Every Shopify merchant has a list of tasks they do manually, every week, that could be automated. Review incoming orders for VIP customers. Tag returning buyers. Notify the team when a high-value order comes in. Pause and re-enable promotions based on inventory levels.
Shopify Flow is the no-code automation builder that handles all of this. It is included with Shopify Advanced and Plus, and it is significantly underused by most merchants who have access to it.
This guide covers the most valuable Shopify Flow automations and how to build them.
How Shopify Flow Works
Every Flow is built on three elements:
1. Trigger: The event that starts the automation (an order is placed, a customer is tagged, inventory reaches a threshold)
2. Condition: Optional criteria that must be true for the automation to proceed (order total is over $500, customer has made more than 3 purchases)
3. Action: What happens when the trigger fires and the condition is met (add a tag, send an email, create a task, update a field)
The visual builder lets you add multiple conditions (AND/OR logic) and multiple actions per flow.
10 High-Value Shopify Flow Automations
1. VIP Customer Tagging
Trigger: Order created
Condition: Customer order count is 3 or more AND customer total spending is over $500
Action: Add tag "VIP" to customer
Once tagged, VIP customers can receive different email flows, see different content, and be prioritized in your CRM.
2. High-Value Order Alert
Trigger: Order created
Condition: Order total is over $500 (or your threshold)
Action: Send an internal email or Slack notification to the founder or customer service team
This ensures high-value orders get personal attention — a handwritten note, a priority fulfillment review, or a founder follow-up.
3. Fraud Risk Review Flag
Trigger: Order created
Condition: Fraud risk is high
Action: Add order tag "review-required" and send internal notification
Automatically flag high-risk orders for manual review before fulfillment.
4. Low Inventory Alert
Trigger: Inventory quantity changes
Condition: Inventory quantity for a variant drops below your threshold (e.g., 10 units)
Action: Send email to purchasing team or create a task in your project management app
Never run out of stock on a top seller because of a missed reorder trigger.
5. Post-Purchase Customer Segmentation
Trigger: Order created
Condition: Product tag includes "skincare" (or another category)
Action: Add tag "skincare-buyer" to customer
Use this to segment customers by product category for targeted email flows — skincare buyers get replenishment emails, apparel buyers get new collection announcements.
6. Welcome New Wholesale Customers
Trigger: Customer tag added = "wholesale"
Condition: Customer's first order was in the last 7 days
Action: Send welcome email with wholesale account details and contact information
Automate the B2B onboarding touch without manual tracking.
7. Re-engagement Tag for At-Risk Customers
Trigger: Customer updated (can be scheduled with Flow's time-based triggers)
Condition: Customer's last order date is more than 90 days ago AND customer order count is 2 or more
Action: Add tag "at-risk-of-churn"
Use this tag to trigger a win-back email flow in Klaviyo or Omnisend.
8. Influencer or VIP Order Notification
Trigger: Order created
Condition: Customer tag includes "influencer" or "VIP" (populated by SonarID or manual tagging)
Action: Send Slack notification to marketing team with order details
This ensures your team is immediately notified when an influencer or notable customer places an order, enabling timely personal outreach.
9. Abandoned Cart Recovery Escalation
Trigger: Checkout abandoned (available with some app integrations)
Condition: Cart value is over $300
Action: Create a task for the customer service team to personally follow up
High-value abandoned carts often respond better to a personal email or call than an automated sequence.
10. Review Request Delay for Complex Products
Trigger: Order fulfilled
Condition: Order contains products tagged "long-use-time" (products that take time to evaluate)
Action: Wait 14 days, then trigger a review request
Default review request timing (2–5 days post-fulfillment) does not work for products that take time to experience. This flow ensures review requests are timed appropriately.
Connecting Flow to External Tools
Shopify Flow can trigger actions in external apps (Slack, Gmail, Klaviyo, Gorgias, etc.) via webhook actions. The setup requires configuring the external endpoint, but it extends Flow's capability significantly.
For merchants on Shopify Plus, Flow has more trigger types and action options, including direct integrations with a broader app ecosystem.
Advanced Flow: Multi-Step and Branching Logic
More complex automations use branching — different actions depending on which conditions are true. For example:
Trigger: Order created
Branch 1: If order total > $500 AND customer order count > 3 → Add "VIP" tag AND send founder notification
Branch 2: If order total > $500 AND customer order count = 1 → Add "high-value-first-order" tag AND enroll in white-glove welcome sequence
Branch 3: All other orders → Standard processing
This kind of logic handles the nuance of real customer situations without manual review.
The Most Important Flow: VIP Detection
For merchants using SonarID, the most valuable Flow integration is the one that triggers on SonarID's VIP enrichment output. When SonarID identifies an order as coming from an influencer, celebrity, or investor:
1. SonarID adds a tag to the customer (e.g., "sonarid-influencer")
2. Flow triggers on the tag addition
3. Flow sends a notification to the marketing team via Slack
4. Flow adds the customer to a priority email segment in Klaviyo
5. Flow creates a personalized follow-up task
The human time saved and the relationships built through this automated identification-and-response workflow is one of the highest-ROI uses of Shopify Flow for any Shopify merchant.
Build your automations one at a time. Start with the VIP order alert — it is the highest value, easiest to configure, and produces immediate results.