Shopify | Using Shopify Flow – Sinch Engage

What is Shopify Flow?

Shopify Flow is an automation tool within the Shopify platform that allows you to create custom workflows to streamline tasks and processes within your store and across your apps.

Think of it as a powerful set of "if-this-then-that" rules for your e-commerce business.

How it works:

Triggers: Events that initiate a workflow (e.g., an order is placed, a product is viewed, a new customer is added to a segment)
Conditions: Rules that determine whether or not an action will occur (e.g., if the order value is above a certain amount, if the customer is located in a specific region)
Actions: The tasks that are executed when the trigger and conditions are met (e.g., send an SMS)

Who can use Shopify Flow?

Flow is available for all Shopify users on the followings plans:

Shopify Basic
Shopify Advanced
Shopify Plus

How does Sinch and Flow work together?

Currently Sinch provides Shopify Flow users with the ability to do two different, and very distinct things:

Trigger - the Sinch triggers won't be as widely used compared to the actions, however they're still important. The triggers available are:
- RCS Read Receipt - will allow a Flow to start based on an RCS Read Receipt received by Sinch
- SMS Received - will allow a Flow to start based on an SMS being received by Sinch
Action - the Sinch actions are more commonly used due to their ability to support important ecommerce functions. The actions available are:
- Send Customer SMS - send a customer an SMS
  - This is a dynamic action, and will provide the ability to target individual customers based on purchases, and behaviour
- Send SMS - send an SMS to a static recipient
  - This is used for static recipients, for example store admin/business owner who would like to know if inventory of a particular item is running low, or there's been a 'risky' purchase flagged

Our automation recommendations

There are many different types of automations that can be set up to help with the communication to your customers. These include:

Win-Back - The purpose of a win-back SMS is to re-engage lost customers, boost sales, and improve overall customer loyalty.
Rewarding Loyalty - The purpose of setting up a loyalty automation is to reward customers are return buyers.
Order Confirmation - This type of SMS is crucial to building customer confidence by providing instant reassurance, enhancing transparency, improving the overall customer experience, and positively impacting brand perception.
Order Shipped - Similar to the Order Confirmation SMS, this type of SMS is crucial to building customer confidence by enhancing transparency, improving the overall customer experience, and positively impacting brand perception.
Post Purchase Acknowledgment - Providing customers with this type of acknowledgment provides a positive buyer experience, leading to increased likelihood of return purchases.

Additionally, we recommend including Coupons/Discounts to some of these automations, which not increases the chances of converting customers to return to your store and purchase.

How to set up your Flows

There's a lot of flexibility when using Shopify Flows, however they all need to start from a Trigger, and depending on the type of automation, these triggers will differ. Based on the recommendations above, you can follow these instructions to get started:

Win-Back / Loyalty Rewarding

Setting these types of automations up are quite similar, and will work from a Segment you create in Shopify.

Create a Segment within Shopify based on Win-Back and/or Loyalty

Note: these segments have been set up as an example only. You can set up your segments in any way that makes sense for your business.
Create a new Flow
Select your Trigger - for Win-Back and Loyalty, you will select a trigger of 'Customer Joined a Segment'

Note: you will see the created segments within the drop-down. This process can be followed for any segment based automation Flow
Select your action of 'Send Customer SMS' and configure this with your desired messaging. This should be personalised (including name), and can include a coupon code.

Note: Customer ID is a selectable variable - depending on the initial ‘trigger’ you will need to find the ‘Customer ID’ nested within one of the variable options. As this example is triggered at the ‘Customer’ level, the customer.id is found against the Customer.
Once you're ready, 'Turn on Workflow' and you're set!

Order Confirmation

This type of automation can be triggered by different things depending on how your business handles order and payments. In this example, we will show how to set up a confirmation based on payment being received.

Create a new Flow
Select a Trigger of 'Order Paid'
Select your action of 'Send Customer SMS' and configure this with your desired messaging. This should be personalised (including name), and can include information regarding the order.

Note: Customer ID is a selectable variable - depending on the initial ‘trigger’ you will need to find the ‘Customer ID’ nested within one of the variable options. As this example is triggered at the ‘Order’ level, the customer.id is found withing Order > Customer.
Once you're ready, 'Turn on Workflow' and you're set!

Order Shipped / Order Acknowledgement

In this example, we are triggering a Flow from the order being marked as 'Fulfilled'. Your business might choose to select a different trigger/status for this type of notification.

Create a new Flow
Select a Trigger of 'Order Fulfilled'
Select your action of 'Send Customer SMS' and configure this with your desired messaging. This should be personalised (including name), and can include information regarding the order.

Note: Customer ID is a selectable variable - depending on the initial ‘trigger’ you will need to find the ‘Customer ID’ nested within one of the variable options. As this example is triggered at the ‘Order’ level, the customer.id is found withing Order > Customer.
You can use this same set up to trigger an 'Order Acknowledgment' SMS - just set an SMS delay of 14 days post Order Fulfilment.
Once you're ready, 'Turn on Workflow' and you're set!