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How do I set up advanced subscription automation in Shopify Marketing Automation?

Learn how to create custom workflows for subscriptions using Shopify Marketing Automation.

Updated over a week ago

Shopify Marketing Automation lets you build custom workflows that run automatically when certain milestones or conditions are met. You can design subscription automations that fit your business needs.

Please check your plan details for feature availability. Your store must be on the Basic Shopify plan or higher to create automations.


Where to find Shopify Marketing Automation

In your Shopify admin, go to:
Marketing → Automations → Create Automation → Create Custom Automation


How Shopify Marketing Automation works

Automations are made up of triggers, conditions, and actions.

Workflow component

What it Does

Example

Trigger

Starts the workflow when a specific event happens in your store or app.

A new subscription contract is created.

Condition

Checks whether certain criteria are met before continuing.

Total amount paid for the subscription is over $200.

Action

Executes a change in your store or app if the condition is met.

Add a tag to the subscriber’s account.


Creating subscription automations

For subscription or membership workflows, use the Subscription contract created trigger.
This starts when a customer subscribes to a product or purchases a membership.

When activated, Subi sends subscription contract data into the workflow, including customer details, subscription status, billing frequency, products, prices, and related information.

Actions you can use with the "Subscription contract created" trigger

  • Add customer tags – Label customers for segmentation.

  • Get customer data – Retrieve details about your customers.

  • Get order data – Retrieve details about customer orders.

  • Remove customer metafield – Delete a metafield from a customer profile.

  • Remove customer tags – Remove labels from a customer profile.

  • Send internal email – Notify staff by email.

  • Send marketing email – Send emails to customers subscribed to marketing.

  • Sum – Calculate the total of items in a list.

  • Update customer metafield – Add or update a customer metafield.

  • Update customer note – Replace the note on a customer profile.

  • Wait – Pause the workflow for a set time before continuing.


Step-by-step: Building your workflow

  1. In Shopify admin, go to Marketing.

  2. Click Create AutomationCreate Custom Automation.

  3. Add the Subscription contract created trigger.

  4. Click the + icon on the trigger card, then select a Condition.

  5. Set your condition.

  6. Click the + icon on the condition card, then select an Action.

  7. Choose your action.

  8. Click Turn on Workflow to activate.

    • If you exit before turning it on, it will save as a draft in Marketing → Automations.

Once active, you can view a summary and analytics for your workflow from the Automation page.


Example workflow

Check if the product a customer subscribes to is “Mocha Latte” and send a marketing email to those subscribers.


Need Help?

Feel free to contact our support team. We're here for you anytime:

  • Live Chat: Message us from within the Subi app or your Shopify Admin.

  • Email: Reach us at [email protected].

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