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.
4

Hi Samantha,

I think i found a solution to this, you have to do it in more than one automation.

Automation 1:

Is triggered when customer fulfills an order - Wait 90 days - after 90 days adds tag ‘90DAYS’ to customer.

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Automation 2:

Is triggered when customer tag ‘90DAYS’ is added - removes ‘90DAYS’ tag and waits 90 days again - after the next 90 days adds tag ‘180DAYS’ to customer.

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Automation 3:
Triggers when ‘180DAYS’ tag is added… etc etc

I’m not sure if it will work, because I just created it, so I have to check back in 3 months to see if the follow up automation indeed starts as expected.