AlpacaRelay + Shopify: Quality-Scored Emails, Connected

Visit alpacarelay.com and sign up for a free account—no credit card required. Once you verify your email, you'll land in the AlpacaRelay dashboard. This account is your central hub for all integrations and email campaigns. You're now ready to connect your first platform. The setup process typically takes fewer than 5 minutes from this point forward.

In your AlpacaRelay dashboard, go to Settings > Integrations > Shopify. Click the 'Connect Shopify Store' button. You'll be prompted to select which Shopify store to authorize if you manage multiple stores. AlpacaRelay requests read access to: customers, products, orders, inventory, and events. These permissions allow us to sync your customer data, purchase history, product catalog, and behavioral events in real-time. You are not granting AlpacaRelay permission to modify or delete any data in your Shopify store—only to read and sync it securely.

You'll be redirected to Shopify's OAuth authorization screen. Log in with your Shopify admin credentials and click 'Install App'. Shopify will confirm the permissions and send you back to AlpacaRelay. Within 60 seconds, AlpacaRelay begins syncing your data: all existing customers, orders from the past 90 days, your complete product catalog, and current inventory levels. Subsequent customer events (new orders, cart additions, product views, email signups) sync in real-time via webhooks. You'll see a green 'Connected' status in your Integrations dashboard once the initial sync completes.

Once synced, navigate to Campaigns > New Campaign. Select a template (Abandoned Cart, Post-Purchase, or Browse Abandonment are popular for home and garden retailers). AlpacaRelay auto-maps your Shopify data: customer first name, email, order total, product images, cart contents, and order date are already available as merge fields. You can personalize the email body using these fields (e.g., 'Hi {first_name}, your {product_name} awaits checkout'). Compose your subject line, copy, and CTA, then preview the email on mobile and desktop. This step takes 5-10 minutes for your first campaign.

Before you hit send, click 'Quality Score' to run your email through the 8-Dimension Email Quality Framework. This analyzes your email across Deliverability, Mobile Render, CTA Clarity, Personalization Depth, Visual Hierarchy, Copy Effectiveness, Brand Consistency, and Structural Compliance. Your email receives an EQS (Email Quality Score) from 1-100. Aim for 75+. If your score is lower, AlpacaRelay highlights which dimensions to improve (e.g., 'CTA is below the fold on mobile—move it higher'). Once you optimize to your target score, click 'Schedule' or 'Send Now'. Your first quality-scored email is live. For abandoned cart emails, EQS-scored campaigns recover 15-20% of lost revenue versus the 10-15% average industry benchmark.