What Notify customers does
Notify customers sends one email to each past buyer of a product, with a button that opens that buyer's own download of the latest files. You start it from the product's page in the Alva admin: open the product, click Notify customers, choose who gets it, add an optional note, check the preview and send.
The email is a fixed product-update notice in your storefront language, not a marketing email. It goes out on a sending stream separate from your delivery emails, with open and click tracking switched off so the download link is never rewritten. Anyone who has unsubscribed or marked an earlier email as spam is skipped automatically.
Who receives the email
Every customer who bought one of the selected variants and is still opted in to email receives exactly one message. If a product's variants deliver different files, the modal shows one checkbox per set of files, labelled with the variants it serves; all are selected by default. A buyer of several selected variants gets a single email.
That single email links to the buyer's most recent purchase among the selected variants. The other variant stays reachable through its original download link and the order status page. The recipient count updates as you change the selection, and the number of buyers who have unsubscribed is shown underneath it — they cannot be reached from here.
Purchases whose download access is switched off, or that have not passed your fraud check, are left out. Personalized products have no shared file to re-send, so they do not show the button at all, and a product whose mappings contain no files, packs or links cannot be notified.
What the email says
The email is a locked template: the subject, greeting, intro line, Download files button and footer are fixed and translated into your storefront language. The one part you can add is a plain-text note of up to 2,000 characters, shown as “A note from {your shop}:” between the intro line and the button. Buyers see, in order:
- Subject: Update to your purchase of {product title}
- Hi {first name},
- {Shop name} has updated your purchase of {product title}. Click below to download the latest version.
- A note from {shop name}: followed by your note — only when you added one
- The Download files button, which opens the buyer's own download page
- A footer with your shop name and an unsubscribe link
Add a note
Type the note in the Add a note (optional) field. Plain text only: links and email addresses are not allowed — web addresses, www. and bare domain names included — and the field refuses them before you can send, so the Download files button stays the only link in the email. Do not put discounts or promotions in the note: this email is a product update, not marketing.
Variables you can use in the note
Three buttons under the field insert the first three variables; a Product metafield menu lists the product's metafields for the fourth:
{customer.first_name}— the buyer's first name, with a neutral fallback when it is unknown. It reads best at the start of a line.{shop.name}— your store name.{product.title}— the product's title, as in the subject.{product.metafields.<namespace>.<key>}— the value of one of the product's Shopify metafields, for example{product.metafields.custom.edition}. A note can use up to five different metafields. The menu lists the product's first 50 metafields with their current values.
Supported metafield types are single- and multi-line text, whole and decimal numbers, dates (written out in your storefront language) and lists of text. A metafield of another type — a link, a true/false value, a reference, rich text or a file — cannot be shown in an email, so the note is refused with an inline error until you remove it. The same applies to a metafield with no value on this product, to a variable Alva does not know, to an unclosed brace, and to a link inside a metafield value.
Preview before sending
The Email preview under the note shows the subject and body exactly as a buyer will see them, in your storefront language, with the note and its variables filled in from the product's real values. The preview and the sent email are built by the same code, so what you see is what goes out. If a metafield changes while the modal is open, the preview refreshes and asks you to check it again.
Send a product update notification
Sending takes a minute: update the product's files first, open the product in Alva, click Notify customers, choose the variants, add a note if you want one, tick the confirmation and send. The modal shows progress while the emails go out, and the result appears in the product's notification history below the Settings card.
1. Update the files first
Upload the corrected or new files to the product in Alva before you notify anyone, so the link in the email opens the right version. If the product delivers a ZIP archive, Alva rebuilds it; the email waits until the rebuild has finished (see below).
2. Open the product and click Notify customers
In the Alva admin, open the product from your product list and click Notify customers in the page header. A modal opens with the number of customers who will receive the update and the number who have unsubscribed.
3. Choose which variants to notify
If the product's variants deliver different files, the modal lists one checkbox per set of files, labelled with the variants it serves. Untick the sets whose buyers should not hear about this change. The recipient count updates; at least one set must stay selected.
4. Add a note and check the preview
Optionally write what changed in Add a note (optional) — up to 2,000 characters, plain text, no links. The Email preview shows the finished email with the variables filled in.
5. Confirm and send
Tick I confirm this is a genuine product-update email, not promotional content. If more than 100 customers will receive it, type the product name to confirm. Click Send to N customers. The modal shows how many emails have gone out; you can cancel while the send is still queued, but not once it has started.
Limits and safeguards
Each Shopify product can be notified once every 7 days, counting the product as a whole across all of its variants, whether you send from the admin or through the API. Every store's product update emails share one sending reputation, so the limit, the confirmation step and the no-promotions rule exist to keep those emails landing in inboxes.
- One send per product per 7 days. Notifying one variant uses the product's slot for all of them. Cancelling a queued send does not give the week back; the modal tells you when the next send is available. A send that failed before any email went out does not count, so it can simply be retried.
- A confirmation checkbox on every send. You confirm that the email is a genuine product update, not promotional content.
- Typed product name above 100 recipients. For larger sends you type the product's name before the Send button is enabled.
- Genuine updates only. Sales, discounts and announcements belong in your marketing tool. Product update emails go out from the shared
digitaldownloads@alvaapps.comsender unless you have set up a custom email domain, and spam complaints count against your store: if its complaint rate climbs too high, sending is paused automatically. - Unsubscribes and complaints are honoured for you. A buyer who unsubscribed or complained is excluded from every later send, and you cannot override that from the modal.
ZIP products: the email waits for the archive
If a product delivers a ZIP archive and you have just replaced its files, the send waits until Alva has finished rebuilding the archive, so that no buyer downloads the old version. Until then the notification history shows “Waiting for the archive to finish building before sending.”; the send is still queued and can still be cancelled.
If the rebuild fails, the send fails with the reason “The ZIP archive for this product failed to build, so nothing was sent.” Fix the files — replacing them starts a new rebuild — and notify again. If the archive is still rebuilding after an hour, the send also fails, saying so, and you can notify again once the rebuild has finished. In both cases nothing was sent, so the 7-day limit is not used up.
Products that deliver individual files or links have no archive and are never held.
The notification history
Below the product's Settings card, Notification history lists the last ten sends for the product: the date, the number of recipients, how many emails were sent, failed, suppressed or complained about, who sent it, and its status — Queued, Sending, Completed, Partial, Failed or Cancelled. A badge shows where it came from: Admin, API or Mapping update (API).
A row also shows how many variants it targeted and the first lines of its note. A Failed row says why, in words: customer emails were turned off, so nothing was sent; the saved note could not be rendered; the note contained a link; the archive was still rebuilding after an hour; the ZIP archive failed to build; or sending was interrupted by a server restart. Partial means some emails failed or were suppressed — the counts say how many.
Requirements
Notify customers needs a paid plan, customer emails turned on, and a store that has not been paused for a high complaint rate. The product must have at least one confirmed purchase and something downloadable to deliver — files, packs or links. If any of these is missing, the modal says which, and the Send button stays disabled.
- A paid plan. Notify customers is available on paid plans; on the Free plan the modal asks you to upgrade. A cancelled or inactive subscription blocks it too.
- Customer emails turned on. In the Alva admin, open Settings → Email and switch on Enable email delivery. While it is off, the modal shows “Customer emails are turned off in your email settings”, and a send that was already queued fails without emailing anyone — turn emails on and notify again.
- Not paused. If your store's complaint rate climbed too high, the modal shows “Bulk notifications are paused on your shop due to a high complaint rate.” Email digitaldownloads@alvaapps.com to have it reviewed; there is no self-service reset.
Via the API
Everything the button does is also available through the Alva external API, for stores whose own system updates their files. POST /api/v1/products/{id}/notifications queues a campaign for a product; send "dry_run": true to run the same checks and get the recipient count, subject and rendered note without sending anything. GET /api/v1/notifications/{id} reads the outcome.
POST /api/v1/notifications/{id}/cancel stops a campaign that is still queued; like the admin cancel, it keeps the product's 7-day limit. If your system already creates or replaces mappings through the API, add notify_customers to POST /api/v1/mappings or PUT /api/v1/mappings/{id} and the buyers of that mapping are notified once the new files are in place — the archive wait applies there too. The limit is shared with the button: inside the week the API answers 429 notification_cooldown with the time the product is free again, so schedule the next call for then rather than retrying. Request bodies, error codes and idempotency rules are in the API reference.
FAQ
Can I change the subject or body of the product update email?
No. The subject, greeting, intro line, Download files button and footer are fixed and sent in your storefront language. You can add one plain-text note of up to 2,000 characters with no links, shown as "A note from {your shop}:" above the button. To change the email buyers receive at purchase, edit your delivery email instead.
How often can I notify the buyers of a product?
Once every 7 days per Shopify product, counting all of its variants together and every way of sending, the button and the API alike. Cancelling a queued send does not reset the limit. A send that failed before any email went out does not use the week, so it can simply be retried.
Does a buyer of two variants get two emails?
No. Each buyer receives one email however many of the selected variants they bought. Its button opens their most recent purchase among those variants; the other variant stays reachable through its original download link and the order status page.
Why does the history say the send is waiting for the archive?
You replaced the files of a product that delivers a ZIP archive, and Alva is rebuilding it. The email waits so that no buyer downloads the old archive. If the rebuild fails or is still running after an hour, the send fails without emailing anyone; fix the files and notify again.
Why is the Send button disabled?
The banner in the modal says why: customer emails are turned off in your email settings, your store is on the Free plan or its subscription is inactive, the product has no confirmed purchases or nothing downloadable, it was notified in the last 7 days, or sending is paused after spam complaints. Fix the cause and reopen the modal.
Can I put a link or a discount code in the note?
Links are refused: web addresses, www., bare domain names and email addresses, including inside a metafield value, so the Download files button stays the only link. Promotions are not blocked by software but are against the rules for this email. It is a product update, and promotional content invites spam complaints that can pause sending for your store.
See also
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Last updated 2026-10-19