A complete guide to flow triggers, switching logic, and why enabling more flows leads to better results.
Instant AI Flows are automated emails triggered by shopper behaviour. They’re designed to recover lost revenue, increase conversion, and keep your brand front of mind — all with zero manual setup.
Unlike traditional platforms, Instant AI dynamically enrols each shopper into the single most relevant flow based on what they do on your site. You don’t need to worry about conflicts, multiple flows running at once, or shoppers receiving too many emails.
Because of this, we recommend enabling all available flows. The more flows you have turned on, the more opportunities AI has to identify high-intent behaviour and respond with the right message at the right time.
How Flows Work
- Each flow targets a different type of shopper behaviour — like viewing a product, abandoning checkout
- Shoppers are only ever in one flow at a time.
- If someone triggers a higher-intent action after a flow has started, their current flow is automatically cancelled and the new one begins from the start.
- Shoppers will dynamically move between all of your enabled flows, depending on which is most suitable to their latest action
How Flow Timing is Calculated
Instant AI automatically adjusts send times to increase open and conversion rates. This optimisation happens in three stages:
1. Instant Default Timing
Used when a flow is first activated.
- We use industry-tested default delays: 1hr, 24hr, and 72hr
- Once we start to see enough activity amongst your customers, we can begin to personalise your send time logic
- Typically used for the first week, depending on how many emails are sent per flow
2. Site-Wide Average Timing
Once enough data is collected, we calculate the best-performing send times for your store.
- Based on when your existing customer base tend to open and click
- Each flow still sends 3 emails over 7 days, but delays will vary (e.g. 2hr → 28hr → 68hr)
- The delay time may differ for different merchants, depending on the behaviour of your demographic
- This becomes your new default timing for all shoppers, including new shoppers who enroll in their first flow on your site
3. Per-Shopper Personalised Timing
Once we have a site specific average, for returning customers, Instant AI personalises send times based on that specific shopper’s past behaviour.
- We look at the average time of day the shopper opens emails
- Personalise the send time to close to when they typically open emails, to increase your chance of opens
- Every email in a flow may go out at different times for different people, depending on their email habits
- This only applies once a shopper has received enough emails to establish a pattern
You don’t need to do anything to enable this dynamic send times. We’ll auto calculate it and display what time was selected on the email preview.
How are Flows Triggered
Instant AI automatically selects the most relevant, highest-intent flow and ignores all others. This prevents conflicting messages and duplicated emails.
- A shopper can only be in one flow at a time
- If they take a higher-intent action (e.g. abandon checkout after browsing), we:
- Cancel the old flow
- Start the new one from the beginning
Flow logic also handles product content smartly:
- Abandon Browse: Sends about the last product viewed
- Abandon Collection: Sends based on the most recent collection viewed
- Abandon Cart: Includes all items in their cart
- Price Drop: Focuses on the most relevant product viewed or carted in the last 60 days
- Low in Stock / Back in Stock: Always reference a specific, recently interacted product
Breakdown of Available Flows
The flows below are listed in order of shopper intent, from highest to lowest. If a shopper qualifies for multiple flows, the highest-intent option (top of the list) will always take priority.
1. Abandoned Checkout
Sends 1 hour after a shopper progresses to checkout but leaves without purchasing. Sends as a 3-part email series and includes a coupon offer.
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Checkout Abandonment" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Automatically applied to this flow based on master coupon rules here
2. Abandoned Cart
Sends 1 hour after a shopper adds a product to their cart but leaves without purchasing. Sends as a 3-part email series and includes a coupon offer. Emails will only send if the shopper has not already triggered an abandon checkout series.
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Cart Abandonment" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Automatically applied to this flow based on master coupon rules here
3. Abandon Browse
Sends 1 hour after a shopper views a product page but leaves without adding to cart or purchasing. Sends as a 3-part email series and includes a coupon offer. Emails will only send if the shopper has not already triggered an abandon cart or checkout series.
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Browse Abandon" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Automatically applied to this flow based on master coupon rules here
4. Abandon Collection
Sends 1 hour after a shopper visits a collection page but leaves without clicking into a product. Sends as a 3-part email series and includes a coupon offer. Emails will only send if the shopper has not already triggered an abandon browse, cart or checkout series.
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Collection Viewed" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Automatically applied to this flow based on master coupon rules here
5. Low in Stock
Sends 1 hour after a product has 10 units in stock or less, if it was that were their cart in the last 60 days, and they have not removed or purchased it. Sends as a 3-part email series. Emails will only send if the shopper is not in an existing abandonment series. Does not include a coupon offer.
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Low Stock" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Not applied to this flow
6. Back in Stock
Sends 1 hour after a product becomes back in stock. Sent to shoppers who viewed the out of stock product in the last 60 days, and haven't converted or added it to their cart. Sends as a 3-part email series. Emails will only send if the shopper is not in an existing abandonment series. Does not include a coupon offer.
Only compatible with standard Shopify inventory management and excludes products that can be purchased when out of stock.
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Back in Stock" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Not applied to this flow
7. Price Drop
Sends 1 hour after a product price drops by 10% or more, if it was in their cart in the last 60 days, and they have not removed or purchased it. Sends as a 3-part email series. Emails will only send if the shopper is not in an existing abandonment series. Does not include a coupon offer.
Note:
- Focuses on a single relevant product — not every item on sale
- If multiple products go on sale, we will notify them on the last product viewed
- We will automatically pick which messaging is the most appealing depending on the sale
- E.g. We’ll calculate the discount amount and alter the messaging according to whether saying $20 off or 50% off will be more appealing for conversions
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Price Drop" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Not applied to this flow
8. Welcome Flow
Sends immediately after a new signup or subscriber is identified. Sends as a 3-part email series and includes a coupon offer.
Note:
- This is the only flow that can run in parallel with others (e.g. a shopper can receive welcome emails while also qualifying for abandonment flows)
- Works automatically if you’re using Shopify forms, Klaviyo forms, Alia, or Instant AI’s forms. We'll capture the new contact information automatically through whichever sign up form you have enabled and trigger a welcome flow
- Our recommended setup is to use Instant AI forms for simplicity, to handle both capture and email delivery in one flow. However it is possible to continue using the sign up form from another provider, then just disable the welcome flow in the other provider and use Instant AI to send the email but another provider to capture their details.
- If using an Instant AI sign up form, we'll automatically sync the new email address with your Shopify and Klaviyo (if integrated)
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Welcome" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Automatically applied to this flow, and automatically shown in the pop-up based on master coupon rules here
9. Win-Back
Sends immediately when a past customer hasn’t purchased in 90 days and is not enrolled in an existing flow. Sends as a 3-part email series. Flow will cancel if they engage in browsing behaviour and the shopper will move to the relevant abandonment flow. Does not include a coupon offer.
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Winback" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Not applied to this flow
10. Post Purchase
Sends 24 hours after a completed order Sends 1 follow-up email thanking them for their purchase. Does not include a coupon offer. Recommends similar products encouraging them to keep browsing while they wait
Turn off in other tools:
If you are enabling this flow, we recommend switching off any existing flows in other solutions that classify as "Post Purchase" to avoid double emailing your customers.
Coupons:
Not applied to this flow
How to Enable Flows
You can view and manage all flows directly in your Instant AI dashboard.
- Scroll to see which flows are enabled or disabled
- Click into each one to view conversion metrics and performance
- Toggle flows on or off at any time
- Send yourself a preview of any flow email to see what’s going out
How to transition from other Platforms
If you’re using other email platforms like Klaviyo, we recommend pausing any flows that overlap with Instant AI. Because Instant AI sends flows based on shopper behaviour, keeping similar flows active elsewhere can lead to duplicate or conflicting emails. Particularly when other platforms don’t have the same dynamic flow rules, they may enrol shoppers in multiple flows at once.
Here’s what we suggest:
- Check for any live flows in your other platform that have similar triggers to the above
- Pause or disable any flows that would send under the same conditions Instant AI already handles.
Once you've moved that flow to draft in your alternative system, you are ready to enable them in Instant AI