Flow Counter offers counter capabilities that allow you to count the number of a certain product in your store or the frequency of an event. You can get personalized statistical data that suits your needs.

 

In This Article

• What Is a Counter?
• Scenarios Where You Can Use a Counter
• Setting up a Counter

 

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What Is a Counter?

Before explaining what a counter is, let's start with a scenario where a counter would be of use:

Scenario: Counting the sales of each product in your store. If the sales of a product exceed 100 units, it’ll be marked as ‘best-selling’, and internal emails are sent to staff to take further action.

The above scenario reveals three roles of the counter:

• Conducting statistical analysis:
  • You can define what you want to count and set the counting rules however you like.
  • A frequent application is to count the number of a certain product in a store or the frequency of an event.
• The resulting data can serve as a foundation for determining whether to proceed with the workflow.
• This data is also available for use in other scenarios.

 

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Scenarios Where You Can Use a Counter

A counter can be used in a wide range of scenarios, depending on the operating strategy of a store.

Flow Counter offers a variety of widely used counter-scenario templates for your convenience and consistently updates its library with popular and emerging templates.

Follow the steps below to get templates:

1. From Flow Counter, locate Most Popular Automation Templates.
2. Click View All Templates to go to the preview page.
   
   
   
3. From the menu on the left, find Counters.
   
   
   

Below are the most common counter-scenario templates offered by Flow Counter:

• Template 1: Count product sales to identify best-sellers
  
  
  
• Template 2: Count order volumes by country
  
  
  
• Template 3: Count the number of email subscribers
  
  
  

Template 4: Count the number of customers who have spent more than USD 1,000

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Setting up a Counter

Creating a Counter

A counter has to be created in a Flow workflow. Follow the steps below:

1. Create a custom workflow in Flow Counter.
   
   
   
2. After setting up the workflow triggers, add Action and select Update counter.
3. Action Settings includes two parts: select Counter Name to determine what is to be adjusted; and set Counter Value to determine how the adjustment is conducted.
   
   
   

• The settings of Counter Name fall into two categories:
  • Dynamic counters: Counters with their names containing dynamic variables. Take ‘Counter of Product-specific Sales’ for example, each order may contain different products. Consequently, the counters requiring updates can vary. It is necessary to add a variable in the counter name. Click X to add a variable.
    
    
    
  • Static counters: Counters with their names do not contain variables. Take ‘Counting of Email Subscribers’ for example, which refers to counting the number of customers that have subscribed to emails. You simply enter the counter name you set.
    
    
    
• The settings of Counter Value fall into two categories:
  • The value to be adjusted is dynamic. In other words, the adjustment value is a dynamic variable. Take ‘Counter of Product-specific Sales’ for example, since the sales of each product vary with each order, the values needing updates are also uncertain. The values to be updated should reflect the actual sales figures for each product in the corresponding order. Adding a variable is necessary for the value. Click X to add a variable.
    
    
    
  • The value to be adjusted is static. In other words, a fixed value is added/subtracted as long as a certain event happens. Take ‘Counting of Email Subscribers’ for example, which refers to counting the number of customers that have subscribed to emails. In this scenario, a fixed value of 1 is added.
    
    
    

4. After completing the above steps, the counter values are updated as per the settings of the workflow operations.

 

Using Counters as Workflow Conditions

The result of each counter can be used as a condition in your workflow to determine whether an action is taken, realizing branching. Follow the steps below:

1. To add a condition in a workflow, select Special condition and Use the counter value as a condition.
   
   
   
2. Enter a counter name to determine the result of which counter is used as a condition. The counter name must be accurate. If a static counter is used, copy and paste its name. If a dynamic counter is used, copy and paste the variable along with the counter name.
3. Input the anticipated counter value to identify under which conditions the workflow will proceed to the next step.
   
   
   
   
4. When the workflow proceeds to this condition, it will make a judgment based on the real-time counter value.

Viewing Counter Results

You can view all counter results on the Manage Counters page. Follow the steps below:

1. At the bottom of Flow Automation, find Counter and click Manage.
   
   
   
2. On the Manage Counters page, you can view all counters created, their current values, and the time of their latest updates.

If you need offline data, select the counters you need and click Export. You will get offline data in Excel format.