Order Confirmation Email: What to Include + Klaviyo Setup

The order confirmation email is one of the most-read messages your store sends. The customer has just paid, they are waiting for it, and they will open it. Most brands still ship Shopify’s default: grey, generic, and completely disconnected from the rest of their email programme.

This guide covers what an order confirmation email should include, how it fits with shipping confirmations and the other transactional emails, and exactly what you can and cannot move from Shopify into Klaviyo (verified against both help centres as of September 2026).

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What is an order confirmation email?

An order confirmation email is the automated message sent immediately after checkout confirming that an order has been placed. It lists the order number, items, quantities, prices, taxes, shipping cost, delivery address and payment method, and tells the customer what happens next. It is a transactional email: triggered by the customer’s action, expected, and sent to them whether or not they subscribed to marketing.

It does three jobs:

1. Reassurance. The payment went through, the order exists, nothing needs to be done.
2. Reference. The customer’s record of what they bought, and usually their receipt.
3. Expectation-setting. When it will ship, how they will be told, and who to contact if something is wrong.

Get those right and you cut “where is my order?” tickets before they start. Get them wrong and support pays for it.

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What to include in an order confirmation email

Element	Why it matters
Clear subject line with order number	”Order #10482 confirmed” is searchable in the inbox months later
Thank-you line	One sentence. Warm, on-brand, not a paragraph
Order summary	Product image, name, variant, quantity, price per line
Totals	Subtotal, discounts, shipping, tax, total paid
Delivery address and method	Lets the customer catch a wrong address before dispatch
Timing	Expected dispatch window or delivery estimate
Order status link	”View or manage your order”
Support contact	Email, help centre, or chat, and the hours
Returns policy link	Answers the question before it is asked
Brand identity	Logo, colours and tone that match your marketing emails

Subject line examples

• Order #{{ order number }} confirmed: thanks, {{ first name }}
• We’ve got your order (#{{ order number }})
• You’re all set. Here’s your order summary
• Confirmed: your {{ product name }} is being prepared

Keep the order number in the subject. It is the single most useful thing for a customer searching their inbox later.

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Order confirmation vs shipping confirmation vs the rest of the transactional set

The order confirmation is one of a family. For ecommerce, the core transactional set looks like this:

Email	Trigger	What it must contain
Order confirmation	Checkout completed	Order summary, totals, address, next steps
Shipping confirmation	Order fulfilled / tracking number created	Carrier, tracking link, items shipped, estimated delivery
Partial shipment	Part of the order fulfilled	Which items shipped, which are still to come
Out for delivery	Carrier marks out for delivery	Delivery window, what to do if not home
Delivered	Carrier marks delivered	Confirmation, what to do if it has not arrived
Order cancelled	Order cancelled	What was cancelled, refund timing
Refund issued	Refund processed	Amount, method, timing
Account emails	Account created, password reset	Links and security information

What makes a good shipping confirmation email

• Tracking button at the top, not buried under a banner.
• Carrier name and estimated delivery date.
• The items in this shipment, especially if the order is split.
• Support contact for delivery problems.

Send it when the order is actually fulfilled and a tracking number exists, not on a timed delay from purchase.

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Transactional vs marketing emails: the line you cannot blur

This is the part most “order confirmation best practices” articles get wrong. They tell you to add product recommendations, discount codes and newsletter sign-ups to your confirmation. Whether you can depends on where the email is sent from and what the law says.

The legal side (US). The FTC’s CAN-SPAM compliance guide says the primary purpose of the message decides whether it is transactional or commercial. Messages that only facilitate, complete or confirm a transaction the recipient already agreed to are exempt from most CAN-SPAM provisions, but must not contain false or misleading routing information. Load a confirmation with promotions and you risk it being treated as commercial.

The platform side (Klaviyo). Klaviyo’s rules for messages marked transactional (as of September 2026):

• Only emails and texts in metric-triggered flows can be marked transactional (not price drop flows).
• They must be approved by Klaviyo, which can take up to one business day.
• They cannot include coupons, products the person has not bought, newsletter information, sign-up links or marketing calls to action.
• Suppressed (unsubscribed) profiles still receive transactional emails, except in cases such as hard bounces and spam complaints.
• SMS always needs consent, even for transactional texts.

The practical answer: keep the confirmation clean, and put the cross-sell in a separate marketing email in your post-purchase flow a few days later, sent only to people who have consented to marketing. You lose nothing, because the customer who has just bought is not ready for a second pitch in the same minute anyway.

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How to move Shopify order confirmation and shipping emails to Klaviyo

Shopify brands ask this constantly, and the answer has three parts, because Shopify treats notifications differently.

What Shopify lets you turn off

According to Shopify’s help centre, most customer notifications are sent automatically and cannot be deactivated. The ones with a toggle, which you can switch off, are:

• Order cancelled
• Order refund
• Shipping confirmation
• Shipping update
• Out for delivery
• Delivered

Order confirmation is not on that list. On standard Shopify plans, Shopify keeps sending it. Shopify Plus merchants can contact Shopify Support to turn off specific email and SMS notifications.

Option 1: Keep Shopify sending the order confirmation, but design it in Klaviyo

Available to every Shopify store, and the right answer for most.

1. In Klaviyo, open Templates and filter by the Shopify template type.
2. Customise the template to match your brand.
3. Use the three-dot menu to Export, and copy the HTML.
4. In Shopify admin, go to Settings > Notifications, open the order confirmation, and replace the Email body (HTML).
5. Preview in Shopify and save.

Klaviyo’s notes on this: the variables are Shopify variables, not Klaviyo ones; dynamic content only populates when you preview in Shopify; and Shopify does not support Klaviyo product blocks, so templates containing them will error.

Result: the confirmation looks like the rest of your email programme, and Shopify still handles delivery.

Option 2: Move shipping, delivery, cancellation and refund emails into Klaviyo flows

These are the notifications Shopify lets you switch off, and Klaviyo has the matching Shopify events. From Klaviyo’s Shopify data reference:

Klaviyo metric (from Shopify)	When it fires	Use it for
Placed Order	Checkout completed, order created	Order confirmation (Plus only, see option 3)
Fulfilled Order	Order marked fulfilled	Shipping confirmation
Fulfilled Partial Order	Order partially fulfilled	Split-shipment notice
Confirmed Shipment	Carrier is aware of the shipment	Shipping confirmation with tracking
Marked Out for Delivery	Shipping status out for delivery	Out-for-delivery email or SMS
Delivered Shipment	Shipping status delivered	Delivered email, and a clean anchor for review timing
Cancelled Order	Order cancelled before fulfilment	Cancellation email
Refunded Order	Order fully refunded (not partial)	Refund email

Klaviyo notes that Confirmed Shipment, Marked Out for Delivery and Delivered Shipment only sync if Shopify has them, which depends on the carrier.

The switch-over sequence:

1. Build each flow in Klaviyo on the matching metric.
2. Request transactional status for each message and wait for approval (up to one business day).
3. If you are replacing Shopify’s shipping confirmation, check fulfilment settings: Klaviyo advises that in Settings > General, “Don’t fulfill any of the order’s line items automatically” is selected, so fulfilment events fire when you actually ship.
4. Only then turn off the matching notification in Shopify (Settings > Notifications > Customer notifications). Klaviyo recommends disabling right before you enable the flow, so there is no gap and no double send.
5. Place a test order and watch every event arrive.

Option 3: Shopify Plus, move the order confirmation too

If you are on Shopify Plus and Shopify Support has turned off the order confirmation notification, build a Placed Order flow in Klaviyo, mark the email transactional, get approval, and go live. Include everything in the checklist above, and remember that Klaviyo’s transactional rules mean no coupons or unrelated products in it.

Should you bother?

For most brands, Option 1 plus Option 2 gets you most of the value: branded confirmations, and shipping and delivery emails that live in the same platform as your post-purchase and review request flows, so timing can key off real delivery dates. If you want it done without a missed notification, our Klaviyo setup team handles this as part of onboarding.

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Order updates by SMS

Klaviyo also supports Shopify order-update texts on the same events (placed, fulfilled, partially fulfilled, refunded, cancelled, confirmed shipment, delivered, out for delivery). Per Klaviyo, this is for paid accounts with Shopify stores, and SMS always needs consent. Shopify Plus stores can collect transactional SMS consent at checkout; standard stores can collect it on the thank-you and order status pages. See our SMS marketing service if you are adding it.

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Best practices for order confirmation and shipping emails

• Send instantly. A confirmation that arrives 20 minutes later triggers “did it go through?” emails.
• Mobile first. Most customers open it on their phone, straight after checkout.
• Match your brand. Same logo, fonts and tone as your marketing. Almost every customer opens it.
• Accurate data. Test every variant: discount applied, free shipping, multi-item, international address, gift card.
• Set expectations honestly. If dispatch takes three business days, say so.
• Protect the sending domain. Transactional mail sent from an authenticated domain lands better and protects your marketing reputation. See our deliverability guide.
• Keep promotions out. Put the upsell in the next email, not this one.

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Common mistakes

• Turning off Shopify notifications before the Klaviyo flow is approved and live. Customers get nothing.
• Leaving both on. Customers get two shipping emails, one branded and one not.
• Adding coupons to a Klaviyo transactional email. It breaks Klaviyo’s rules and blurs the legal line.
• Timing the shipping email from purchase date. Use fulfilment and carrier events.
• Forgetting partial shipments and cancellations. These generate the angriest tickets.

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Get the transactional layer right

Order confirmation and shipping emails are not glamorous, but they are read by every customer, every time. Branded properly and wired into Klaviyo’s delivery events, they also give every flow after them (reviews, replenishment, cross-sell) accurate timing to work from.

If you want your Shopify notifications and post-purchase flows reviewed together, our free Klaviyo audit covers both. For the full picture of how Klaviyo and Shopify connect, see our Klaviyo Shopify integration guide.

Compliance notes here are general information, not legal advice.

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Sources

• Shopify Help Center: Setting up customer notifications
• Klaviyo Help Center: How to disable notification emails sent by Shopify
• Klaviyo Help Center: How to personalize and export Shopify notification emails
• Klaviyo Help Center: Understanding transactional messages
• Klaviyo Help Center: Shopify data reference
• Klaviyo Help Center: How to send order updates via SMS for Shopify
• FTC: CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide for business