How to Use Shopify Flow With Zest Orders in Storefronts

Shopify Flow is a powerful built-in automation tool that works seamlessly with Zest orders. Every time a Zest gift order is created in your Shopify store, Zest automatically adds identifying tags and order attributes.

From there, you can build Flows that auto-tag orders, route them to teams, hold them for review, send internal alerts, and more. You're in full control, and everything runs automatically in the background.

Before you start, make sure you have:

When a recipient accepts a Zest gift, Zest pushes a Shopify order instantly. That order carries Zest-specific tags and attributes that tell you exactly where it came from: which storefront, which campaign, and when it needs to ship. Shopify Flow lets you act on that data automatically.

Common use cases include:

Everything described in this article is self-serve. You set it up once, and it runs on its own.

Zest automatically applies the following tags to every Shopify order it creates:

In addition to tags, Zest writes the following order attributes (visible in the Shopify order detail under "Additional details"):

Zest supports configurable metafields on orders. By default, no metafields are set — but your Zest account team can configure custom metafields (e.g., scheduled date as a date-type metafield, custom notes) if your workflow requires them. Once configured, these metafields are available in Shopify Flow just like any other order metafield.

A note on Concierge vs. Storefront orders: Storefront orders are automatically tagged with the storefront name, making per-storefront Flows straightforward to build. For Concierge orders, manual tags can be added directly in the Concierge dashboard during order creation — this is often a simpler alternative to building a Flow, especially if your team is just getting started.

This Flow automatically adds your own internal tag to any Zest order, so your fulfillment team doesn't need to identify Zest orders manually.

From this point on, every Zest order will automatically receive your tag without anyone on your team lifting a finger.

This step is important. If your Flow checks for a Zest tag immediately after an order is created, there may be a brief window where the tags haven't fully populated yet. Adding a short wait step prevents your Flow from running before the tags are in place.

To add a delay:

Your Flow should follow this sequence:

Some warehouse or fulfillment systems (such as ShipHero) capture order data only at the moment of initial creation. If your system works this way, tags applied by Flows may not be captured even with a short delay, because the system has already ingested the order.

In this case, test carefully on a staging storefront before going live, and reach out to your Zest account team to explore whether specific data can be pushed directly at order creation time.

Use case: Apply a simple "gift" or "zest" label so your fulfillment team can filter orders.

Use case: Prevent orders with a scheduled ship date from being picked and packed too early.

You can build a second Flow to release the hold when the scheduled date arrives, or release it manually from the Shopify admin.

Use case: Alert your team when an order contains a product that needs special prep (custom card, branded packaging, etc.).

Use case: Route orders from different gifting portals to the right team.

Replace [your-storefront-name] with the exact slug of your storefront (visible in your Zest admin).

Zest orders are created in Shopify with payment already marked as paid — Zest handles the charge on its end before pushing the order. You generally do not need a separate Flow to capture payment.

If your store uses Shopify's manual payment capture setting: Create a Flow that triggers on order creation, checks for zest-gift, and captures payment. Add the 15–30 second wait step before the condition to ensure tags are available.

In multiship gifting, or gift orders going to multiple addresses, Zest creates one Shopify order per recipient. The original gift order in Zest is the "Parent" — each recipient's Shopify order is a "Child." Your fulfillment team should only process the individual recipient orders, not the parent.

To learn more about Parent and Child Orders, check out this article.

Because every storefront gets its own automatic tag (zest-storefront-[name]), you can build separate Flows for each storefront to route orders to the right people.

Example: If you run three storefronts — one for corporate gifting, one for employee recognition, and one for customer loyalty — each will carry a unique storefront tag. Set up one Flow per storefront that sends an email or applies a department tag when an order arrives.

Routing by product SKU: If certain products always require special handling (custom ribbon, branded packaging, in-house design), build a Flow that checks for those SKUs and routes accordingly. This works regardless of which storefront the order came from.

Routing by Concierge project: Concierge orders carry a zest-concierge-[project number] tag. If your team uses project numbers to track campaigns, you can use this tag in a Flow to label or route Concierge orders automatically.

The most common cause is a missing delay step. Make sure your Flow includes a 15–30 second wait between the "Order created" trigger and the condition that checks for a Zest tag. Without the wait, the Flow may evaluate the order before Zest has finished writing the tags.

Double-check the exact tag name. Storefront tags follow the format zest-storefront-[storefront-slug], where the slug is the URL-friendly version of your storefront name. Log into your Zest admin and confirm the exact slug. A common mistake is checking for a tag with a space (e.g., zest gift) instead of a hyphen.

Some systems (like ShipHero) capture order data only at the moment of initial creation. If your system works this way, even a 30-second delay won't help — the system has already pulled the order. In this case, contact your Zest account team to discuss options for applying critical data at creation time rather than via a subsequent Flow.

Use more specific conditions. Combine the zest-gift tag check with a storefront-specific tag or a product SKU to narrow down which orders the Flow applies to.

It's technically possible for a customer to add a gift note product to their cart without filling in a message through the Zest interface. Build a safeguard Flow:

Shopify Flow can access data that Zest writes to Shopify orders — tags, order attributes, and metafields. However, Flow cannot directly query Zest's internal data (for example, a list of all child order numbers associated with a parent Zest order). Work with the tags and attributes Zest pushes to orders; don't rely on Shopify Flow to look up data from inside the Zest platform itself.