For omnichannel brands, there’s a stark difference between the information you’re able to get from an online customer versus an in-store shopper.
Online, every click, impression, and sale is a valuable insight. But for brick-and-mortar stores, generating those same insights is a challenge. Collecting customer information can often add friction to the checkout process. Shoppers can be reluctant to share their information just as staff can be reluctant to ask for it.
Email capture with Shopify POS is focused on closing that gap. This innovative function takes the guesswork out of retail—empowering you to transform your retail operations and forge deeper bonds with customers long after the initial sale.
What is Shopify email capture?
Shopify email capture uses a customer’s payment details to match in-store shoppers with a Shop Pay account at checkout. It makes collecting customer information seamless by syncing in-store purchases with both:
- The Shop Pay buyer network, which includes an accelerated checkout proven to convert up to 50% better than standard guest checkout.
- Shop app, a platform where users track orders and discover new brands.
How email capture works in Shopify POS
Email capture unlocks a powerful opportunity for retailers. When a customer checks out on a Shopify POS terminal, the technology processes the customer’s payment data to match them with a Shop Pay account. If a match is found, the customer’s email and phone number are automatically surfaced at checkout.
This allows shoppers to:
- Effortlessly receive their receipt digitally via the Shop app, email, or text message.
- Opt-in to receive marketing communications with a single tap.
The process is also smooth for customers who aren’t yet on Shop. They can quickly enter their email address to receive a digital receipt and opt-in to marketing, ensuring a positive and easy experience.
And as with all Shopify solutions, data privacy and compliance comes first. Your customers always have complete control over their data within the Shop app settings, and all email capture flows adhere to local privacy regulations.
Shopify email capture use cases
Learn who your customers are
Omnichannel shopping is the new normal. With 75% of US consumers saying they research and purchase both in-store and online, understanding your customers at every touchpoint is critical to success.
Email capture at POS checkout takes the guesswork out of in-store sales by collecting more first-party customer data in your retail locations. It helps you build more robust customer profiles by unifying their data, allowing you to gain a more holistic and accurate view of their behavior across all the channels you sell.
With this insight, you can:
- Identify which stores are most effective at attracting new customers, and optimize your budget accordingly.
- Learn if and how in-store customers transition to shopping online.
- Create a seamless and engaging customer experience that spans every touchpoint throughout the entire customer journey.
Improve the buying experience
The last thing your customers want is a complicated checkout. Email capture offers one-tap digital receipts and transparent transactions on POS hardware, helping you delight your customers with the frictionless, frustration-free buyer experience they deserve.
Plus, both new and existing users can use the Shop app to easily view past receipts for in-store and online purchases, streamline re-orders, and simplify returns.
Expand your customer base
Once you’ve matched a shopper with a Shop Pay account, you can personalize your marketing communications based on data you’ve already collected. It’s these tailored offers that 50% of shoppers think improve the buying experience.
Plus, when a buyer’s payment details are matched with a Shop Pay profile at checkout, you can automatically build a following for your store in the Shop app. This acts as a new acquisition channel to connect with customers and drive repeat purchases.
Retain more loyal shoppers
Email capture lets you leverage high-performing marketing programs to reach new customers beyond digital channels, all while lowering your customer acquisition costs. Send post-purchase offers and let customers complete subsequent purchases in seconds with the Shop checkout they already know and love.
💡Tip: Accelerate how many buyers you get from the Shop app with Shop Campaigns. Target millions of shoppers, or retarget those who haven’t shopped with you in a while. Share exclusive offers to incentivize another purchase—and only pay when they convert.
Email capture case studies
Little Words Project
Little Words Project grew from one flagship store to 14 locations in just two years. But like many other omnichannel brands, the jewelry retailer wanted a systemized way to collect customer data—and put it to work. The challenge? Asking for a customer’s name and email adds friction to the checkout process and elongates queues.
Instead, Little Words Project relies on Shopify email capture to connect with over 150 million customers in the Shop Pay network. Buyers who don’t yet have a Shop account can quickly create one at checkout, complete with a digital receipt and marketing opt-in.
Since implementing this feature, Little Words Project has:
- Boosted in-store email capture rates by over 20% on average—with opt-ins up to 95% higher at some locations.
- Increased the percentage of POS orders with a customer email and marketing opt-in by 33% across all stores.
“Email capture is a recent dashboard that we've added, and we pull the information from Shopify,” says VP of retail Sam Sisca. “This email data is flowing into our marketing programs and the larger Little Words Project ecosystem. So customers are getting our promotional emails and announcements about new launches and events coming up at stores close to them.”
Sculpted by Aimee
Sculpted by Aimee always knew the value of personalized retail experiences, yet the infrastructure it’d built made it difficult to collect customer data. In the words of the head of ecommerce, Kevin Clarke, "Adding a customer to a sale was a bit of a nightmare.”
This inefficient collection process not only hindered how many shoppers it could serve in-store—it also meant losing out on any modern retailer’s most valuable asset: accurate customer data. It became almost impossible to communicate with shoppers after they’d left the store, understand what made people buy, and use that insight to personalize future outreach.
Email capture was the solution. The Shopify POS Terminal prompts sales associates to add customer details during the checkout flow, which has now become a natural part of the transaction process. This data feeds back to Klaviyo for personalized email marketing, and Smile to enroll customers into its loyalty program.
“At our UK flagship store in London, we've seen a 74% increase, and a 60% increase at our flagship store in Ireland," Kevin says. "Every store has seen massive improvements and is smashing their data capture goals every single week thanks to Shopify POS.”
Castañer
Castañer, the iconic footwear brand founded in 1927 and renowned for its world-famous espadrilles, struggled with disconnected retail systems that created significant operational challenges. According to Xavi Colomé, Digital Director at Castañer, "We needed to have all our customers, all our orders, and all our stocks on the same platform."
This fragmented infrastructure made it nearly impossible to provide a seamless customer experience across their 25+ physical stores, wholesale distribution network, and online presence. Without real-time inventory visibility, Castañer was losing sales opportunities when customers couldn't find specific shoe sizes or models—a critical issue for a footwear brand with diverse stock requirements.
Email capture was a key component of their solution. By implementing Shopify POS, Castañer transformed their checkout process to include electronic receipts that not only improved sustainability but created a natural opportunity to collect customer emails with marketing opt-ins. This approach has increased their customer database by 40% and enabled more personalized relationships.
Create customers for life with Shopify
By unifying your online and in-store customer data, you gain a comprehensive view of your customer base. That information gives you the ability to make informed and insightful decisions, personalize the customer journey, and drive long-term success.
Don’t settle for a partial view of your in-store customers. Email capture at POS checkout unlocks the full potential of your omnichannel strategy by making every in-person sale as data rich as the digital ones.
Shopify email capture FAQ
Does Shopify have email capture?
Yes, Shopify has an email capture feature available inside POS. It works by connecting a buyer’s details with a Shop Pay account when they checkout in-store.
How do you capture emails on Shopify?
There are several ways to capture emails inside Shopify:
- Add a newsletter signup page
- Use email capture forms on your ecommerce website
- Offer exclusive discounts for email subscribers
- Email carts to in-store shoppers
Where are emails stored in Shopify?
How do I capture an email?
You can capture emails by:
- Creating a quiz
- Offering an email-exclusive discount
- Hosting a product giveaway
- Creating email carts
- Starting a newsletter
- Hosting an event
