Nyhedsbrevs-modtagere: administrér din base

Your newsletter list is the only channel you own. Facebook can change its algorithm, and Google can change its prices, but no one can take away the list of people who have agreed to hear from you.

This guide focuses exclusively on the Recipients page: how to find people, edit their information, move multiple people at once between lists, import a list from an external source, and export the entire database as a spreadsheet. If you want an overview of the entire module, including campaigns, the block editor, and segments, start with the guide to the newsletter module.

Where to Find Recipients

In your online store’s admin panel, go to Newsletter and then Recipients. The page is called “Recipients,” and in the top-right corner, you’ll find three buttons:

• Import imports a CSV file containing subscribers you already have
• Export downloads your active subscribers as a CSV file
• Add manually creates a single subscriber

This page is part of Shoporama’s own newsletter system, which you enable by checking the box “Use internal newsletter list” under Newsletter, Setup. If you use an external provider instead, your subscribers are stored with them and not here.

How to Read the Overview

The table displays one row per recipient with five columns, a checkbox on the left, and an edit icon on the right:

• The "Email " field also serves as a link to the recipient’s profile
• Name is the first name and last name combined. If the field is empty, we only know the email address
• "Lists " displays, as labels, the lists the person is on. It’s perfectly possible to be on multiple lists at once
• Source indicates where the registration came from
• "Subscribed " is the date the person was added to the system

An important detail that many overlook: the overview shows only active recipients. People who have unsubscribed and people who have not yet confirmed their subscription via double opt-in do not appear in the table. You can find unsubscribers under Newsletter, Unsubscriptions, where you can also filter by date.

What the “Source” column means

The “Source” column is written in technical terms, but it’s worth its weight in gold when assessing the quality of your list:

• signup_form refers to a sign-up via a sign-up field on your online store
• popup refers to a sign-up via a pop-up sign-up form
• "purchase " means the person opted in to the newsletter in connection with a purchase
• "manual " means the entry was created manually using the "Add" button
• "import " means the subscription was added via a CSV import

If the subscription comes from the point-of-sale system or an integration, the value sent by the system is displayed, for example, " pos." The source is set when the person is created and cannot be changed afterward.

Search and Filter

The search field labeled "Search email/name..." searches for parts of an email address, a first name, or a last name. If you search for "@gmail," you’ll get all Gmail addresses. The drop-down list next to it starts with “All lists” and lets you select a specific list. That selection is carried over when you click Export, so you’ll only export that one list.

Three things about the search function differ from the rest of the page:

• The search spans all lists, so a selection in the drop-down list is reset when you search
• The search also includes unsubscribed users. This is the fastest way to find out if a specific person has unsubscribed
• Search results do not have pagination. You’ll see up to the number of rows you’ve selected under “Show,” so it’s better to search more precisely than to scroll

In the lower-right corner, you can choose how many rows the page displays at a time: 25, 50, 100, or 200. This setting is saved for next time.

Add a recipient manually

Click Add in the top right corner. Fill in Email (required), First Name, and Last Name, and check the box next to Add to lists. Your default list is preset, so you can usually just click Add Recipient.

If the email address already exists, you’ll be directed to the existing recipient’s details instead of creating a duplicate. If you enter an invalid address, you’ll see the message “Invalid email,” and nothing will be created.

Please note that a manually created recipient becomes active immediately. No confirmation email is sent, and no digital consent record—including the time and IP address—is saved, as is the case when people sign up for your store themselves. If you add someone manually, you must be able to document their consent in another way.

Edit a Recipient

Click the email address or the pencil icon in the table. The page is titled “Edit Recipient.” On the left, you can edit the First Name and Last Name and check the boxes for the Lists the person should be on. The email field is locked because the address is the key to identifying the recipient. If a person needs a new address, create a new recipient and delete the old one.

On the right is the "Details" tab, which shows the information you cannot edit: Status (Active or Unsubscribed), Source, Subscription Date and Time, and—if the person subscribed to your store themselves—also Consent with the date, time, and IP address. If the person has unsubscribed, the time is also listed here. The consent fields serve as your documentation if anyone asks why they’re receiving emails from you.

At the bottom, you’ll find the buttons Save, Save and Edit (saves and keeps you on the page), Unsubscribe, and Delete.

If the person has already unsubscribed, the page looks different. In that case, you can’t edit the name or lists, and a warning appears stating that the recipient has unsubscribed. The only button is “Delete Recipient.”

Unsubscribe or Delete: What’s the Difference?

Unsubscribe marks the person as unsubscribed and records the time. The email address remains in the system, and this is intentional: it serves as a block list so that the person isn’t accidentally re-subscribed during a later import. The person disappears from the overview and appears under Unsubscriptions. Note that the confirmation box mentions that the email address is replaced with a hash. In practice, the address is retained precisely so that the block list can function.

Delete completely removes the person, including their membership in lists. This cannot be undone, and the address is no longer blocked afterward. Use Delete when someone requests the permanent deletion of their personal data, and Unsubscribe in all other cases.

Bulk Actions: Edit Many at Once

Check the boxes on the left, or use the checkbox at the top of the table to select all rows on the page. Below the table, the page counts how many you’ve selected, and four buttons become active:

• "Add to List " adds the selected items to a list you choose from the drop-down menu
• "Remove from List " removes them from the list. They are not deleted, only removed from that specific list
• Unsubscribe unsubscribes all selected items, with a confirmation dialog box first
• Delete permanently deletes them, also with a confirmation dialog box first

"Select All" selects only the rows on the page you’re currently viewing. If you need to manage many thousands of entries, set "Show" to 200 per page, or use the import method described below. If you delete many at once, the cleanup runs in the background, and your campaign statistics are preserved.

Import: Upload an existing list

If you’re coming from another provider or have a list from a trade show, import it under Import. The page is called “Import Recipients.”

The file format, to be precise

This is where most imports go wrong, so here are the rules:

• The file must be a CSV file with a semicolon (;) as the delimiter. Commas do not work
• The first line must be a header row with the column names. Without it, your first recipient will be interpreted as a header and will be skipped
• An email address is required. Rows without a valid email address will be skipped
• "firstname "and " lastname "are optional and can be omitted entirely
• The order of the columns does not matter, nor does the use of uppercase or lowercase letters in the header row. EMAIL, Email, and email all work, and spaces around the name are removed
• Extra columns are ignored, so you don’t need to clean up an export from another provider to remove fields you don’t use
• Save the file as UTF-8; otherwise, æ, ø, and å will appear as squares in the names

Here’s what a valid file looks like:

email;firstname;lastname
john@example.com;John;Doe
jane@example.com;Jane;Smith

How to import

1. Go to Newsletter, Recipients, and click Import
2. Select your file under " CSV File"
3. Check the box next to “Add to lists ” for the lists you want to add the recipients to. Your default list is selected by default
4. Click Import

Afterward, you’ll see a confirmation: “Imported” counts the rows that were successfully imported, “Skipped” counts the rejected ones, and under “Errors” you’ll see each rejected address so you can correct the file and try again.

Please note

• Existing addresses are updated, not recreated. The name is updated, and the person is added to the selected lists. You’ll never get duplicates from running the same file twice
• Previously unsubscribed contacts are reactivated. If a person who has unsubscribed is in your import file, they will be reactivated. Therefore, only import lists where you are certain of consent, and remove anyone who has opted out from the file
• Imported recipients become active immediately. No confirmation or welcome email is sent, even if you have enabled double opt-in
• No consent documentation is saved for newly imported recipients because the sign-up did not occur on your store. If the import reactivates a previously unsubscribed address, a consent date is recorded, but no IP address is saved. Be sure to keep your own records of where the list comes from

Export: Download the list as a spreadsheet

The Export button starts a download immediately, with no settings to configure along the way. The file is named "subscribers-" followed by today’s date and is a semicolon-separated UTF-8 file with this header row:

email;firstname;lastname;source;created

The rows are sorted by email address, and the file contains only active subscribers. If you selected a list from the drop-down menu before clicking Export, only that list will be included.

The export is useful for more than just backup: target audiences on ad platforms, switching to another provider, or determining how many subscribers came from purchases versus contests. The “Source” column reveals this information. If you’d rather reach people who have purchased a specific product, that feature is available in the export of customers who have purchased a specific product.

Three habits that keep your list healthy

1. Export before you do anything major. It takes five seconds and serves as your “undo” button when you’re about to delete or import thousands of rows
2. Use multiple lists instead of one big one. People who only want to hear about sales shouldn’t receive product updates. Fewer irrelevant emails mean fewer unsubscribes and longer customer retention
3. Keep an eye on the “Source” column. If your list is growing solely through contests, the numbers may look good, but revenue rarely follows. Sign-ups from purchases and from the sign-up form are usually the most valuable

Also remember that all your newsletters must include an unsubscribe link. This also applies to the automated emails your store sends; you can read more about this in the article on unsubscribe links in automated emails. If you want to target specific customer types with different prices or terms, customer groups and segmentation are the next things you should look into.

For those with a technical background

• Header names in the import file must be in lowercase and trimmed before they are matched. Columns not named “email,” “firstname,” or “lastname” are ignored
• No character set conversion occurs during import, so the file must be in UTF-8. Very long lines (over approximately 1,000 characters) may be read incorrectly
• In the export, fields containing spaces are enclosed in quotation marks. This applies to the “created” column, which contains both the date and time
• Campaigns are sent exclusively to recipients with “active” status, regardless of which lists the others are on. If you choose instead to send to buyers of specific products, the email addresses are taken from the orders, so you can also reach people who have never been on a recipient list
• Recipients can also be created and updated via Shoporama’s REST API. You specify the source yourself, but only when the recipient is created: if the address already exists, the API rejects the creation, and a subsequent update does not change the source. This is how sign-ups from the checkout system and from your own integrations end up on the list

Frequently Asked Questions

I can’t find a recipient I know is subscribed. What should I do?

Use the search field instead of scrolling, as the overview only shows active recipients. The search also includes unsubscribed recipients, so you’ll find the person there—but not in the list if she has unsubscribed. If she doesn’t appear at all, she may never have confirmed her subscription.

How can I tell if a recipient has unsubscribed?

Click on the recipient. At the top of the Details card, the Status is listed as Active or Unsubscribed, and for unsubscribed recipients, the date and time are also shown. If you want to view all unsubscriptions together, they’re located under Newsletter, Unsubscriptions, where you can filter by date.

My file is comma-separated. Can I import it anyway?

Not directly. The import tool only recognizes semicolons as delimiters. Open the file in Excel or Numbers, and save it again as a CSV with semicolons in UTF-8. Afterward, check that the characters “æ,” “ø,” and “å” appear correctly before importing.

I have 40,000 recipients. Can I move them all to a new list at once?

Not using the checkboxes, because “Select All” only selects the page you’re on, and it displays a maximum of 200 at a time. The quickest way is to export the list, check the box for the new list under “Import,” and import the file again. Known addresses won’t be recreated; they’ll simply be added to the list.

Do the imported recipients receive a welcome email?

No. When importing, neither a confirmation email nor a welcome email is sent, and the recipients become active immediately, even if you’ve enabled double opt-in. If you want to welcome them, send a campaign to the list you imported them into.

Where do I document consent in case of an audit?

For recipients who have signed up on your online store themselves, the time of consent and IP address are listed in the Details card. If you need this information in a consolidated format, download a CSV file containing all newsletter sign-ups and their consent details under Customers, Downloads. For manually created and imported subscribers, this information is not available.

A customer requests to be completely removed. Should I select Unsubscribe or Delete?

If the customer simply asks to stop receiving newsletters, select “Unsubscribe.” If the customer explicitly asks to have their data deleted, select “Delete.” Please note that a deleted address is no longer blocked, so the person may be re-added during a future import.

What happens to my statistics if I delete recipients?

The figures for previous mailings are retained. Opens, clicks, and orders continue to be counted in the campaign statistics, but the link to the individual person is removed. Deletion cannot be undone, so always export first if you have even the slightest doubt.

Can I use the export for audiences in Facebook or Google Ads?

Yes. The export contains the email addresses that the ad platforms use for customer audiences and lookalike audiences. Remember that you may only use the addresses within the scope of the consent people have given, and that the file contains personal data.