When you are growing your business, you have to handle various aspects at scale at the same time such as inventory management, increasing sales along with other marketing campaigns, and much more. You will soon reach a limit if you're using a manual approach to handle these different aspects.
Automation, on the other hand, allows you to handle various parts of your company workflow with just a few clicks and without any human error. Automation has been around for decades but in the past few years, it has become a way to increase efficiency without sacrificing quality in the eCommerce sphere.
And that’s where Shopify Flow comes in. It helps you manage and execute your business at scale with simple yet powerful automated workflows.
But how does workflow automation work on Shopify Flow and how can your business make the most of this exciting Shopify Editions 2022 feature? Let’s find it out in this blog post!
What is Shopify Flow?
Shopify Flow is an automated workflow builder. It allows you to create custom automation that seamlessly automates your business processes as a whole or on a per-order basis.
But what exactly is workflow automation? In the simplest terms, it’s a series of steps that get triggered by a specific action – an event – which then leads to another series of actions that happen automatically.
Shopify Flow helps you scale your business by automating repetitive tasks, such as processing refunds and shipping orders. Additionally, you can also link Shopify Flow to your existing list of Shopify apps so you can always stay on top of things and make sure your store is running smoothly.
Flow also provides a bunch of ready-to-use, commonly-used workflow templates that are strategically designed to solve the most common and similar problems that Shopify businesses face.
What are some workflow automation examples?
Workflows are designed to help you automate repetitive tasks and save time managing your business. They allow you to create automated processes that run in the background without much or any human intervention.
As an eCommerce business owner, you will have a lot on your plate. You need to keep up with new trends in technology and customer behavior, keep your product listings relevant, and find the right marketing strategies that will attract new shoppers to your site. It's easy for even the most dedicated business owners to get overwhelmed by all of this work.
That’s where automated workflows come in. They can help you save time and money, and increase the efficiency of your business.
For example, if someone buys something on your website, you can have them automatically added to a mailing list or send an email thanking them for their purchase.
And now, with the introduction of Shopify Flow, there are countless workflows you can create in Shopify and there's no right or wrong way to go about it.
Here are some examples of workflow automation -
Inventory management
With inventory management workflows, you can keep track of what products need to be restocked and when they will run out. This will help ensure that you always have enough inventory on hand so that customers don't have to wait for their purchases when they arrive at their doorsteps.
Here are some tasks that can be easily automated using an inventory management workflow -
- Get notified when product variant inventory is low.
- Get notified when inventory is low and hide out-of-stock products.
- Create a task in Asana when product inventory is low.
- Create redirect URLs when a product’s status changes.
- Standardize tagging for new products.
- Initiate reorder with the vendor when inventory gets low.
Enhance buyer experience
Automating certain processes can help you enhance the buyer experience by reducing their wait time. For example, you can use an automation tool to send an email when an order has been shipped or when an item becomes available again.
Here are some tasks that can be easily automated using a buyer experience workflow -
- Kick off a welcome campaign when delivery is confirmed.
- Notify customers that loved items are back in stock.
- Remind customers that wishlist items are waiting.
- Get notified when customers request a phone call.
- Track customer phone requests in Trello.
Product listing
Your products should be displayed on your site in a way that gives customers an accurate representation of what they will receive when they purchase from you. If a product has variations, such as color or size, then it's important that these options are clearly visible on your website.
Here are some tasks that can be easily automated using a product listing workflow -
- Add tags and categories automatically based on information in the product title or description.
- Automatically add a discount code for your customers.
- Personalized product recommendations on every product page.
- Create products in bulk and set the price at once, then schedule all of these products to be published in your store at once or individually.
- Create collections automatically.
Customer management and support
If a customer reaches out with an issue regarding their order, you can set up an automated response that offers help without having to hire additional staff members or pay more in wages. This helps your business save money while providing better customer service at the same time.
Here are some tasks that can be easily automated using a customer support workflow
- Personalize marketing by tagging customers based on purchasing behavior.
- Organize customers by lifetime-spend tiers.
- Notify, track, and create a support ticket.
- Get notified when customers request a phone call.
- Track customer phone requests in Trello.
- Organize follow-up communication with customers after a complaint.
Shipping
If a customer buys multiple items from you, you can set up an automated shipping workflow to automatically ship the items together instead of shipping them separately. This saves you money on shipping fees and also gives your customers better service by not having to wait for their entire order to arrive before receiving any of it.
Here are some tasks that can be easily automated using a shipping workflow -
- Send an email confirmation message when an order is placed.
- Print shipping labels automatically and email an update to customers.
- Automatically add tracking info to an order's notes.
- Automatically change the status of a customer account from “new” to “satisfied” after a certain number of days have passed.
Fraud prevention
Fraud prevention workflow automation detects if an order looks like it was placed by someone who isn't using a valid payment method, or from a country other than where your customer base lives. If it finds something suspicious, the system automatically suspends the order for review by you or another admin before it's shipped out to the customer.
Automated fraud prevention workflows can help you review -
- Multiple orders placed from the same IP address within a short period of time.
- Multiple orders placed from different IP addresses with similar delivery addresses and/or names.
- Multiple orders placed from the same IP address but with different delivery addresses and/or names.
And here are some tasks that can be easily automated using a Shopify fraud prevention workflow -
- Limit order quantities.
- Send messages to customers based on events like payment failures and purchase cancellations.
- Automatically build a blocklist based on past purchases.
- Cancel and restock high-risk orders.
- Track high-risk orders in a spreadsheet.
- Automatically send fraud notifications on Slack when suspicious activity is detected in your store.
Product reviews
Product reviews are a great way to engage with customers. They can help improve your product page SEO and they can help you identify issues that you might not have been aware of before.
Here are some tasks that can be easily automated using a product reviews workflow -
- Publish or reject new product reviews via slack.
- Send a slack message when new company reviews are published.
- Track and create support tickets after negative reviews.
Benefits of workflow automation in eCommerce
The purpose of workflow automation is to make your life easier and more efficient. This is especially true when it comes to eCommerce businesses.
Here are some benefits of workflow automation in eCommerce -
- Reduce the time spent on repetitive tasks.
- Increase productivity by automating manual processes.
- Improve customer service by providing faster resolution to customer queries and issues.
- Increase sales by making it easy for customers to buy more products or services with a single click of a button.
- Run your business effortlessly even while you’re away.
- You don’t need to hire multiple employees or outsource work.
How does workflow automation work on Shopify flow?
Shopify Flow is based on a simple, no-code “trigger, condition, and action” format.
Trigger - An event that starts a workflow. It can be something that happens directly in your store or in an app. For example, when a customer places an order, this can be one of the Shopify Flow triggers.
Condition - A rule that determines if an action should be taken. For example, check if the order is placed by a customer located within 100 miles of your store location.
Action - A task that’s completed when the conditions are met. For example, if the above condition is met, the order gets shipped out for same-day delivery.
Shopify Flow comes pre-loaded with a number of standard workflow templates that you can use right away, or you can start from scratch to build your own unique workflow.
How do I start automating workflows on Shopify Flow?
Get started on leveraging this exciting Shopify Editions 2022 feature by downloading Flow from the Shopify app store.
Shopify Flow comes pre-loaded with a number of standard workflow templates that you can use right away, or you can start from scratch to build your own unique workflow. This requires no coding knowledge whatsoever. Simply define the event, trigger, and action, and you’re good to go!
You can reach out to us to help you get started with Shopify Flow.
We help you bring your ideas to life with Shopify web design, development, marketing, and support services from experts. Our team of Shopify experts works with Shopify merchants like you to design the store that reflects the personality of your brand and caters to the functionalities you require.
Whether you want to revamp your existing design or build a new one from scratch, we will help you create a positive shopping experience on your Shopify store design.
Reach out to us at info@xgentech.net and we’ll help you build an effective Shopify store!
