How to Automate Orders on Shopify With Shopify Flow
To automate orders on Shopify, install Shopify Flow, the free automation app available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, and build workflows that react to order events: tag an order, hold its fulfillment, email your team, capture or cancel payment, or send the order to another app. Most order workflows start from a template in Flow’s library, so the work is choosing the right few and adjusting their conditions to your store.
Plan availability and templates come from the Shopify Help Center pages on Shopify Flow and its workflow examples (read October 23, 2026).
How Flow works: trigger, condition, action
Every workflow has the same three parts:
- Trigger: the event that starts it, such as an order being created, an order’s risk being analyzed (Order risk analyzed), or inventory changing.
- Condition: the check that decides whether to continue, such as “total over $500”, “shipping method is Express”, or “risk level is high”.
- Action: what Flow does, such as add an order tag, send an internal email, hold or request fulfillment, Capture payment, Cancel order, or pass data to a connected app.
Shopify says workflows can do anything the Shopify Admin API allows, and its template library has hundreds of examples. You can search it by describing the task in plain words, and if no template fits, Shopify’s actions reference lists every action you can combine.
Order workflows worth turning on
These templates from Shopify’s library deal directly with orders. Pick by the problem you have.
| Problem | Template | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Fraud checks take time | Capture payment if the order isn’t high-risk | With manual payment capture, captures payment only for low and medium risk orders |
| High-risk orders slip through | Cancel and restock high-risk orders | Cancels the order and returns stock when Shopify’s risk analysis marks it high |
| Some orders need a person first | Request or hold fulfillments based on selected criteria | Holds fulfillment (or requests it) by the conditions you set |
| Bulk or reseller orders go unnoticed | Get notified about irregularly large order quantities | Emails you when an order has an unusual quantity |
| Express orders miss the cut-off | Email logistics team when orders need to be expedited | Sends your warehouse an email for orders that need speed |
| Staff cannot see the shipping choice at a glance | Tag orders by their shipping method | Adds a tag such as local pickup or express |
| You want to know where buyers came from | Tag orders where the first visit landing page includes a certain URL path | Tags orders from a campaign landing page |
| Gift card payments need checking | Tag orders paid with gift card | Tags those orders for review or reporting |
| Large discounts look suspicious | Get notified about large discounts on new orders | Alerts you when an order’s discount passes your threshold |
| B2B orders get mixed with retail | Tag B2B orders and Send internal email when a B2B order is placed | Separates and announces wholesale orders |
| Overdue invoices | Payment reminder sent after due date | Reminds B2B buyers on payment terms |
If you fulfill automatically, Flow can also archive those orders so your order list shows only what still needs attention.
Start with two or three. Each workflow that emails someone adds messages to an inbox, so keep alerts for orders that need a person.
Build one: hold high-risk orders for review
The risk workflows depend on how your store takes payment, so check that first.
If you capture payments manually (payment is authorized at checkout and charged when you capture it), use the Order risk analyzed trigger, a condition on the risk level, and the Capture payment action only when the risk is low or medium. High-risk orders stay uncaptured until you look at them.
If you capture payments automatically and fulfill manually, the payment is already taken when the order arrives, so Flow cannot prevent it. The option there is the Cancel order action for high-risk orders. Shopify notes you can also cancel by other criteria, such as the customer’s email or IP address.
A sensible first version of the workflow:
- Open Shopify Flow and start from the Capture payment if the order isn’t high-risk template (or Cancel and restock high-risk orders, depending on your capture setting).
- Check the trigger is Order risk analyzed; it uses Shopify’s own risk analysis.
- Keep the condition on risk level, and add your own if needed, for example orders over a certain value.
- Add a tag action on the “high risk” branch, such as
risk-review, so staff can filter these orders. - Add an internal email to whoever reviews them.
- Turn the workflow on and watch the first week of orders it touches.
Add tagging and logging too: Shopify suggests tagging every order Flow cancels and logging it to an app such as Google Sheets or Trello, so you can check later that no good customer was canceled.
Check what a workflow did to an order
When a customer asks why an order was held or tagged, open the order and choose More actions > Search Flow runs. It lists the workflow runs connected to that order, a feature Shopify added in July 2024 for orders, draft orders, customers, products, variants and collections. Flow also has templates that email you or show a Shopify alert when a workflow run fails; turn one on as soon as you have more than a couple of workflows.
What Flow does not do for orders
Flow reacts to events and changes data; it does not pick, pack or ship. Sending paid orders to a warehouse automatically is the job of a fulfillment service app, covered in automated order fulfillment. Choosing which of your locations ships an order is set in order routing, not in Flow; see order routing. For a first Flow workflow on the customer side, our guide to Shopify Flow walks through onboarding emails. More fulfillment topics are in the shipping and returns hub.
FAQ
Is Shopify Flow free? Shopify Flow is a free app on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans. Most features are on every plan, and Shopify lists a few that depend on the plan.
Can Shopify automatically cancel fraudulent orders? With Shopify Flow, the Cancel and restock high-risk orders template cancels orders that Shopify’s risk analysis marks as high risk. If you capture payments manually, you can instead capture only low and medium risk orders.
Can Flow hold an order before it is fulfilled? The Request or hold fulfillments based on selected criteria template holds or requests fulfillment depending on conditions you set, such as risk, value or shipping method.
How do I see which workflows ran on an order? Open the order and choose More actions > Search Flow runs to list the Flow runs connected to it.