Automations send emails automatically when something happens: someone joins a list, abandons a cart, views a product repeatedly, or a date arrives. You build them on a visual canvas with trigger, email, wait and condition blocks.
Build a workflow
- Go to Automations and click Create automation
- Choose a trigger (see the triggers reference) or start from a ready-made flow template
- Drag blocks onto the canvas: Send Email, Wait, and If/Then conditions
- Configure each block in the side panel
- Save as draft, then activate when you are ready
The trigger's two extra settings
Every trigger has two settings that control who enters and stays in the flow:
- Re-entry: by default a subscriber goes through a flow once. You can allow re-entry when the trigger fires again, or after a number of days.
- Profile filters: extra conditions on store, email and profile fields (tags, custom fields, list or segment membership). Filters are checked at enrollment and again before each send - if someone no longer matches, remaining emails are skipped.
Behavioral filters support time windows: over all time, in the last X days, or since starting this flow. The last one is a mid-flow stop: "placed order zero times since starting this flow" lets someone enter a welcome series but stops the remaining emails if they buy along the way.
Who can enter a flow
Only subscribers with status Active are enrolled, whatever the trigger. Unsubscribed, bounced and inactive subscribers (for example imported contacts without consent, or double opt-in signups who have not confirmed yet) never enter, even if they browse your store or place an order. A double opt-in subscriber enters new subscriber flows the moment they confirm.
If a subscriber becomes unsubscribed, bounced or inactive while already inside a flow, the flow stops at the next Send Email step. The canvas shows this as Skipped on that step, so it is not counted as completed and no email is sent.
Wait steps
A Wait block holds people on that step until the delay ends. The canvas active count on a Wait step is people currently waiting there. They move to the next email only when the wait is over, not as soon as they arrive.
If/Then conditions
An If/Then block splits the flow into a Yes and a No branch. Pick a condition type in the side panel: email engagement (opened, clicked), subscriber data (tag, list, segment, profile property), engagement score, or timing and activity.
One If/Then can hold several conditions. Click Add condition under the first one and choose how they combine:
- AND: the Yes branch is taken only when all conditions are true
- OR: the Yes branch is taken when any one of them is true
A common use is a language split with a default. Language equals ET OR Language is empty sends everyone with Estonian set, plus everyone with no language yet, down the Estonian branch instead of dropping them through every No branch. The same connector applies to all conditions on the block; the summary at the bottom of the panel and the label on the canvas show the combined rule.
Profile property conditions offer Is empty and Is not empty operators, so a fallback like the one above works even with a single condition.
Engagement conditions (opened or clicked an email) may need to wait for the email to be sent before they can be decided. With several conditions the block only waits when the outcome still depends on that condition - if another condition already decides the result, the subscriber moves on immediately.
Send Email steps
Each Send Email step has:
- An internal email name (the bold title on the canvas) and a subject line (what recipients see)
- Its own optional sender name and address; empty fields fall back to the trigger list's sender settings, then
noreply@your-domain - Its own design: the drag-and-drop editor, the HTML editor, or a saved template as a starting point. Picking a template shows a rendered preview in the side panel.
- Optional unique store coupon per recipient
Remote images in the email (for example a logo on your shop) are copied onto your tracking domain when the email is sent, the same way uploaded assets are served. Inboxes then load them from your brand domain instead of the shop URL.
Saving and autosave
- Save workflow saves and keeps you in the editor
- Draft workflows autosave a few seconds after every change; the save state is shown in the top bar
- Active workflows never autosave (a live flow must not change under subscribers without an explicit save). Unsaved changes are kept as a local recovery copy - if the tab closes, you are offered to restore them when you reopen the workflow.
Statuses
- Draft: not running, safe to edit
- Active: running, enrolls subscribers when the trigger fires
- Paused: stops enrolling new subscribers; people already in the flow continue
Editing an active automation only affects new enrollees - subscribers already inside continue on the path they started.