Shopify makes it easy to sell. But keeping your team in sync behind the scenes — that’s a different challenge.
When a large order drops, does fulfillment know? If a VIP customer needs extra care, does support hear about it? Who’s tracking low inventory, delays, or untagged edge cases?
As your store grows, staying aligned requires more than dashboards. It requires automation.
In Part 4 of our What You Should Automate in Shopify series, we’re focusing on team notifications and internal workflows, the automations that keep your team informed, proactive, and efficient without needing to manually watch for problems.
Automations that keep your team informed in real time
When something important happens — like a big order, a risky payment, or a stockout — your team needs to know right away. But they shouldn’t have to live inside the Shopify admin to find out.
Send Slack or email alerts for key events
Whether your team lives in Slack, email, or another tool, workflows can push notifications the moment something happens.
Examples:
- Notify fulfillment when an order includes a fragile item
- Alert support when a VIP customer places an order
- Email your ops lead when a flagged product is ordered or low in stock
These alerts help your team act faster without constantly refreshing dashboards.
Trigger alerts based on tags, metafields, or order content
You can use any part of an order, product, or customer as a trigger:
- Alert your local team when “Pickup” shipping is selected
- Send a message when an order contains items tagged “Manual Assembly”
- Notify customer service when a “Review Needed” tag appears
You define what matters, and workflows handle the rest.
Customize messaging by team or channel
With a Shopify workflow app, you can send different messages to different destinations, so ops gets inventory alerts while support handles customer flags. One event can trigger multiple workflows tailored to your team’s workflow, not just the store’s.
Automations that create better visibility and reporting
Not every insight comes from a one-off event. Some issues build over time and automation helps surface them before they become a problem.
Daily or weekly order summaries
Instead of chasing updates, you can automate summary emails and Slack posts to give your team a running snapshot.
Examples:
- Send a daily list of unfulfilled orders to fulfillment
- Post a weekly return summary to your ops channel
- Email customer service with a list of orders tagged “Hold” or “Follow-up”
These summaries help your team stay proactive, not reactive.
Inventory and product movement alerts
Inventory automations aren’t just for merchandising they can keep ops and leadership informed too.
Examples:
- Push low-stock items into a shared Google Sheet
- Alert teams when new products are added to high-priority collections
- Notify merchandising when a featured product hasn’t sold in 7 days
The earlier you surface problems, the easier they are to fix.
Flag exceptions and delays
If an order is sitting for too long or marked high-risk, workflows can escalate it automatically.
Examples:
- Alert support if an order is unfulfilled after 48 hours
- Tag overdue orders for manager review
- Notify finance if multiple failed payments are flagged in a single day
These alerts keep high-impact issues from slipping through the cracks.
Automations that streamline internal handoffs and tasks
Shopify might be your hub — but your team runs on more than just admin tabs.
Create Trello cards or task items automatically
When workflows detect something that needs attention, they can push tasks directly into your project tools.
Examples:
- Create a Trello card when an order includes a preorder
- Add a row to Airtable when an order requires customization
- Send flagged orders to a shared “manual review” queue
This helps teams act without needing to check multiple tools.
Use metafields or tags to guide fulfillment actions
You can include special instructions right inside Shopify’s data, so the warehouse, packaging team, or support staff sees exactly what they need to do.
Examples:
- Add “Pack separately” to order notes for certain items
- Use metafields to track kitting instructions or fragile flags
- Tag “Assembly Required” orders for prep
These details streamline operations and reduce back-and-forth between departments.
Build checklists and routines with automation
Scheduled workflows can help keep weekly or daily tasks moving forward without someone needing to remember.
Examples:
- Every Friday: send a fulfillment prep report
- Every morning at 6:00 AM: run a workflow to check for delayed orders
- Every Sunday night: email a top-sellers list to your merchandising team
It’s like having a dependable assistant keeping your team on task behind the scenes.
Conclusion: Shopify workflow automation makes your team faster, not busier
You don’t scale by working harder — you scale by making smarter handoffs, faster decisions, and fewer mistakes.
Shopify workflow automation doesn’t just organize your backend. It helps your team stay aligned, act on the right signals, and move faster without checking every detail manually.
If you’re looking for a flexible automation tool that lets you build internal alerts, daily reports, and cross-team workflows without writing code, Arigato Automation makes it possible: no developer, no duct tape, no stress.