The demands on ecommerce operators grow as their companies scale. Strategic inventory management, vigilant fraud prevention, and timely maintenance of loyalty programs all require more attention the larger you get.
But what if you could set these systems up to manage themselves with minimal input from you? When properly rolled out, workflow automation can handle many of the tedious manual processes required for ecommerce success—leaving you more time to focus on the more creative elements of growing your business.
In 2024, McKinsey reported that companies deploying AI in operations are already seeing cost savings, and the largest share report meaningful revenue increases of 5% or more in supply chain and inventory management.
This guide will introduce you to some workflow automation examples, and show you what workflow automation is, how it works, and how to use it to increase efficiency, decrease errors, and provide better customer service.
What is workflow automation?
Workflow automation is the use of software to handle repetitive tasks without human intervention.
Workflow automation software can streamline and automate processes ranging from order fulfillment, employee onboarding, inventory tracking, and customer support ticket management. Automation relieves workers from the time-consuming process of completing rote tasks, resulting in increased efficiency, reduced human error, and higher job satisfaction.
The idea of workflow automation is not new. As early as the 1920s, Frederick Winslow Taylor, the founder of the Scientific Management movement, made strides toward workflow automation by breaking processes down into discrete steps that could be repeated, standardized, and optimized. Taylor’s approach influenced the development of assembly lines and automated mass production, systems that revolutionized manufacturing.
Fast forward 100 years, and the barrier to entry for these optimizations has virtually vanished. Anyone with a laptop can set up an automation with cloud-based platforms and no-code interfaces. Marketing and operations teams can build their own digital assembly lines in minutes and manage workloads that would have previously required a dedicated team.
Quick primer: Shopify Flow
Ever wish your team could spend more time on strategic items, like analyzing sales data and cost-modeling for new market expansion, rather than manually processing orders?
Automation apps like Shopify Flow are designed to solve these issues—and not just for sales, but for everyone, from customer experience to inventory management and even risk management. You set up automatic workflows by telling the app how to respond to certain inputs and other triggering events—for example, you can have an automatic Slack message sent to you when stock is low for your bestselling items,
The app offers a drag-and-drop interface where you can draw out the logic of your business operations. For example, you drag a Trigger block onto the canvas, then draw a line connecting it to a Condition block, and finally an Action block.
The example below illustrates a customer loyalty program workflow whereby a new metaobject entry automatically triggers a sequence of actions, including an API request and tagging a customer profile. The steps are all connected within Flow to create the automated process.
The three basic components that make up most workflows are:
- Trigger (The Start): The specific event in your store or app that kicks off the automation. Examples include an Order created, Inventory changed, or Customer added.
- Condition (The If/Then Logic): The logic that decides which path to take. You can create complex "If/Then" branches visually. For instance, IF an order is over $500 AND the risk level is Low, THEN go right.
- Action (The Task): This is the step that gets something done when the conditions are met. An action could be anything from adding a tag to an order, sending a notification to your staff, updating a customer's record, or engaging an external app to complete a specific task.
Flow can also handle more complex scenarios. With Liquid, you can use variables to pass data between steps, like an order number or customer name. Or, use ”For each” loops to run actions on every item in a list, like checking each line item in an order.
💡If you need a head start, the template library offers prebuilt workflows for everyday use cases.
Examples of workflow automation
1. Managing inventory
An automated inventory management system can monitor real-time stock levels. For instance, when an item's quantity drops below a set number, the system can:
- Alert you or automatically reorder the product
- Notify your marketing team to mute promotions for the item until it’s back in stock
- Add a “low stock” tag to the item on your site to nudge customers to action: “Buy now before it runs out!”
- Automatically mark the item as unavailable once it is out of stock
As an example, this Shopify Flow workflow automatically sends an internal email to a vendor when a product variant's inventory drops to 10 units.
2. Updating “new arrival” products
Workflow automation can curate product collections by tagging and sorting new products based on rules you set.
For example, a workflow can evaluate an item for “newness” (e.g., if it’s been added within the past 30 days), tag it as New, and add it to the "New Arrivals" collection in your store.
The same workflow could be set to automatically remove that tag from items once they’ve been listed longer than 30 days, keeping the collection fresh. This saves your team from manually combing through items and ensures returning customers always see what's new. You could similarly trigger a notification to in-store associates to remove the 30-day items from the display area reserved for new inventory.
This Shopify Flow workflow automates product organization for a store that sells watches and accessories:
When a Product created trigger fires, the system checks the product's SKU. If the SKU contains "WTCH," it automatically tags the product as a "watch and adds it to the "Watch" collection.
A parallel condition does the same for "STRP," sorting items into a "Strap" collection the moment they're created.
3. Canceling high-risk orders
Retail fraud is a perpetual problem that shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Trying to identify high-risk orders on your own can be time-consuming as well as stressful. An automated fraud-prevention workflow reviews orders and assesses potential fraud risks based on defined parameters, taking some of the guesswork out of fraud prevention.
The workflow might analyze a new order for predetermined risk factors such as:
- Do billing and shipping addresses match?
- Does the buyer’s address match the address on file with the credit card company?
- Does the buyer have a history of fraudulent activity?
If an order poses a high risk, it can be automatically canceled or forwarded to the finance department for review.
Once an order is deemed fraudulent, the workflow can add the customer’s email and IP address to an “automatic cancel” list. This way, fraud is addressed swiftly, lessening the burden on your finance team.
When an Order risk analyzed trigger fires and the condition Order risk level is equal toHIGH is met, the workflow automatically:
- Tags the order
- Cancels the order because of fraud
- Restocks the items
- Tags the customer as "High-risk"
- Sends an internal email to the team notifying them of the cancellation
Automated protection is essential for high-volume merchants like Brian Burke. After migrating his business, RenewedMacs.com, from eBay to Shopify to gain more control over his customer experience, he implemented these safeguards to protect his inventory.
"Our Shopify store will automatically cancel orders if it detects fraud for example so we'll never end up shipping it," Burke says. By catching these issues before a product ever leaves the shelf, retailers save on shipping costs and lost merchandise.
4. Combatting chargeback abuse
Chargebacks occur when a customer disputes a credit charge. In some circumstances, chargebacks are legitimate—like when the customer never authorized the charge or received the wrong product.
But chargebacks can be a form of fraud. A customer might fraudulently claim to have never received a product. An automated fraud-prevention workflow can verify if the customer has a history of returning items and claiming they are damaged or not as described.
If so, the workflow alerts customer service before order fulfillment, like in the example below, so the team can address the potentially abusive claim.
5. Initiating loyalty programs
An automated loyalty program workflow monitors customers’ lifetime spend. When a customer passes a predetermined spending threshold, the loyalty and retention program kicks into gear and notifies your marketing team. The team can then send an automated personalized message to the customer, add them to a preferred customer list, or invite them to take a survey.
For example, this Shopify Flow workflow activates the Smile loyalty app, to offer loyalty points or a promo after a customer’s third order. It’s an easy way to strengthen retention without any human intervention.
6. Initiating post-purchase engagement
After a customer completes a purchase, an automated workflow can deliver a custom promotion via email, text message, or browser push notification. All of these are customizable and can be applied to upsell and win-back campaigns.
The workflow might also personalize the customer experience based on data you’ve collected about their interests, demographics, and purchase history—for instance, by suggesting items that pair well with products they have in their cart.
A great example is this Shopify Flow workflow that upsells customers after their first purchase. The system waits 14 days after the customer places their first order, then follows up with an email from Shopify Email encouraging them to make another purchase.
7. Abandoned cart recovery
Nearly 70% of shopping carts are abandoned—but that doesn’t mean you have to abandon those shoppers, especially when they’ve come that close to making a purchase. Recovery emails can help remind them. Set up a workflow that monitors cart abandonment: if a customer abandons their cart for more than an hour, then the workflow automatically sends a reminder email.
Shopify Flows offers a sophisticated abandoned-cart workflow in the template library. It starts when a customer leaves your online store without making a purchase. Then it checks whether the cart was abandoned; if so, it waits four hours.
After the wait, it checks for three more conditions:
- The customer has added another product
- The customer hasn't received another abandonment email in the last 14 days
- The products in the cart are in stock
If all three conditions are true, it automatically triggers a Send marketing email action to recover the sale.
8. Combining same-day orders
An automated workflow initiated by an Order placed trigger can check an order to see whether the customer has placed another order within the same day.
Based on a merge rule you set (like Same shipping address, Not yet fulfilled), it can then combine the orders so they can be packed and shipped together. This improves shipping efficiency, saves money, and can enhance customer satisfaction.
9. Customer support ticketing
Customers expect fast responses to support questions. Workflow automation can help by logging and auto-tagging each incoming support issue based on keywords.
Chatbots serve as entry-level online help—and if the issue remains unresolved, the workflow can summarize the chat before escalating the ticket to a human support agent. This permits support staff to help customers resolve the more complex issues without asking the customer to repeat themselves.
10. Employee onboarding
The onboarding workflow can be automated, as most steps are routine and time-sensitive. When a new employee is added to the system, the workflow can automatically send a welcome email with an instructional video and the first onboarding task, complete with due dates. Once the new hire completes the first task, the workflow sends the second task—and so on. This way your new employees don’t have to wait to coordinate schedules with HR, and you can get your new hires set up and ready to get to work sooner.
Four best practices for implementing workflow automation
- Examine existing processes
- Break down the logic of the flow
- Order the workflow using an app
- Start small and scale up
Workflow automation can streamline many parts of a business’s day-to-day operations. Follow these best practices when implementing a new automated workflow.
1. Examine existing processes
Map your business processes out. Document them. Then, select which ones would be strong candidates for automation. Processes that depend on repetitive manual tasks requiring accuracy, consistency, and timeliness are good candidates for automation. Save the higher-level strategies and creative decisions for you and your team.
2. Break down the logic of the flow
Since an automated workflow is a set of programmed instructions, you need to break down the tasks you want to achieve into discrete steps. Any process that relies on conditional “if this, then that” logic is prime for automation. Map out how workflow should respond to all possible conditions.
3. Order the workflow using an app
Automation software such as Shopify Flow uses building blocks that are simple to use, even without prior programming knowledge. Most workflow automation apps will break the process outlined above into three stages: Trigger > Condition > Action, as you’ve seen in the examples above.
4. Start small and scale up
Automated workflows can be complex with many branches of decision logic, but it’s wise to start with simple tasks and build on this foundation after thorough testing.
Educate and train your team on how to use the automated workflow, and elicit constructive feedback—they’ll likely have ideas about how to make it even more efficient.
Benefits of workflow automation
Still not convinced by these workflow automation solutions? Here are some benefits to prove its value:
- Efficiency gains: Leaders are gaining major competitive advantages with automation. According to a 2024 Bain & Company survey of over 1,000 executives, companies that lead in automation investment reduce their costs at more than double the rate of those lagging behind.
- Faster customer support: According toZendesk’s 2025 CX Trends report 90% of customer experience (CX) leaders are seeing a return on investment (ROI) from AI in support. Automating tasks like triage, tagging, suggesting replies, and deflection can shorten time-to-first-response and resolution.
- Scalable fulfillment: At enterprise scale, automation and robotics have driven significant cost improvements. For example, Amazon’s warehouse automation reduced order fulfillment costs by 25%.
- Improved productivity: IBM’s 2024 CEO Study finds that more than two-thirds of CEOs view the productivity gains from automation/AI as so substantial that they’re prepared to accept greater risk to stay competitive.
For Kate McLeod, a former banker turned pastry chef and skincare founder, automation solved a physical problem digitally.
Her products were melting in hot mailboxes, so she set up a workflow to flag orders in high-temperature regions.
"What's so amazing about Shopify Flow is that we're able to identify customers that live in hotter regions," she says.
This triggers a proactive email reminding them to grab the package immediately, saving the product and the customer experience.
Meanwhile, Magnolia Bakery uses automation to solve a data problem. Former senior marketing manager Adam Davis needed to separate local buyers from nationwide gifters.
"We've set up a lot of tagging kind of out into the future," Adam explains. "If this order contains a gift message that contains the words ‘Happy birthday,’ let's have Shopify tag that order with birthday purchasers."
This allows Magnolia to send highly specific marketing, like birthday SMS reminders, without sorting through thousands of orders manually.
Workflow automation examples FAQ
How can workflow automation improve collaboration within teams?
Workflow automation software can fill communication gaps by automatically forwarding relevant information to the team members who need it. A successful workflow keeps the relevant staff on the same page and working toward common goals.
What are the key considerations when choosing a workflow automation tool?
The workflow automation tool you choose will depend on your business needs and the level of programming expertise you have. For ecommerce stores, apps like Shopify Flow don’t require coding experience because they use an easy-to-learn drag-and-drop interface.
Can workflow automation be customized to fit specific business requirements?
Yes, robust workflow automation tools can grow with your business requirements. This is an important factor to consider when choosing the proper tool. Is it flexible enough? Does it force you into a box you can’t get out of? Can you tweak the workflows?
What KPIs can I use to measure the success of workflow automation?
If you want to measure the impact of your automations, here are some KPIs to monitor:
- Error rate reduction: Measure the decrease in human errors for tasks like order tagging or manual data entry.
- Time-savings: Calculate the number of employee hours saved by automated workflows.
- Cost-savings and ROI: Compare the cost of implementing automations versus how much manual labor it replaced.
Which Shopify plans include Shopify Flow?
Shopify Flow is available on all of the paid plans: Basic, Grow, Advanced, and Plus.
