Hey, Scott Austin here.

In this episode, I'm going to talk about a handy, free Shopify app that most stores can benefit from.  The app is called Flow and is developed by Shopify.  It used to be a Shopify Plus only app, but a couple of years ago, Shopify made it available to all Shopify stores.  The app is so handy that it comes pre-listed in new Shopify stores.

Flow is a workflow automation tool, so it's meant to automate repetitive tasks that you may be doing manually. For example, let's say you have a manual step in your fulfillment process where you check to see if a given product, say gift wrapping, is in the order.  And if it is, you tag the order and send it to the gift wrapping team.  You can automate the task of checking if an order contains gift wrapping with Flow.  Flow can then tag the order for you and send a notification off to the right team automatically, saving you little bit of time and brain power on each order.

I believe that any repeated manual task will have errors no matter how diligent people are.  So if you can automate those tasks, you'll reduce errors and save your time, therefore improving the quality of our service and saving money.  Now automating a single task may not add up to quantifiable time savings.  But the more tasks that you automate with Flow, the more time you will save.  And the cumulative effect can have a noticeable impact on your bottom line.  Add to that the cost-savings from the reduced errors and Flow becomes a no-brainer for almost any store.

Let me give you some examples of tasks that I've automated for clients with Flow.  The gift wrapping example was a real world one.

A similar one is a client that sells engraved gifts.  They found that their gift-givers were procrastinators that frequently waited until the last minute to place their orders.  So we created a product for front-of-line order processing, which by the way, was all profit.  And they now have a flow that sees if an order has the front-of-line processing in it.  If it does, the order gets tagged and a notification is sent to the fulfillment team, who then take action.

I have another client that allows customers to donate to the store's preferred charity when they place an order.  There's a flow in place that tags those customers when they make a donation so the store can analyze that segment and see if they act differently.

I have two clients who sell vintage products so their inventory quantity for every product is 1.  So in both stores we've set up flows that move the product from the for sale side of the store to the past pieces side of the store when the product is sold.  FYI, we have a gallery of past pieces live in each store for the SEO benefits of listing the sold products.

Another client uses draft orders when putting together custom products.  Each custom product sold is a separate product in the Shopify store as it has a unique photo and price.  So there's a flow in place that automatically archives the Shopify product once the custom product is purchased.

For another client, we use product metafields in the filters on collection and search pages.  So we've created a series of flows that check for certain pieces of data when a new product is created and uses that data to fill in the appropriate metafield values.  One flow looks for keywords in the product title.  Another looks for keywords in the product description as the keywords get used differently based on where they are located.

For another client, they offer a free, physical product as an incentive to encourage customers to opt-in.  We've locked down the free product from being abused as best as we can in the theme using code.  But there is still a path where people can cheat the process by going straight to the checkout.  So we have flows that highlight any time a person tries to get more than one of the free item in an order.  Or if they try to include the free item in more than order as there is a limit of one per customer.

Yet another client tags customers who uses points from the store's loyalty program in an order so the store staff can measure the impact of the loyalty program.

Another client likes to reward and surprise high repeat customers.  So the store has a flow that tags orders when its the 6th or 12th order placed by a customer.  The fulfillment team then adds a surprise gift and a note to those orders. 

I have another client that uses Flow to send them notifications when the inventory levels on their products fall below certain thresholds.

In the world of Flow, these are some pretty basic automations.  Flows can be much more complex and involve several steps.  I find its best to get started by automating some simple tasks.  And then over time your flows will get more complex as you get more comfortable with the App.

The Flow app comes over with over 100 templates.  Browsing through the list will give you more ideas on the breadth and depth of what Flow can do for you.  

I like using Flow.  But as with many powerful tools, there can be a learning curve to it.  But that's another reason to start with some simple flows and build on their sophistication over time.  More complex flows will require in-depth knowledge of Shopify's data model.  And advanced flows will even include JavaScript code.  But don't let scare you -- there's plenty of value to be gotten within the first few minutes of you setting up the app.

Flow has a visual workflow builder that makes it easier to create flows.  In the builder, there are these 3 key elements:

1. Triggers.  Triggers are events that start a workflow. Examples include a new order, customer creation, or an inventory change.
2. Conditions.  Conditions set criteria that must be met for the workflow to proceed. For example, you might only want a workflow to run if the order total is above a certain amount.
3. Actions.  Actions are  tasks that are executed when the conditions are met. Actions can include things like sending an email, tagging an order, or updating inventory.

If you have ever used a service like If This Then That, conditions in Flow are the Ifs and actions are the Thats.

I already mentioned that Flow comes with tons of templates to get you started.  It also allows you to import and export flows.  This way, flows can be shared between Shopify stores if you have multiple stores or if your talking to other Shopify store owners. 

Flow also has some good tools to help you troubleshoot your flow if you are not getting the expected outcome.  The app logs every use of a flow with enough detail for you to find where the problem occurs.

So far, I've only talked about instances where Flow is interacting with Shopify.  But Flow can interact with other apps too.  Now the apps need to do some work on their side to work with Flow so not every app integrates with Flow.  If you go into the Flow app, you'll see what is integrations are enabled with your other installed apps in the visual workflow builder. 

One useful integration is with Google Sheets.  You can add a row of data to an existing Sheet based on a workflow.  Here's an example of how you could use this.  Let's say you are running a marketing campaign and want to better understand the purchase behaviors of customers in the campaign.  You could create a Google sheet to track the information about customers form the campaign.  The data could customer data like their location and how they started their session.  You could also include order information like the products order and discounts used.  Having this information in Google Sheets would allow you to analyze it as a set.  Now, I've found the documentation on how to connect Flow and Sheets to be confusing.  So I've created a video on how to do it, which I'll link to in the show notes.

Alright, if you are not already using Flow in your Shopify store, I hope this episode has given you some ideas on how you could use this free app to automate some tasks in your business.  Go ahead and add the app to your store from the Shopify app store.  I've included a link to the listing in the show notes.  Then create your first automation.  And then start taking notice of the manual tasks that you are repeatedly doing in your day-to-day store operations and ask yourself if they can be automated.  Once you get yourself into that mindset, you'll start building out your library of automations.  

Each automation will save you time and reduce errors.  This will help you save money and improve the customer experience.  And that's great ROI from a free app. 

Thanks for listening.