Building Shopify marketing automation is less about setting up individual workflows and more about connecting triggers, conditions, and actions into a system that works across the customer journey.
A single automation is easy to set up. The challenge is making multiple workflows work together without sending conflicting or irrelevant messages.
The automations you pick and how they interact across various marketing channels (using triggers, conditions, and actions) help scaffold this interaction.
This Shopify marketing automation guide walks you through setting up simple to more complex multi-step workflows, with cross-channel marketing and compliance considerations in mind.
- What is Shopify marketing automation?
- How Shopify marketing automation works: Shopify events, triggers, conditions, actions, and exit rules
- How to build a marketing automation workflow in Shopify and Brevo
- Which marketing automations should you build first?
- How do multiple branch workflows work?
- How to set up multi-step workflows for omnichannel marketing?
- How to measure your Shopify automation's performance?
- Mistakes to avoid when building Shopify marketing automations
- Automation compliance: Consent and tracking rules around workflows
- How does Brevo help with planning and building marketing automations?
- Scale your Shopify marketing automations with Brevo
What is Shopify marketing automation?
Shopify marketing automation is the use of automated workflows to send relevant marketing messages based on actions and events in a Shopify store, such as a customer signing up, abandoning a cart, or completing a purchase.
These workflows typically use four components:
- Triggers: Start the workflow when a specific Shopify event occurs.
- Conditions: Determine which customers continue through the workflow and which path they take.
- Actions: Define what happens next, such as sending an email, SMS, or WhatsApp message.
- Exit rules: Remove customers from a workflow when they complete its goal or the workflow is no longer relevant to their journey.
For example, a Shopify store can trigger an abandoned cart workflow when a customer leaves items in their cart, check whether they have since completed the purchase, and send a reminder only if they have not.
How Shopify marketing automation works: Shopify events, triggers, conditions, actions, and exit rules
Marketing automation workflows are built with three components described earlier: triggers, conditions, and actions. Together they determine when a workflow starts, who should continue through it, and what happens next.
Triggers
A trigger is the Shopify event that starts an automation. It tells the workflow when a customer has taken an action that requires a response.
Common Shopify triggers include:
- Subscription-based triggers: When someone subscribes to your email list or submits a signup form.
- Behavior-based triggers: When a website visitor views your product page, clicks a link, or visits a specific URL. These triggers require a website tracking script to be installed so customer activity can be captured as part of a contact profile.
- E-commerce triggers: When someone updates or abandons their cart, completes a purchase, or creates an account. You can create niche e-commerce triggers such as when a customer purchases from a specific collection, abandons a cart above a certain value, or buys a particular product.
The trigger should match the goal of the workflow. Once the trigger occurs, the contact enters the workflow and moves to the next step based on the conditions you have defined.
Conditions and filters
Once a Shopify event triggers a workflow, conditions determine what happens next. They can decide which customers continue and which path they take.
Common Shopify conditions include cart value, purchase history, customer attributes, and recent activity.
Conditions are useful for creating branching logic.
For example, repeat customers might receive loyalty rewards, while first-time buyers receive onboarding content. Conditions also prevent conflicting workflows. A customer who completes a purchase during an abandoned cart sequence should no longer continue receiving cart recovery messages.
Well-defined conditions help each Shopify customer move through the most relevant path.
Actions
An action is what the automation does after a contact meets the required conditions. In a Shopify marketing automation, this could mean sending a message, waiting before the next step, or changing the customer’s path based on their behavior.
Common actions include sending a message based on the customer's actions, adding a delay, branching the workflow (sending the customers down different paths), or updating customer data (tags and contact attributes) for future workflows.
Exit rules
Exit rules determine when a customer should leave an automation. They prevent shoppers from continuing through a workflow after they have completed its intended action or entered another, more relevant journey.
For Shopify stores, common exit conditions include completing a purchase, submitting a form, or meeting another goal defined by the workflow.
For example, a customer who completes their purchase after receiving an abandoned cart reminder should immediately exit the abandoned cart workflow. Similarly, a customer who purchases a win-back sequence should no longer receive messages encouraging them to return.
Clear exit rules prevent irrelevant or conflicting messages and help keep customer journeys aligned with real-time behavior.
How to build a marketing automation workflow in Shopify and Brevo
Before you build an automated workflow, ensure the following are in place:
- Connect your Shopify store to your email marketing automation platform
- Install your website tracker to capture browsing behavior
- Configure consent collection for email, SMS, and WhatsApp where applicable
- Authenticate your sending domain (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC)
- Sync your product catalog and customer data
- Verify that key e-commerce events, such as cart activity and purchases, are syncing successfully
Once these are in place, you will have the data and consent you need to set up your triggers, actions, filters, and conditions.
Here is a simple step-by-step setup of an abandoned cart workflow to see how these components work together:
Step 1: Create an abandoned cart automation
In Brevo, go to Automations > Workflows > Create an automation.
Select the abandoned cart pre-built automation. Brevo provides this template with the basic structure needed for an abandoned cart workflow, which you can then customize.
Step 2: Add the trigger
Choose Cart updated as the trigger.
This starts the workflow when an identified contact adds a product to their cart.
You can also add filters to refine who enters the workflow. For example, you could set a minimum cart value.
Workflow built so far: Cart updated →
Step 3: Add a delay
Add a time delay between the cart event (the trigger) and the reminder email to give the customer time to complete their purchase.
For example, you could set the delay to 1 hour, which means that once the customer adds a product to the cart, the first reminder email will be sent 1 hour later.
Workflow built so far: Cart updated → Wait 1 hour →
Step 4: Add the email
Add a Send an email action and create your abandoned cart reminder.
The email should remind customers about the products they left behind and link them back to their cart so that they can complete their purchase.
Brevo’s abandoned cart automation supports personalized product information in these emails.
Workflow built so far: Cart updated → Wait 1 hour → Send email
Step 5: Set exit rules
An abandoned cart workflow should stop when it is no longer relevant, i.e., when the customer purchases the products or deletes the item from their cart.
In the automation’s settings, add exit conditions for these events.
This prevents customers from receiving an abandoned cart reminder after they have already placed their order or removed the items.
Step 6: Set the re-entry condition
Customers can abandon more than one cart, so the workflow should be able to respond to a new cart later. Set the relevant re-entry conditions.
This allows a contact to re-enter the workflow after exit.
Step 7: Test and activate the workflow
Before activating the workflow, test the customer journey to make sure the trigger, delay, email, exit conditions, and restart conditions work as expected.
For a real-world test, add a product to your cart and leave it without purchasing so that you enter the automation. You can then test what happens when you purchase the product, delete it from your cart, or add another product.
Once everything works as expected, activate the workflow.
Your finished workflow looks like this:
Cart updated → Wait 1 hour → Send email
Exit when the purchase is completed
Restart if the cart is updated.
This simple workflow shows how Shopify events and Brevo's triggers, actions, delays, and exit rules work together. You can add conditions, additional messages, or other channels as your automation strategy becomes more complex.
Which marketing automations should you build first?
Most Shopify stores start with the core automations that respond to the biggest moments in the customer journey: signing up, abandoning a cart, making a purchase, and becoming inactive.
- Welcome series: Introduce your brand and encourage a first purchase while interest is the highest.
- Abandoned cart recovery: Recover lost revenue by reminding shoppers to complete their purchase after leaving checkout.
- Post-purchase automation: Continue the customer relationship with order follow-ups, review requests, product recommendations, and educational content.
- Replenishment reminders: For products purchased on a predictable cycle, remind customers when it is likely time to reorder.
- Loyalty and VIP journeys: As purchase history grows, reward high-value customers with exclusive access and other perks.
- Win-back campaigns: Re-engage customers who have not purchased or interacted with your brand within a defined period.
Start with the workflows that address the most important gaps in your customer journey. Add more automations as your Shopify store grows.
How do multiple branch workflows work?
Not every Shopify customer should follow the same path. Multiple branch workflows let you change what happens next based on a customer’s behavior and other conditions.
Start with a clear entry and exit point. Then use conditional splits to create different paths within the same workflow.
For example, a post-purchase workflow could branch based on whether the customer is buying from your store for the first time.
Purchase → First-time customer?
Yes → Send onboarding email → recommend complementary products
No → Send loyalty message → recommend next purchase
You can also use wait steps and delays to control when customers move to the next step. For example, wait a few days after a purchase before sending a product recommendation or review request.
As your workflows become more complex, avoid adding branches for every possible customer behavior. Create separate, purpose-built workflows when the customer journeys become too different to manage in one automation.
Use percentage splits to A/B test different paths within a workflow. Comparing variations (messaging, offers, frequency, CTAs) helps you identify the highest-performing journey.
As your automation library expands, chain related workflows together instead of adding more branches to an automation. For example, a customer can move from a welcome series into a post-purchase journey after placing their first order.
This approach keeps workflows easier to edit and scale.
How to set up multi-step workflows for omnichannel marketing?
Omnichannel automation lets you use multiple marketing channels in the same customer journey.
Instead of sending the same message everywhere, you can use each channel based on what the customer does next.
A typical workflow for abandoned cart recovery might look like:
Once you have created your abandoned cart email, you can extend the workflow by adding a second channel. This lets you follow up with customers who still have not purchased, without sending them a reminder on the same channel.
Add a condition after the email
Add a time delay after your abandoned cart email to give the customer time to purchase. Then add a conditional split to check whether they have completed their purchase:
- If yes, then end the workflow
- If no, continue to the next channel
This ensures customers who purchase after receiving the email do not receive another reminder.
Add an SMS message
On the No branch, add a Send an SMS action. Use the second message as a follow-up to the email rather than repeating it. For example, the email might remind the customer about the products in the cart, while the SMS provides a shorter reminder with a direct link back to the cart.
You can also pick a different channel.
Your workflow now looks like
Cart updated → Wait 1 hour → Abandoned cart email → Wait → Purchase ?
Yes → Exit
No → SMS/WhatsApp
Test both paths
Test the workflow to make sure customers who purchase after the email exit the automation before receiving a reminder on another channel.
This approach ensures that each channel responds to the customer’s behavior.
How to measure your Shopify automation's performance?
Measuring a Shopify marketing automation workflow is different from measuring a one-time email campaign.
Instead of looking only at opens and clicks, measure whether the workflow moves customers toward a business outcome such as a purchase or repeat order.
Focus on the metrics that measure the health of the workflow itself.
| KPI | What it measures | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Entry rate | The % of eligible contacts who enter a workflow | Validates that your trigger, audience, and integration are working as planned |
| Completion rate | The % of contacts who reach the end of the workflow | Indicates whether customers progress through the buying journey and complete the intended path |
| Drop-off points | Where contacts exit or stop progressing through the workflow | Highlights friction and unnecessary delays |
| Revenue per workflow | Revenue attributed to a specific automation | Identifies which workflows contribute to sales |
| Repeat purchase rate | The % of customers who make another purchase after entering a post-purchase workflow | Shows whether the automation is contributing to customer retention |
For example, an abandoned cart workflow may contain an email followed by an SMS reminder. Looking at only email opens tells you whether customers saw the first message, but not whether the workflow ultimately recovered the sale.
In terms of operational performance, you also need to assess the following metrics:
- Time saved: Measures how much manual effort recurring workflows replace.
- Manual campaigns replaced: Indicates whether automated journeys are reducing the need for one-off sends.
- Marketing efficiency: Evaluates whether your team can engage more customers without increasing workload.
- Time conversion: Measures how long it takes customers to complete the desired action after entering a workflow. This can help optimize delays.
A workflow that consistently generates revenue while reducing manual effort delivers value beyond traditional campaign reports covering open rates, CTRs, and other marketing metrics.
You should also consider other metrics like email deliverability rates to ensure that your customers are actually seeing the automations in their inbox.
With these in mind, you can optimize other core metrics based on email marketing benchmarks.
Mistakes to avoid when building Shopify marketing automations
Your marketing automations, like most elements of an email marketing strategy, benefit from planning that avoids doing too much or too little.
Many Shopify brands fail to maintain that balance and end up committing the following mistakes related to marketing automations:
Treating automations as set and forget for months
While marketing automations do run in the background and do not require daily tweaks, you do need to review them after major store updates or every quarter.
Customer behavior and product catalogs change over time, and your workflow triggers and messaging need to reflect that.
With every update or quarterly review, retire workflows that no longer serve a purpose (for example, you may discover that you recover most sales with only two messages as part of your ACR flow, and you do not need a third one) and update those that need tweaks.
Adding too many branches too early
Complex workflows are harder to test and maintain, especially in the initial stages. Start with one trigger and a small number of conditions.
“The majority of times I see the over-engineering of automations is in excessive branching sequences, i.e., 10+ step flows all firing at the same time. I think that most people forget that simplicity is the key when it comes to automations, and a lot of the time the complexity shows up as being too overbearing for the consumer.” -
- Ben Metcalfe, founder of BlackFire Marketing, a UK and US-based e-commerce and digital marketing agency
Add new branches only after assessing the workflow's performance, such as when one segment is consistently converting while another is falling behind or customers buying Product A are behaving differently from customers buying Product B.
Letting contacts enter overlapping workflows
Use suppression lists and exclusion rules to ensure customers do not receive multiple automations that compete for the same action.
The buying journey is not linear, so for example, if a customer has already added products to the cart, you do not have to send them a welcome email sequence first even though they just signed up.
If you fire both automations, they will end up entering conflicting automations.
That is not the only place to use exclusion rules.
As Metcalfe explains, “One rule that merchants typically forget to use would be forgetting to exclude customers from an upsell sequence who have filed a complaint after receiving a product. It can come across as really tone-deaf.”
Anticipate all the micro-stages your customers cross as part of their journey to ensure you include the right exclusions.
Skipping exit conditions
Every workflow should have a clear exit point where contacts stop receiving messages.
Add exit conditions for purchases and form submissions so customers leave the workflow as soon as they complete its goal. This prevents unnecessary follow-ups.
Ignoring event testing
Many automations depend on website behavior or Shopify events, not just your workflow builder. Before activating a workflow, verify that your tracking script is installed correctly.
Test key events such as page views and cart updates before scheduling your automations.
Not studying your products and customer journeys
While you can replicate other stores’ automations, you need to study your product catalogs and your customers' buying journey.
“One of the biggest mistakes when building flows is to ignore the reality of the product or how your client uses it. So, to really understand the timelines and lifecycle of your product will not only make your emails more relevant and time-appropriate but will also save your unsubscribes, open rates, and engagement.”
- Juan Castells, Marketing Manager at Arke, a UK-based marketing agency
When you have multiple product collections, you cannot fire off automations for each product or collection the customer browses.
As Castells explains, "A flow for homeware may be clashing with a flow for home decorations, causing the same subscriber to receive more than one email from you a day, let alone several emails a week.”
That is a guaranteed way to have your emails marked as spam.
Instead, focus on the customer journey to plan your automations.
Create a test contact and complete the actions that should trigger the automation to verify that messages are sent in the right order, delays work as intended, and contacts exit the workflow after completing its goal.
When you mimic the various paths a customer can take, you can anticipate any roadblocks they will face once they receive the automation.
Automation compliance: Consent and tracking rules around workflows
Your Shopify store can provide the customer data and events that support your automations.
But your automations need the right legal foundation to run; otherwise, your triggers and branching logic won't function correctly. Every workflow depends on:
- Permission to communicate
- Access to reliable customer data
- Accurate event tracking
Get consent for each marketing channel
Before sending an automated message, make sure the customer has given the appropriate consent for that channel.
For example, a customer who adds a product to their Shopify cart has generated an e-commerce event, but that does not automatically mean you can send them marketing messages through email, SMS, or WhatsApp. Your workflow should check that the customer is eligible to receive the message on the channel you plan to use.
This is particularly important for omnichannel workflows. A customer may have consented to email marketing without consenting to SMS or WhatsApp messages.
Also consider double opt-in so that only qualified leads are joining your email list. As Metcalfe points out, "The downside of this [double opt-in triggers] is that it takes longer to build a list - the benefit is that you have a higher quality list!”
Make sure Shopify events are tracked correctly
Once you obtain consent, verify that your tracking is working. Your automation is only as reliable as the events feeding it.
For example, an abandoned cart workflow depends on your store correctly recording cart activity. If the cart event is not synced with your marketing platform, the customer cannot enter the workflow. Similarly, if purchase events are not tracked correctly, a customer could continue receiving abandoned cart reminders after completing an order.
Before activating a workflow, verify that the Shopify events it relies on are being tracked correctly.
Legislation plays an important role here too.
France’s data protection authority (CNIL) has noted that from July 14, 2026, onwards, businesses need separate consent for email tracking technologies. They cannot use individual email open data to trigger automations without consent.
Further reading: How Brevo complies with GDPR
If a store has customers based in France, the threshold of consent for automations is higher. When consent limitations like these apply, you can pivot your strategy and rely on other metrics and data.
The goal is to build workflows around high-confidence signals without violating consent rules and protecting your store from compliance-related issues.
How does Brevo help with planning and building marketing automations?
Brevo connects your Shopify store data with its automation builder so that you can build workflows around customer and e-commerce events without coding.
You can use Shopify events such as cart updates and purchases to trigger workflows, then add conditions based on factors such as cart value, products purchased, or customer attributes.
From there, Brevo lets you respond through email, SMS, or WhatsApp, add delays and conditional branches, and update customer data as the workflow progresses.
For example, you can use a cart update to start an abandoned cart workflow, check whether the customer has purchased, and send an SMS follow-up only if they have not.
Brevo also provides pre-built automation templates, including abandoned cart workflows, which you can customize to fit your Shopify store's customer journeys.
Scale your Shopify marketing automations with Brevo
Shopify marketing automation is most effective when it is treated as an ongoing system rather than a collection of individual workflows.
As your Shopify store grows, revisit your triggers, conditions, actions, and suppressions to make sure they reflect your customer journey and product catalog. When you treat the workflow builder as something to revisit, your automations will evolve.
If you are building your first automation, you do not need to start with a paid plan. Brevo’s free plan is sufficient to test core workflows before scaling your automation program.
Connect your Shopify store to Brevo and start building marketing automations in minutes
