Help · Automations

Automations

An automation sends email on its own when something happens. Somebody subscribes, reaches checkout, places an order, or their parcel goes out for delivery — the automation starts for that person and carries on by itself from there. Some of those are things they did; some are things that happened to their order. Either one can start an automation.

That is the whole difference between an automation and a campaign. You decide when a campaign goes out. An event starts an automation. Either one can hold several emails; only the starting point differs.

Two things are worth knowing before anything else, because they are the two that surprise people. Nothing you change reaches anybody until you apply changes, and no automation reaches anybody at all until it is enabled. They are separate acts, done in that order — though the first time you apply changes, one box lets you do both at once.

Your automations

Before your store's domain is connected, nothing an automation sends goes out. Anyone who starts one waits where they are and carries on once it is connected; only tests go out, and only to your team. A notice at the top of every automations screen says so, with Connect your domain for a manager or owner. The Your sending domain help page has the steps.

The Automations screen lists what you have built, most recently changed first. Each row carries the automation’s name, what starts it, its status, and how many people are moving through it right now.

Starts when names the start the way the automation's own map does: the event on its own — Placed Order — or Joins the list: Newsletter, or Submits the form: Spring signup. When the start is narrowed — it listens to your store's events only, say, or only some of those events start it — that is said on a smaller gray line underneath. Nothing under it means nothing narrows it.

Search narrows the rows by name. Type more than one word and every one of them has to match, wherever each of them falls and in any order. The Status pulldown narrows to Enabled, Disabled or Not applied yet, and each choice carries its count — Disabled · 3. Both keep their place in the address, so going back returns you to the view you were looking at.

To set up shows only the automations we couldn't fully import: each has a step marked To set up or a note to clear. It appears in the Status filter while you have any.

Paging. Under the table you choose how many to show at a time — 25, 50 or 100 per page — and step through with Previous and Next. The line beside them says where you are: Page 3 of 5. Type a number in the box to jump straight to a page. The page you are on is part of the address, so opening an automation and coming back puts you back where you were, and the size you choose is remembered the next time you open this screen. Searching or changing the filter takes you back to the first page. The counts in the Status pulldown always count your whole store, whatever the search or the page is showing.

The three words mean three different things:

• Enabled — it is running, and people are entering it.
• Disabled — its changes have been applied, and it is not running. Nobody new enters, and anybody already inside is held where they stand until it is enabled again.
• Not applied yet — its changes have never been applied. There is no version of it to run yet, so there is nothing to enable.

The Status column wears the same green and red switch as the automation's own page (below), and you can press it right there. An automation whose changes have never been applied has no switch yet — it reads Not applied yet in gray, as on its own page. A small gray note under a switch saying Changes not applied yet means that automation has edits waiting in it.

A row marked Changes not applied yet has edits waiting in it. That is not a warning — you can leave a change sitting for a week on purpose. It only means that what people receive is not yet what you last wrote.

Pressing a name opens that automation’s own page — except on one that is Not applied yet, which opens straight into the editor. There is nothing to report on an automation whose changes have never been applied, and carrying on building it is what you came to do. So the way back from its editor, Automations, returns you to this screen, filter and page intact — and an old link to its own page opens its editor.

The ⋮ at the end of a row holds everything else you can do to it without opening it: Edit, Enable or Disable, Make a copy, and Delete. Enabling one asks first and says who will enter it from now on; disabling asks nothing, because it stops mail rather than starting it. Enable cannot be pressed on an automation whose changes have never been applied — it stays in the menu and says why, rather than disappearing. Delete asks before it does anything, and cannot be undone.

You only see what your seat can do. Enabling an automation is the one act that asks for more than the rest, so a seat that cannot do it is not shown the switch at all — here or anywhere else.

The switch beside the name

On an automation's own page and in its editor, the switch right after the name both shows whether the automation is running and changes it. Green, reading Enabled — it is running. Red, reading Disabled — it is stopped. Press it to enable or disable the automation:

• Enabling it asks first, and says who will enter it from now on.
• Disabling it happens at once, with no question, because it stops mail rather than starting it. Anybody already inside is held where they stand.

While the change is on its way the switch says Enabling… or Disabling…. If the automation cannot be enabled yet — nothing has been chosen to start it, for example — the switch stays off and the reason is written beside it.

An automation whose changes have never been applied has no switch yet: it reads Not applied yet, and Apply changes offers to enable it once they are applied. If your seat cannot enable or disable automations, you see the same green or red word without a switch.

Starting points

Create automation opens a set of starting points, from Welcome and Abandoned checkout to Win back. Press one and it builds a real, working automation and opens it, ready to change however you like. Start from blank starts with nothing decided. The Starting points chapter covers each one, including the position the abandoned-checkout one asks you to accept before it can be enabled.

What starts an automation

An automation starts on one thing — an event, somebody joining a list, or somebody submitting a form — chosen on the Start card at the top of its map. Once it has been enabled, what starts it is fixed. The What starts an automation chapter covers the events on offer, Shopify tags, where an event comes from, who may enter and whether they can enter again.

The automation editor

An automation opens as a map: the Start card at the top and each step as a card below it. Everything you change is saved as you go into a working copy that reaches nobody until you apply changes. The automation editor chapter covers the map, adding and moving steps, undo, versions, making a copy and deleting.

Steps in an automation

A step sends an email or a text, waits, splits people down different paths, puts people on a list or takes them off, sets a property, or emails your team. A Send email or Text message step can also carry a rule of its own. The Steps in an automation chapter covers every kind of step, the details from the start event, templates and test sends.

Draft, Manual and Live

Every step is Draft or Live, and an email or a text can also be Manual. A draft is skipped, a live message goes to everyone who reaches it, and a Manual message holds people until your team releases or skips them. The Draft, Manual and Live chapter covers all three, and who can enable a message.

Applying changes and enabling

Nothing you change reaches anybody until you press Apply changes, and nobody enters until the automation is Enabled — the first time you apply changes, one box does both. The Applying changes and enabling chapter covers what applying does to people partway through or already finished, what to fix first, and disabling.

What an automation is doing

An automation’s own page reports who entered, who finished, what each step sent, and who is held by one of your own rules. Preview, in the editor, answers for one person: whether they would enter and what each step would do. The What an automation is doing chapter covers both.

How often one person hears from you

Your store has a frequency limit: how long somebody waits between marketing emails, whatever sent them. It covers campaigns and automations together, so two automations cannot both reach the same person within the gap.

Find it on Settings → Email, under Frequency limit. A send that would come too soon waits until the gap has passed rather than being dropped. An owner or a manager can change it — disable it, or choose a gap in hours or days, from an hour to a week; a marketer and a viewer see what it is. A change applies to everyone at once, including people an automation is already holding back.

Who can do what

A viewer reads your automations. A marketer builds them, applies changes, enables an automation and its messages, and releases or skips the people waiting at a Manual message. A manager or owner can do all of that, and also controls the email that tells your team people are waiting.