Connect Attentive to Zest Gift Notes and take full control of your gift notification experience — no engineering required. Once connected, Zest automatically sends gift events to Attentive, where you build branded email and SMS flows that fire at exactly the right moment in the gifting journey.
Overview: How Zest Sends Gift Notifications Through Attentive
When a customer sends a gift through your store, Zest triggers a series of custom events in Attentive. These events correspond to key moments in the gifting journey: gift sent, gift accepted, gift shipped, and more.
You then build journeys in Attentive that listen for these events and deliver branded notifications to gifters and recipients.
Events Zest sends to Attentive:
Event name | When it fires |
| When a gift order is placed at checkout |
| When the gift notification is sent to the recipient (immediately, on shipment, or on delivery, depending on your settings) |
| When the recipient sends a thank-you message to the gifter |
| When the recipient accepts the gift and opts into tracking updates |
| When the gift order ships |
| When the gift is out for delivery |
| When the gift is delivered |
Each event includes properties like order ID, gift URL, gift message, sender name, and recipient contact info, which you can use to personalize your Attentive messages.
Prerequisites: What You Need Before Connecting
Before connecting Attentive to Zest, make sure you have the following:
An active Attentive account.
A Custom App created in Attentive with:
Custom Events permissions — allows Zest to send gift event data to Attentive.
Subscriber API write permissions — allows Zest to add gift recipients as transactional subscribers so they can receive SMS notifications.
An API key generated from that Custom App. You can create one here.
Optionally (but recommended for SMS): a Transactional Subscriber Source ID, used to subscribe gift recipients to Attentive before firing events. This can be found in the Marketplace section of the Attentive UI, or you can request a custom one from Attentive support.
Important: Always use the same Attentive Custom App throughout setup. If you create a new app and generate a new API key from it, your existing custom event routing in Attentive will stop working.
Setting up transactional SMS through Attentive requires additional configuration — including a Transactional Subscriber Source ID and Attentive's transactional messaging approval.
Step-by-Step: Connecting Attentive to Zest
Go to your Zest app settings in Shopify Admin.
Navigate to the Integrations section.
Click Connect.
Select Attentive as your integration type.
Enter your API key.
If you want Zest to subscribe recipients for SMS notifications, enter your Transactional subscriber source ID.
Click Save.
Zest automatically fires a complete set of test events to your Attentive account when you save. If the test fails, double-check that your API key is correct and that all required permissions are enabled on your Custom App.
To update your transactional subscriber source ID after initial setup: You must Disconnect the existing integration and reconnect it with the new source ID. There is currently no way to edit credentials in place.
Setting Up Subscriber Source IDs
Zest uses your Transactional Subscriber Source ID to add gift recipients as transactional subscribers in Attentive before firing gift notification events. This is what enables Attentive to deliver SMS messages to recipients who haven't previously opted into your marketing list.
To find your Transactional Subscriber Source ID:
Navigate to the Marketplace section in the Attentive UI.
If you don't see an applicable source, contact Attentive support to request a custom one for API-based signups.
What you do NOT need:
A Marketing Subscriber Source ID — marketing opt-ins are handled separately through your standard Shopify-Attentive integration.
Tip: If SMS isn't delivering to gift recipients, a missing or misconfigured Transactional Subscriber Source ID is the most common cause. Confirm it's correctly entered in your Zest integration settings.
Creating Gift Notification Flows/Journeys in Attentive
After connecting, build journeys in Attentive triggered by Zest's custom events:
In Attentive, navigate to Journeys.
Create a new journey and select the appropriate Zest event as the trigger (e.g.,
zest_send_gift).When prompted, designate the journey as Transactional (see Section 6 for why this matters — this cannot be changed after creation).
Build your message using Zest's event properties (e.g.,
gift_url,gift_from,recipient_name,gift_message).Publish the journey.
Recommended journeys to build:
Journey | Trigger event | Who receives it |
Gift notification |
| Recipient |
Thank-you message |
| Gifter |
Tracking opt-in confirmation |
| Recipient |
Gift shipped |
| Recipient |
Out for delivery |
| Recipient |
Gift delivered |
| Recipient |
Tip: Zest provides a guide with all event names, the properties available on each event, and suggested message copy you can adapt for your brand. The events and messaging concepts align closely with Zest's Klaviyo flows documentation if you're already familiar with that setup.
Set up both email and SMS flows. You can't always control whether a gifter provides an email address or phone number at checkout. Creating parallel email and SMS variants of each journey ensures recipients receive notifications regardless of which contact method was entered.
Transactional vs. Marketing Message Classification
All core Zest gift notification events are transactional — they contain order-related information (gift URLs, shipping updates, delivery confirmation). When creating journeys in Attentive, you must classify each one as Transactional at the time of creation. This classification:
Determines which compliance rules apply to the message.
Ensures Zest's transactional subscriber sign-up is used (not your marketing subscription list).
Cannot be changed after the journey is created.
Marketing opt-in is handled separately. If a gift recipient opts into marketing during the gift acceptance flow, Zest syncs their marketing preference to their Shopify customer record, which flows to Attentive through your standard Shopify-Attentive integration.
Testing Your Attentive Flows
In your Zest app settings in Shopify, navigate to Integrations.
Click Send test events.
Optionally, enter a specific email address and/or phone number to receive the test notifications.
Click Send test events to fire all Zest events to your Attentive account.
Zest fires every event in sequence: gift order placed → send gift → send thank-you → tracking opt-in → shipped → out for delivery → delivered.
Before testing: Make sure your Attentive journeys are published (live). Draft journeys will not trigger.
Note: Zest also automatically sends test events when you first connect the integration, so you can confirm credentials are working before saving.
Troubleshooting Common Issues
My Attentive flow isn't triggering for gift notifications
The most common causes:
Channel mismatch: The gifter only provided one contact type (email or phone), but your journey only handles the other channel. Always create parallel email and SMS journeys for each Zest event.
Recipient not subscribed: Attentive requires a phone number to exist as a subscriber before it will deliver SMS triggered by custom events. Confirm your Transactional Subscriber Source ID is configured in Zest settings.
Journey not live: Confirm your Attentive journey is published. Draft journeys do not trigger.
Use the Send test events button in Zest settings to check whether events are reaching Attentive at all.
I'm getting a connection error when saving my integration
Confirm Custom Events permissions are enabled on your Attentive Custom App.
Confirm Subscriber API write permissions are enabled.
Confirm you are using your original Custom App — not a newly created one. Creating a new app breaks custom event routing.
SMS links to the gift page are showing error pages
This is caused by HTML tags in your Attentive SMS template. Attentive wraps URLs with link tracking, and HTML tags in SMS messages corrupt that tracking, breaking gift URLs. SMS messages must be plain text only — remove all HTML formatting from your SMS templates.
Gift events stopped arriving after I updated my API key
If you generated a new API key from a new Attentive Custom App, custom event routing will stop working. Always generate new keys from the original app. Update the API key in Zest by disconnecting and reconnecting the integration.
I use Klaviyo for email and Attentive for SMS. Can I use both?
Currently, Zest supports one marketing platform integration at a time. You cannot simultaneously use Klaviyo for email gift notifications and Attentive for SMS gift notifications. Reach out to the Zest team to discuss the best approach for your store's specific setup.