Customer notification emails
Essential Subscriptions automatically emails your customers about important subscription events — upcoming charges, confirmations, pauses, cancellations, and payment problems. The important ones are on by default, and you can edit the wording of each.
To manage them, go to Settings → Email notifications to customers.
The Email Types
| When it's sent | On by default | |
|---|---|---|
| Upcoming subscription charge reminder | Before a subscription payment is due | ✓ |
| New subscription | After a customer places an order with a subscription | ✓ |
| Subscription skipped | When a customer skips an order | ✓ |
| Subscription paused | When a subscription is paused | ✓ |
| Subscription resumed | When a subscription is resumed | ✓ |
| Subscription cancelled | When a subscription is cancelled | ✓ |
| Payment failure | After a payment attempt fails | ✓ |
| Payment failure (Retrying) | After a failed retry attempt | ✓ |
| Payment failure (Last attempt) | After the final retry fails | ✓ |
The New subscription email is sent in addition to Shopify's standard order confirmation email.
Turning an Email On or Off
In Settings, the Email notifications to customers section lists every email with a toggle. The summary line shows how many are currently on (e.g. 7 out of 9 on). Turn any email off if you'd prefer not to send it.
Editing an Email
Click an email to open its editor. You can customise:
- Subject — the email subject line.
- Heading and Content — the main message body.
- Button text — the labels on the View your order and Manage your subscription buttons.
- Order summary labels — the wording for Subtotal, Shipping, Taxes, and Total.
- Customer information labels — the wording for Shipping address, Billing address, Payment, and Shipping method.
- Footer text — a custom footer.
Click Reset to defaults at any time to restore the original wording.
Charge reminder timing
The Upcoming subscription charge reminder has an extra setting — Reminder days before — which controls how many days ahead of the charge the email is sent.
Sending a Test Email
Each email editor has a Send test email button so you can see exactly what your customers will receive before going live.
Saving Changes
When you edit an email, a save bar appears at the top. Click Save to keep your changes or Discard to undo them.
Related
- To control which address your emails are sent from, see How to Customise Your Sender Email.
- To get yourself or your team notified about subscription events, see Staff Notifications.
Last updated June 2026