Workflow Transactional EmailWorkflow Transactional Email

Build an email layout

An email layout is the email itself: the subject line, the design, and any attachments. The Shopify Flow action picks a layout and a sender, then sends. Because the layout is separate from the workflow, one design can serve every customer without you touching HTML again.

The Email Layouts list

The list has two tabs, Transactional and Marketing, each showing how many layouts it holds. It opens on Transactional, and every layout you created before email types existed is transactional. Your search, sort and page carry over when you switch tabs. A marketing layout carries a Marketing badge next to its name, and Create email layout on the Marketing tab starts the new layout as a marketing one.

Create a layout

Go to Email Layouts and click Create email layout. You will set:

  • Name - how you recognise it. Only you see this.
  • Subject - supports {{ variables.xxx }} and {{ secrets.xxx }}.
  • Preview text - optional. The short line most inboxes show next to the subject. Aim for 40-100 characters; it supports the same variables as the subject. Leave it empty and the mail client picks the first text in your email instead.
  • Description - optional, for your own reference.
  • Email type - Transactional for emails customers expect, like order and shipping updates; they are always sent, even to customers who unsubscribed from marketing. Marketing for newsletters, promotions and win-back emails; each recipient gets their own email with an unsubscribe link and your company details from Settings, and customers who unsubscribed are skipped. Unlike the editor, the type can be changed later in the layout editor. Details in Marketing emails and unsubscribes.

Then choose an editor:

Editor Best for
Visual builder Designed, branded emails built from drag-and-drop blocks
Rich text / HTML Simple transactional notes, or a fully custom HTML email you paste in
The Create email layout page with name, subject, language and the choice of editor
A new layout: name, subject, language and the editor. The editor cannot be changed later.

The visual builder

The builder is a two-panel screen: settings on the left, a live canvas preview on the right. Add blocks with the Add section button or the + markers between existing blocks.

Choosing blocks in the email designer

The left panel has four tabs:

Tab What it holds
General Name, Subject, Preview text, Description
Branding Colors, typography and layout spacing for the whole email
Blocks Settings for whichever block you selected on the canvas
Test Variables The Shopify Flow JSON snippet, the system variables reference, and sample values for previewing

Each block on the canvas has controls to drag it, duplicate it, delete it, or hide it without deleting.

A layout built from heading, image and text blocks

Block reference

Elements

Block Settings
Text Rich text, alignment, font size (12/14/16/18), color
Heading Heading text, size (Extra Large H1 to Small H4), alignment, color
Image Image (upload or link), alt text, width 10-100%, alignment
Button Label, URL, style (Primary / Secondary / Outline), alignment, border radius 0-24px
Divider Color, style (Solid / Dashed / Dotted), thickness 1-8
Spacing Height 4-80px
Attachment File picker and a title. See Attachments and images
Loop Repeats a block of Liquid + HTML over an array variable - use this for line items
HTML / Code Raw HTML with Liquid, including {% if %} conditionals
QR Code Data (URL or text, supports variables), size 80-300px, alignment

Layout

Block Settings
Image + Text Image position (left/right), image width 20-70%, vertical alignment, gap, background color, plus image / text / button sub-components
Two Columns Column split (50/50, 33/67, 67/33, 40/60, 60/40), gap 0-40, vertical alignment, padding, and separate left and right column contents
The visual builder with the General tab on the left and the canvas on the right
The visual builder: settings on the left, the email on the right.

Branding

The Branding tab applies to the whole layout:

  • Colors - primary, secondary, text, body background, content background
  • Typography - heading font, body font, line height
  • Layout - the spacing controls below
Control What it changes Range
Max Width How wide the email content can grow 400-800px
Container Padding Space around the whole content area 0-40px
Block Padding (sides) Space between your content and the left and right edges 0-40px
Block Padding (top & bottom) Space above and below the content of each block 0-40px
Block Spacing Vertical gap between one block and the next 0-40px

Keep Block Padding (top & bottom) small. Block Spacing already separates blocks, so raising both leaves large gaps.

If you named brand colors under Settings > Brand and fonts, every color picker in the builder shows them as chips under the field, and clicking a chip applies that color. The chip of the color currently in the field is highlighted. See Settings.

The font dropdown offers system fonts (Arial, Georgia, Verdana, Times New Roman, Helvetica, Trebuchet MS), a set of Google fonts (Inter, Roboto, Open Sans, Lato, Montserrat, Poppins, Nunito, Raleway, Playfair Display, Merriweather, Source Sans 3, Oswald, Work Sans, DM Sans, Space Grotesk), and any custom font you uploaded under Settings > Brand and fonts.

The header and footer are clickable regions at the top and bottom of the canvas. Each can use a saved preset so a change to your branding updates every layout at once, or Custom (this layout only) for a one-off. See Header and footer presets.

Rich text / HTML mode

In this mode the body is a single editor with a Rich text / HTML toggle and a separate Preview toggle.

  • Rich text gives you a familiar formatting toolbar.
  • HTML gives you a raw textarea - paste a fully designed email if you already have one.
  • Insert image adds a hosted image, either from your media library or from a link.

The preview is read-only and shows Liquid tags as-is. To see real values, send a test email.

Wiring it to Shopify Flow

A layout is only half the job - Shopify Flow has to supply the values for your placeholders.

Every layout has a Use in Shopify Flow card containing the exact Variables (JSON) to paste into the Send Transactional Email action, with all key names already correct. Copy it, paste it into Flow, and replace any <pick a Flow variable> placeholders.

Full walkthrough: Passing data from Shopify Flow.

The Email action configuration page listing the email layouts to choose from
The layout is chosen per Flow step, on the action's configuration page.

Preview with test variables

The Test Variables tab lists every {{ variables.x }} the app detected, so you can fill in sample values and see the design render properly.

To feed an array into a Loop block, enter it as a JSON array in this tab.

The Test Variables tab with example values filled in
Test variables fill the preview and test emails. A real Flow run never uses them.

Testing the layout with sample variables

Send a test email

Use Send test email on the layout editor. It renders the layout for real and sends it through a sender you pick, with the subject prefixed [TEST]. This is the only way to confirm your Liquid actually resolves, since the on-page preview does not evaluate it.

After you go live, check History - a send where a placeholder produced nothing is badged Empty variables. See History and troubleshooting.

Reuse a design

  • More → Save as template stores the design so you can start from it again. Saved designs live under My templates, which holds only the designs you saved yourself.
  • More → Duplicate copies the layout in place.
  • More → Export downloads it, and Import on the list page accepts a .zip or .json previously exported from the app - handy for moving a design between stores.

Deleting a layout

You can always delete a layout. If a Shopify Flow step still points at it, the layout carries a Used in Flow badge and the delete confirmation says so - but it does not stop you.

After deleting, any Flow step still referencing it fails with Email template not found, which appears in History. Point those steps at a different layout to fix them.