Skip to main content
Email marketing preferences can be synchronized in two different ways between Engage and Shopify, depending on how the integration is configured: Webhook disabled: Preferences are only synced via order events Webhook enabled: Preferences synced continuously based on updates in both systems In the sections below you’ll see how each configuration affects data behavior.

​
1: When webhook is disabled

Syncing with webhook disabled

Syncing with webhook disabled

If the marketing preference webhook in Engage is not enabled in the app configuration, email marketing preferences are only synced when the order/create payload comes from Shopify, such as when an order is placed. No real-time sync occurs outside of order events. There are three cases to consider here:
When:
  • A customer does not exist in Engage
  • And they place an order in Shopify
Then:
  • A contact will be automatically created in Engage
  • The acceptsEmail value will be set to the marketing preference value in the Shopify order
When:
  • A customer with marketing preference of “true” places an order in Shopify
  • And they already exists in Engage with acceptsEmail = “false”
Then:
  • The acceptsEmail value will be updated to “true” in Engage
When:
  • A customer with marketing preference of “false” places an order in Shopify
  • And they already exists in Engage with acceptsEmail = “true”
Then:
  • The acceptsEmail field is omitted in the update payload
  • The value in Engage remains “true” (meaning that no downgrade occurs)
So when the webhook is disabled, we will not automatically overwrite a positive opt-in with a negative value coming from an order.

​
2: When webhook is enabled

Syncing with webhook enabled

Syncing with webhook enabled

If the Engage marketing preference webhook is enabled:
  • We listen to all email marketing preference updates
  • Changes are synchronized more dynamically between systems
  • Preference updates can override existing values depending on the event type
When:
  • The customer creates a new Shopify account with email marketing preference set to “false”
  • A contact already exists in Engage, having been created via another system, with acceptsEmail = “true”
Then:
  • We omit the acceptsEmail field when updating the contact in Engage
  • This means the acceptsEmail value will remain “true”
So we do not automatically downgrade acceptsEmail during contact creation when marketing preference is “false”.
When:
  • In Shopify the marketing preference is “false”
  • In Engage the acceptsEmail value is “true”
  • The customer changes their marketing preference on their Shopify account pages (“My Pages”)
Then:
  • The update payload from Shopify will includes the marketing preference value (“false”)
  • This will override the value in Engage so that acceptsEmail will now be “false”
Because of this behavior, it is critical during onboarding to ensure that email marketing preferences are fully aligned between Shopify and Engage before going live.
So when the webhook is enabled:
  • We listen to all email marketing preference updates
  • Changes made in Shopify will update Engage
  • Changes made in Engage can be synchronized back to Shopify (if configured)

​
Important exception

A “true” value in Engage is only ever downgraded to “false” when the customer changes the preference themselves on their Shopify account pages, and only when preference sync is enabled. In particular:
  • With preference sync disabled, a “true” in Engage is never overwritten with “false”.
  • A marketing preference of “false” at customer creation does not downgrade an existing “true”.
  • Placing an order with the marketing checkbox cleared does not downgrade an existing “true”.

​
Pre-selected opt-in

Voyado does not recommend using Shopify’s pre-selected opt-in behaviour, where the marketing consent checkbox in the checkout is ticked by default.
Pre-selected opt-in setting

Pre-selected opt-in setting

The reason is that in Shopify, once a customer has opted in, they may effectively remain opted in even if they actively deselect the checkbox in a later checkout. This can lead to inconsistent consent states across systems. For example, a customer who has unsubscribed in Engage can be set back to opted-in when Shopify sends a customer update, because Shopify still regards them as opted in. Shopify’s region-based pre-selection adds further complexity and increases the risk of incorrect consent handling.

​
If you do use pre-selected opt-in

The recommendation above is about Shopify’s checkout configuration, not about the app. If your Shopify Checkout settings do have Email Marketing options set to Preselected, then you must enable the corresponding setting in the app: Settings → Synchronize all marketing preference changes from Shopify orders (specified in checkout) to Engage Without it, the consent a customer gives in the checkout will not reach Engage — which is worse than the inconsistency the recommendation is trying to avoid.
So: prefer not to use Shopify’s pre-selected opt-in at all. If you already do, enable the setting above. Either way, align the consent states between Shopify and Engage before go-live.

​
Key recommendations

During onboarding, it is essential to:
  • Audit and align all email marketing preferences between systems
  • Decide whether the webhook should be enabled based on the desired source of truth
  • Clearly define whether Shopify or Engage should control opt-in logic going forward
Misalignment before go-live can result in unintended opt-in overrides.