> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://help.retainful.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Personalization

> Use merge tags to personalize every email with contact details, cart contents, and coupon codes.

Personalization replaces placeholders in your email with each recipient's own information at send time. "Hi Jane" instead of "Hi there" — and much more.

## Insert a merge tag

In any editor, open the **Personalization** menu in the toolbar and pick a field. A tag is inserted where your cursor is, and each recipient sees their own value.

To write tags by hand, or to look up the exact syntax, fallbacks, and where each tag works, see the [Shortcodes reference](/email-setup/shortcodes).

## What you can personalize with

| Category           | Examples                                                                                                          |
| ------------------ | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Contact fields** | First name, last name, email, city, country.                                                                      |
| **Custom fields**  | Anything you've stored — loyalty tier, size preference. See [Custom fields](/audience/custom-fields).             |
| **Store & cart**   | Shop URL, abandoned checkout link — used heavily in [cart recovery emails](/automations/abandoned-cart-recovery). |
| **Coupons**        | The unique discount code generated for this recipient, and its expiry date. See [Coupons](/automations/coupons).  |

## Always set fallbacks

Not every contact has every field — plenty of subscribers never gave you their name. A fallback value fills the gap:

* With fallback "there": **"Hi Jane"** / **"Hi there"**
* Without fallback: **"Hi Jane"** / **"Hi "** (awkward)

Set a fallback whenever you insert a tag that might be empty.

## Cart recovery tags

In abandoned cart automations, two tags do the heavy lifting:

* **Abandoned checkout URL** — a one-click link that restores the shopper's cart exactly as they left it.
* **Abandoned checkout URL with coupon** — the same link with a discount automatically applied at checkout, removing the last bit of friction.

## Test your personalization

Send yourself a test email and check how tags render. Then imagine the email for a contact with missing data — if you're unsure, look at a sparse contact in your [audience](/audience/contacts) and picture their version of the email.

<Tip>
  Personalization goes beyond names. Segment-specific content — sending different campaigns to [different segments](/audience/segments) — is often more powerful than any merge tag.
</Tip>