How can I set up email marketing automation for a 1-year anniversary?

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Topic summary

Goal: send an automated discount email on the 1-year anniversary of a customer’s first purchase using Shopify Email.

  • Limitation: Shopify Email’s “wait” step caps at 91 days after fulfillment, so a 1-year delay isn’t supported natively.
  • Guidance: Use a third‑party email app to schedule 1-year sends. Seguno: Email Marketing is suggested; the Shopify App Store lists other options.

Workarounds discussed (unconfirmed):

  • Chained automations with customer tags (e.g., add tag “90DAYS,” then trigger another automation to wait another 90 days and add “180DAYS,” etc.) to approximate a year. Screenshots were shared to illustrate this approach, but it’s not yet verified.
  • Dynamic customer segment targeting ~1-year post‑order: orders_placed(since: -353d, until: -352d) = true. This segment updates daily to capture customers whose purchase was ~353 days ago.

Challenges:

  • Users report errors and cannot integrate segments into workflow automation; they’re unsure where to place the segment in the flow.

Definitions:

  • Customer segment: a dynamic filter grouping customers by criteria.
  • Tags: labels applied to customers that can trigger automations.

Status: No confirmed native solution; third‑party apps are the reliable path. The tag-chaining and segment-based approaches remain experimental, with open questions on triggering emails from segments.

Summarized with AI on December 28. AI used: gpt-5.
2

Hi Samantha,

Great question, and definitely a great value prop for your customers. This is not something that will be directly supported by Shopify Email and would instead require a third party email notification app.

There are email marketing apps like Seguno: Email Marketing that have a free plan and some automations that might work for you. Definitely worth checking out! You can also review a list of all email marketing apps, free and paid, to see if there is one available that works for you: Shopify App Store - Email Apps.