What is a Flow Trigger?
Every Flow starts with a trigger, which is the condition your customers must meet for the trigger to fire and drive your customer through your flow.
When a customer does something specific (like adding a product to their cart), the trigger "wakes up" the flow and executes the actions within the flow, such as sending a message.
Each trigger corresponds to a single customer action and each individual customer must meet the trigger and its conditions in order to fire. A customer cannot fire a trigger on behalf of another.
How Can Flow Triggers Help?
Flow triggers help you:
Automate your SMS marketing based on customer behavior
Send timely, relevant messages without manual work
Respond instantly to customer actions
Create personalized experiences for different customer actions
Save time while staying connected with customers
Trigger Types & SMS Compliance
SMS marketing is regulated in the US and many other parts of the world, so carriers treat these two categories very differently to stay compliant with regulations.
For this reason, each Trigger includes a Compliance field in its Flow Properties where you must specify your message type: “Promotional” or “Transactional”.
Choosing the right Compliance setting between Promotional and Transactional is critical for legal compliance and message deliverability. Your choice should match both the trigger you're using and the nature of your messages.
As a general rule, any trigger or message with marketing intent (offering discounts, promotions, sales, new products, or anything aimed at increasing sales) should be classified as Promotional.
Messages that are purely informational, such as order notifications, should be classified as Transactional.
TL;DR:
Promotional Triggers:
Choose ‘Promotional’ if you’re sending marketing messages in your flow (e.g., "Product Added to Cart" or "Price Drop" triggers).
Transactional Triggers:
Choose ‘Transactional’ if you’re sending order updates and customer service messages (e.g., "Order Placed" or "Order Delivered" triggers.
Click here to learn more about SMS messaging compliance
Available Flow Triggers
Here are all currently available Triggers organized by their most common Compliance type:
Promotional Triggers
Trigger Event | How it is activated | When to use it (examples) | Suggested Compliance
|
Subscriber Joined | A person opts in and is added to your SMS subscriber list. | Welcome series | Promotional |
Checkout Started | A shopper initiates checkout but doesn’t complete payment.
Using this trigger will automatically enable AI-driven responses.
| Recover abandoned checkout with a reminder, a discount offer, and a cart link. | Promotional |
Product Added to Cart | A shopper adds at least one item to their cart. | Nudge cart abandoners to complete their purchase. | Promotional |
Site Visited | A shopper visits your site | Re-engage browsers who didn't take action toward buying a product. | Promotional |
Product Viewed | A shopper views a specific product page. | Follow up on product interest | Promotional |
Product Back in Stock | An out-of-stock product becomes available again. | Notify shoppers when a product they showed interest in is back in stock. | Promotional |
Low Inventory | Inventory for a product falls below a defined threshold.
This trigger includes a "Minimum Quantity In Stock" field to set the stock threshold that activates it.
You combine it with the "Trigger Id" Trigger Filter to specify which product inventories will fire the trigger.
| Create urgency to buy before stock runs out. | Promotional |
Price Drop | The price of a viewed/added product decreases.
This trigger includes a "Minimum Quantity In Stock" field to set the stock threshold that activates it.
You combine it with the "Trigger Id" Trigger Filter to specify which product inventories will fire the trigger.
| Alert shoppers about the discount to drive conversion. | Promotional |
Added from Flow | A flow action that puts the subscriber in another flow. | Continue/start a promo sequence based on prior flow logic. | Promotional |
Entered List | A subscriber is added to a specific List. | Trigger messaging tied to list membership (welcome/nurture). | Promotional |
Segment Match | A subscriber meets the rules/conditions for a Segment. | Start targeted messaging once segment criteria are met. | Promotional |
Subscriber Response | A subscriber replies to an SMS message. | Send an automated reply or branch based on whether they responded to a message. | Promotional |
Keyword Triggered | A subscriber texts a configured keyword (e.g., “SALE”). | Trigger a flow based on a specific keyword that a subscriber replies with. | Promotional |
Link Clicked | A subscriber clicks a tracked link in a message. | Send targeted follow-ups based on what subscribers clicked: products, collections, promotions, etc | Promotional |
Scheduled | A predefined date/time is reached for a message or flow step. | Send time-based messages (eg., launches, holidays, drip steps). | Promotional |
Transactional Triggers
Trigger Event | How it is activated | When to use it (examples | Suggested Compliance
|
Order Placed | A customer successfully completed a purchase. | Sends an order confirmation with purchase details and what to expect next. | Transactional |
Fulfillment Created | The order has been fulfilled/packaged and a shipment (or fulfillment) record was created. | Notifies the customer their order is being prepared and typically includes tracking when available. | Transactional |
Order Delivered | The customer's package was successfully delivered to their address. | Notifies them that their order has arrived and is ready for them. | Transactional |
Order Out for Delivery | The carrier has marked the package as out for delivery. | Alerts the customer that delivery is expected soon (often same day). | Transactional |
Order Ready for Pickup | The order is ready to be picked up at a store/location. | Notifies the customer where/when to pick up and any pickup instructions. | Transactional |
Order In Transit | The package has shipped and is moving through the carrier network. | Sends shipping/tracking updates so the customer knows progress and ETA. | Transactional |
Attempted Delivery | The carrier attempted delivery but couldn’t complete it. | Notifies the customer about the attempt and provides next steps (reschedule, pickup, address check). | Transactional |
Flow Properties
1. Once Per Subscriber
What it does: This setting controls whether a subscriber can enter a flow multiple times or just once.
Use Case: Enable this setting for flows that should only run once per person, like welcome series or one-time promotions. This prevents customers from receiving duplicate messages and helps manage your SMS budget.
Disable this setting for flows that should repeat based on behavior, like abandoned cart reminders or replenishment flows.
2. Subscriber Filters
What it does: Controls what additional conditions must be met in order for the flow to trigger.
When to add Subscriber Filters: There are many Subscriber Filters. You use them when you want to have a granular control over when the flow is triggered and for which subscribers.
Adding multiple conditions: You can add multiple filter rules and combine them using AND or OR logic:
AND: ALL the conditions must be met (e.g., Number of Orders ≥ 2 AND Last Order Date within last 4 weeks)
OR: At least one of the conditions must be met (e.g., Number of Orders ≥ 2 OR Total Spent ≥ $100)
You can create complex targeting by combining multiple filters with AND/OR rules.
3. Frequency Filter
What it does: Controls how often a subscriber can enter the same flow.
Why it's important: Prevents over-texting the same subscriber and reduces message fatigue.
Best practice: Use a 30-day entry frequency to avoid overwhelming customers.
4. Cancellation Trigger
What it does: Prevents the flow from firing if the Cancellation Trigger conditions are met.
When to use: Use cancellation triggers to stop a flow from sending when certain actions make it irrelevant. For example, cancel an abandoned cart/checkout flow if the customer completes their purchase.
You can add multiple cancellation triggers using the same AND or OR logic described in the Subscriber Filters
💡Tip:
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