templates, read on October 23, 2026, and the length and design guidance from its writing best practices page.
Section types and what each does
| Section | What it adds | Limits and quirks |
|---|---|---|
| Header | Your logo or store name at the top | Styled by template branding |
| Text | Headings and body copy | A text style change applies to the whole email; product prices can’t be edited here; subject lines support emojis and international characters |
| Button | A call-to-action link | |
| Image and GIF | A picture or animation | From your Shopify files or a new upload |
| Image with text | A picture with copy beside it | Padding is optimized for mobile |
| Multi-column | Several items side by side | |
| Product | Products with image, title and price | Dynamic shows best sellers or newest products at send time and can’t be edited; Static shows the products you pick; prices change only in Products |
| Collection | Collections highlighted in the email | Up to 9 collections |
| Discount | A discount code | The discount has to exist in Discounts before you build the email |
| Gift card | A gift card | Created in the admin first |
| Express checkout | One product with a direct checkout button | One product with one variant; with Shop Pay on, Buy with Shop Pay and Check out now both show, and only the Shop Pay button can be hidden |
| Countdown | A live countdown GIF to an end date | The GIF’s built-in padding can’t be adjusted |
| Video | A video, shown as a thumbnail image | Thumbnail from your files or a new upload |
| Custom Liquid | Your own Liquid and HTML | Up to 50 KB of code |
| Footer | Store name, address, phone and social links | Defaults come from template branding or store settings |
Automations add Abandoned cart, Abandoned checkout and Abandoned browse sections, which fill themselves with the products the customer left or viewed. They work only inside those automations, or in a Shopify Flow workflow that uses the Messaging Send Marketing Email action.
The Discount and Gift card sections only display what already exists: discounts and gift cards can’t be created or edited in the Messaging editor, so create the code in Discounts before you build the email. The Dynamic product option fills itself at send time, which suits a scheduled email but means you can’t fix a wrong photo or title in the editor. And Custom Liquid is the escape hatch for anything the other sections can’t do, within 50 KB.
Sidekick works inside the editor too. A prompt such as “Add a countdown section above the product section” adds, edits or removes sections for you.
Build a first campaign layout
Shopify’s writing guidance sets the frame: keep the email under 200 words or about 20 lines, put the important part within the first two scrolls on mobile, include at least one link to the store, and don’t carry the offer only in an image, because some email clients block images. Within that, the layout we would start from for a sale or a product launch:
- Header with the logo, from template branding.
- Image with text: one product or lifestyle image and two lines saying what the email is about.
- Product, static, with two to four products the email is about.
- Discount, if there is an offer, with the end date in the text above it.
- Button to the collection or the sale page.
- Footer.
This order puts the reason to open the email first and the offer before the reader has scrolled far. If the email is a newsletter rather than an offer, swap the discount for a Text section and keep everything else. Add a Countdown only when the deadline is real and you won’t extend it.
Save and reuse templates
Brand the templates once. In Apps > Messaging > Templates > Manage branding you set colors, fonts and the logo or store name for every future template; by default they follow your store’s Brand settings. Messaging supports only web-safe fonts, so pick the closest web-safe font for emails even if your theme uses another. Text and the unsubscribe link need a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1, and the editor warns you (Adjust unsubscribe link color contrast) when they don’t.
To save a layout you will reuse, go to Apps > Messaging > Templates, click Create template, pick a starting template, name it and edit it; changes save automatically, and Done finishes. Your saved templates appear under Custom templates when you click Create campaign. From the Templates list you can duplicate, delete or create an email from a template.
You can switch an unsent draft to another template from the editor menu (Change template), but the content of the previous template is deleted when you do, and a sent campaign can’t change template at all. Section edits inside a campaign are saved to that campaign only, so improve the saved template when you want the change to last.
Notification templates are elsewhere
Order confirmations, shipping confirmations and refund emails are customer notifications, not Messaging templates. They are sent automatically when the order event happens, and you edit them under Settings > Notifications. Messaging templates are for marketing: campaigns and automations sent to subscribers.
For writing and design advice beyond the sections, read email design tips. The Shopify Messaging updates article covers what changed recently, such as dynamic product sections, and Shopify email automation covers the automated emails that use the abandoned-cart sections. All of them sit in the email and popups hub.
FAQ
Are Shopify email templates free? The templates come with Shopify Messaging at no extra charge. What you pay for is sending: Messaging includes 10,000 free emails a month on the Basic plan and higher, and extra emails are billed per 1,000.
Can I use custom HTML in a Shopify email? The Custom Liquid section accepts Liquid and HTML, up to 50 KB of code per section.
Can I add a countdown timer to a Shopify email? The Countdown section generates a live countdown GIF once you set an end date and time. Its built-in padding can’t be changed.
Can Sidekick edit my email? Sidekick can add, edit or remove sections while you are in the Messaging editor, from a prompt such as “Add a countdown section above the product section”.