How to use Instant AI with Alia

What is the Alia connection?

If you use Alia for your sign-up pop-up, Instant AI picks up each new email subscriber from it and sends them your Instant AI Welcome Flow. There is no separate Alia integration to install.

Why you need it

  • Alia collects the sign-up, but it does not send your welcome email. Another platform must do that.
  • Instant saves each Alia subscriber as subscribed, so they can also receive your other flows and your campaigns.

How to set it up

Before you start

  • Instant AI must be live on your store, with the Instant pixel installed.
  • Your Alia pop-up must be live on your Shopify storefront.
  • You do not need a Klaviyo integration for Alia sign-ups to reach Instant.

Turning it on

  1. Go to Flows in your Instant AI dashboard
  2. Find the Welcome Flow and toggle it on
  3. If your Alia pop-up adds subscribers to a Klaviyo list, turn off the Klaviyo Welcome or New Subscriber flow that the list triggers
  4. Click Signup Form in the left menu and make sure your Instant sign-up form is not published, so shoppers do not see two pop-ups
  5. Open your Welcome Flow and use Send Test to check the content, coupon and design
  6. Sign up through your Alia pop-up with an email address you have not used on your store before
  7. Search for that email address in your Shoppers list and check that it shows as subscribed

Matching your offer

Your Alia pop-up shows the offer text you wrote in Alia. Instant cannot read or change it.

  1. Go to Instant Coupons in your Instant AI dashboard
  2. Select a coupon and assign it to the Welcome Flow, or create a new one for it
  3. Make sure the offer text in your Alia pop-up matches that coupon (for example, “10% off” in Alia and a 10% coupon in Instant)

If you use Smart Coupons, write “exclusive discount” in your Alia pop-up instead of a fixed amount, because the discount is set for each shopper.

Note: You cannot use a discount that Alia created in Shopify as your Welcome Flow coupon. Instant does not support discounts created and managed by a third-party Shopify app. Use an Instant coupon or a standard Shopify discount instead.

Showing different content by Alia answers (optional)

If your Alia pop-up asks a question (for example, which products a shopper is interested in), you can use the answer in your Welcome Flow emails.

  1. In Alia, set each answer to add a Shopify tag to the customer (for example, interest-towels)
  2. In Instant, add a Smart Rule to a block in your Welcome Flow email that filters on that Shopify Tag

For the Smart Rule steps, see How to use quiz answers in your flows with Smart Rules. Skip its Step 1, because Alia adds the tag instead of the Instant sign-up form.

How it works

How Alia sign-ups reach Instant

  • The Instant pixel detects each Alia form submission on your storefront.
  • Instant saves the email address as a subscriber with explicit marketing consent.
  • The shopper enters your Welcome Flow straight away, and the first email sends immediately.
  • If you assigned a coupon, it is in the first email. Only first-time shoppers get the coupon.
  • Instant also syncs the new subscriber to Shopify with marketing consent, and to Klaviyo if you have a Klaviyo integration.

Phone numbers and SMS

  • Instant receives only the email address from your Alia pop-up.
  • A phone number reaches Instant through Shopify. For this to work, Alia must save the phone number and SMS consent to the Shopify customer.
  • Instant saves that phone number as a separate shopper from the email address. The SMS Welcome flow goes to the phone shopper, and the email Welcome Flow goes to the email shopper.
  • The two shoppers join automatically if the shopper later places an order with the same phone number.

Shoppers who sign up again

  • Instant does not enrol a shopper in the Welcome Flow a second time if they have already been through it.
  • A shopper who has ordered before still gets the Welcome Flow, without the coupon.

FAQ

Do I need to connect Alia in my Instant AI dashboard? No. As long as Instant AI is live on your store, the Instant pixel picks up Alia sign-ups on its own. The Alia option in Predictive Opt-In is a separate Instant Audiences feature for Klaviyo Welcome flows, and you do not need it for Instant AI.

Do I need a Klaviyo integration? No. Instant reads the Alia form submission directly from your storefront.

Can I run an Alia pop-up and an Instant sign-up form at the same time? We recommend one pop-up. If both are live, shoppers can see two pop-ups on the same visit.

Will Instant update the offer in my Alia pop-up when I change my coupon? No. Update the text in Alia yourself each time you change your Welcome Flow coupon.

Why does one shopper show twice, once with an email and once with a phone number? Instant gets the email from the Alia pop-up and the phone number from Shopify, and it saves them as two shoppers. Both get the right messages. The two shoppers do not cost you anything extra, because Instant pricing is based on the messages you send, not the number of shoppers.

My Alia subscribers are not getting a Welcome email. What should I check? Check that the Welcome Flow is toggled on in Flows, that your Alia pop-up is live, and that the shopper has not already been through the Welcome Flow. If all three are fine, submit a ticket with an example email address.

For more on sign-up forms, see How to Use Sign Up Forms and Welcome Flows with Instant AI and How does the Welcome Flow work?.