Flow Automation is an app launched by SHOPLINE to help you automate day-to-day tasks in your store.

This article will provide an overview of SHOPLINE Flow Automation, helping you set your workflow more flexibly.

What is a Flow?

A Flow is an automated workflow for SHOPLINE merchants that contains a trigger, a condition, and an action.

When a triggering scene happens in your store, the flow will determine whether the condition is met based on the criteria you set and whether an action will be taken.

Here are some definitions of words you will see in SHOPLINE Flow Automation:

Trigger: a scenario that starts a flow
Condition: if the scenario meets the condition you set
Action: the outcome will occur

SHOPLINE Flow Automation provides many triggers, conditions, and actions that you can use together to make changes in your store.

Tasks that Can be Automated through SHOPLINE Flow Automation

Product Management

Tagging multiple designated products
Tagging products provided by a supplier
Deactivating products under a category in bulk at a set time
Displaying products of a supplier in bulk at a set time
Modifying product brands in batches
Deactivating zero-sales products in batches
Deactivating products with designated SKUs in batches
Deactivating products created on a specified date in batches
Adding categories automatically based on product information
Tagging a product based on its characteristics (eg tagging a product as a top if its name contains "T-shirt")

Inventory Management

Displaying a product automatically when its inventory recovers
Deactivating a product automatically when its inventory runs low
Tagging a product when its inventory runs low

Order Management

Tagging a customer when a specified product is abandoned at checkout
Notifying suppliers when an order contains a supplier's item
Sending a notification to the designated email address when an order is canceled
Notifying staff of orders with excessively high discounts
Notifying staff of orders with an excessive of product
Automatically canceling orders from specific countries

Customer Management

Tagging inactive high-value customers in batches
Tagging active high-value customers in batches
Adding a country tag to customers based on their address information
Tagging a customer based on their potential gender (eg tagging a customer as female when they buy products that contain ‘women’ in their names)
Classifying customers based on their consumption level
Tagging a customer after they place an order
Tagging the staff member after they sign up for an account
Tagging customers who spend a lot in your store as high-value customers
Tagging customers who have made repeated purchases

Statistics

Tallying the counter value regularly
Updating the Top 50 best sellers regularly
Counting the number of email subscribers
Counting the number of customers who have spent more than USD 140
Upgrading the membership of customers who make repeated purchases
Counting the number of orders by country
Identifying products with sales exceeding 100 units and tagging them as best-sellers

Risk Warning

Identifying orders with unusual addresses
Notifying staff to keep a close watch on orders from suspicious IP addresses

Note: The above scenes are provided by SHOPLINE Flow Automation by default. You can set up your scenes based on your needs.

How to Create a Flow

Creating a Flow Using a Template

SHOPLINE Flow Automation provides 40 templates that cover the common store tasks. You can choose from these templates directly to start a flow quickly.

Note: You need to first install the app before proceeding. Please download the app here.

Follow the steps below to choose a template:

From the Flow Automation admin panel, go to the Most Popular Automation Templates section.

If the displayed templates contain what you need, click on them to view their details. If not, click All templates to access the entire template library.
Find the template you need and click Use it. We will automatically create a flow that matches the template. You can adjust the flow settings by making changes based on your needs.

Creating a Custom Flow

If the default templates don't match your needs, you can create a custom flow by making your combination of "triggers", "conditions", and "actions".

Follow the steps below to create a custom flow:

From your Flow Automation admin panel, go to My flow.
Click the Create customize flow button in the upper right corner of the section to open the flow editing page.

How to Set up a Flow

Setting up Triggers

Each flow must contain a trigger that determines when to start the flow. Here are the steps to set up your triggers:

To create a custom flow, you first need to choose a trigger. From the trigger list, select one based on the descriptions.
To change a trigger, move your cursor to the trigger card on the left of the canvas. Then, click the Change button to select a new trigger.

Note: A change of trigger may affect the original flow settings. You have to make changes as indicated by the prompts.

Setting up Conditions

Conditions are a component of a flow that provides additional constraints on whether the trigger or flow should be activated.

You can determine whether to add a condition or not based on your actual business needs. For example, if you want to deactivate a product when its stock is below 10, you can add a condition that the trigger is valid if the stock is below 10.

Here are the steps to set up a condition:

From the Trigger card, click Next step > Add condition.
Click Add Condition to add a condition.
You can view all conditions available offered by Flow Automation in the Select a parameter page. Select the data you want to use as a condition. You can choose one or multiple conditions.
Set criteria for the condition, the logical operator, and the expected value. For example, the condition is met when the total order count is above 10. The logical operator is Greater than and the expected value is 10.

Setting up Actions

Actions are an integral part of a flow. An action represents what you want the flow to help you achieve.

To set up an action, follow the steps below:

From a card on the right of the canvas, click Next step (if you set it from the trigger) or Then (if you set it from a condition) > Add action.
To select an action, click on the action that you want to set up from the list on the right.
Different actions require different settings. To set up an action, you need to fill in additional details. For example, if the action is to adjust member tiers, you need to fill in the tier name and the expiration date (month).

Setting a Flow Name

You can set a name for each flow based on its content to better identify and manage them.

To set a flow name, click Edit on the top. Then, enter a new flow name and click on any space to save.

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How to Start a Flow

After completing the flow setup, you need to start the flow to fully initiate it for your store.

Click the Start Workflow button at the top. If the flow is not correctly set up, we will show a prompt. In this case, modify the settings as indicated and try it again.
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You can check the status of your flow in the My flow section.

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How to View the Running of a Flow

In SHOPLINE Flow Automation, you can view each flow’s cumulative number of runs and their details in the recent month.

From your Flow Automation admin panel, find My flow. There you can view the total number of runs of each flow in the list.
Click the flow you want to view to go to the details page. In the Running record section, you can view the details of each flow in the recent month. Click any flow to go to the details page.
In the details page, you can find the time and execution result of each step.

Resolving Flow Runtime Exceptions

When Flow encounters too many tasks to handle simultaneously, it might pause its operation as a safety measure to ensure the stability of other workflows.

If you receive an alert about a Flow runtime exception, please verify if there's an unusual spike in your store's order, product, or customer data that could be overloading Flow.

If the data volume appears normal, contact us to restart the Flow process.

Introduction to Flow Automation

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