How to create a replenishment flow

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Learn how to create a replenishment flow that can nurture customers at different points in their lifecycles if you're selling products that your customers purchase repeatedly within a certain timeframe. By reviewing your existing purchase data, you can determine the established buying cycles of your customers and products, then set up a replenishment flow to target purchasers with a friendly and well-timed reminder.

Flow trigger and filters

For Shopify and BigCommerce integrations, there are pre-built replenishment flows available in the flows library after you've set up and enabled your integration. To view these:

1. Navigate to the Flows tab.
2. Click Create Flow to view the flows library.
3. In the Browse by goal section, click Encourage repeat purchases or use the search bar to search for "replenishment."

Select a replenishment flow template for your integration, review its prerequisites, and click Use template. The flow opens in the builder, where you can review its trigger, filters, delays, and messages.

If you have a Placed Order event but no suitable template, you can build a flow from scratch: click Build your own, name and create the flow, then set its metric trigger to Placed Order. If you're creating a flow for a specific product, add a trigger filter, such as Items contains your product's name, so only orders containing that product start the flow.

Check that the flow has a profile filter for Placed Order zero times since starting this flow, and add one if needed. The filter prevents a customer who has reordered from receiving a replenishment email. It does not remove them from the flow: they continue to subsequent steps, where the filter is checked again. If your flow is for a specific product, limit this filter to orders for that product, as in the example below; otherwise, a purchase of an unrelated product could stop the reminder.

Flow timing

Adjust the timing of your first reminder based on your customers' established buying cycles. For example, if you're selling a supplement that comes with a 30 day supply, you'll most likely want to send a reminder email about 25 days after customers enter the flow.

You can experiment with additional reminder emails, but remember not to badger your customers. A good rule of thumb is to send two reminder emails, and then one follow-up after the projected buying cycle has passed that includes an extra incentive like a discount or a coupon.

Flow content

You'll want to tailor your content to include product information relevant to the customer's purchase based on your goals. For example, if you're selling a product with a 30 day supply, then you'll want to send content that reminds the customer to purchase this same product again.

You might also want to include suggestions for similar products using a product block. For example, if you're selling coffee beans, a replenishment flow might suggest purchasing a new flavor or a mug.

When you've configured and reviewed the flow, click Review and turn on in the flow builder. Select Live and Update status now, then click Save to start sending the replenishment messages after their delays.

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