---
title: "Automate with Shopify Flow"
description: "Use STOQ's Shopify Flow triggers and actions to automate your preorder and back-in-stock workflows."
url: https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/preorders-with-shopify-flow/
product: "Preorders"
section: "Notifications and integrations / Apps and automation"
last_updated: 2026-10-15
---

# Automate with Shopify Flow

> Use STOQ's Shopify Flow triggers and actions to automate your preorder and back-in-stock workflows.

STOQ integrates with Shopify Flow so you can build automated workflows around your preorder and back-in-stock activity. STOQ fires **triggers** when key events happen (a customer places a preorder, a payment fails, an offer turns on), and it exposes **actions** you invoke from a Flow workflow (release fulfillment holds, capture a pending payment, notify a waitlist, and more).

Use this integration when you want to: tag or notify customers automatically at preorder time, chain STOQ actions with other Shopify apps, or orchestrate multi-step fulfillment sequences without manual intervention.

## Before you begin

| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Shopify Flow installed | Flow is a free Shopify app available in the Shopify App Store. It must be installed on your store before you can build workflows. |
| STOQ app open in Shopify admin | Open it from **Apps > STOQ** in your Shopify admin. |
| Paid STOQ plan for triggers | Turning on **Flow triggers** in STOQ needs a paid plan. On a free plan, the **Turn on** button is greyed out and an **Upgrade** link appears. |

## What customers will see

Some Flow actions notify the customer directly:

- **Collect pending payment**: emails a payment confirmation unless you set **Send notifications** to no.
- **Send shipping update notification**: emails the customer a shipping update, using your default STOQ notification text unless you override the subject, header, or body.
- **Notify customers in waitlist**: sends back-in-stock notifications by email, SMS, or both to everyone waiting on the variant.

Other actions, such as tagging orders, holding or releasing fulfillments, splitting fulfillments, and changing offer membership, don't notify the customer.

## Set it up

### Enable Flow triggers in STOQ

1. **Open the Shopify Flow integration in STOQ**

   1. In the left menu bar of STOQ, click **Preorders**.
   2. Open the **Settings** tab.
   3. Open the **Integrations** sub-tab.
   4. In the **Integrations** section, click **See integrations** to open the full Integrations page.
   5. Under the **Shopify** section, find the **Shopify Flow** card and click **Set up** to expand its settings.

   [Image: STOQ Preorders Settings Integrations sub-tab with markers: 1 Preorders in the left menu, 2 the Settings tab, 3 the Integrations sub-tab, 4 the See integrations button](https://help.stoqapp.com/images/general/preorders-with-shopify-flow-1.png)

   [Image: The full Integrations page Shopify section with marker 1 on the Set up button of the Shopify Flow card](https://help.stoqapp.com/images/general/preorders-with-shopify-flow-2.png)

2. **Turn on the Flow triggers master switch**

   On the **Triggers** tab, click **Turn on** next to **Flow triggers**.

   The badge next to **Flow triggers** changes to **On**, and the checkboxes under **Available triggers** become clickable.

   [Image: The expanded Shopify Flow panel on the Triggers tab with Flow triggers Off and marker 1 on the Turn on button](https://help.stoqapp.com/images/general/preorders-with-shopify-flow-3.png)

3. **Check the triggers you want to send**

   Under **Available triggers**, check each event you want STOQ to send to Shopify Flow, for example **Payment collection failed**. Check only the events you use in a workflow: unused triggers generate extra API calls with no benefit.

   | Trigger label in STOQ | When it fires | Key payload fields |
   |---|---|---|
   | Customer signed up | A customer registers for a back-in-stock alert | Customer name, email, phone, locale; product, variant name; Signed up at; Market |
   | Customer notified for email back in stock alert | STOQ sends a back-in-stock email notification | Customer name, email, phone, locale; product, variant name; Market; Checkout link, Product page link, Unsubscribe link; Notification type |
   | Customer placed preorder | A customer completes a preorder purchase | Order Number, Order Name |
   | Product variant restocked | A tracked variant's inventory is replenished | Product, Variant, Markets |
   | Product added to offer | A variant is added to a preorder offer | Product, Variant, Offer Name, Offer Order Tags |
   | Product removed from offer | A variant is removed from a preorder offer | Product, Variant, Offer Name, Offer Order Tags |
   | Preorder offer enabled | A preorder offer is activated | Offer Name, Offer Internal Name, Offer Order Tags |
   | Preorder offer disabled | A preorder offer is deactivated | Offer Name, Offer Internal Name, Offer Order Tags |
   | Payment collection failed | A preorder balance charge fails, whether STOQ collected it automatically, you clicked **Collect payment**, or a workflow ran **Collect pending payment** | Order, Order Number, Order Name, Error Message |

   [Image: The Shopify Flow panel with Flow triggers On, marker 1 on a trigger checkbox under Available triggers, and marker 2 on the Save button](https://help.stoqapp.com/images/general/preorders-with-shopify-flow-4.png)

4. **Save your settings**

   Click **Save** in the save bar at the top of the page. From then on, STOQ sends each checked trigger to Shopify Flow as the event happens.

### Available Flow actions

STOQ's Flow actions are available in Shopify Flow without any additional setup in STOQ. You select them when building a workflow inside the Shopify Flow app. Switch to the **Actions** tab in the STOQ Shopify Flow card to see a quick reference of all available actions grouped by category.

**Preorders, Payments**

| Action | What it does | Key inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Collect pending payment | Captures the remaining balance on a preorder that used partial payment or a deposit. Optionally suppresses the payment-confirmation notification. | Order; Send notifications (yes/no, defaults to yes) |

**Preorders, Fulfillments**

| Action | What it does | Key inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Hold all fulfillments | Places a fulfillment hold on every fulfillment order for a preorder. Optionally adds a reason note visible in Shopify admin. | Order; Reason notes (optional) |
| Release all fulfillments | Releases all held fulfillments and moves them to **Unfulfilled** status so they can be picked and shipped. | Order |
| Open scheduled fulfillments | Converts **Scheduled** fulfillments to **Unfulfilled**, useful when you use STOQ's scheduled fulfillment setup and want to trigger that transition via Flow. | Order |
| Split preorder fulfillments | Splits preorder line items into their own fulfillment order, separate from any in-stock items on the same order. The split runs even if the offer's built-in split setting is off. | Order |
| Send shipping update notification | Sends a shipping-update email to the customer. You can override the subject, header, and body; if you omit them, the email uses the text configured in STOQ's notification settings. | Order; Subject, header, description (all optional) |

**Preorders, Offers**

| Action | What it does | Key inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Add product variant to offer | Adds a variant to a STOQ preorder offer and syncs the change to Shopify. | Product variant; Offer identifier (internal name or Shopify selling plan) |
| Remove product variant from offer | Removes a variant from a STOQ preorder offer and optionally sets the inventory policy to **Deny** so the variant cannot be oversold. | Product variant; Offer identifier; Disable continue selling (yes/no) |

**Back in stock**

| Action | What it does | Key inputs |
|---|---|---|
| Notify customers in waitlist | Triggers back-in-stock notifications (email, SMS, or both) for all customers waiting on a specific variant. Optionally scoped to a single market. | Product variant; Channel (email or SMS, omit for both); Market |

[Image: The Shopify Flow panel with marker 1 on the Actions tab](https://help.stoqapp.com/images/general/preorders-with-shopify-flow-5.png)

### Build a workflow in Shopify Flow

1. **Open Shopify Flow**

   1. In Shopify admin, go to **Apps > Flow**.
   2. Click **Create workflow**.

   [Image: The Shopify Flow app Workflows list with marker 1 on Flow in the left nav and marker 2 on the Create workflow button](https://help.stoqapp.com/images/general/preorders-with-shopify-flow-6.png)

2. **Select a trigger**

   Choose **STOQ** from the app list and pick the trigger that should start your workflow (for example, **Customer placed preorder** or **Payment collection failed**).

3. **Add conditions and actions**

   1. Add any Shopify Flow conditions you need (for example, filter by order tag or order value).
   2. Add a **STOQ** action or any other app action.

   Pass the order or variant from the trigger into the action inputs. Shopify Flow surfaces the available fields from the STOQ trigger as variables you can insert.

4. **Activate the workflow**

   Click **Turn on workflow**. From this point, every matching STOQ event fires the workflow automatically. If the workflow starts with a STOQ trigger you haven't checked in STOQ, STOQ checks it and turns on **Flow triggers** for you. Turning off the last workflow that uses a trigger unchecks it again.

   [Image: A Shopify Flow workflow editor with marker 1 on the Turn on workflow button](https://help.stoqapp.com/images/general/preorders-with-shopify-flow-7.png)

### Example automations

**Tag products automatically while they're on preorder**

Add a product tag while a product is on preorder, then remove it when it leaves the offer, so other apps (a product feed, a shipping app, a theme filter) can hide or exclude products that can't ship immediately. It takes two workflows, built on STOQ's offer-membership triggers:

- Trigger: Product added to offer (STOQ). Action: Add product tags (Shopify), for example `preorder`.
- Trigger: Product removed from offer (STOQ). Action: Remove product tags (Shopify), the same `preorder` tag.

The tag goes on when a variant joins the offer and comes off when it leaves, so removing the product from the offer once it's back in stock also clears the tag. Product tags apply to the whole product, so if only some of a product's variants are on preorder, add a Flow condition before the remove-tag action to avoid untagging too early.

**Tag orders and send an internal Slack notification when a preorder is placed**
- Trigger: Customer placed preorder (STOQ)
- Action 1: Add order tag "preorder" (Shopify)
- Action 2: Send Slack message with the order name and customer email

**Automatically collect payment when an order is marked as fulfilled**
- Trigger: Order fulfilled (Shopify)
- Condition: Order tag contains "preorder"
- Action: Collect pending payment (STOQ)

**Release fulfillment holds on a specific date**
- Trigger: Scheduled time (Shopify Flow)
- Action: Release all fulfillments (STOQ), one action per order, or chain with a Shopify **For each** loop over a saved order list

**Add new inventory arrivals to a preorder offer automatically**
- Trigger: Inventory level updated (Shopify)
- Condition: Inventory quantity greater than 0
- Action: Add product variant to offer (STOQ)

**Notify waitlist customers when stock is received**
- Trigger: Product variant restocked (STOQ)
- Action: Notify customers in waitlist (STOQ) with channel set to email

**Tag the order and alert your team when a balance charge fails**
- Trigger: Payment collection failed (STOQ)
- Action 1: Add an order tag such as "payment-failed" (Shopify)
- Action 2: Send your team an internal email or Slack message with the Order Name and Error Message

## Check your setup

1. In Shopify Flow, open your workflow and click **Run history** to see recent executions and any errors.
2. In STOQ, go to **Reports → Preorders → Orders** and check that the order you tested has the expected status (fulfilled, held, payment captured, etc.). You can also check just one offer's orders: **Preorders** in the left menu → **Offers** tab → open the offer → its **Orders** tab.
3. For the **Notify customers in waitlist** action, go to **Reports** to confirm notifications were sent.

## Troubleshooting

### The "Customer placed preorder" trigger is not firing

Check these:

1. The **Flow triggers** master switch is on in STOQ's Integrations settings.
2. The **Customer placed preorder** checkbox is checked.
3. If both are on, check the Shopify Flow **Run history** for your workflow to see whether Shopify received the event.

STOQ also prevents duplicate delivery, so a trigger won't fire again for an order it already fired for.

### The "Payment collection failed" trigger is not firing

Check these:

1. **Flow triggers** shows **On** and **Payment collection failed** is checked under **Available triggers**.
2. A charge actually failed. Nothing fires when STOQ skips the charge because the balance isn't due yet or is already paid.
3. If Shopify accepted the charge and declined it later, give it time. STOQ checks pending charges from 10 minutes after the attempt, and the trigger fires once it finds the decline.
4. In the [preorder orders report](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/find-and-read-preorder-orders/), set the **Payment collection** filter to **Couldn't verify**. Orders listed there never settled in Shopify within 24 hours, so no failure was recorded and the trigger didn't fire.
5. Check the workflow's **Run history** in Shopify Flow to see whether the event arrived.

### "Release all fulfillments" fails on an order

It most likely has no active holds. Shopify's release-hold API returns an error when there's nothing to release, which fails the Flow action run. Add a Shopify Flow condition before this action (for example, checking an order tag or metafield) to confirm the order is still on hold.

### A Flow action fails with a not-found error

Order-level actions (collect payment, hold/release fulfillments, split fulfillments, send shipping update) only work on orders in STOQ's preorder records. If the order wasn't placed through a STOQ preorder offer, the action fails.

### The "Customer notified for email back in stock alert" trigger does not fire

It requires a Shopify customer record. STOQ tries to sync the customer first; if that sync fails, the trigger is skipped for that customer.

## Limitations

- Order-level actions (collect payment, hold, release, split, send shipping update) run one order at a time. Use a Shopify Flow loop or separate workflow runs for batch processing.
- The **Notify customers in waitlist** action supports email or SMS only.

## FAQ

### Do I need to configure anything in Shopify Flow before STOQ actions appear?

No. STOQ's Flow actions require no setup in Shopify Flow: they're registered with Shopify automatically when STOQ is installed, and they appear in the Shopify Flow action picker under the STOQ app. You only need to enable triggers in STOQ if you want STOQ to fire events into Flow; actions are always available regardless of your trigger settings.

### Can I retry a failed charge automatically with Flow?

Yes. Add STOQ's **Collect pending payment** action to a workflow that starts with **Payment collection failed**. Each retry that fails fires the trigger again, so add a condition that stops repeat runs: for example, tag the order when the workflow retries, and skip orders that already have that tag. See [When payment collection fails](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/preorder-payment-collection-fails/) for other ways to recover the balance.

### Will the trigger fire for charges that failed before I turned it on?

No. It only fires for charges that fail after the trigger is on. To find earlier failures, open the [preorder orders report](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/find-and-read-preorder-orders/) and set the **Payment collection** filter to **Failed**.

### Does the 'Collect pending payment' action send the customer a payment confirmation email?

Yes, by default. The action includes an optional **Send notifications** setting. If you set it to no, STOQ captures the payment silently without emailing the customer. Leave it at the default (yes) if you want the customer to receive a confirmation.

### What is the 'offer identifier' field on the add/remove variant actions?

It's a flexible lookup key that accepts either the offer's **internal name** (set in STOQ when you create the offer) or the **Shopify selling plan** it corresponds to. Using the internal name is usually the most readable option in a Flow workflow.

### Will 'Split preorder fulfillments' work even if I haven't enabled split fulfillment on the offer itself?

Yes. When you invoke **Split preorder fulfillments** via a Flow action, STOQ skips the offer-level enabled check and performs the split regardless of the offer's built-in split fulfillment setting. This lets you trigger a one-off split from Flow without changing your default offer configuration.

## Related guides

- [Preorders overview](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/): Learn how STOQ preorders work end-to-end before building automations.
- [Collect remaining preorder payments](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/collect-remaining-preorder-payments/): Manually collect pending payments or use this as background for the Flow action.
- [Release held preorder fulfillments](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/release-held-preorder-fulfillments/): Manually release fulfillment holds, or delegate this step to a Flow workflow.
- [Split fulfilment for preorders](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/split-fulfilment-for-preorders/): Understand the built-in split fulfillment setting and how the Flow action differs.
- [Set up payment for preorders](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/set-up-payment-for-preorders/): Configure partial payment and deposit options that feed into the collect-payment Flow action.
- [Scheduled preorder fulfillments](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/scheduled-preorder-fulfillments/): Learn about the Scheduled status that the 'Open scheduled fulfillments' Flow action transitions from.
- [Preorder shipping update email](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/preorder-shipping-update-email/): Configure the default shipping update email content used when no override is passed in the Flow action.
- [Preorder API](https://help.stoqapp.com/preorders/preorder-api/): Explore STOQ's REST API for custom integrations that go beyond what Flow actions cover.