Shopify Email Notifications: A Complete Guide for Store Owners

Short answer: Shopify's built-in staff notifications cover only a few events — mainly new orders — and you can't filter them or send them per event to different people. To get email alerts for refunds, returns, new customers, product changes or low stock, install Alius, add and verify the recipient addresses under Integrations → Email, then create an alert for each event — with conditions to cut the noise and, on Pro and Max, daily or weekly digests.

Shopify's Default Emails Only Tell Half the Story

Shopify sends email notifications out of the box — order confirmations, shipping updates, abandoned cart reminders. Most of these go to customers. For staff, Shopify can email you about a handful of events, mainly new orders.

But what about you, the merchant?

What about getting an email when a new customer signs up? Or when someone edits an order you've already processed? Or when a product in your catalog is deleted at 11pm on a Friday?

Shopify's built-in system wasn't designed to give merchants deep, real-time visibility into their store's operations. It was mainly designed to communicate with customers. The gap in merchant-facing notifications is exactly what Alius was built to fill. (Not sure email is your best channel? Compare it with Slack and Telegram in our notification channel comparison guide.)

What Makes a Good Merchant Notification Email?

Before diving into setup, it's worth understanding what a useful notification email looks like — because not all alerts are created equal.

A great merchant notification email should be:

Timely — urgent events arrive within seconds; routine ones can wait for a daily summary instead of filling your inbox.

Specific — telling you exactly what happened, not just "something changed in your store." The email should include relevant details: which product, which customer, what order number, what changed.

Actionable — making it easy to know what to do next. Ideally, it should link directly to the relevant item in your Shopify admin.

Filterable — you shouldn't be buried in emails about every minor event. The best notification systems let you define exactly which events trigger an email and under what conditions.

Alius was designed with all of these principles in mind.

Shopify's built-in emails vs Alius email alerts

Event	Shopify staff email	Alius email alert
New order	Yes	Yes, with filters (value, product, country, tags)
Order paid, edited or fulfilled	No	Yes
Refund issued	No	Yes
Return requested or approved	Limited	Yes, per event and with filters
New or deleted customer	No	Yes
Product edited or deleted	No	Yes
Low stock and reorder alerts per location	No	Yes
Daily or weekly digest	No	Yes (Pro and Max)

Email alerts worth setting up

• High-value order — total price greater than your threshold, sent to the owner.
• Refund created — sent to finance, so every refund is on record.
• Order updated — address and item changes, sent to fulfillment before the parcel ships.
• Product deleted — deletions are permanent, so the catalog manager should know at once.
• New wholesale customer — customer created with the tag "wholesale", sent to sales.
• Reorder alerts — one email per location listing what to reorder and from which supplier. See our low stock alerts guide.

Setting Up Email Notifications with Alius

Step 1: Set Up Your Email Hub

Go to Integrations → Email, enter an address and click Add Recipient. Alius sends a verification email; the address starts receiving alerts once the link is clicked. Add as many recipients as you need — for example your fulfillment team for orders and your catalog manager for products — and switch each one on or off at any time.

Step 2: Create Your First Trigger

Go to Automations and create a trigger. Choose the event — order, refund, return, customer, product or abandoned cart — and pick the recipients.

Step 3: Define Conditions

Use Alius's condition builder to narrow down which events send emails:

• Only email me about orders over $150
• Only email me when a product's inventory total is less than 5
• Only send an alert when a new customer is tagged with "wholesale"

Conditions are what turn a noisy notification system into a precise, useful one.

Stop Missing the Events That Matter

Email is still the most universal communication tool in business — and when used well, it's a powerful way to stay connected to your store's activity without being glued to your Shopify admin.

With Alius, you can transform email from a passive inbox into an active alert system — one that keeps you and your team informed, responsive, and in control. Looking for inspiration on which alerts to start with? See our roundup of top 5 Shopify order alerts every merchant should set up, or learn how to batch alerts into daily and weekly email digests.