Shopify | Legacy App | Creating a Winback Automation

The Winback feature enables you to create campaigns to encourage previous customers back to your store if they haven't visited for a while. It's a highly effective method of driving traffic back to your store and re-igniting dormant business.

You will need to have the MessageMedia app installed to be able to access the Winback feature, so first visit the Shopify eCommerce App store and download the MessageMedia: SMS Marketing App:

(For more information on installing and setting up this app, read this article)

Once you have the MessageMedia App installed and set up, go to your store homepage and click on Marketing in the left hand menu, followed by Automations, and then click on Create Automation:

In the resulting pop-up, click on "Other" and you should then see the SMS Customer Winback feature:

Note: the location of this automation is set to change to "SMS" - so if you can't see it under "Other," click on "SMS" instead.

You will now see the automation set-up screen. Follow the steps below to set up your Winback automation:

1. Give your automation a name - this is just for your reference and will not be visible to any customers

2. Set your daily campaign budget - this will limit the number of messages that get sent to avoid overspend

You can then target your audience by various means:

3. First, set your customer purchase timeline - so the winback message is sent to customers who have not purchased for a certain number of days

4. OPTIONAL - Choose a product - this means that winback messages will only be sent to customers who purchased a specific product, and after the set amount of days

5 & 6. OPTIONAL - Set a purchase value threshold. This will default to "Any Amount," however you can target customers who's last purchase was above or below a specific amount (set the "above" or "below" pivot in step 5 and then set the dollar amount in step 6)

7 & 8. OPTIONAL - Add an image to your message to make it more engaging. This can be either your primary product image or an ad-hoc uploaded image:

Upload an image (step 8) by clicking in the upload box and either selecting an image from your library, or uploading a new image.

NOTE - Messages including images cost three times as much as those without images

9. Write your message - you can use the available merge fields to personalise your message as well as add your store's URL for quick navigation. 

10. Once you are happy with your automation settings and message content, click Schedule

Your automation is now live and messages will start sending right away to any customers who meet the criteria in your settings.

Viewing / editing / pausing / deleting your Automations

You can revisit an automation at any time to edit, pause or delete. Simply go to the Automations section under Marketing where you will see a list of all your automations. Just click on Edit automation to be taken back to the set-up screen:

Once you are in the set up screen, you can edit the details of the automation as required. 

Pausing an Automation

At the top of the set up screen beneath the header, you will see an option to pause your automation. Clicking on this will halt all message sends until you resume the automation:

Deleting an Automation:

Scroll to the bottom of the set up screen and you will see a red button labelled Delete Activity. This will delete the automation and remove it from your list:

NOTE: This action cannot be undone

Reporting on Activity

By clicking on View Report either at the top of the set up screen or in the Automation list, you will be presented with a dashboard of activity relating to your chosen automation:

You can set the range to a variety of timelines using the dropdown menu at the top of the dashboard: