Image-Based vs HTML Emails for Shopify Stores: Which Should You Use?

If you run a Shopify store and use Klaviyo (or any email platform), you've probably faced this question: should you build your email campaigns as coded HTML, or design them as images and slice them into sections?

The answer isn't as simple as "one is better." Both image-based and HTML emails have legitimate use cases, and most successful e-commerce brands use both — just for different purposes. This guide breaks down the real-world pros and cons so you can make the right choice for each campaign.

What Are Image-Based Emails?

An image-based email is designed as a complete visual in Figma, Photoshop, or another design tool, then sliced into horizontal sections (typically 4-8 slices per email). Each slice is uploaded to your email platform as an image block, stacked vertically to recreate the original design.

The HTML is minimal — just a series of <img> tags with links. The visual design (fonts, colors, layout) lives in the images themselves, not in CSS.

This is how most major fashion and lifestyle brands send their marketing campaigns. Think product launches, seasonal sales, brand storytelling, and visual-heavy promotions.

What Are HTML-Coded Emails?

HTML-coded emails are built like mini web pages: headings, paragraphs, buttons, and images are all rendered by the email client using HTML and inline CSS. The text is "live" — meaning it's real text that can be selected, translated, read by screen readers, and resized.

This approach is what most email platforms' drag-and-drop builders produce. It's also what tools like Emailify (a Figma-to-HTML plugin) generate.

HTML is the standard for transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping notifications), newsletters, and any email where the content is text-heavy or needs to be dynamically personalized.

Head-to-Head Comparison

When Image-Based Emails Win

For Shopify stores, there are clear scenarios where image-based emails are the better choice:

Product Launch Campaigns

When you're launching a new collection or a hero product, the visual presentation is everything. You need custom typography, precise layout control, and a design that looks identical on every device. Image-based emails deliver this consistently.

Seasonal Sales and Promotions

Black Friday, holiday campaigns, Valentine's Day, summer sale — these are the campaigns where brand aesthetic drives clicks. A beautifully designed promotional email with custom graphics and product photography will outperform a drag-and-drop template every time.

Brand Storytelling

If your email tells a visual story — a behind-the-scenes look, a brand manifesto, a lifestyle editorial — image-based is the natural fit. You have total creative freedom with no CSS limitations to worry about.

Agency Work with Multiple Clients

Agencies that manage email for multiple Shopify brands love image-based emails because each client's brand guidelines are perfectly preserved. No worrying about font rendering, color shifts, or layout differences across clients.

When HTML Emails Win

Transactional Emails

Order confirmations, shipping updates, password resets — these need dynamic content (order details, tracking numbers) that can't be baked into an image. HTML is the only option.

Personalized Product Recommendations

If your email shows different products based on each subscriber's browsing history or purchase behavior, you need dynamic content blocks. Klaviyo's product recommendation blocks are HTML-rendered by nature.

Text-Heavy Content

Long-form newsletters, educational content, blog digests — anything where the text itself is the value. Screen readers can parse live text, users can search within it, and it translates automatically for multilingual audiences.

Accessibility-First Audiences

If a significant portion of your audience relies on screen readers or has images disabled by default (common in B2B and corporate environments), HTML emails with proper semantic markup will communicate your message far better.

The Hybrid Approach (What Smart Brands Actually Do)

The best Shopify email programs don't choose one or the other — they use both strategically:

• Marketing campaigns (70-80%): Image-based. Product launches, sales, seasonal promos, brand content. Designed in Figma, sliced, compressed, uploaded to Klaviyo.
• Transactional emails (100%): HTML-coded. Order confirmations, shipping, account notifications. Dynamic data requires live HTML.
• Flows (mixed): Welcome series can be image-based (brand experience). Abandoned cart works best as a hybrid — image hero + HTML product block. Win-back can be either, depending on the offer.

You can even mix within a single email: an image-based branded header, followed by HTML-rendered product blocks with dynamic data, ending with an image-based footer. Klaviyo's editor supports this mix natively.

What About Deliverability?

Let's address the elephant in the room. You may have read that "image-only emails get flagged as spam." This is one of email marketing's most persistent myths, and it's largely wrong in 2026.

Modern spam filters (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) use:

• Sender reputation (your domain authentication and engagement history)
• Recipient behavior (opens, clicks, replies, spam complaints)
• List quality (bounce rates, inactive subscribers)

They don't penalize you for using images. The proof? Every major fashion, beauty, and lifestyle brand sends image-heavy emails — and they land in primary inboxes just fine, because their authentication is solid and their subscribers engage.

If you're concerned about deliverability, focus on the things that actually matter: SPF, DKIM, DMARC, list hygiene, and engaged sending.

The Practical Trade-Off: Time vs. Flexibility

Here's the honest truth about production speed:

• Image-based email: Design in Figma (you're already doing this) → Slice into sections → Compress → Upload to Klaviyo → Add links. Can be done in under 5 minutes with the right tools.
• HTML-coded email: Design in Figma → Convert to HTML (manually or via plugin) → Fix Outlook bugs → Test dark mode in 6+ clients → Debug mobile rendering. Easily 1-3 hours per email.

For most Shopify stores that send 2-4 marketing campaigns per week, the time savings of image-based emails are significant. You get more campaigns out the door, which means more revenue opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are image-based emails bad for deliverability?

No. Modern spam filters use sender reputation and engagement signals, not image-to-text ratios. Major brands like Nike and ASOS send image-based emails for the majority of their campaigns and consistently land in primary inboxes.

Do image-based emails work in dark mode?

Yes — and this is one of their biggest advantages. Since the content is baked into the image, dark mode can't alter your colors or layout. HTML emails can have backgrounds, text colors, and borders changed unexpectedly.

Which is better for abandoned cart emails?

A hybrid approach works best: image-based header for brand consistency, HTML-rendered product blocks for dynamic personalization (product name, price, image), and an image-based footer.

Can I use both in the same campaign?

Absolutely. Many top Shopify brands use image-based sections for hero banners and visual storytelling, combined with HTML sections for dynamic product blocks and text content. Klaviyo's editor supports mixing both in a single email.