Shopify customer winback email and SMS

1. Separate winback from other follow-ups

Winback addresses an unusually long gap since a purchase. Replenishment helps someone replace a product they use up. A message about a newly viewed item responds to fresh interest. All three can produce a repeat order, but they give you different reasons to write.

Someone who bought cleanser months ago and has gone quiet may need a winback message. Someone who bought it last week and now views the travel bottle may want that smaller size. Calling both people “inactive” would hide the useful difference.

2. Define a lapsed customer around the buying cycle

Look at the gaps between completed purchases for similar products and customers who bought again. Separate gifts from repeat-use items where possible. A storewide cutoff can treat a happy backpack owner as overdue while waiting too long to contact a frequent coffee buyer.

These buying patterns help you plan; they are not automatic segments or timing presets in myuser.ai. Check the latest order before including someone: they may already have returned. Keep email and SMS signup status separate, and leave unsubscribed customers out of the relevant channel.

Use the when not to send marketing checklist to review who should sit out a follow-up.

3. Choose a reason to return before choosing an offer

What would make the next purchase useful? It might be a refill, a compatible accessory or help choosing a size. A general “we miss you” message asks for attention without explaining why.

An order gap does not tell you why someone stopped buying. They may still have the product or have had a problem with their order. Check known service issues before promoting another purchase. Avoid claiming they loved an item or have run out unless you know that. “Ready for another?” lets the customer decide.

4. How myuser.ai uses purchase history and new visits

myuser.ai brings Shopify products and past orders together with recorded visits and recent messages. Its follow-up planner can use those facts to add, change or remove an upcoming message, or leave the plan as it is. Email designs provide the starting layout for each shopper’s message.

That can help when a past buyer returns to browse: the next follow-up can reflect the item they looked at instead of repeating an old promotion. A recorded visit needs the storefront setup working, and the shopper must be identified for that activity to help their personal follow-up.

If your requirement is an exact “90 days after the last order” flow, a saved lapsed-customer segment or a built-in holdout experiment, confirm that workflow with our team. Those are separate requirements from writing and sending messages using customer context.

For a known returning visitor, a replay can add detail to the activity summary. Watch the product pages and visible options they compared, then check their purchase history separately. “Opened the travel bottle and the refill” is a useful observation. “Needs a refill now” is a guess. Use recordings to ask a better question, without treating a visit as permission to send or proof that an order is due.

See how shopper context changes the content in our email personalization examples.

Use the session recording review worksheet to keep the observation separate from your proposed follow-up.

5. Set up a useful first review in your store

1. Connect Shopify and check that products and past orders appear.
2. Enable the myuser.ai app embed in your theme for storefront activity.
3. Review your email designs and sender setup; complete SMS setup if you want texts.
4. Inspect a known customer’s order, visit and message history.
5. Check the available controls, links and competing sends before turning on automatic follow-ups.

Start with one product category and an example customer. Review the order history, reason for the next message, wording and destination. The link should open the promised item with its current price and availability.

Choose which app owns winback and other follow-ups. Keeping an old sequence active while starting another sender can cause overlapping messages. Review customer history across both tools during the changeover.

Work through the product setup walkthrough to review the store connection, sender and storefront setup.

6. Keep the message and channel under control

You can choose email and SMS channels, review designs and inspect a shopper’s messages. Scheduled messages can be edited or moved before they send. A weekly message range guides frequency; it does not promise every customer an exact sequence.

Use email for product details or comparisons. Keep a text to one relevant reason and one link, for customers who signed up for texts. Before enabling both channels, read the combined history.

Pausing automatic follow-ups has a specific scope. Messages sent by hand and follow-ups set on pop-ups have their own controls. Check those too when you need to stop all sending.

Check a text and its appended wording with the SMS character counter before using it.

7. Protect the margin before adding a discount

A discount should solve a real purchasing obstacle at a cost the store can afford. Start by considering a useful product or reminder without an offer. If you add a deal, verify its eligibility, minimum spend, expiry and destination. The message must describe the actual offer.

Consider a fictional $60 order with $35 of product and fulfillment costs. It leaves $25 before marketing costs. A 15% discount removes $9, leaving $16 before those same costs. More attributed revenue would not necessarily mean more profit.

Avoid training every returning buyer to wait for a larger deal. Compare full-price and discounted repeat orders separately, and include message costs, refunds and returns in the review.

To keep the same profit, that 15% discount needs 56% more orders. Try your own order value, cost and offer in the discount break-even calculator.

Use the email ROI worksheet to put sends, costs and orders on the same basis.

8. Measure repeat purchases separately from attributed sales

Decide on a review period long enough for the product’s buying cycle. Record the eligible customers at the start, messages sent and delivered, clicks, repeat buyers, order value and costs. Define your repeat purchase rate consistently: customers in that starting group who buy during the period, divided by the number in the group.

myuser.ai shows messages and orders linked to messages. Use those records to understand the path to purchase. An attributed order is not proof the message caused it; the customer might have returned through another channel or bought anyway.

Where your tools and audience size allow it, compare a randomly selected group that receives the winback messages with a similar group that does not. Otherwise compare similar customer groups cautiously and note differences in promotions, season or product mix. Keep the same period and cost rules for both.

Our email revenue attribution guide explains what linked sales can and cannot tell you.

9. Questions to settle before choosing winback software

Can it replace my current winback flow? Walk through your audience rule, timing, exclusions and stop conditions before switching. Bring any requirements around subscriptions, returns or other apps. A personalized follow-up tool and a fixed sequence builder may cover different jobs.

Will it reach every past buyer? Check contact details, channel signup status and customer history. A purchase alone does not establish permission to send marketing.

Which plan should I choose? Use your contact count, expected sends and intended channels. Check current allowances and SMS costs on the pricing page. Review the product walkthrough, then check designs and controls in your store before enabling automatic sends.

See myuser.ai plans and pricing for current allowances.

Open the product setup walkthrough before choosing what to enable.