How to Use Customer Tags to Segment Your Shopify Audience
Learn how using customer tags in Shopify can help merchants create personalized marketing strategies, enhance customer service, and increase sales, all while ensuring a better customer experience.
Updated January 23, 2025.

Customer segmentation is an essential strategy for Shopify merchants to create personalized marketing campaigns and enhance the customer experience. By categorizing customers based on behaviors, preferences, and demographics, businesses can connect with their audience on a deeper level.
A key method for segmentation is the use of customer tags, which helps merchants organize and target their audience effectively. In this guide, we’ll explore how to use customer tags for segmentation to improve marketing, customer support, and sales.
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What is Customer Tags in Shopify?
Customer tags in Shopify are labels you can assign to customer profiles to organize and group them based on shared traits, like "VIP," "Newsletter Subscriber," or "Wholesale Buyer."
Tags also work well with marketing campaigns, allowing you to deliver personalized offers to the right audience, like sending exclusive discounts to "VIPs" or nurturing leads tagged as "Newsletter Subscribers".
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4 Benefits of Using Customer Tags for Shopify Audience Segmentation
Real-time targeting: Unlike traditional methods that rely on outdated data, customer tags update in real time based on customer behavior. This means you can immediately act on behaviors such as cart abandonment or repeat purchases, ensuring timely and relevant campaigns.
Increased customer retention: Tags like “Frequent Buyer” or “VIP Member” allow you to reward loyal customers with exclusive offers, increasing retention rates by showing appreciation and making customers feel valued.
Operational efficiency: Automating processes with customer tags, such as assigning specific pricing tiers for wholesale clients, reduces manual workload and minimizes errors. This streamlined approach frees up time to focus on strategic growth.
Informed marketing decisions: Tags like “High-Spenders” or “First-Time Buyers” provide valuable insights into customer behavior and lifetime value. Analyzing these segments helps you refine marketing strategies, ensuring you're reaching the right customers with the right messages.
Did you know? A company increased customer satisfaction and retention by analyzing customer data and developing targeted marketing campaigns, building stronger relationships with their customers and driving business growth.
» Read more: 6 Shopify customer retention strategies to increase CLV
Use Clear and Straightforward Names
Avoid overly complex or vague terms that could confuse you or your team later. Simplicity ensures anyone on your team can understand and use the tags effectively.
Example: Instead of "Customer123Special," use "Frequent Buyer."
Use Tags Based on Actionable Segments
If you’re running email campaigns, use tags like “Newsletter Subscriber” or “Holiday Shoppers.” This ensures you’re tagging customers for specific purposes, which makes the tags meaningful and directly tied to your segmentation strategy.
Example: Targeting "First-Time Buyers" with a welcome discount could improve conversions by up to 20%, as studies have shown.
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Review and Update
Set a routine to review and update tags to ensure they remain relevant. Customers’ behaviors and your business needs evolve, so outdated tags can clutter your system and lead to inefficiencies. Use Shopify’s bulk editing tools to manage tags quickly.
Example: Retire tags like “Spring Sale 2023” after the campaign ends and merge them into something more evergreen like “Seasonal Shoppers.”
Additional Tips For Naming Conventions
Use Consistent Format
Stick to a standard format for all tags, such as using prefixes like “Promo-,” “Behavior-,” or “Type-” to logically group tags (e.g., “Promo-BlackFriday2023”). This structure makes it easier to manage and search tags.
Avoid Spaces
To ensure compatibility across different systems, avoid spaces in tag names. Instead, use hyphens (e.g., “VIP-Customer”) or underscores (e.g., “Loyal_Customer”) for uniformity and to maintain consistency.
Document Your Naming Convention
Create a shared guide or file to document your naming conventions, so everyone in your team follows the same rules, maintaining uniformity as your tagging system grows.
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Shopify Features for Applying and Managing Customer Tags Efficiently
Bulk Tag Editing
Shopify’s bulk editor lets you manage tags for multiple customers at once, saving time and reducing manual effort. You can access this tool from the Customers tab in your Shopify admin.
How to use it:
Go to Customers in your Shopify Admin.
Select multiple customers by checking the boxes next to their names.
Click the Actions button at the top of the page.
Choose Add Tags or Remove Tags from the dropdown menu.
Enter the tags you want to apply (e.g., “VIP” or “Loyal Shopper”).
Click Apply Changes to save.
» Learn how to add a sale tag in Shopify
Filtering Options
Shopify’s customer filtering lets you quickly identify and tag groups based on specific criteria, like purchase history or registration dates. Use filters to locate “First-Time Buyers” or “Repeat Purchasers,” then apply relevant tags directly.
Example: You can filter customers by criteria like location, total spent, or purchase history.
This feature is ideal for creating targeted groups such as “Newsletter Subscribers” or “High-Spenders.” Once filtered, you can apply tags directly to the selected group, enabling you to use these tags in future campaigns or analytics.
How to use it:
Go to Customers in Shopify Admin.
Click Filter or sse the search bar or to set criteria (e.g., “Orders greater than 3”).
Review the filtered list to ensure it matches your intended audience.
Select all customers in the list and choose Actions → Add Tags.
Apply tags like “Loyal Customer” or “Recent Buyer” and save.
Shopify Flow
Shopify Flow which is available to Shopify Plus users is a game-changer for automating customer tagging. It allows you to create workflows that trigger automatic tagging based on customer actions or characteristics.
Example: A workflow can tag customers who place orders above $500 as “High-Value Buyers” or automatically label customers from specific regions as “EU Shoppers.”
Shopify Flow not only eliminates manual work but ensures consistency and scalability in your tagging system.
How to use it:
Go to Apps in your Shopify Admin and open Shopify Flow.
Click Create Workflow and choose a template or start from scratch.
Define your trigger, such as “Product Created” or “Customer Signed Up.”
(Optional) Add a condition, like “Order Total > $500” or “Email Contains: .edu.”
Set the action to Add Tag and specify the tag (e.g., “New” or “Student”).
Save and activate the workflow.
» Now that you know how to add customer tags your Shopify store, learn how to edit your product tags
1. Personalize Marketing Campaigns Based on Purchase Behavior
Use customer tags like “Frequent Buyer” or “First-Time Buyer” to tailor your marketing campaigns.
Example: Tag repeat customers and send them exclusive loyalty discounts or early access to new collections. Meanwhile, first-time buyers could receive a “welcome” email with tips on using your products.
By targeting specific behaviors, you’ll create campaigns that feel personal and relevant, boosting engagement and conversion rates. For example, tagging customers who abandoned their carts allows you to send follow-up emails with incentives like free shipping to encourage completion.
Read more: Do rewards lead to better retention?
2. Tailor Offers Based on Geography
Tags like “U.S.-Customer” or “EU-Buyer” let you segment customers by location, making it easier to promote region-specific products or adjust messaging based on local events or holidays.
Example: If you’re launching a sale timed to Black Friday in the U.S., you can tag and target US-based customers with emails about the event while offering something else for customers in countries without the holiday.
This strategy keeps your offers relevant and increases the likelihood of a positive response.
3. Enhance Customer Support by Tagging Lifecycle Stages
Tagging customers based on their journey stage like “New Sign-Up,” “Loyal VIP,” or “Churned” helps your support team deliver more personalized interactions.
Example: If a tagged “Loyal VIP” reaches out with an issue, your team can prioritize their case and offer special care. And similarly, for “Churned” customers, you can follow up with win-back campaigns, such as offering a discount to re-engage them.
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4. Boost Sales with Wholesale and B2B Tags
If you sell to both retail and wholesale customers, tags like “Wholesale Buyer” or “B2B Client” let you manage their unique needs.
Example: You can send tagged wholesale customers pricing updates or bulk purchase discounts while retail customers get product bundles or free shipping offers.
» While customer tags are important, here are more general tips to improve your Shopify store
Strategies for Maintaining Accurate and Relevant Customer Tags
Conduct regular audits: Set aside time quarterly to review and clean up outdated or redundant tags. For instance, merge tags like “VIP” and “LoyalCustomer” to streamline your system and ensure it’s actionable.
Leverage automation tools: Use tools like Shopify Flow to automatically apply and remove tags based on customer actions, like tagging a “High-Spender” when they exceed a purchase threshold. Automation ensures accuracy and reduces manual errors.
Create a clear tagging strategy: Establish standardized naming conventions and guidelines for when to retire tags. A documented strategy keeps your tagging system consistent and scalable as your business grows.
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Maximizing Customer Engagement with Effective Segmentation
Leveraging customer tags effectively can significantly enhance a Shopify merchant’s ability to target specific customer groups, ensuring that marketing efforts, support interactions, and sales strategies are all aligned with customer needs. Regular audits and updates of the tags keep your segmentation system current and relevant, allowing for efficient, data-driven decisions.
By maintaining a clean and organized tagging system, businesses can improve customer relationships and streamline their processes, ultimately leading to better results and higher customer satisfaction.
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