In short: Shopify Flow's standard actions don't include an action for awarding points. The automations available when a customer signs up include adding customer tags, updating customer metafields, and sending internal emails, but Flow's standard features have no action that changes a points balance directly. To award points automatically at sign-up, the points app you use must itself provide a trigger or action that works with Flow.
Key points
- Shopify Flow's standard customer actions cover adding and removing tags, updating and removing metafields, updating notes, deleting customers, getting customer data, and searching customers in a segment. Awarding points isn't included
- Howdy's help explains how to detect new sign-ups from the sign-up form with the Customer created trigger in Shopify Flow
- Shopify Flow triggers include events in Shopify, specific dates and times, and events in external services' apps
- Whether you can automate with a points app depends on whether that app provides a trigger or action that works with Flow
- Automations with customer tags and customer metafields are covered in our article on using Flow after sign-up
Can you award points automatically when a customer signs up?
Shopify Flow's standard actions don't include an action for awarding points. You can run a workflow when a customer profile is created through sign-up, but what you can automate from there is adding customer tags, updating customer metafields, sending internal emails, and similar tasks. Flow's standard features have no action that increases or decreases a points balance directly.
Source: Shopify Help Center: "Shopify Flow actions"
What customer actions does Shopify Flow have?
Adding tags to a customer, removing a customer's tags, updating a customer metafield, removing a customer metafield, updating a customer's note, deleting a customer, getting customer data, and searching customers in a segment. You can build tagging and metafield updates based on fields collected by the sign-up form with the actions in this list, but nothing in this list corresponds to awarding points.
Source: Shopify Help Center: "Shopify Flow actions"
Can you automate this by connecting a points app?
Shopify Flow triggers include events in Shopify, specific dates and times, and events in external services' apps. Flow also offers actions called connectors, which work with features of third-party services. If the points app you use provides a trigger or action that works with Flow, you can build a workflow that combines it with the customer creation event from sign-up. Support varies by app, so check the settings or ask the support team of the points app you use.
Checking whether your points app works with Flow and planning the fields you collect with the sign-up form depend on each store's situation. Feel free to contact us.
Source: Shopify Help Center: "Creating a workflow in Shopify Flow"
Can the Customer created trigger detect customers created through sign-up?
Howdy's help explains how to start a workflow with the Customer created trigger when a new customer is added through the sign-up form. The Shopify Help Center lists orders from new customers and staff creating customer profiles manually as situations where this trigger starts a workflow.
This trigger applies only to newly created customer profiles and doesn't run when an existing customer profile is edited. In new customer accounts, when someone logs in with an email address that isn't associated with an existing customer profile, a new customer profile is created automatically.
Adding customer tags automatically, updating customer metafields automatically, and sending internal emails to staff with this trigger are covered in How to automate post-sign-up tasks with Shopify Flow: tagging and metafield updates.
Sources: Shopify Help Center: "Customer created" / Shopify Help Center: "Customer accounts" / Howdy Help: "How to add birth month customer tags for birthday campaigns" (Japanese)
Related articles
- How to automate post-sign-up tasks with Shopify Flow: tagging and metafield updates
- How to update membership tiers automatically by order count and amount spent in Shopify: customer segments
Frequently asked questions
Questions about new customer accounts? Ask us anytime.
Ask us about sign-up-triggered automation, from sorting out what Shopify Flow's standard actions can do to planning your customer tags and customer metafields. Our dedicated team at Howdy creates customer metafields, sets up sign-up form fields, and places blocks on the profile page for free.
