# Shopify Flow Integration

Giveaway Gator integrates with [Shopify Flow](https://shopify.dev/docs/apps/flow) so you can automatically award giveaway entries based on triggers across your store — no code required. Reward customers for signing up, reaching loyalty milestones, completing specific actions, or anything else Flow can detect.

## Why Use Flow?

- **Automate entry awards** — Set up once and entries are added automatically whenever the trigger fires
- **Combine with other apps** — Flow connects hundreds of apps. Award entries based on events from your loyalty program, email platform, review app, and more
- **No developer needed** — Build automations visually in the Shopify admin

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## Available Actions

### Add Entries

Awards a specified number of giveaway entries to a customer. This is the core building block for any Flow-based automation with Giveaway Gator.

**Fields:**

| Field | Required | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| Customer Email | Yes | The customer's email address. Use a Flow variable like `{{ customer.email }}` to pull it from the trigger. |
| Customer Name | No | The customer's name. Use `{{ customer.displayName }}` or similar. |
| Promotion ID | No | Target a specific promotion. Leave blank to add entries to **all active promotions** for your store. |
| Entry Count | Yes | Number of entries to award. Can be a fixed number (e.g., `5`) or a Flow expression (e.g., `{{ order.total_price | divided_by: 10 }}`). |
| Notes | Yes | A reason for the entries. This appears in the entry's audit log so you can track why entries were awarded. |

> **Tip:** Leaving Promotion ID blank is useful when you run multiple promotions simultaneously — the customer automatically gets entries in all of them.

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## Example Automations

Here are some ideas for custom Flow workflows using the Add Entries action.

### Free Entry for Email Signup

Give every new subscriber a free giveaway entry — it costs you nothing and gives people one more reason to sign up. This is one of the most popular automations because it drives email list growth and giveaway participation at the same time.

**How to set it up:**

1. In your Shopify admin, go to **Settings > Flow** (or search "Flow" in the admin search bar).
2. Click **Create workflow**.
3. For the trigger, select **Customer created**. This fires whenever a new customer record is created in Shopify — whether from an email signup form, account creation, or a first purchase.
4. Click the **+** to add an action, then search for **"Add Entries"** under the Giveaway Gator section.
5. Fill in the fields:
   - **Customer Email:** `{{ customer.email }}`
   - **Customer Name:** `{{ customer.firstName }} {{ customer.lastName }}`
   - **Promotion ID:** Leave blank (entries go to all active promotions)
   - **Entry Count:** `1`
   - **Notes:** `Free entry for email signup`
6. Click **Turn on workflow**.

That's it — every new subscriber automatically gets an entry in your giveaway.

> **Tip:** Promote this on your signup form or pop-up. Something like "Sign up and get a free giveaway entry!" can significantly boost conversion.

### Award Entries for Loyalty Milestones
**Trigger:** Customer reaches a new loyalty tier (via your loyalty app)
**Action:** Add 50 bonus entries with the note "Gold tier bonus"

### Double Entries for VIP Customers
**Trigger:** Order created, with a condition checking customer tags for "VIP"
**Action:** Add entries equal to the order total (using `{{ order.total_price }}` as entry count)

### Reward Product Reviews
**Trigger:** Product review submitted (via your reviews app)
**Action:** Add 10 entries with the note "Product review reward"

### Birthday Bonus
**Trigger:** Customer birthday (via a customer data app or metafield trigger)
**Action:** Add 25 entries with the note "Happy birthday bonus"

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## How Entries Appear

Entries added through Flow show up in your promotion's entry list with the source **"Flow"**. The notes field you provide in the action appears in the entry's audit log, so you always have a clear record of why the entries were awarded.

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## Tips

- **Test with a small entry count first** — Run your workflow with 1 entry to make sure it triggers correctly before setting the real amount.
- **Use descriptive notes** — When you look at entries later, clear notes like "VIP loyalty bonus" or "Review reward" make it easy to understand where entries came from.
- **Combine triggers and conditions** — Flow lets you add conditions to any workflow. For example, only award entries if the order total is above $50, or if the customer is tagged "newsletter-subscriber."
- **Finding your Promotion ID** — Open Giveaway Gator, click Manage on a promotion, and copy the ID from the URL: `/app/promos/{promotion-id}`.