Shopify Flow: Automation for Your Store
Before You Start
Shopify Flow is available for free on all Shopify plans, including Basic. Previously it was limited to Advanced and Plus plans, but Shopify expanded access in 2023. You access it through the Apps section of your Shopify admin, and it requires no coding knowledge. Every workflow follows the same three-part structure: a trigger (the event that starts the workflow), a condition (optional rules that determine whether the workflow should proceed), and an action (what the workflow does when the conditions are met).
Flow differs from Zapier in one critical way: it operates inside Shopify's ecosystem, which means it can access and modify Shopify data directly without API rate limits, polling delays, or external data transfers. When a new order is placed, Flow processes it instantly, not after a 1 to 15 minute polling cycle. It can read and modify any field on orders, customers, products, and inventory natively. The tradeoff is that Flow only works within the Shopify ecosystem and approved partner apps, while Zapier connects to thousands of external tools. The most powerful automation strategy for Shopify stores uses Flow for internal Shopify automation and Zapier for connecting Shopify to external tools.
Step-by-Step Setup
Log into your Shopify admin panel, click Apps in the left sidebar, and find Shopify Flow. If you do not see it, search for "Shopify Flow" in the Shopify App Store and install it. Once open, you will see two tabs: Workflows (your active and draft automations) and Templates (pre-built workflows you can activate with a few clicks). Start with the Templates tab to see what Flow can do before building custom workflows from scratch.
Shopify provides dozens of ready-to-use templates for common ecommerce automations. Browse the template library and activate the ones most relevant to your business. The most immediately useful templates include: "Hide out-of-stock products" which automatically unpublishes products when inventory reaches zero and republishes them when restocked. "Tag customers by total spend" which adds tags like "VIP" or "high-value" when a customer's lifetime spend crosses thresholds you define. "Get notified about high-risk orders" which sends you an email when Shopify's fraud analysis flags an order as high risk. "Cancel and restock high-risk orders" which automatically cancels orders that meet your fraud criteria and restocks the items. Each template can be customized after activation by editing the conditions, thresholds, and actions.
Click "Create Workflow" to build a custom automation. Start by selecting a trigger. Shopify Flow offers triggers for orders (created, paid, fulfilled, canceled), customers (created, updated), products (created, updated, inventory changed), and more. After selecting your trigger, add a condition that filters which events should proceed. For example, if your trigger is "Order created," you might add the condition "Order total is greater than $200" to only process high-value orders. Finally, add one or more actions: tag the order, send an email notification, add a customer tag, change inventory levels, publish or unpublish a product, or send data to a connected app. You can chain multiple conditions and actions in sequence, creating branching logic for complex workflows.
Inventory and product automations are where Flow provides the most unique value because it has direct access to real-time inventory data. Auto-hide out-of-stock: trigger on inventory quantity change, condition checks if quantity equals zero, action unpublishes the product from your online store. Add a second workflow that triggers on inventory quantity change with the condition "quantity is greater than zero" that republishes the product. Low-stock alert: trigger on inventory quantity change, condition checks if quantity is less than your reorder point (such as 20 units), action sends an email to your purchasing team with the product name, current stock, and supplier information from product metafields. Seasonal product management: use scheduled triggers or product tag conditions to automatically publish and unpublish seasonal collections based on dates you define.
Customer tagging workflows power your email marketing segmentation by automatically categorizing customers based on their behavior. Lifetime value tiers: trigger on order paid, sum the customer's total spent, and add tags like "bronze" (under $200), "silver" ($200 to $500), "gold" ($500 to $1000), or "VIP" (over $1000). These tags sync to your email platform and enable targeted campaigns to each tier. First-time vs repeat buyer: trigger on order created, check if the customer has more than one order, and tag them as "repeat-customer" or "first-time-buyer." Geographic segmentation: tag customers by shipping country or state for location-specific promotions, tax communications, or shipping policy updates. Product category interest: when a customer purchases from a specific collection, tag them with that interest (such as "skincare-buyer" or "outdoor-gear") for targeted product recommendations.
High-value order review: trigger on order created, condition checks if total exceeds $500 or if the customer is new with no previous orders, action adds an "under-review" tag and sends a notification to your team for manual verification before fulfillment. Fraud prevention: trigger on order created, combine conditions checking for mismatched billing and shipping countries, failed payment attempts, or Shopify's high-risk fraud recommendation, action either cancels the order automatically or holds it for review. Fulfillment routing: if you use multiple fulfillment locations or methods, trigger on order created and use product tags or customer location to route orders to the correct warehouse, 3PL, or dropshipping supplier. Gift order handling: trigger on order created, check for gift message or gift wrapping line items, and tag the order for special packing instructions.
Advanced Flow Techniques
Using Flow with third-party apps: many Shopify apps integrate with Flow to extend its capabilities. Klaviyo, Judge.me, Loyalty Lion, and dozens of other apps provide additional triggers and actions within Flow. This means you can trigger a Klaviyo email flow based on a Flow condition, request a Judge.me review based on fulfillment status, or award loyalty points based on customer behavior, all within a single Flow workflow.
Scheduled workflows: Flow supports time-based triggers that let you run automations on a schedule rather than in response to events. Use scheduled workflows for daily inventory reports, weekly sales summaries, or monthly customer segment updates. Combine scheduled triggers with conditions to create automations like "every Monday, find all products with inventory below 10 and email a reorder summary."
Wait actions: Flow's wait action lets you insert delays between steps. This enables workflows like "when an order is delivered, wait 7 days, then trigger a review request" or "when a customer's last order was 60 days ago, send a win-back offer." Wait actions make Flow competitive with email automation platforms for time-delayed sequences, though dedicated email tools like Klaviyo still offer more sophisticated email-specific features.
Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Check the Run Log in Shopify Flow regularly, especially after creating new workflows. The Run Log shows every workflow execution with its status (success, failed, skipped), the trigger data, and which conditions were evaluated. Failed runs show error details that help you diagnose misconfigurations. Common issues include conditions that never evaluate to true because of data type mismatches (comparing a number to a text string), actions that fail because the target field does not exist on the object (checking a metafield that has not been created), and workflows that fire too frequently because the trigger is broader than intended.
Test new workflows with a controlled trigger before enabling them for production. Place a test order, create a test product, or update a test customer to verify that the workflow executes every step correctly. Once confirmed, enable the workflow and monitor the Run Log for the first 24 to 48 hours to catch any edge cases you did not anticipate during testing.