The count of Customers Directory records that have opted in to email. The size of your true marketable audience.
At a glance
A real-time count of customer records in the Square Customers Directory that have consented to receive email. This is the difference between “how many customers do I have” and “how many can I actually email”, the marketable audience. It is the denominator behind every email campaign, and the gap between it and your total Directory size is the lead-capture opportunity sitting on the table.
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your Square Online data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US apparel merchant on Square: a retail boutique plus a Square Online storefront. Snapshot taken on 12 Apr 26. The card reads the live Customers Directory.
Three things to notice:
- Half the Directory is marketable, half is not. The headline 18,400 customers feels like the audience, but only 9,100 can actually be emailed. The 5,100 records that have an email but never consented are the single biggest opportunity: they are existing customers you are not allowed to market to, usually because the opt-in prompt was skipped at the point of capture.
- Capture source predicts opt-in rate. Web checkout shows the email-marketing checkbox to every shopper, so
ONLINE_STORE-captured records opt in at a high rate. POS records opt in only when the cashier prompts, which is inconsistent. Pair this card with Customer Capture Source (POS vs Online) to find where the consent leak is. - This is the email platform’s true ceiling. When this Directory syncs to an email tool, only the 9,100 opted-in records should flow as marketable. If your email platform reports a larger subscriber count, it is pulling in records that did not consent on Square, which is a deliverability and compliance risk. The opted-in count here is the honest number.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
Reconciling against Square
Where to look in the Square Dashboard: Square Dashboard, Customers, Directory. Use the Reachable / email-subscription filter to view records that have consented to email. The count should match this card closely. If you use Square Marketing, the campaign audience builder also reports the size of your subscribed audience. Other Square Dashboard views that look like the same number but aren’t:- Customers, Directory, total count: the full Directory including non-consented and emailless records, always larger than this card.
- Customers, Reachable: Square’s “reachable” segment can include phone-reachable customers (SMS), which is a different consent than email. Filter to email subscription specifically.
- Square Marketing audience: a campaign audience can apply extra filters (lapsed, frequent, location). The unfiltered subscribed count is the comparable figure.
Cross-connector reconciliation:
The Square one-Directory advantage: because POS, Square Online, and Invoices all write into a single Customers Directory with one consent record per customer, your marketable audience is unified across retail and web automatically. On platforms where POS customers live in a separate system, the in-store opt-in list often never reaches the marketing tool at all.
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
Why is this lower than my total customer count? Because having a customer record is not the same as having permission to email it. This card counts only records that have both a valid email and an affirmative opt-in. The gap between your Total Customers (Directory) and this number is made up of customers with no email at all, plus customers who have an email but never consented. The second group is your biggest recoverable opportunity. A customer gave me their email at checkout. Why are they not counted? An email address is not consent. Square stores the email-marketing subscription flag separately from the email field. If the customer entered an email to receive a receipt but did not tick the marketing opt-in, they have a valid email but no consent, and emailing them anyway is a compliance risk. Only affirmative opt-ins count here. How do I grow this number? Two levers. First, fix POS capture: train register staff to prompt for the email opt-in, sinceTERMINAL-captured customers opt in far less consistently than web shoppers who see the checkbox. Second, run a re-permission flow for the email-but-no-consent segment, a one-time campaign (where compliant) inviting them to subscribe. Pair this card with Customer Capture Source to see which channel to fix first.
Does an unsubscribe remove the customer from this card?
Yes, immediately on sync. When a customer unsubscribes, their consent flag flips and they drop out of this count. The Directory record itself remains (their purchase history is intact), but they are no longer part of the marketable audience. This is why the card is real-time, it reflects the live, honest list size you are allowed to email today.
Is email opt-in the same as SMS / text opt-in?
No. Square tracks email subscription and text-message subscription as separate consents. A customer can be opted in to one and not the other. This card counts email opt-in only. A “reachable” segment in the Square Dashboard may blend both channels, which is why it can read higher than this card.
Why is there no alert threshold?
It is an audience-size and growth card, not an alarm. There is no universally “bad” number, the right size depends entirely on your customer base. The value is in the trend (is the marketable list growing?) and the ratio against total Directory (is capture discipline improving?). If you want movement alerts, watch the trend against the prior period.