If you run a business, email is a reliable channel for marketing. Unlike social media or marketplaces, you control access to your audience and know that whatever message you want to send is delivered straight to their inbox. But getting from idea to send-ready takes time. It often involves staring at a blank canvas, perfecting copy, hunting for the right sections that illuminate your messaging, and tweaking fonts, colors, and spacing. Meanwhile, your customers are waiting.
Enter: the excuse you’ve been waiting for to get serious about AI.
If you haven’t tried AI yet, you’re not alone—but it’s quickly becoming standard. Seventy-eight percent of organizations now use AI in at least one business function, 51% of ecommerce businesses already use AI to personalize experiences, and generative AI has gone mainstream, with 400 million weekly users of ChatGPT. If you’re wondering where to start and how to easily incorporate AI into your workstream, consider this your sign.
Now Sidekick helps you skip the grind while keeping full control. Open your email in Shopify Messaging (formerly Shopify Email) and tell Sidekick what needs to be edited without digging through settings. You stay in the editor the whole time—Sidekick does the heavy lifting and fine‑tunes what matters.
What this means in practice: you spend fewer hours building and more time focused on what to say, when to send, and who to send to … and see a lot more campaigns actually going out the door.
How it works
Consider Sidekick your on-call cofounder. It knows your business in and out and is ready to work whenever you want. When assisting with emails in Shopify Messaging, Sidekick uses your store context—brand colors, typography, products, and past emails—to keep everything aligned to your brand’s look and voice. By simply asking or instructing Sidekick inside of Shopify Messaging, you can:
- Edit an existing email, making changes section by section or applying changes across the whole email
- Apply brand changes across the draft (colors, fonts, CTAs)
- Add sections that make your message pop
- Tighten copy, swap images, and adjust spacing—right in the editor
You stay in full control. You can stop or discard anything Sidekick creates, choose what you want to accept, or iterate with follow‑up prompts until it’s right.
Why this matters for real businesses
Editing an existing draft is where most teams spend time—tweaking layout, copy, and brand details. Sidekick removes that friction, so you can:
- Move from rough draft to send-ready faster
- Keep every campaign on‑brand without manual style editing
- Ship emails more often
For any AI-skeptic out there: This isn’t about replacing your judgment. It’s about removing the busywork so you can spend more time on email decisions that drive revenue—refining your offer, audience, and message—or, better yet, doing the hundreds of other things you have to do to run a business, outside of email creation.
How it feels to work with Sidekick
Sidekick is collaborative. You tell it the change and it updates your current draft in place. You react—“shorter headline,” “swap to autumn palette,” “add a 3‑product bestsellers grid,” “make the CTA punchier”—and it updates right in the Shopify Messaging email editor. You can ask for small edits or big changes without breaking your layout, or your flow.
Still not sure where to start? Here are some prompts you can test today. Use these in the Shopify Messaging email editor by opening the email you want to edit and clicking on the Sidekick icon in the navigation bar. Copy and paste these prompts directly into the chat:
1) Seasonal campaign edit
Update the headline to “20% off sitewide this weekend,” swap the hero image to one that feels autumnal while still matching our brand palette, and insert a 3‑product bestsellers grid. Keep copy friendly and concise.
2) Product drop with versions for different customer segments
I want to make this email relevant for a different customer segment. Make this more targeted to past purchasers of our bestselling product, the [insert product name here] by highlighting complimentary purchases from our new collection.
3) Restock alert
Turn this draft into a restock announcement for [insert previously sold our product name here]. Adjust the headline, product photo, email copy, and CTA to be all about [insert previously sold our product name here]. Apply our brand colors and typography.
4) Post‑purchase cross‑sell
In this post‑purchase draft, add a thank you for buying [insert product name here] and recommend 3 accessories. For the bottom section, include care tips and a “How to get the most out of it” checklist. Keep tone helpful.
5) Tighten and re‑tone copy
Rewrite the body copy for this email to be 30% shorter, more direct, and energetic. Keep product names intact and avoid jargon.
6) Add the block you need (without hunting for it)
Insert a 2‑column feature block below the hero with an image on the left and copy on the right. Add a secondary CTA under it.
And if none of these prompts work for you, keep these simple steps in mind:
Step 1: Describe your goal. Open the email editor in Shopify Messaging, click the Sidekick icon in the top navigation bar and tell Sidekick (either via writing or with a voice prompt) what you’re trying to do. Keep it plain and specific.
Step 2:Iterate in small steps. Use quick prompts like “shorter headline,” “swap to the fall palette,” or “replace the third image with [SKU].” Don’t re‑explain the whole email—build on what’s there. You’ll move faster and keep momentum.
Step 3:Create variations of your email for different segments. Once the base looks good, duplicate your email and ask Sidekick to adjust copy for different types of customers, like VIPs, new subscribers, lapsed customers, or any segment you desire. Adjust offers and tone per audience while keeping structure consistent. You’ll get more relevance without rebuilding.
Good prompts vs. vague prompts
You don’t need to be a stellar writer to prompt Sidekick effectively. Use this as a guide:
- Good: “Adjust this email so that it announces our fall collection, [collection name]. Hero with a cozy lifestyle image, our three bestsellers from the collection, and in the last section, make the copy about sustainable materials. Keep copy under 90 words.”
- Vague: “Make an email about fall.”
Add constraints (length, sections, tone) and specifics (offer, products). You’ll get stronger first drafts and need fewer edits.
What you’ll notice after a few sends
- You ship more often. The hardest part—the rough draft start and manual block wrangling—is gone.
- You personalize more. Variants become a two‑minute task, not a full rebuild.
- Your brand stays tighter. Colors, typography, spacing, and content structure stay consistent.
- You keep control. You accept what works, edit what doesn’t, and iterate as much as you like (all with Sidekick)
Sidekick email editing FAQ
Will Sidekick overwrite my work?
No. You choose what to keep, discard, or adjust. You can ask for edits section by section or apply changes across the email. And maintain full autonomy to roll back anything that Sidekick produces that you don’t like.
Will the emails that Sidekick helps build match my brand?
Yes. Sidekick uses your store context—brand colors, fonts, products, and past emails—to keep layouts and copy aligned. You can always tweak anything.
What about accessibility?
Ask Sidekick to increase contrast, standardize CTA styles, and adjust font sizes where appropriate. Use your preview to confirm everything reads clearly.
Making Sidekick a part of your weekly rhythm
Here’s how other businesses and teams bake Sidekick into their workflow without adding process:
- Keep a short list of prompts you reuse and save them in your Skills.
- Use Sidekick to create variants of your email for different segments after the base draft is ready.
- Make Sidekick your editor and have it run a quick accessibility and CTA consistency pass before scheduling.
The goal isn’t to automate creativity, it’s to clear the friction between your idea and the inbox so your best ideas actually reach customers.
Getting started
Open any email you’re working on in your editor and click the Sidekick icon in the top navigation bar. Describe the edit you want to make and see what comes back!
