Shopify have announced that they are rolling out Shopify Flow to all merchants on their Advanced plan with plans to offer it’s availability to other plans in the future.
Shopify Flow aims to give merchants more time for the important stuff like building their businesses by offering an automation solution that can simplify your day-to-day by putting complex, manual tasks on autopilot. Merchants can quickly create the custom automations that your business needs, so you can focus on the bigger picture.
Flow is based on a simple, no-code “trigger, condition, and action” format. This means a “trigger” is an event that Flow looks out for and which sets an automation in motion, a “condition” must then be met, and the “action” is the task that is completed when the condition is met. An example is set out below.
- Trigger: An order is placed.
- Condition: The order total must be $500 or more.
- Action: The customer is tagged as a VIP in the system.
Shopify Flow in action
Inventory Management – Flow makes it easy to set up a workflow that hides, pauses, and republishes products, based on preset rules around quantity. For example if a product goes below 10 items left in stock, the workflow can attach a “low quantity” message to the item on your site, and then send a Slack notification to your fulfillment team to reorder the item.
Fraud Protection – Whether it’s canceling an order with a suspicious address or blocking a known reseller, you can create a workflow that takes all that arduous work off your plate.
“Wait” actions – Shopify have also announced a new “wait” feature that merchants can enjoy. From waiting mere seconds to hide an item from your site, to delaying a full seven days before sending an upsell email, this option gives you complete control over not just the what, but the when.
Flow in the Admin – With the ability to run Flow automations from the Admin, you can now run workflows retroactively, giving you more flexibility and control over your business. For example, you can now complete tasks such as bulk canceling orders that should not have been allowed.
