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 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 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.

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.

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, a link, or a metafield of the step's order or customer, and a title. See Attachments and images
Loop	Repeats a block of Liquid + HTML over an array variable
HTML / Code	Raw HTML with Liquid, including {% if %} conditionals
QR Code	Data (URL or text, supports variables), size 80-300px, alignment
Line items table	The order's items from a list variable, with image, quantity, price and totals rows

Commerce and content blocks (new in 1.17, see Content blocks: product, discount, countdown, tracking and more for each one in detail)

Block	What it does
Product	One product card: image, title, description, price with compare-at price, and a button. Every field takes a variable
Product grid	Two or three cards per row from a list variable, like the line items table
Discount code	A code box with a button that applies the code at checkout. Either a code you type, or a unique single-use code created in your store for every email
Countdown	A live countdown to a date, rendered as an animated image when the email is opened. Boxes, flip cards, minimal or text style
Order tracking	Carrier, tracking number, a Track button and a progress stripe driven by the shipment status
Star rating	Stars from a number, with a label and an optional link to your review page
Testimonial	A quote with name, role and photo, as a card, with an accent bar, or plain
Social links	A row of network icons
Video	A thumbnail with a play button linking to the video
Signature	Name, title, company, phone, email, website and a photo
Table	A small data table, every cell takes a variable
View in browser	The usual "view this email in your browser" line
Price	A price line on its own: the price, an optional compare-at price struck through, size, color and 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
Columns	Two, three or four equal columns, each with its own blocks
Show if	A section that is only sent when a condition on the variables is true, for example variables.total > 100 or language == "de"

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.

Header and footer

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.

You pick the layout for each Flow step on the action's configuration page, which shows a preview of it filled in with its test variables. Clear names and realistic test variables make the right layout easy to spot there.

Full walkthrough: Passing data from Shopify Flow.

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.

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.

Related

• Content blocks: product, discount, countdown, tracking and more - product, discount, countdown, tracking and the other content blocks.
• Passing data from Shopify Flow - supplying the values.
• Variables and Liquid - the full variable reference.
• Attachments and images - files, images and size limits.
• Header and footer presets - reusable branding.
• Marketing emails and unsubscribes - what a marketing layout does differently.
• Settings - brand colors, custom fonts and shop-wide email defaults.