The Update contact in Connectif action in Shopify Flow allows you to send customer information from your store to Connectif to automatically update their contact details. If the contact does not yet exist in Connectif, the action will create it with the data you have configured.
In this article, you will learn how to update Connectif contacts from Shopify Flow.
Implementation time: 30 min.
Difficulty: Medium.
When to use it?: When you want to automatically create or update Connectif contacts based on automations configured in Shopify Flow.
Before you start: prerequisites
Before performing this action, you must have the following prerequisites met:
- Tracking: the update or creation of the contact will only be processed if the Connectif app for Shopify has tracking enabled.
- Multistore: if the app is configured with multistore, the contact will be automatically updated in the Connectif account configured with the language that matches the language of the Shopify customer.
STEP 1. Create the flow in Shopify Flow
(In this step, you create the flow that will execute the contact update in Connectif).
1.1. Configure the trigger
1. Access the admin panel of your Shopify store.
2. In the side menu, go to “Apps > Flow”.
3. In the workflows section, click Create workflow to create a new flow.
4. In the workflow editor, click Select a trigger.
5. Select the trigger you want to use to start the contact update and, if necessary, complete its configuration.
The trigger will depend on the Shopify event you want to use as the source of the automation.
In our example, we use the Customer created trigger so that the flow starts each time a customer is created in Shopify and sends their data to Connectif.
1.2. Configure the “Update contact in Connectif” action
6. In the workflow editor, click below the trigger to add a new step.
7. Click Action.
8. Search for Connectif among the available apps and select Update contact in Connectif.
STEP 2. Configure the “Update contact in Connectif” action
(In this step, you configure the contact data that Shopify Flow will send to Connectif).
The action allows you to specify what information you want to send to Connectif. Each field can be set with a Shopify variable, a literal value, or left empty.
2.1. Configure system fields
9. In “Email”, click Add variable and select “customer > defaultEmailAddress > emailAddress”.
The email field is the primary key within Connectif, so it is mandatory to complete it.
10. For each field, configure the value in one of these ways:
- Select a Shopify variable to send dynamic customer information.
- Enter a literal value if you want to always assign the same value.
- Leave the field empty if you do not want to update that data in Connectif.
If you leave a field empty, Connectif will keep the value it already has stored for that data.
11. Configure the other system fields you want to update:
- "First name": contact's first name.
- "Last name": contact's last name.
- "Phone": contact's phone number.
- "Country": contact's country.
- "City": contact's city.
- "Address": contact's address.
- "Postal code": contact's postal code.
Learn about the contact fields available in Connectif through Contact Fields.
2.2. Configure “Birthdate”
Birthdate is not a native field of the Shopify customer. To use it in “Birthdate”, you must have the corresponding Customer metafield for the birthdate.
12. From the Shopify admin panel, click Settings.
13. Go to “Metafields and metaobjects > Customers”.
14. Click Add definition.
15. In “Name,” search for and select the standard definition “Birth date”. By selecting it, Shopify will automatically configure the metafield facts.birth_date of type “Date”.
16. Click Save to save the definition.
17. Return to “Apps > Flow” and access the workflow you are configuring.
18. In the Update contact in Connectif action, locate “Birthdate” and click Add variable.
19. In the variable selector, go to “customer > metafield” and click to create a variable from a metafield.
20. In Select metafield, select “Birth date” (facts.birth_date) and click Save to create the variable.
21. In the birthDate variable you just created, select value of type “Date”. Once configured, the “Birthdate” field will show the variable {{customer.birthDate.value}}.
2.3. Configure “Custom Fields”
(In this section, you configure the custom contact fields that Shopify Flow will send to Connectif).
The “Custom Fields” field allows updating custom contact fields in Connectif. The fields you want to update must be created previously in your account.
22. Access Connectif and go to “Contacts > Contact Fields”.
23. Locate the custom field you want to update and copy its identifier. If it does not yet exist, create it before continuing.
Learn how to create a custom field at this link.
24. Return to Shopify Flow and, in the Update contact in Connectif action, locate “Custom Fields”.
25. Click Add variable.
26. In the variable selector, go to “customer metafield” and click to create a variable from a metafield.
27. In “Select metafield”, select the Shopify metafield that contains the information you want to send and click Save to create the variable.
28. In the variable you just created, select value.
29. Adapt the content of “Custom Fields” to follow a structure compatible with Connectif’s custom fields, where _customField corresponds to the identifier of the custom field in Connectif and value to the value you want to assign.
{ "_customField": "value" }The value you send must be of the same type as defined for the custom field in Connectif.
In our example, we use the custom fields customer-type and loyalty-points and assign them the values from Shopify metafields “Customer type” and “Loyalty points.”
STEP 3. Run and verify the flow
(In this step, you run the flow and verify the contact update in Connectif).
3.1. Verify tracking
30. From the Shopify admin panel, go to Apps and select Connectif.
31. In the Connectif app, go to “Settings > Tracking”.
32. Verify that the “Connectif tracking” toggle is enabled. If it is disabled, enable it before continuing.
3.2. Activate the flow
33. Return to “Apps > Flow” and access the workflow you are configuring.
34. Click Turn on workflow to activate the flow.
3.3. Test contact update
(In this section, you test the flow and verify that the contact data updates correctly in Connectif).
35. From the Shopify side menu, go to Customers.
36. Click Add customer and create a new customer with all the information to synchronize.
37. Click Save to execute the created flow.
38. Go to “Apps > Flow > Recent runs” and locate the execution you just performed.
39. Verify that the Update contact in Connectif action executed successfully.
If the action shows an error, check the details to identify the cause. Review the configuration of Update contact in Connectif, correct the indicated fields, and run the flow again.
40. From your Connectif account, go to “Audience > Contacts”.
41. Locate the contact using the email of the customer you just created in Shopify and click Details.
42. Verify that the contact information has been synchronized correctly.
Congratulations!
You have reached the end of the lesson.
Do you still have unresolved questions?
Remember you have our Connectif specialists at your disposal. To contact them, simply open a support ticket by clicking the blue “Help” button on your dashboard.
Keep learning!
To take full advantage of your Connectif account, we recommend continuing with the following articles:
Guide to integrating with Shopify, to learn how to install and configure the Connectif app for Shopify.
Contact Fields, to learn about the data you can store in Connectif and how to create and configure custom fields.
Contact Profiles and Digital Footprint, to review the information collected and updated about your contacts in Connectif.
Methods to collect and update contacts in Connectif, to learn about the different ways to register and update your contacts' information.