Automate Sample Order Tagging & Conversion Tracking

Manually sifting through orders to identify sample purchases and then cross-referencing those customers with subsequent full-price orders is a massive time sink. This manual process is prone to errors, makes it difficult to quickly segment and retarget sample customers, and obscures the true return on investment of your sample strategy, potentially leading to misallocated marketing spend.

This Shopify Flow automates the entire process. Using the 'Order created' trigger, it first checks if the order contains specific 'sample' line items or tags. If it does, both the order and customer are tagged as 'Ordered sample'. Crucially, for *any* subsequent order that isn't itself a sample, it checks if the customer already has the 'Ordered sample' tag. If so, it automatically applies a 'Sample conversion' tag, providing real-time, accurate conversion data without manual intervention.

• You offer free or low-cost product samples to generate new customer acquisition.
• You need to segment customers who've tried a sample for targeted email or SMS follow-up campaigns.
• You want to analyze the direct conversion rate and ROI of your sample program in your analytics.
• You wish to track the lifetime value of customers who initially purchased samples.

1. 1

   Create a new Flow and select the 'Order created' trigger.

2. 2

   Add a 'Condition' block. Set the first branch to check if 'Line item name includes "sample"' OR 'Order tags contain "sample"' (adjust for your specific sample identifiers).

3. 3

   For the 'If' path of this first condition, add 'Add order tags' (e.g., `Sample order`) and 'Add customer tags' (e.g., `Ordered sample`).

4. 4

   For the 'Else' path of this first condition (meaning the current order is NOT a sample), add another 'Condition' block. Set this second condition to check if 'Customer tags contain "Ordered sample"'.

5. 5

   For the 'If' path of this *second* condition, add 'Add order tags' (e.g., `Sample conversion`) and 'Add customer tags' (e.g., `Sample conversion`).

How can I use these tags for marketing campaigns?

You can use the `Ordered sample` customer tag to create specific segments in your email or SMS marketing platform (like Klaviyo) for targeted follow-up campaigns. The `Sample conversion` tag can then be used to exclude these converted customers from future sample-related promotions.

What if my samples aren't explicitly named 'sample' in the product title?

You can adjust the Flow's initial condition to check for specific product SKUs, vendors, product types, or even add a unique, hidden tag to your sample products directly, then use that tag in your Flow condition.

Can I track the time it takes for a customer to convert from a sample?

While Flow itself doesn't calculate duration, by exporting your order and customer data (filtering by these tags), you can analyze the time difference between the `Ordered sample` tag application and the `Sample conversion` order date in a spreadsheet or business intelligence tool.

How do I prevent repeat sample orders by the same customer?

This Flow identifies customers who've already `Ordered sample`. You could extend the Flow to automatically cancel or flag subsequent sample orders from already tagged customers, or use a dedicated app for more advanced fraud prevention and order management.

• Shopify Flow

  Native Shopify automation builder.

• Klaviyo

  Email and SMS lifecycle automation.

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