Create marketing automations in Shopify

Marketing automations let you send multichannel communications, such as email, SMS, and push notifications, to customers automatically. You can increase customer engagement and drive conversions by connecting with your customers across multiple platforms.

Marketing automations use Shopify Flow and can be configured in the following ways:

• using a template offered by Shopify Email or third-party apps
• manually creating a custom automation, by configuring a workflow with a trigger, conditions, and actions

If you create a workflow using Shopify Flow that includes a marketing activity action, then it also displays in your Shopify admin as a marketing automation, and can be edited from either the Automations page or in the Flow app.

Tip

When you set up your automations, consider how they'll interact with each other. For example, if you activate two welcome email automations, then your customers receive twice as many emails.

Requirements

Review the following requirements to create and edit marketing automations on your store:

• Your store must be on the Basic Shopify plan or higher.
• Your store needs to have the Shopify Flow app installed.
• To create or edit marketing automations, a staff member must have both the Marketing and Flow App permissions on their store account. Learn more about staff permissions.

Create a marketing automation

When you create a marketing automation, you can configure the specific settings for how the automation works. For example, you can adjust the wait time between when your customer abandons their cart and when an abandoned cart email is sent.

You can turn an automation on immediately, or you can save it as a draft.

Note

To create a custom marketing automation or edit an automation's workflow, you need to use a desktop device.

Steps:

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing > Automations.
2. Click Create automation.
3. Do any of the following:
   • To create an Abandoned checkout, Abandoned cart, or Abandoned product browse automation, click the automation template that you want to use, and then click Turn on automation.
   • To create any other automation from a template, click the automation that you want to use, click Use workflow, and then review and edit your workflow actions. When you're ready to activate your automation, click Turn on workflow, and then click Turn on.
   • To create a custom automation, click Create custom automation, and then configure the workflow of your automation. When you're ready to activate your automation, click Turn on workflow, and then click Turn on.

After you turn on an automation, you can access marketing automations metrics and reporting to learn how it's performing.

Edit a marketing automation or email template

Note

To edit an automation's workflow or email template, you need to use a desktop device.

You can edit the workflow for a marketing automation to change when an email is sent to a customer. Additionally, you can edit the email template used in the automation.

Steps:

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing > Automations.
2. In the Automations section:
   • To edit the workflow, click the automation that you want to edit, and then click Edit workflow. Make any desired changes, and then click Apply changes.
   • To edit the email template, click the … button on the automation, and then click Edit. Make any desired changes, then click Save.
3. Click Exit.

Turn off a marketing automation

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing > Automations.
2. In the Automations section, click the automation that you want to turn off.
3. Click Turn off automation, and then click Turn off.

Any workflows that are in a wait stage are canceled so no further emails are sent as part of the automation.

Marketing automation metrics and reporting

You can access key metrics and reports for automations that you've activated to help you understand the impact of marketing automations on your business. You can use this information to improve your automations and experiment with different configurations.

Key metrics

You can view key metrics about all of your marketing automations from your Shopify admin on the Automations page, in the Results from marketing automations section. To view metrics for a specific automation, click the title of the marketing automation that you want to review.

The following metrics are provided about your marketing automations:

Metric	Description
Reach	The total number of impressions for all marketing activities used in marketing automations.
Sessions	The total number of sessions on your online store that are attributed to marketing automations.
Orders	The total number of orders that are attributed to marketing automations.
Sales	The net sales (gross sales minus discounts and returns), plus taxes and shipping, that are attributed to marketing activities from within the marketing automation.

View reporting for marketing automations

You can view a marketing activities report for each of your marketing automations. This report includes detailed information about the marketing activities within your automations, such as conversion rates and top orders by sales.

Steps:

Desktop

1. From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing > Automations.
2. In the Automations section, click the automation that you want to access the analytics for.
3. In the Marketing activities in the workflow section, click …, and then click View report.

Shopify Email marketing automations

Marketing automations are sent to customers using Shopify Email, with the exception of custom marketing automations and third-party automations. Learn more about using the Shopify Email template editor to customize your automation emails.

With the exception of abandoned checkout automation emails, emails that are sent using marketing automations count towards your emails sent with Shopify Email, and are only sent to customers who are subscribed to marketing. For more information, refer to Shopify Email pricing.

Types of Shopify Email marketing automations

Review the following table to learn more about the types of Shopify Email marketing automations:

Types of marketing automations and their descriptions.

Automation	Description
Abandoned cart	Sends an email message to customers who add products to their cart, but don't start the checkout process.
Abandoned checkout	Sends an email message to customers who start the checkout process, but don't complete an order.
Abandoned product browse	Sends an email message to customers who view at least one product, but don't add it to their cart or make a purchase before leaving your store.
Celebrate customer birthday (Early access)	Sends customers an email message with a discount code on their birthday. This automation uses the Customer joined segment trigger and the birth date standard metafield. Consider using the Forms app with custom input fields to collect birthdays and populate the metafield for your customers.
Custom	Design your own email automations based on events that you choose.
Customer winback	Sends an email message to customers after a specified amount of time has passed after their last order was placed.
First purchase upsell	Sends an email message to customers after they make their first purchase.
Post-purchase thank you	Sends a thank you email to customers after their first and second purchases.
Post-purchase upsell email	Sends a post-purchase upsell email message after a customer buys something.
Welcome email series (brand story with discount)	Sends your brand story and social links in 3 emails to customers when they subscribe by using a form on your online store. If no purchase is made, then an email with a discount is sent. Consider using the Forms app to set up forms in your online store that your customers can use to sign up for emails.
Welcome email series (discount with reminder)	Sends an email with a discount to customers when they subscribe by using a form on your online store, followed by 2 brand-building emails. If no purchase is made, then a discount reminder is sent. Consider using the Forms app to set up forms in your online store that your customers can use to sign up for emails.
Welcome new subscriber	Sends an email message to customers when they subscribe by using a form on your online store. Consider using the Forms app to set up forms in your online store that your customers can use to sign up for emails.
Welcome VIP customers (Early access)	Sends an email message to welcome VIP customers when they join your VIP segment. By default, a customer joins the segment after they've placed their third order and have spent a total of $1000 USD or more, or are tagged as VIP. This automation uses the Customer joined segment trigger.

Third-party marketing automations

If you want to create a marketing automation from a template that integrates with a third-party app, then you need to install that app on your store. Third-party marketing automations are sent to your customers through the app that they're integrated with.

Types of third-party marketing automations

Review the following table to learn more about the types of third-party marketing automations:

Types of third-party marketing automations and their descriptions.

Automation	Description
Back in stock email	Uses Seguno and sends an email to customers who request a restock alert. Learn more about Seguno's restock automation and pricing information.
Browser push notification for specific product releases	Uses PushOwl to send a browser push notification to all of your PushOwl subscribers. The push notification is sent when a new product that you add includes the push notification product tag. Learn more about PushOwl's automated push notification for new product releases.
Post-purchase upsell email or SMS	Uses Shopify Email and AfterShip SMS to send a post-purchase upsell email message or SMS after a customer places an order. Learn more about how to send a post-purchase upsell email or SMS through AfterShip SMS, along with SMS pricing and subscription plans.