The Power of Shopify Flow Automations for Your E-commerce Operations

In the dynamic realm of e-commerce, the conversation around automation has shifted from a nice-to-have to a necessity for businesses eyeing scalability. Merchants grapple with time constraints and a constant influx of repetitive tasks demanding attention. Enter Shopify Flow—a game-changer poised to redefine how you approach your online store. This blog serves as your guide to unravel the functionalities, advantages, and boundless potential of Shopify Flow.

1. What is Shopify Flow?

2. Benefits of Shopify Flow

3. Ways to Utilize Shopify Flow

• Adding Tags
• Email Automation
• Managing Product Inventory

What is Shopify Flow?

Shopify Flow, a revolutionary no-code ecommerce automation tool, liberates valuable time and simplifies operations with its intuitive drag-and-drop interface and three core components: triggers, conditions, and actions. Triggers initiate workflows, conditions set rules, and actions execute tasks. Available for all Shopify plans, it's entirely free. 

The automation process is a breeze—test out pre-made workflow templates or build your own from scratch to tailor the workflows to your specific needs. 

Benefits of Shopify Flow

Ways to Utilize Shopify Flow

1. Adding tags

Shopify tags, including Order, Product, and Customer Tags, play a pivotal role in organizing your store efficiently. Order Tags facilitate fulfillment tracking, Product Tags enhance organization and SEO, and Customer Tags enable targeted marketing. Shopify Flow automates tasks like tagging and organizing new products by titles, streamlining product management and enhancing personalized marketing, loyalty programs, and communication.

Practical workflows that you could easily set up:

• Create customer segments for targeted marketing and loyalty tracking
  Utilize workflows to tag customers automatically based on their behavior, such as total spend, order history, or location. Not only will this aid in creating segmented customer lists, it also allows for personalized communication and integrates seamlessly with loyalty programs.
  Example scenario:
  Say you wanted to give your customers a special discount based on their spending, Shopify Flow could help you segment and send emails to customers who have spent more than a specific amount.
• Tag and organize products for easier merchandising
  With Shopify Flow, you can simplify product management by automating the tagging of products based on titles, SKUs, variants, or types, making it effortless for shop owners to categorize and locate products.
  Example scenario:
  Instead of manually filtering products and assigning tags every time a new product is added, you could create a workflow that automatically tags and groups new items by their titles.
• Tag orders based on specific criteria for fulfillment tracking
  Optimize order management by incorporating tags based on product types or locations. Create workflows that add specific order tags, allowing your shipping and logistics team to stay informed about expected delivery dates, fulfillment status, and regional requirements. 
  
  Example scenario:
  If you’re operating from several locations and are utilizing multiple delivery methods, you could set up a workflow to detect the method and location assigned to an order, then tagging it accordingly.
  

2. Email Automation

Email marketing is a potent tool for business growth and customer relationship management. Shopify Email simplifies this process by allowing merchants to create and send email campaigns directly from the Shopify platform. Integrating email functionalities into workflows allows businesses to deliver personalized messages based on customer interactions, purchase behavior, and browsing history. Shopify Flow also facilitates seamless automation of internal communications, keeping teams informed about new orders.

Practical workflows that you could easily set up:

• Streamline internal communication based on order tags
  Leverage the "Send internal email" action in Shopify Flow, based on specific triggers such as order tags to enhance internal communication.
  Example scenario:
  If you need to keep the team at different stores informed about orders being placed in real-time, create a workflow that automatically sends internal emails to the respective staff based on the location information found in order tags so that they can work on preparing the order.
• Send customers an email when their wishlist product is on sale
  Establish a connection between specific customers and items on their wishlist, triggering automatic email notifications when wishlist items go on sale.
  Example scenario:
  This workflow incorporates third-party apps that you’re using to keep track of a customer’s wishlist. When the product they’re eyeing is on sale, Shopify Flow could detect if the product is discounted and notify the customer through email.
• Send personalized email marketing campaigns
  Craft workflows that trigger personalized emails based on individual customer interactions, purchase behavior, or browsing activity to enhance customer engagement and drive sales.
  Example scenario:
  If you’re using a loyalty program that records your customer’s birthday, you could trigger a workflow to send them a discount code on their special day.
• Initiate a win-back email sequence for at-risk customers
  Identify at-risk customers and implement workflows that automatically send persuasive email sequences to win them back. This proactive approach helps reengage inactive customers, offering compelling incentives like discount codes.
  Example scenario:
  This workflow can be conditioned to check if the customer’s last order was placed during the previous year, then a tag can be assigned and Shopify Flow will send an email to the company staff to initiate a discount for them.

3. Managing Product Inventory

Effective inventory management is critical for online business success, and Shopify Flow simplifies it with new triggers tailored for product variants. The "Product variant back in stock" trigger allows for automated workflows like publishing the product, while the "Product variant out of stock" trigger facilitates actions such as sending notifications via email or Slack. While these triggers offer a basic solution for stock scenarios, the "Inventory quantity changed" trigger is more robust, especially for nuanced tracking, considering locations or low stock levels.

Practical workflows that you could easily set up:

• Hide out-of-stock products and stay informed about product inventory
  Craft workflows that automatically add or remove products from collections based on their stock status. Strategically tagging these products or variants ensures a seamless and up-to-date representation of available products and can lead to automated actions.
  Example scenario:
  When a variant goes out of stock, trigger a workflow to hide the product and send an internal email to cease promotions and notifying the fulfillment team for prompt reordering.
• Automatically be reminded to restock once inventory is low
  Leverage the "Product variant back in stock" trigger to proactively replenish high-demand items and ensure timely restocking.
  Example scenario:
  Set up a workflow that triggers the placement of a new order when the quantity of a product falls below a certain level. Once restocked, the product can be automatically republished.

Shopify Flow isn't just a tool for ecommerce automation; it's a paradigm shift in how businesses approach their operations. Its applications are diverse, from innovative tagging for merchandising excellence to dynamic email automation and managing product inventory, each contributing to operational efficiency. 

Shopify is constantly redefining the landscape of ecommerce, and you can find out more about how the Winter ‘24 Edition is opening up innovative solutions for the future of your business. If you’re looking to dive into the world of B2B commerce on Shopify, check out our comprehensive guide on navigating the platform. Lastly, if you’re interested in learning how Hubspot and Shopify integration helps you grow your business, we’ve prepared insights on how to leverage the two platforms.