How to use Shopify Flow: What it is, workflows and examples

There's a free Shopify app that handles customer tagging, inventory updates, fraud holds, marketing triggers, and dozens of other jobs that usually eat into someone's day. This guide explains what Shopify Flow is, how workflows are built, and 12 examples worth setting up first.

What is Shopify Flow?

Shopify Flow is Shopify's free automation engine. It used to be Plus-only, but it's now available on every Shopify plan from Basic upwards. The app runs on a simple model:

A trigger fires (eg. an order is placed, a product is updated, a customer is created);
Flow checks a condition (eg. was the order over £200? is the customer new?);
It takes an action (eg. tag them, email them, alert your team).

You build workflows visually, no code required.

Once the workflows are live, they run themselves in the background. The real question isn't whether to use Shopify Flow or not, it's what to build first.

12 Shopify Flow examples

Customer tagging and segmentation

Tag VIP customers automatically

Trigger: Order created
Condition: Customer lifetime spend goes above £500
Action: Tag the customer as "VIP"
The benefit: Your best customers get spotted and rewarded the moment they qualify

Tag first-time buyers separately to repeat customers

Trigger: Order created
Condition: Customer order count = 1 (or greater than 1)
Action: Apply "first-time-buyer" or "repeat-customer" tag
The benefit: Lets your email platform send the right flow without manual segmenting

Tag customers by product category

Trigger: Order created
Condition: Order contains a product from a specific collection
Action: Tag the customer with the matching category (eg. "skincare-buyer")
The benefit: Foundation for any decent post-purchase marketing

Inventory and product management

Hide out-of-stock products from your storefront

Trigger: Inventory quantity changes
Condition: Quantity = 0
Action: Unpublish the product or move it to a "sold out" collection
The benefit: Stops customers landing on empty product pages

Alert your buying team when stock runs low

Trigger: Inventory quantity changes
Condition: Quantity below your reorder threshold
Action: Send a Slack message or email to the buying team
The benefit: No more selling out of bestsellers because no one was watching

Republish products when stock returns

Trigger: Inventory quantity changes
Condition: Quantity goes above zero
Action: Republish the product and trigger back-in-stock emails
The benefit: Recovers demand that built up while the product was unavailable

Order management and fraud prevention

Hold high-risk orders before they ship

Trigger: Order created
Condition: Shopify risk score = high
Action: Cancel the order or apply a "review" tag to pause fulfilment
The benefit: Saves chargebacks and stops fraudulent orders going out

Flag high-value orders for manual review

Trigger: Order created
Condition: Order total above a set threshold
Action: Send a Slack alert to your ops team
The benefit: Lets you check shipping, payment, and stock before anything expensive ships

Route wholesale orders down a separate path

Trigger: Order created
Condition: Customer has a "wholesale" tag or order contains a B2B-only product
Action: Tag the order, route to a different fulfilment partner, trigger a confirmation email
The benefit: IKeeps DTC and wholesale cleanly separated without running two stores

Marketing and customer service

Trigger win-back flows for lapsed customers

Trigger: Scheduled (daily check)
Condition: Customer hasn't ordered in 90 days
Action: Apply "lapsed" tag, which fires a re-engagement campaign in your email platform
The benefit: Catches customers before they forget you exist

Send post-purchase review requests at the right time

Trigger: Order fulfilled
Condition: Wait 14 days
Action: Send a review request email
The benefit: Better timing means better response rates than asking the moment it ships

Reward customers on their order anniversary

Trigger: Scheduled (daily check)
Condition: 365 days since customer's first order
Action: Tag the customer and trigger a thank-you discount email
The benefit: Small touch with a measurable impact on repeat purchase rates

How to use Shopify Flow without overcomplicating it

The biggest mistake you can make with Shopify Flow is trying to automate everything in week one. Start with a single workflow. Build it, test it properly, and leave it running for a week before you touch anything else. Once you trust it, move on to the next.

Before you build anything from scratch, check the pre-built templates in Flow. Shopify ships dozens of them covering the most common automations, and most people find what they need without writing a workflow from zero.

The real power comes when you connect Flow to the rest of your stack. Klaviyo, Slack, Google Sheets, and most major Shopify apps have Flow connectors built in. That's where simple tagging workflows turn into proper cross-platform automations.

Lastly, document what each workflow does. Six months in, no one remembers why a customer tag exists or what fires it. Give every workflow a clear name and a short description so the next person who touches it knows what they're looking at.

In fact, there's even a template to tell you when a workflow fails! This is part of our standard process, especially for 3rd party integrations. A flow can fail, not necessarily on Shopify's side, but sometimes on the other side. Klaviyo might be down, a Google Sheet might have moved, or an ERP endpoint might have changed without anyone telling you.

How to setup this flow:

Open Shopify Flow and go to the Templates tab
Search for "workflow run fails"
Install the template and set the action to send an alert
Save, activate, and you're done

Build your Shopify Flow workflows with us

Most Shopify stores barely scratch the surface of what Shopify Flow can do.

The templates can get you started, but the real wins come from workflows built around how your business operates. Custom workflows can handle your specific fulfilment process, route your wholesale orders to 3rd party suppliers, or flag the specific orders.

We've built Shopify Flow automations for B2B brands, high-volume DTC stores, and complex multi-region operations. From simple customer tagging to multi-step workflows connecting Shopify, ERPs, and fulfilment partners.

And because workflows need maintaining as your store and integrations evolve, our Shopify support plans cover monitoring, fixes, and new workflow builds on an ongoing basis. Book a call and we'll walk through where the biggest time savings are hiding.