Why Shopify doesn't do it on its own
Shopify's marketing tools are built for marketing. Its marketing automations only send to customers who agreed to email marketing, and its marketing emails go to your subscribers. A shipping delay isn't marketing, and many of the people who ordered the product never subscribed. That's why merchants see errors like "Customer not subscribed to marketing" when they try it in Flow.
On the order page you can email one customer at a time with the Contact customer box. There's no way to pick a product and write to all its buyers at once.
The free way
You can do this today with no app. It suits a small number of orders.
- In your Shopify admin, go to Orders. Search for the product. Shopify lets you search orders by product details, as well as order number, name and email.
- Add filters if needed, for example fulfillment status, so you only see orders that haven't shipped yet.
- Click Export and choose which orders to export, then Export orders. Up to 50 orders download straight away; bigger exports are emailed to the store owner.
- Open the CSV in a spreadsheet. Keep the Email and Lineitem name columns, and remove duplicate email addresses so nobody gets two emails.
- Write your update in your own email program. Put the addresses in BCC, not To, so customers can't see each other.
- For a personal touch on a few orders, open each order and use the Contact customer box instead.
- Leave a comment on each order's timeline ("Delay email sent 6 Oct") if your team needs a record. Comments are only seen by staff.
Where the free way falls short
- One order can hold several products, so the export needs cleaning before you can trust the list.
- Sending to 50+ customers from your own inbox can hit your email provider's sending limits or land in spam.
- There's no record in Shopify of who got the message. When a customer says "I never got your email", you're digging through your sent folder.
- You can't write "Hi Sam, your order #1042" for each person without typing it out.
The easier way: RNS Email Product Buyers
RNS Email Product Buyers lets you email everyone who ordered one product, for order updates like delays, backorders, recalls and corrections. It's not for marketing.
- Who gets it: search the product, pick all variants or some, and choose which orders (for example unfulfilled only). You see one row per customer, so two orders means one email. Untick anyone you like.
- Your message: start from a saved message (Delivery delay, Backorder, Recall / safety notice, Correction to instructions) or your own. The preview shows the first customer's real email. Send yourself a test.
- Send: take a last look, tick "I've checked", and send. You can stop it mid-way, and every recipient's status is logged.
Free: 50 customers a month, 4 ready messages + 4 of your own. Pro: $15 a month with a 14-day free trial, for unlimited customers and saved messages, plus follow-ups, resend all failed, CSV export and a copy to you.
What it can't do: it's for order updates only, not promotions. Use your marketing email tool for people who agreed to marketing.
Questions
Why does Flow say "Customer not subscribed to marketing"?
Shopify's marketing automations only send to customers who agreed to email marketing. Customers who didn't sign up are skipped, even if the message is about their order.
How far back can I reach buyers?
In RNS Email Product Buyers, orders from the last 60 days. That's Shopify's limit for apps.
A customer says they never got the email. How do I check?
In the app, go to Home › Find a customer, search their email, see what happened, and resend to another address if needed.
Sources
- Exporting orders (checked 6 Oct 2026)
- Searching, viewing, and printing orders (checked 6 Oct 2026)
- Create marketing automations (checked 6 Oct 2026)