Email marketing—newsletters, cart-abandonment follow-ups, and more—is key to succeeding on Shopify. SendGrid, an email marketing tool, is used by many Japanese companies.
"What kind of tool is SendGrid?"
"I want to know the benefits of using SendGrid with Shopify."
"Tell me how to integrate Shopify with SendGrid."
Reading this article will answer questions and needs like these.
SendGrid is a remarkable service that lets you start advanced email marketing for free. Use this article as a reference and consider giving it a try.
What Is SendGrid, the Email Marketing Tool?
Image source: SendGrid | Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc.
SendGrid is a marketing and transactional email delivery service used around the world. Globally, it's used by companies like Spotify, Airbnb, and Uber, and in Japan by well-known companies such as Mercari, note, and Chatwork, delivering more than 148 billion emails every month.
Its standout features include a variety of capabilities for improving email deliverability (avoiding the spam folder), along with infrastructure that can handle sending 10,000+ emails at once.
Key Features of SendGrid
SendGrid is a feature-rich tool. Here are its main features, especially as they apply to email marketing.
- SPF / DKIM: Sender domain authentication via SPF/DKIM, reducing the risk of being misidentified as spam
- Scheduled sending: Schedule the date and time an email is sent
- Multipart delivery: Send a single email containing both HTML and plain-text versions
- Design editor and code editor: Build emails with drag-and-drop, or write HTML directly
- Per-recipient text insertion: Insert details like a reservation number into the subject line
- Open and click tracking: Measure email opens and clicks
- Delivery status tracking: Track delivery to the recipient's server, delays or bounces, and recipient responses such as opens and unsubscribes
- A/B testing: Prepare multiple variations (up to 6) of the subject line or body, send them out, and automatically deliver the best-performing variation to the remaining recipients
- Segments: Extract recipients that match specific conditions
- Unsubscribe: Add an unsubscribe link within the email body
The above is just a fraction of SendGrid's many features. If you'd like to see the rest, check the SendGrid feature list page.
Benefits of Using SendGrid with Shopify
By integrating an email marketing tool with Shopify, you can send marketing emails to your Shopify store's customers, or send reminder emails to customers who abandoned their cart. These are things many email marketing tools, including SendGrid, can do.
This section covers the benefits you get specifically from using SendGrid.
Reliably reach customers with high email deliverability
When doing email marketing on Shopify, the risk of ending up in the spam folder is a major challenge.
SendGrid offers features like SPF/DKIM authentication and dedicated IP addresses that boost your email's trustworthiness and reduce the risk of it being flagged. Using these can be expected to improve your marketing email deliverability.
Advanced A/B testing makes it easier to find the emails that resonate with customers
SendGrid's A/B testing feature lets you compare and test various elements of an email, such as the subject line, body, sender name, and delivery time. You set up the variations to test and the send ratio, and results are judged automatically. Sending the main campaign based on the test results lets you deliver more effective emails.
You can even test up to 6 variations at once, greatly streamlining the work of finding the optimal email.
Detailed analytics make it easy to improve your email strategy
SendGrid's analytics features let you access data that Shopify's own store analytics can't show you, such as open rate, click rate, and bounce rate (*). You can visually check results on a dashboard, and CSV export is also supported. Analyzing your delivery results from multiple angles gives you insights that inform your next steps.
*Bounce rate refers to the percentage of sent emails that failed to reach the recipient and were "bounced back."
It also supports advanced segmentation, such as targeting "customers who opened an email since April." By using SendGrid, you can run a variety of marketing strategies that aren't possible with your Shopify store alone.
2 Things to Watch Out for When Using SendGrid
SendGrid is highly capable, but there are two things to watch out for when using it.
SendGrid's interface isn't available in Japanese
SendGrid was developed by an American company, and its interface isn't available in Japanese. If you're not comfortable with English, try using your browser's translation feature.
That said, Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc., the authorized reseller that handles sales and support for SendGrid in Japan, provides Japanese-language documentation for SendGrid. It's a good idea to first try the free Free plan to see whether this is workable for your operations.
Using SendGrid through the Japanese reseller is limited to corporations—individuals cannot sign up
Image source: SendGrid | Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc.
If you sign a contract through the Japanese reseller, it's limited to corporations. Note that individuals cannot use this option. Even corporations must pass a review to use the service.
If you're an individual considering using SendGrid, try signing up through the official SendGrid website instead.
Also, for individuals looking for an email marketing tool for Shopify, or for those who don't pass the review, Omnisend and Klaviyo are good alternatives to consider.
SendGrid Pricing Plans
Here's an overview of SendGrid's pricing plans (via the Japanese reseller). There are two paid plans, Essentials and Pro, each priced according to sending volume limits.
| Plan Name | Free |
Essentials 50k |
Essentials 100k |
Pro 100k |
Pro 300k |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Base Fee | ¥0 | ¥3,000 | ¥5,400 | ¥14,000 | ¥37,500 |
| Monthly Email Limit | 100/day | 50,000 | 100,000 | 100,000 | 300,000 |
| Over-Limit Rate | - | ¥0.2/email | ¥0.132/email | ¥0.165/email | ¥0.137/email |
As of February 2025 | All prices shown are excluding tax
There are slight differences in available features between plans, but the core email marketing features are the same across all plans. In other words, you can do basic email marketing for free, as long as you stay within 100 emails per day.
| Plan Name | Free | Essential | Pro |
|---|---|---|---|
| SPF / DKIM | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Scheduled Sending | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Multipart Delivery | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Design Editor and Code Editor | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Per-Recipient Text Insertion | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Open and Click Tracking | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Delivery Status Tracking | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| A/B Testing | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Segments | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Unsubscribe | ◯ | ◯ | ◯ |
| Dedicated IP Address | - | - | ◯ |
| Email Testing (Preview) | - | - | ◯ |
| Credit Card Payment | - | ◯ | ◯ |
| Invoice Payment | - | - | ◯ |
If 100 emails a day is enough for you, try starting with the Free plan, and switch to a paid plan as your recipient list or sending frequency grows.
2 Ways to Integrate Shopify with SendGrid
Here are two ways to integrate Shopify with SendGrid.
Integrate Shopify and SendGrid via Zapier
Image source: Zapier
Zapier is a business automation tool from the United States that lets you connect one web service to another without any code. It supports more than 7,000 services, including Gmail, Slack, Trello, Dropbox, and Salesforce. You can also use Zapier to connect Shopify and SendGrid.
The integration process is very simple. In Zapier's workflow settings screen, you just set up a trigger (a Shopify-side event) and an action (a SendGrid-side action) as blocks. Zapier handles the connection in between. Of course, more complex conditional logic is also possible.
Zapier also provides a template for connecting Shopify and SendGrid, making basic integration and automation very easy.
Here's an overview of Zapier's pricing.
| Plan Name | Free | Professional | Team | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | $0 | From $29.99 | From $103.50 | Contact for details |
| Features | 100 tasks/month Unlimited Zap creation 2-step Zaps AI power-up |
Everything in Free Multi-step Zaps Webhooks Email support |
Everything in Professional 25 users Shared workspaces Shared app connections Premier support and more |
Everything in Team Unlimited users Advanced admin permissions Technical support and more |
As of February 2025
A 33% discount applies if you sign up for an annual Zapier plan. A 14-day free trial is also available.
Zapier is provided by an American company and unfortunately isn't available in Japanese. However, there are many Japanese-language articles explaining Zapier, and using your browser's translation feature should make it manageable.
This option is recommended for those who already use Zapier, or who want to streamline operations across multiple tools beyond just SendGrid.
Connect SendGrid via the Shopify App "Sendgrid Tools"
You can also connect SendGrid using "Sendgrid Tools," available in the Shopify App Store.
Image source: Sendgrid Tools | Shopify App Store
This app has three pricing plans.
| Plan Name | Basic | Professional | Elite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Fee | $0 | $5 | $9 |
| Features | 2 active webhooks 200 tasks 7-day log retention |
10 active webhooks 10,000 tasks 7-day log retention |
Unlimited active webhooks 20,000 tasks 30-day log retention |
As of February 2025
Image source: Sendgrid Tools
After installing the app, you can easily connect Shopify and SendGrid right from the Sendgrid Tools screen.
This app also unfortunately isn't available in Japanese, and there are almost no Japanese-language articles explaining it. It's a good idea to use your browser's translation feature when configuring it.
How to Get Started with SendGrid
Here's how to get started with SendGrid. As mentioned above, note that SendGrid via the Japanese reseller is a corporate-only service, so individuals cannot use it.
Click "Start for free" on the Japanese reseller's SendGrid page. Enter your email address on the new member registration screen to complete the preliminary registration.
Image source: SendGrid | Kozo Keikaku Engineering Inc.
A registration email will be sent to your email address—click "Register user information" in the email.
Fill in the form with your name, company name, intended use, and expected sending volume, then submit your registration application.
Once your registration application is complete, the review process begins. At this stage, you can't yet use SendGrid. The review typically takes about two business days.
Use SendGrid to Start Email Marketing on Shopify
This article covered SendGrid, the email marketing tool.
SendGrid is a highly cost-effective tool that lets you get started for free while still achieving high deliverability, running A/B tests, and getting detailed analytics.
Since it can also handle sending 10,000+ emails at once, it can be used broadly, from newly launched stores to large-scale operations.
If your corporation wants to invest more in email marketing, definitely consider giving SendGrid a try.
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