Create marketing automations in Shopify

This page was printed on Jun 09, 2023. For the current version, visit https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/create-marketing/create-marketing-automations?ref=thegingerviking.com.

Marketing automations enable you to automatically send emails to customers when specific events happen. Marketing automations use workflows from Shopify Flow to trigger when an email message is sent to customers. Automations can be configured using a template, or you can create a custom automation. You can choose which type of marketing automation to create based on the type of email message you want to have sent.

Except for the Custom marketing automations and 3rd-party automations, marketing automations use Shopify Email to send email messages to customers. Email messages that are sent because of automations, other than the abandoned cart automation, count towards your emails sent with Shopify Email. For more information, refer to Shopify Email pricing.

Marketing automations are available for stores on the Basic Shopify plan or higher. To create marketing automations, you must have the Marketing permission on your store account. For more information, refer to staff permissions.

When setting up your automations, consider how they'll work together. For example, if you have two welcome email automations turned on, then your customers could recieve twice as many emails as you intended to send.

On this page

Create a marketing automation

When creating a marketing automation from a template, you can configure the specific details of how the automation works. For example, you can change how long after a customer abandons a cart that the abandoned cart email is sent.

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

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing > Automations.
  2. Click Create automation.
  3. Click the automation that you want to turn on.
  4. Click Use workflow.
  5. Optional: Edit the workflow steps.
  6. Click Edit email content, and then make any required changes to the email template.
  7. Optional: Click Send test to send a test email message.
  8. Click Save.
  9. Click Turn on workflow, and then click Turn on.
  1. From the Shopify app, go to Store > Marketing.
  2. Tap Automations and then tap +.
  3. Tap the automation that you want to turn on.
  4. Tap Turn on automation.
  5. Tap Edit email, and then make any required changes to the email template.
  6. Optional: Tap Send test to send a test email message.
  7. Tap Turn on automation, and then tap Turn on.
  1. From the Shopify app, go to Store > Marketing.
  2. Tap Automations and then tap +.
  3. Tap the automation that you want to turn on.
  4. Tap Turn on automation.
  5. Tap Edit Email, and then make any required changes to the email template.
  6. Optional: Tap Send test to send a test email message.
  7. Tap Turn on automation, and then tap Turn on.

After you turn on an automation, you can access marketing automation analytics to find out how the automation is performing. Learn more about using the Shopify Email template editor to customize your automation emails.

Edit a marketing automation

You can edit the workflow for a marketing automation to change when an email is sent to a customer. To edit an automation's workflow, you must use a desktop device.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Marketing > Automations.
  2. In the Automations section, click the automation that you want to edit.
  3. Click Edit workflow.
  4. Make any desired changes, and then click Apply changes.
  5. Click Exit.

Turn a marketing automation off

  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.
  1. From the Shopify app, go to Store > Marketing.
  2. Tap Automations.
  3. Tap the automation that you want to turn off.
  4. Tap ⋮, and then tap Turn off automation.
  1. From the Shopify app, go to Store > Marketing.
  2. Tap Automations.
  3. Tap the automation that you want to turn off.
  4. Tap ⋮, and then tap Turn off automation.

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

Access marketing automation analytics

You can access analytics, such as conversion rate, 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.

Steps:

  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.
  1. From the Shopify app, go to Store > Marketing.
  2. Tap Automations.
  3. Tap the automation that you want to access analytics for.
  4. In the Activities in this workflow section, tap the automation name.
  1. From the Shopify app, go to Store > Marketing.
  2. Tap Automations.
  3. Tap the automation that you want to access analytics for.
  4. In the Activities in this workflow section, tap the automation name.

Types of marketing automations

The following types of automations are available:

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 a specific product, but don't add it to their cart.
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 since their last order was placed.
First purchase upsell Sends an email message to customers after they've made their first purchase.
Post-purchase thank you Sends a thank you email to customers after their first and second purchases.
Third-party Automations that connect with third-party marketing apps.
Welcome email series (brand story with discount) Sends your brand story and social links in 3 emails. If no purchase is made, then an email with a discount is sent.
Welcome email series (discount with reminder) Sends new subscribers an email with a discount, followed by 2 brand-building emails. If no purchase is made, then a discount reminder is sent.
Welcome new subscriber Sends an email message to customers when they subscribe using the email signup form on your online store.

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