Shopify Flow & Shopify Plus Flows Explained (2026 Guide): Automate Your Store Like a Pro

What’s going on everyone? My name’s Deepak. In this article, we’re diving into how to automate your Shopify store using Shopify Flow, step-by-step.

And on this site, we cut through the fluff to help you build smarter e-commerce businesses and actually save time while doing it.

If you’ve ever felt buried under the endless manual tasks—tagging customers, sending emails, or even just tracking inventory—this one’s for you. Because today, I’m gonna walk you through how Shopify Flow can take those repetitive jobs off your plate and run them automatically in the background.

Let’s get into it.

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What exactly is Shopify Flow?

So first up, what exactly is Shopify Flow?

Imagine you had a virtual assistant who never sleeps, never messes up, and doesn’t charge you by the hour. That’s basically what Shopify Flow is.

It’s a free automation tool built by Shopify that helps you set up workflows inside your store. Think of it like telling your store, “Hey, when this happens, do that.”

And the cool part is you don’t need to know how to code. You don’t even need to be super technical.

Shopify Flow gives you a simple drag-and-drop builder where you can create what are called workflows.

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How Shopify Flow Workflows Are Structured

Every workflow in Shopify Flow has three parts:

• Triggers – which are what starts the process
  

• Conditions – the rules that it has to check first
  

• Actions – what it actually does next
  
  

Shopify Flow Example (Real Use Case)

So here’s an example.

Let’s say someone places an order that’s over $100.
That’s your trigger.

Then you might set a condition to make sure that the order isn’t marked as fraudulent.

And if it checks out, Shopify Flow could automatically send that customer a thank-you email with a discount code for next time.

All of that happens without you lifting a finger.

Why Shopify Flow Matters

Now let’s be real—running an online store isn’t just about selling stuff.

It’s also about:

• Managing inventory
  

• Sending emails
  

• Keeping customers happy
  

• Tagging VIPs
  

• Flagging risky orders
  

• And about a hundred other things that you didn’t sign up for
  

That’s where Shopify Flow comes in.

Once you set it up, it handles all the behind-the-scenes stuff so you can focus on the bigger picture, like scaling your business or launching new products.

Why People Use Shopify Flow

Some of the biggest reasons that people use Shopify Flow are:

• To save time on boring manual tasks
  

• To cut down on mistakes and typos
  

• To personalize your customer experience
  

• To stay organized when order volume picks up
  

It’s especially helpful if you’re running a high-volume store or trying to do more with a small team.

The Building Blocks: Triggers, Conditions, Actions

Now let’s break these down just a little bit more.

Triggers

A trigger is the event that kicks everything off. It’s the moment when something happens in your store or in an app connected to it.

Triggers could be things like:

• A customer places an order
  

• An order gets canceled
  

• Inventory for a product drops below a certain number
  

• A customer signs up for your newsletter
  

Now once that trigger is pulled, Shopify Flow checks the next piece, which is conditions.

Conditions

Now again, conditions are basically filters.They check whether a certain rule is true or not.

So let’s say someone places an order—that’s your trigger. But maybe you only want to reward people who spend over $150. That’s your condition.

If the order doesn’t meet that condition, then Shopify Flow can just stop the workflow or take a different action entirely. It’s super flexible.

And then there’s actions.

Actions

And finally, actions are what Flow actually does.

This could be something simple like:

• Sending a Slack notification
  

• Tagging a customer as a VIP
  

• Creating a support ticket in Zendesk
  

• Emailing your supplier to restock
  

Each workflow you build connects those three parts together into one automated task.

Setting Up Your First Shopify Flow Workflow

All right, let’s walk through what it looks like to actually create a workflow.

Now you’ll need to be on a Shopify Plus to use Flow. And you’ll need to install the Shopify Flow app from the App Store.

If you wanna go ahead and get started with Shopify, we’ll have a link for you to get started down below.

Installing the Shopify Flow App

And now that we’ve gone ahead and created our account, let’s go ahead and look for the Flow app here and we’ll go ahead and click install.

All right, so since I’m on the free trial, I need to go ahead and choose a plan first before I can go ahead and use it. Let’s go ahead and do that now.

Now I’ll go ahead and click on settings in the bottom left corner here, and I’ll come to plan, and I’ll go ahead and change my plan.

So I went ahead and selected the basic plan.

Opening Shopify Flow

Okay, so now that we have that sorted out, let’s go ahead and type in Flow.

We’ll pull up that installed app and we’ll go ahead and click on it here.

 

Step-by-Step: Creating a Shopify Flow Workflow

Step One: Choose a Template or Start From Scratch

Go ahead and choose a template or start from scratch.

So Shopify gives you a bunch of pre-made workflows—stuff like tagging high-value customers, sending alerts for low inventory, or following up on abandoned carts.

You can use one of those or build your own from scratch.

Step Two: Pick a Trigger

Let’s say you want to create a workflow that tags anyone who spends more than $200 as a VIP.

You start by picking a trigger: order created.

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Step Three: Add a Condition

Then you’d set your condition to: if the order total is greater than $200.

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Step Four: Add an Action

Now you pick your action: tag customer as VIP.Boom. Done.

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Step Five: Test the Workflow

Before you turn it on, Shopify lets you test the workflow to make sure it behaves how you’d expect.

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Step Six: Activate the Workflow

Once you’re happy with it, hit activate—and now it runs in the background 24/7.

Real Use Cases That Actually Help

So this is where Shopify Flow gets exciting, because you can start to tailor it to your store’s exact needs.

Let me give you some real-world examples.

1. Abandoned Cart Follow-Up

Let’s say someone adds something to their cart but doesn’t buy.

You can trigger an email reminder automatically after 24 hours, or you can send them a special offer after two days to try to win them back.

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2. Auto-Tagging High Spenders

Like we just did, you can set up a workflow that checks every order.

If the customer’s lifetime value crosses $500, they can get tagged as a VIP.

Now you can target them with better discounts or loyalty rewards.

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3. Low Inventory Alerts

If a product stock dips below 10 units, Flow can send you or your supplier a Slack alert or email so you can restock in time.

No more surprises.

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4. Fraud Prevention

You can flag high-risk orders that meet certain patterns, like shipping and billing addresses that don’t match.

You can send those orders to a support rep before they ship.

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5. Customer Win-Backs

Tag customers who haven’t bought in 90 days, then feed that segment into your email flows.

Combine Flow with Klaviyo or another email marketing software to trigger win-back sequences.

Powerful Integrations With Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow plays well with others.

You can connect it to tools like:

• Klaviyo for smarter email automation
  

• Zendesk to create tickets for customer issues
  

• Slack to get real-time alerts on store activity
  

• Google Sheets to log data for reporting
  

• HubSpot to sync customer data and automate sales workflows

Shopify Email & Marketing Automation Guide 2026: Email, Facebook Ads, Mailchimp, Klaviyo & Omnisend Explained

 

Building a Connected Automation System

That means that you’re not just automating inside Shopify. You’re building a connected system across your whole business.

 

Tips to Make Your Automation Actually Work

Here’s a few tips that I’ve learned that’ll save you time.

Start Simple

Don’t try to automate everything on day one. Build a couple of small but high-impact workflows and test them.

Test Before Turning It On

Seriously. Run it in preview mode to make sure it’s firing correctly.

Use Descriptive Names

“Tag VIPs on $200+ orders” is way better than “workflow one.”
Trust me.

Keep an Eye on Performance

Check the logs in Shopify Flow to see if things are running as expected. If something’s broken, you’ll see it.

Smart Growth Stack 2026: The Best Shopify Apps Small Stores Actually Need (Without Killing Speed)

 

Conclusion

Shopify Flow isn’t some futuristic dream. It’s available right now, and it’s designed to make your life easier.So whether you’re trying to keep up with order volume or you just want to stop doing the same task for the 50th time this week, Shopify Flow has your back.

Once you start automating, it’s hard to go back.And the best part is that the more you use it, the more ideas you’ll get for how to streamline everything else.

So if you’re on Shopify and you haven’t explored Flow yet, now’s the time. Set up your first workflow and see what happens.

 Worst case, you save yourself a few hours a week.Best case, you unlock a whole new level of efficiency.