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An automation is one thing happening, a wait, and then an email. That’s the whole model.

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What can set one off

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Building a sequence

There’s no branching. If you want three emails over a week, that’s three automations on the same trigger with different delays:
1

Welcome, straight away

Trigger subscribed, no delay.
2

A nudge, three days later

Trigger subscribed, delay 3 days.
3

An offer, a week in

Trigger subscribed, delay 7 days.
Simpler than a flowchart, and much harder to accidentally leave someone stuck in.

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New automations start switched off

You have to turn one on yourself. It’s pointing at an email you haven’t read yet, and we’re not sending that to your customers on your behalf. Read it, send yourself a test, then enable it.

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Things we won’t let happen

You don’t need to think about any of this — it’s here so you know the edges are covered:
  • Nobody gets the same automated email twice. Even if the thing that triggered it fires again.
  • We check for unsubscribes when we send, not when we queue. Someone who opts out today won’t get a message scheduled last week.
  • If we can’t tell whether someone is subscribed, we don’t send. Missing an email is fixable. Emailing someone who opted out is a complaint.
  • Refunding an order cancels its pending automations. Nobody gets asked to review something they’ve just sent back.

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Where to start

Set up one automation and leave it alone for a month.Three emails to a list that isn’t converting on one email doesn’t fix anything — it just sends the same problem three times.
Trigger order_placed. Good for what happens next, care instructions, or asking for a referral. Resist selling them something else immediately.
Trigger order_delivered, with a delay long enough that they’ve actually used the thing. Refunded orders drop out automatically.
Trigger customer_lapsed. For most shops that sell anything repeatable this is the one that earns its keep, and the one nobody gets round to.

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Your contact limit

Marketing automations count toward your 500 subscribed contacts. Go over and they pause — receipts and shipping notifications don’t. → Email