How to Use Shopify Flow for eCommerce Automation (2025)

If you are overwhelmed by the mountains of repetitive duties involved in running your Shopify store, learning how to use Shopify Flow can help you avoid wasting your valuable time on mundane tasks.

Based on the official Shopify documentation and our expert experience, we’ve created this guide to help you find out everything about Shopify Flow and understand how it could be beneficial to your business.

1. What is Shopify Flow?

Shopify Flow is a free eCommerce automation app developed by Shopify, which allows you to automate operations across your store and connected apps with the help of a low-code visual editor. 

It is available on almost all pricing plans, except for the Starter plan, with most features accessible across all plans. We suggest you sign up for a plan now as there is a hot deal of using Shopify for 1 dollar, exclusively for Shopify beginners.

Here are the Shopify Flow’s key features:

• No-Code Workflow Automation: Shopify Flow operates on a simple framework, allowing merchants to create workflows without coding knowledge. 
• Integrations: Shopify Flow seamlessly works with third-party apps like Slack, Google Sheets, Trello, Asana, and Klaviyo, as well as Shopify’s ecosystem, which includes tags, metafields, fulfillment, and B2B capabilities.
• Task Automation Across Multiple Areas: Numerous tasks can be automated with Shopify Flow. Because of its wide range of applications, it can be used by merchants of various sizes.

From our experience, merchants who utilize the Shopify Flow app can enjoy many benefits, including: 

• Saving you time by reducing manual work to allow you to focus on more important aspects of your business.
• Ensuring that actions are executed consistently, reducing the risk of human errors. 
• Improving customer satisfaction and loyalty with workflows like abandoned cart recovery emails or special offers.

2. How Shopify Flow works

Like the majority of eCommerce automation technologies, Shopify Flow operates on the straightforward premise that a flow has three pillars to function: Trigger, Condition, and Action. 

Here we provide an overview of each pillar but you can learn more about these terms in our Shopify glossary.

• Triggers: The first step in your workflow that starts the automation is called a trigger. The process starts carrying out the set conditions and actions as soon as the designated trigger is triggered.

Example: Order placement, customer sign-up, inventory adjustments, and even the application of particular tags to goods or clients are examples of event-driven triggers.

• Conditions: Conditions are requirements that must be fulfilled in order for the workflow to continue after the trigger. Before the workflow takes action, they serve as filters to make sure the proper conditions are met.

Example: You may specify that an email should only be sent if the order value is more than $100.

• Actions: The tasks or modifications that are carried out when the trigger and condition are satisfied are known as actions. They specify what occurs when the trigger event occurs and the circumstances are met.

Example: When a consumer spends more than $100, send them a gift card.

3. How to use Shopify Flow

After you have a basic understanding of the Shopify Flow app, you can use the following instructions to set up a workflow. It, like many other automation tools, allows you to create a workflow either manually or with pre-made templates.

Tips: For Shopify newbies, there are a lot of things you have to finish before you can start using Shopify Flow. Having said that, to help you skip the hassle of building a store from scratch, you can buy a prebuilt eCommerce store. 

3.1. Creating with Shopify Flow templates

Shopify Flow’s numerous pre-made templates can automate routine processes like customer segmentation and inventory management. Once you’ve selected a template, follow these steps to customize the workflow to your needs:

First, install this app on Shopify App Store:

• Step 1: In your Shopify admin, navigate to Apps -> Flow.

• Step 2: Select Create workflow.

• Step 3: Choose Browse templates and pick a template.

• Step 4: Review the template to verify that it meets your needs -> Select Install. You can customize the workflow after you install it.

• Step 5: Make sure to edit and enter your desired values.  
• Step 6: You can choose to change the template’s name if you want to
• Step 7: Enable the workflow by selecting Turn on workflow.

• Step 8: To activate the workflow, click Turn on.

3.2. Creating manually

If the template you’re looking for isn’t available in Shopify Flow, you may create your own unique process from the start. This is how you do this:

• Step 1: Navigate to Flow -> Select Create workflow -> Choose Select a trigger.

• Step 2: Pick the trigger that initiates the workflow.

• Step 3: Select Then -> Choose Condition.

• Step 4: Choose the condition that needs to be satisfied before any actions can be executed.

• Step 5: Choose Then -> Action to decide the action to be taken if the condition is true.

(Optional) Click Otherwise to add another step if the condition you set is false. You can include additional conditions or actions.

• Step 6: Click New Workflow, then enter a name for your workflow.

• Step 7: Click Turn on workflow.
• Step 8: To activate your workflow, click Turn on.

💡Note: When you build a workflow, you might often want to use data from your store in conditions and actions. Fortunately, the app gives you access to nearly all the fields in the Shopify Flow API.

4. Shopify Flow examples

Now we’d like to present 6 examples (common and advanced) of practical Shopify Flow workflows that solve some business problems. 

4.1. Common Shopify Flow workflows

Below are some common workflows that you can create with the Shopify Flow app to streamline your business operation.

4.1.1. Cancel and restock high-risk orders

According to Chargeback.io, 95% of high-risk orders may result in chargebacks. Therefore, you can develop risk procedures to assist you in managing high-risk orders to prevent their negative repercussions.

You can use Flow to cancel a high-risk order by blocking the payment from being captured if your store accepts payments automatically but handles order fulfillment by hand.

4.1.2. Get notified about large discounts on new orders

According to the RetailMeNot Survey, 4 out of 5 consumers feel inclined to make their first buy from a brand they have never heard of if they come across an offer. This suggests that discounts can attract new customers to make their first purchase.

In this case, you can use the loyalty workflows to help you track discount codes and reward your customers for their support. For example, your customers can get notified about large discounts on their new orders. 

4.1.3. Email a customer when a wishlist item is on sale

Your eCommerce site must have a Wishlist feature, but its usefulness will be much increased if you can incorporate it with other functionalities. 

For instance, you can use customer workflows to help you automatically send notification emails to a customer when an item on his wishlist is on sale.

4.2. Advanced Shopify Flow workflows

For complex tasks, you can create advanced Shopify Flow workflows to complete them. If there is any issue happening when you follow this Shopify Flow tutorial and find it hard to overcome, you can turn to Shopify setup services. They are experts who can help you build any complex store functionality with promising outcomes.

4.2.1. Get a daily summary of orders that miss a two-day fulfillment window

If any orders have passed the shipping guarantee period, this workflow can be used to find out how much those orders are worth.

The workflow in this example runs daily at 5:00 p.m. To obtain a list of orders that were not fulfilled within a two-day shipping window, the workflow makes use of the Get order data action.

All late orders are then given a tag by the For each action. Additionally, the workflow makes use of the Sum action to ascertain the value of those orders and the Count action to ascertain the quantity of late orders. 

An email indicating the quantity of orders and their value is sent using the variables that are produced by the Count and Sum actions.

4.2.2. When a new order is created, find out how many orders the customer has made in the last six months

This workflow can be used to add loyalty tags and find out how many orders a customer has placed in the last six months.

Every time a new order is created in this example, the workflow is executed. A list of the customer’s orders placed during the last six months is retrieved by the process using the Get order data action. 

The number of orders the customer has placed is then ascertained by the Count action, and the value of those orders is ascertained by the Sum action. If the number of orders is five or more, a customer tag is applied; if the order value is $100 or more, another tag is added.

4.2.3. Every day, get a summary email listing products that are out of stock

You can send an email and create a list of all your out-of-stock products using this workflow.

The workflow in this example runs daily at 9:00 p.m. To obtain a list of products without inventory, the workflow makes use of the Get product data action. The count action establishes how many products are out of stock. 

An email indicating the quantity of products and a list of those products is sent using the variables generated by the Get order data and Count actions.

5. How does Shopify Flow compare to other automation tools?

✅ Shopify Flow vs. Other Automation Tools:

• Shopify Flow:
  • Strengths: Free, excellent for internal Shopify procedures, and deeply integrated with Shopify
  • Limitations: Only supports static (not dynamic) tags, has fewer customization options, and might not be as flexible for linking to external systems

For internal Shopify automation, Shopify Flow is essentially a fine place to start, but in other situations, tools like Zapier and MESA provide greater flexibility and capability. 

6. Best apps that integrate with Shopify Flow

6.1. Klaviyo: Email Marketing & SMS

With customized emails and automatic SMS chats, the app enables you to go beyond the fundamentals of marketing and boost sales for your store while fostering more intelligent online connections. 

Overall rating: 4.6 ⭐ (3,474 reviews)

Key features: 

• Creating AI-powered segments and triggers using historical and real-time data
• Getting real-time revenue data per automation, campaign, segment, and channel
• Sending personalized email, sms, and WhatsApp campaigns. 

Pricing: Free plan | SMS ($15/month) | Email ($20/month)

For better illustrations of how this app integrates and works with the Shopify Flow app, we’ve built this quick guide to using the Klaviyo Connector with Flow to track events (to send data from your workflow to Klaviyo) and create campaigns (to send via Klaviyo).

In a Shopify Flow, you can add actions into a workflow.

• When in the Select an action menu, you can choose from Standard Actions developed by Shopify or additional actions developed by third-party apps. This is where you’ll find the Klaviyo Connector if it’s installed.
• The two actions available in the Klaviyo Connector are Track an event and Create a campaign.

1. Track an event

Once you choose the Track an event action, you’ll need to fill out the following fields:

• Klaviyo Public API Key
• Event Name 
• Customer Email Address 
• Customer First Name 
• Customer Last Name 
• Customer Properties 
• Event Properties 

💡Note: It is important to note that anything sent as a list, such as customer or event properties, will need to be formatted as a JSON list to appear properly in Klaviyo.
For example, you could format customer tags in the following way: {“tags”: [{% for tags_item in customer.tags %}{% if forloop.first != true %},{% endif %}{{ tags_item | json}}{% endfor %}]}

These events will be tracked in Klaviyo as Shopify events, as indicated by the Shopify icon alongside each event. To view your Shopify Flow event data:

• Click the Analytics dropdown in Klaviyo and select Metrics.
• Select Shopify from the dropdown menu. The tab will display only the events synced from Shopify.

2. Create a campaign

Once you choose the Create a campaign action, you will need to fill out the following fields:

• Private API Key 
• List or Segment ID 
• Template ID 
• Sender Email Address 
• Sender Name 
• Subject 
• Campaign Name 
• Enable Smart Sending? (Optional) 
• Use UTM Tracking? (Optional) 

6.2. Recharge Subscriptions

The app helps you build buyer routines that last and drive more revenue from your subscription strategy with insights, subscriber experiences & a subscription core trusted by top brands.

Overall rating: 4.6 ⭐ (2,059 reviews)

Key features: 

• Maintaining brand consistency with no-code customization
• Understanding churn & save your customers from canceling
• Selling curated product bundles, or letting shoppers customize their own

Pricing: Starter ($99/month) | Pro ($499/month)  

6.3. Smile: Loyalty Rewards Program

Smile.io powers VIP rewards, loyalty, and referral programs that lower acquisition costs, improve brand loyalty, and enhance sales and repeat business. The app requires no coding knowledge and only takes a few minutes to create a loyalty program.

Overall rating: 4.8 ⭐(6,977 reviews)

Key features: 

• Encouraging repeat purchases by rewarding every order with points & VIP status
• Rewarding social activity on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, as well as custom actions
• Driving sales with points bonus events

Pricing: Free plan | Starter ($49/month) | Growth ($199/month) | Plus ($999/month) 

6.4. Parcel Panel Order Tracking

The app enables you to track orders in real-time and resolve exceptions before customers complain. What’s more, it lets you access powerful analytics and optimize your shipping solutions.  

Overall rating: 5.0 ⭐(5,226 reviews)

Key features: 

• Tracking orders & last-mile delivery
• Syncing shipping info to PayPal tracking
• Engaging customers with ParcelPanel notifications when order status updates.

Pricing: Free plan | Essential ($11/month) | Professional ($59/month) | Enterprise ($479/month) 

7. Conclusion

After reading our guide on how to use Shopify Flow, we hope you will have a better understanding of the tool’s features, benefits, and drawbacks—and, most importantly, whether it is right for you.

The Shopify Flow app is ideal for Shopify stores that are new to the automation space because of its great ease of use and reasonable price. However, Flow may not be able to meet the needs of a medium-sized to large eCommerce business.

For more information on subjects like these, don’t forget to explore eComStart‘s blog.

8. FAQs