Shopify Email Metrics: What Each Number in Messaging Means
Shopify email metrics live in the report of each email campaign: go to Apps > Messaging, click the campaign, and the report shows four blocks, Performance, Orders, Email conversion funnel and Link activity. View marketing report opens the wider marketing report. The numbers come from your store’s own data, so they can differ from Google Analytics, and the open rate and the funnel are estimates.
The metrics and what they count
The definitions below are Shopify’s, from its Help Center page on email analytics (read October 23, 2026). The last column is our reading of what a weak number usually points to.
| Metric | What Shopify counts | A weak number points to |
|---|---|---|
| Recipient count | Subscribers expected to receive the email at send time, before bounced and bot-generated ones are removed | Compare with Emails sent to see how many were removed |
| Emails sent | Emails dispatched at send time | |
| Delivery rate | Share of sent emails that reached inboxes | List quality and sender setup |
| Bounce rate | Share that couldn’t be delivered | Old or mistyped addresses |
| Open rate | Share of delivered emails registered as opened | See the next section |
| Click rate | Share of delivered emails where a recipient clicked a link | The email gives no clear reason to click |
| Sessions | Online store sessions attributed to the email | The page the link opens |
| Unsubscribe rate | Share of recipients who unsubscribed after this email | A gap between the signup promise and what you send |
| Spam rate | Share of delivered emails marked as spam | How the addresses were collected |
| Total orders, total sales, AOV | Orders and sales attributed to the email | Covered under “Sales from email” below |
The Email conversion funnel goes one step further and counts people at each stage after the email:
| Funnel stage | What Shopify counts |
|---|---|
| Opens | Unique subscribers who loaded the Shopify tracking pixel, usually by opening |
| Unique visitors | Unique subscribers who visited your store after viewing the email |
| Added to cart | Sessions attributed to the email where a customer added a product to a cart |
| Orders | Sessions attributed to the email where a customer placed an order |
The first two rows count people and the last two count sessions, so a subscriber who visits twice can add two sessions to the cart row. Use the funnel to find the stage with the big drop; with two counting units in one chart, exact stage-to-stage rates would mislead. Link activity lists clicks on each storefront link in the email, which tells you whether the main button or a footer link did the work.
The report can also turn each action into a customer segment, for example everyone who clicked. We would start with that part of the report, because the next email can go to that group alone.
Is my open rate good?
Shopify’s Help Center says a good open rate ranges from 20% to 22%. Treat it as a rough guide. An open is registered when the Shopify tracking pixel loads. Shopify’s note on the funnel, which counts opens the same way, warns that email previews and security tools can load the pixel without anyone reading, and that subscribers who block images might not be counted. Clicking the open metric shows the list of recipients who opened.
Your own setting changes the number. Under Apps > Messaging > Settings, the open tracking options are:
- Optimize open tracking, the default: Shopify collects open rates and helps maintain your sender reputation.
- Track all email opens: the most detailed open-rate reporting.
- Ask for consent: subscribers opt in through Opt in to email open tracking in the email footer, and the rate combines those opt-ins with overall engagement such as clicks.
- Do not track: no open rate at all; clicks and other metrics are still collected.
If you change the setting, compare only emails sent under the same one. For decisions we lean on clicks and sessions more than on opens.
Sales from email
The Orders block reports total orders, total sales and average order value attributed to the email, with the Last non-direct click model by default. Total sales is gross sales minus discounts and sales reversals, plus taxes, duties and shipping, so it is higher than the revenue you keep. A customer who gets the email and later types your address into the browser isn’t attributed to the email.
For Google Analytics, Shopify adds UTM parameters to email links: utm_source=shopify_email, utm_medium=email and utm_campaign set to the email name plus an activity ID. You can change the defaults under Apps > Messaging > Settings > UTM tracking, or set custom values on one campaign; each value can be up to 100 characters, and a change applies only to campaigns created afterward, not to existing ones or drafts.
What to fix first
Our suggestion is to start from the first row of the table below that matches what you see, because a delivery problem makes every later number look worse too. Change one thing per send so the next report tells you whether it worked.
| Symptom | First thing to check |
|---|---|
| Low delivery rate, high bounces | Remove old and mistyped addresses; read Shopify’s email deliverability page on domain authentication |
| Low opens | Subject line, sender name, and how the addresses were collected |
| Opens but few clicks | One clear button and one offer per email |
| Clicks but few orders | The landing page, the product’s stock and the checkout |
| Unsubscribes or spam reports rising | Send frequency against what the signup promised |
The same deliverability page explains that mailbox providers build your sender reputation from signals such as opens, clicks, bounces and spam complaints, and that Shopify may pause delivery when engagement is low or many subscribers mark emails as spam. Low engagement can therefore slow the next send as well.
Automations have their own metrics and reports once they are active; how to set them up is in Shopify email automation. Acting on each funnel stage is covered in the Shopify email funnel guide, and splitting the list in Shopify email segmentation. The other email guides are in the email and popups hub.
FAQ
Where are Shopify email reports? Each campaign has its own report: go to Apps > Messaging and click the email campaign. View marketing report opens the wider marketing report from there.
Why does Shopify show a different open rate than my other tool? Shopify counts a tracking pixel load and lets you choose between four open-tracking settings, while other tools measure differently. Shopify’s own page says analytics from different services might not match.
Can I see who opened an email? Clicking the open metric in the report shows a list of the recipients who opened the email, and you can save them as a customer segment.
Do automations have reports? Marketing automations in Shopify Messaging have their own metrics and reports, available after you activate the automation.