Insights
Managing Subscribers
Browse and search your contacts, filter by channel, build segments, and read a subscriber's timeline.
Your subscribers are the people who receive your emails, text messages, and push notifications. The good news? Most of them are already in xUpsell. When you install the app, your Shopify customers are synced as subscribers — no manual work needed.
How Subscribers Work
Here’s the simple version:
- You install xUpsell → Your existing Shopify customers are imported as subscribers in a one-time batch
- Visitors browse your store → xUpsell tracks their behavior and creates anonymous subscriber records
- Visitors identify themselves → When they enter their details at checkout or in one of your storefront forms, xUpsell fills in their name, email, phone and address on that same record, and links it to their Shopify customer
Your subscriber list grows as your store grows.
Where Do Subscribers Come From?
Subscribers can enter your list through three sources:
| Source | How It Works | Requires Setup? |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify Customer Sync | When you install xUpsell, your existing Shopify customers are imported as subscribers — name, email, phone and default address — in a one-time batch | No — it runs automatically during install |
| Store Visitors (Web Pixel) | When someone visits your store, xUpsell tracks their browsing behavior against a Visitor ID. When they reach checkout, the details they type in are saved onto that record | No — the web pixel is installed automatically |
| Storefront Forms & Push Prompt | Shoppers hand over their email (and optionally their phone) through the lead-magnet discount popup, or allow browser notifications when prompted | Yes — turn the blocks on under Settings → Theme management |
Good to know: You’ll likely have subscribers from day one. If your Shopify store already has customers, they’re brought in during the install sync.
Note: The install sync imports your existing customers as they are, whatever their marketing consent in Shopify. Check consent before you broadcast to your whole list — see Opt-In and Opt-Out below.
Subscriber Profiles
Every subscriber has a profile that stores their information and activity. Open a subscriber from the list to see:
| Section | What It Contains |
|---|---|
| Subscriber | Their first and last name, when xUpsell has them |
| Contact information | Email and phone number, each with a copy button. Email is used for email sends, phone for SMS/MMS |
| Address | Street, city, province, postcode and country, synced from Shopify or captured at checkout |
| Other information | Device type, browser and operating system |
| Segment | The segments you’ve added this subscriber to (or “No segments found”) |
| Timeline | Their activity trail — the pages and products they viewed and their journey through your store |
The page header shows Last interaction at … so you can see at a glance how recently they were active, and there’s a Send campaign button that takes you straight to a campaign for that person.
Tip: Click on any subscriber in your list to see their full profile. It’s a great way to understand individual customer journeys.
Viewing and Searching Subscribers
Go to the Subscribers page from the sidebar. At the top, three tiles give you a quick read on how many subscribers you can reach on each channel — Push notifications, email and SMS/MMS — followed by the subscriber table itself.
The table columns are: Visitor ID, Full name, Email, Phone, Browser name, City and Created at. Anyone with no email or phone on file shows a Not subscribed tag in that column.
Finding Subscribers
Use the search bar to find subscribers by:
- Email address
- First name
- Last name
- Visitor ID
Sorting and Paging
Sort your list by Created at — newest first (descending) or oldest first (ascending). At the bottom you can choose 5, 10 or 15 rows per page and move between pages.
Note: This page loads your complete subscriber list before showing it, then pages through it in your browser, so the search box covers every subscriber. On a very large list the first load can take a few seconds.
Filtering Your List
Filter your subscriber list to focus on the people you can actually reach. xUpsell offers one filter:
| Filter | What It Does | Example Use |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription channel | Narrow the list by the channels a subscriber can be reached on — Push notification, SMS/MMS, or Email | Find everyone with a phone number before writing an SMS |
Tip: You can select more than one channel at a time. For example, choosing both SMS/MMS and Email shows subscribers reachable on either channel.
Segments
Segments are named groups of subscribers you build from your list. Use them to organize and label people inside xUpsell.
Creating a Segment
- Go to the Subscribers page
- Select the subscribers you want to group (use the checkboxes)
- Click Create segment from the bulk actions
- Either:
- Type a Segment Name for a new segment, or
- Tick Add to existing segment and pick one you’ve already created
- Click Save Segment
The subscribers you selected are now part of that segment, and it appears in the Segment section of each of their profiles.
Good to know: If a subscriber is already in the segment you chose, xUpsell tells you and skips them — no duplicates are created.
Important: xUpsell segments are labels for organizing your list inside the app — they are not the segments a campaign targets. When you build a campaign and choose Specific segments, the list you pick from is your Shopify customer segments. To send to a handful of people you’ve hand-picked, use Specific subscribers in the campaign’s audience step instead.
Exporting a Subscriber’s Data
Need a single subscriber’s data outside of xUpsell? Open the subscriber’s profile and choose Export subscriber data. A CSV file downloads to your computer with one row per field — their ID, name, email, phone, address, device details and status. Anything xUpsell doesn’t have on file for that person comes out blank.
Note: This exports one subscriber at a time. There’s no bulk export of your whole list from this page.
Opt-In and Opt-Out
How Opt-In Works
Only message people who have agreed to hear from you. Here’s how consent is gathered for each channel:
| Channel | How Customers Opt In |
|---|---|
| Through Shopify checkout marketing consent, or by entering their email in the lead-magnet popup on your storefront | |
| SMS | Through Shopify checkout SMS consent, or by adding their phone number in the popup |
| Push Notifications | By clicking “Allow” when their browser shows the notification permission prompt |
When someone opts in, xUpsell can start a workflow for them straight away — the Subscribed to receive email marketing, Subscribed to receive push notifications and Subscribed to receive SMS/MMS marketing triggers exist for exactly that (a welcome message, a first-order discount, and so on).
How Opt-Out Works
xUpsell doesn’t keep its own unsubscribe list. Opt-outs are handled by the channel each message goes out on:
| Channel | How Customers Opt Out | What Happens |
|---|---|---|
| The unsubscribe link and List-Unsubscribe header come from your email provider | Turn on subscription tracking in SendGrid so every email carries an unsubscribe option. The deliverability checklist under Settings → Mailbox management flags it when it’s missing | |
| SMS | Standard STOP replies are handled by Twilio on the numbers you buy through it | Twilio blocks further messages to that number |
| Push Notifications | The shopper turns notifications off in their browser | The next send tells xUpsell the subscription is gone, and their push token is cleared — they drop out of your push audience automatically |
Channel Independence
Opting out of one channel does not affect the others. A customer can:
- Stop your emails but still receive SMS ✅
- Block push notifications but still receive emails ✅
This is why multi-channel workflows are so powerful — if a customer isn’t reachable on one channel, you can still reach them on another.
Deleting a Subscriber
- Open the subscriber’s profile
- Choose Delete subscriber
Their record is flagged as deleted rather than erased, so historical data (like past workflow runs) stays intact for reporting accuracy.
Important: This is a record-keeping action, not an unsubscribe. The subscriber still appears in your Subscribers list, and they’re still included when a campaign goes to All subscribers. If someone needs to stop hearing from you, that has to happen on the channel itself — an email unsubscribe, a STOP reply, or turning off browser notifications — or target your campaigns at specific subscribers or Shopify segments instead of everyone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where do my subscribers come from?
Most come from your Shopify customers — they’re brought in during a one-time sync when you install xUpsell. Others come from your storefront: the lead-magnet popup, the browser notification prompt, and visitor tracking that fills in details at checkout.
I just installed xUpsell — why do I already have subscribers?
Because xUpsell syncs your existing Shopify customers in a one-time batch during install. If you’ve been running your store for a while, you’ll have subscribers from day one.
Can I send to people who haven’t opted in?
You should only send marketing messages to people who have given consent. xUpsell doesn’t filter your list by consent for you — the install sync brings customers in as they are — so check before you broadcast. Sending to people who haven’t opted in can violate privacy laws and wreck your email deliverability.
What happens when someone unsubscribes?
They stop receiving messages on that specific channel, and the opt-out is enforced by that channel — your email provider, Twilio, or the shopper’s browser. Their other channels stay opted in.
One thing to know about SMS opt-outs. If someone replies STOP, Twilio rejects any further text to them, and xUpsell treats that as a genuine send failure — which stops the rest of that customer’s run. So in a workflow that sends an SMS before an email, a STOP-ed customer won’t get the later email either. If that matters, put the email step before the SMS, or gate the SMS behind a condition.
Can I group subscribers together?
Yes. Select subscribers on the Subscribers page and use the Create segment bulk action to group them into a named segment. You can create a new segment or add them to an existing one, and each subscriber’s segments appear on their profile. Note that campaign targeting by segment uses your Shopify customer segments, not these.
Can I delete a subscriber?
Yes, from their profile — but it’s a soft delete. Their record is flagged as deleted and kept so reporting stays accurate; it doesn’t remove them from your list and it doesn’t unsubscribe them.
How does the web pixel create subscribers?
When someone visits your store, xUpsell’s web pixel assigns them a Visitor ID and tracks their browsing behavior (which products they viewed, items added to cart, and so on). That creates an anonymous subscriber record. When the visitor reaches checkout and enters their name, email, phone or address, those details are saved onto the same record and linked to their Shopify customer.
Can my AI assistant see my subscribers?
No. If you’ve connected an AI client under Settings → Connect AI, it can read your workflows, campaigns, products and store settings — but subscribers, customers and orders are not shared with it. It can’t see who is on your list, how many people are on it, or what anyone bought.