Running a Shopify store solo or with a small team is exhausting. Between managing inventory, processing orders, and keeping customers happy, there’s barely time to breathe. That’s exactly why I started using Shopify Flow—and honestly, I wish I’d discovered it sooner.
Here’s what blew my mind: this incredibly powerful automation tool is completely free, yet most store owners I talk to have never even heard of it. If you’re still manually handling repetitive tasks that could be automated, you’re essentially working for free.
Key Benefits You’ll Get From Shopify Flow
- Automated customer segmentation based on spending tiers without manual tagging
- Instant notifications for large orders or expedited shipping requests
- Automatic inventory management that hides out-of-stock products
- Weekly summaries of low stock items and active discounts
- Custom workflows for business-specific tasks using simple drag-and-drop
- Advanced automation with JavaScript for complex business logic
Getting Started: Your First 5 Minutes
Installing Shopify Flow takes literally one minute. Head to the Shopify App Store, search for “Shopify Flow,” and hit install. It’s developed by Shopify themselves, so there’s zero cost and no third-party concerns.
Once installed, you’ll see two main options: browse pre-built templates or create custom workflows. I always recommend starting with templates—there are over 120 of them, and you’ll probably find several that solve problems you didn’t even realize you had.
Ready-to-Use Templates That Actually Matter
Here are the template flows I’ve found most valuable across different store types:
Customer Management
Organize customers by lifetime spend tiers automatically tags customers based on their total spending. I set mine to tag customers who’ve spent over $2,000 as “Gold VIP” and those over $750 as “Silver VIP.” This makes it incredibly easy to create targeted email campaigns or offer special perks to your biggest spenders.
Order Fulfillment
Get notified about unusually large order quantities sends you an immediate email when someone orders way more than normal. This saved me when someone accidentally ordered 50 of the same item instead of 5—I caught it before fulfillment.
Email logistics team when orders need expedited shipping ensures rush orders get immediate attention. No more discovering a next-day shipping order 2 days later.
Inventory Control
Hide and republish products based on inventory levels automatically removes out-of-stock items from your storefront and republishes them when inventory returns. Your customers never see “out of stock” products cluttering your collections.
Send weekly email summary of low stock variants gives you a proactive heads-up every Monday morning about which products need reordering. Much better than discovering you’re out of stock when a customer tries to buy.
| Template Category | Key Templates | Time Saved Per Week |
|---|---|---|
| Customer Management | Lifetime spend tiers, VIP tagging | 2-3 hours |
| Fulfillment | Large order alerts, expedited shipping | 1-2 hours |
| Inventory | Auto hide/show, low stock alerts | 3-4 hours |
| Promotions | Discount summaries, code tracking | 1 hour |
Promotion Management
Weekly summary of active discounts using codes helps you stay on top of which promotions are running. I used to forget about discount codes I’d created for specific campaigns—this flow prevents that embarrassment.
Building Your First Custom Flow
Templates are great, but the real power comes from creating flows specific to your business. Let me walk you through building a simple but useful custom flow.
Goal: Track all orders over $300 in a Google Sheet for special handling.
Step 1: Choose Your Trigger
Select “Order created” as your trigger. This fires every time someone completes a purchase.
Step 2: Set Your Condition
Add a condition where “Current total price” is “greater than” $300. You can adjust this number based on what constitutes a “large order” for your business.
Step 3: Define Your Action
Choose “Add row to spreadsheet” and connect your Google Sheet. Set up columns for order number, creation date, and total value.
The result? Every time someone places a $300+ order, it automatically gets logged in your shared spreadsheet. Your customer service team can immediately send a personal thank-you email, or your fulfillment team can prioritize packaging.
Pro tip: Start with simple flows like this one. Once you see the time savings, you’ll naturally think of more complex automations.
Advanced Automation (For the Ambitious)
If you’re comfortable with basic JavaScript, Shopify Flow includes a “Run code” action that’s incredibly powerful. I’ve used this to:
- Calculate and apply dynamic shipping discounts based on order composition
- Send customized notification emails with specific product information
- Update external systems when certain order conditions are met
- Create complex customer scoring systems
The coding requirement might sound intimidating, but even simple scripts can save hours of manual work. Plus, there’s a growing community sharing Flow code snippets.
Time Investment vs. Payoff
Here’s the honest breakdown of what to expect:
Initial Setup Time: 30-60 minutes to browse templates and install 3-5 flows
Custom Flow Creation: 15-30 minutes per flow once you understand the interface
Weekly Time Savings: 5-10 hours depending on your store volume and complexity
I spent about 2 hours total setting up my first 8 flows. Those same flows now save me roughly 8 hours every week. That’s a 4x return on time investment that keeps paying dividends.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Don’t over-automate immediately. Start with 2-3 simple flows and get comfortable before building complex workflows.
Test thoroughly before going live. Use Shopify’s test orders to verify your flows work correctly. I learned this after accidentally sending 20 notification emails for one test order.
Review your flows monthly. Business needs change, and flows that were useful 6 months ago might need adjustment or removal.
Making It Work for Your Store
Every business is different, so spend time browsing the template categories that match your biggest pain points:
- High order volume? Focus on fulfillment and inventory flows
- Complex product variants? Inventory management flows are crucial
- B2B customers? Customer segmentation and tagging flows help immensely
- Seasonal business? Promotion and discount tracking becomes essential
The key is identifying which repetitive tasks eat up your time, then finding or building flows to handle them automatically.
Practical Implementation Tips
Start with these three flows regardless of your business type:
- Customer lifetime spend tiers - helps with marketing segmentation
- Weekly low stock summary - prevents stockouts
- Large order notifications - ensures VIP treatment for big purchases
Install them today, then add one new flow per week until you’ve automated your biggest time wasters.
Once you’ve got basic flows running smoothly, consider which business-specific tasks could benefit from automation. The goal isn’t to automate everything—it’s to free up your time for activities that actually grow your business.
FAQ
Does Shopify Flow work with third-party apps?
Yes, Flow integrates with many popular Shopify apps. Check the templates section to see if your installed apps have available flows.
Can I modify existing templates?
Absolutely. Every template can be customized with different conditions, actions, and values to match your specific needs.
What happens if I make a mistake in a flow?
You can turn flows off instantly and edit them anytime. Test orders help you verify changes before they affect real customers.
Is there a limit to how many flows I can create?
No limit on the number of flows. However, start small and build up rather than creating dozens immediately.
Do flows work retroactively on existing data?
Most flows only trigger on new events (new orders, customers, etc.). If you need to process existing data, you’ll need flows with scheduled triggers or manual processing.