Flows let you automate how you interact with customers. Use them to reactivate inactive shoppers, send birthday and anniversary greetings, deliver digests, and much more.
Scheduled flows run at a specific time on a recurring cadence. For example, every day at 10:00 AM, every weekday at 3:00 PM, or at 8:00 PM on the last day of every month.
To create a scheduled flow, open the start block and choose By schedule. Then set when and how often the flow should run, and which customers should enter it.
To trigger a flow in response to customer actions instead, see the article on event-based flows.
Every day
Runs every day at the same time. Pick a time of day.
Example: The flow runs every day at 2:00 PM.
Common use cases:
- Birthday greeting flow
- Anniversary reminder flow
- Customer reactivation flow
- Reactivation by email opens
By days of the week
Runs on specific days every N weeks. Pick the days of the week, the time, and the repeat frequency.
Example: The flow runs every second Friday at 3:00 PM.
By days of the month
Pick the months, the days to repeat on, and the time.
You can choose from these repeat days:
- Specific dates
- The last day of the month
- The first, second, third, fourth, or last weekday of the month
Examples:
- The flow runs on the 1st of every month at 10:00 AM.
- The flow runs on the last day of every month at 9:00 AM.
- The flow runs on the first Friday of every summer month at 8:00 PM.
Other settings and behavior
When the flow starts
After you turn the flow on, the Schedule block waits until the time you set, then runs for the customers who match its conditions at that moment.
Example: You turn the flow on at 5:00 PM.
- It will run every day at 10:00 AM for the customers who are in the segment at that time.
- The first run happens the next day at 10:00 AM.
Flow active window
You can set a start date and an end date for the flow. This is useful for time-limited campaigns and helps you automate when they begin and end.
To do this, open the flow settings and set the dates.
Example: The flow only runs during March 2023.
Per-customer frequency cap
A customer can match a flow’s conditions many times.
For example, a reactivation flow checks for no orders in the last 30 days and sends a campaign. Without a frequency cap, the flow will run for that customer every day until they make a purchase.
Another example: a customer edits their birth date in their profile. Without a safeguard, the birthday flow will issue bonuses again.
You can prevent this by capping how often the flow runs per customer.
Example: The birthday flow runs only once per calendar year for a given customer, even if they update their data.
How to check the project time
Flow schedules use the project’s time zone. If your team works from different locations, your local time may not match the project’s time.
You can find the project time zone under Settings → System → Platform Parameters.
How fast scheduled flows run
Flows have throughput limits per unit of time. Running a flow against half of your customer base will take several hours.
Heavy filters can also add processing time. If a filter can’t be calculated within four hours, the flow stops and an alert is opened.
Plan large scheduled flows with throughput in mind. Complex filters and big audience sizes can push processing into multiple hours, and filters that exceed four hours will halt the flow.
