Welcome to the community @topgummy 

You are correct. if a new contact abandons checkout after entering their email address AND opts-in to marketing, they will trigger and enter both your welcome flow and your abandoned checkout flow (subject to any filters you may have for those flows and ecomm integration is set-up to push opt-ins to your welcome flow list).

How I approach this to ensure they are not receiving cross-flow emails is to consider the Welcome flow as the primary on-boarding to purchase CTA. The welcome flow is typically where you offer your introductory discount so you want to encourage them to purchase, or at least start their purchasing journey by entering the checkout.

With that in mind, the first email in the Welcome flow is sent to ALL contacts who subscribe (opt-in) as that confirms their optin/offers the discount and some 'why buy from us' messaging. I then add filters on the subsquent Welcome flow emails themselves to exclude contacts who have started checkout or have purchased since entering the Welcome flow. Those 2+ welcome flow emails are usually a combination of unredeemed discount reminders, brand values, info-guides etc with the objective to drive them to checkout/purchase

That approach means that if they start checkout (as in your example), they effectively 'exit' the welcome flow after the first email and receive my abandoned checkout flow emails (which includes a discount call-out if unredeemed). Similarly, if they purchase, they stop receiving the checkout abandon emails and start receiving the post-purchase flow emails.

Alternatively, if you want a subscriber to your list to receive some of your welcome flow emails even if they checkout/purchase, you could just enable smart send on those 2+ emails. That way, you won't be hitting them with a 2+ welcome flow email if they have received an abandon checkout email (or any other email) that's been sent to them within the past 16 hours (smart-send default window).

Does that help?

Regards

Andy

Hi there! Thanks for reaching out with this question. I can understand why you might be concerned about your welcome flow being activated at checkout. Let me see if I can help. Could you tell me a bit more about your welcome flow setup and how it's being triggered? That will help me understand the issue and provide a solution.

@bluesnapper Thank you for your help. That actually makes a lot of sense. Just setting up the new Welcome Flow now and a quick question to confirm - is this the filter that you would add to the second email in the welcome flow? 

I also have the filter 

 @bluesnapper Alternatively, would changing the filter “Placed Order zero times since starting this flow” to “Started Checkout zero times overall” on the Welcome Flow trigger work too? I understand it would mean that customers would not get the first Welcome flow email but I think we’d be okay with that…
Thanks for your help

Hi @topgummy 

Glad to have helped!

As you have 'Placed Order zero times since starting this flow' as a flow filter you don't need to add that to the email additional filters: anyone who places an order after entering will be skipped from an email as that filter is evaluated at each email step. If you are sending your first Welcome email immediately on subscribe to your list, all contacts will receive that email as they won't have had time to place an order before the 1st welcome flow email sent.

For your checkout started additional filter on the second email, it should be 'Checkout Started zero times since starting this flow' as, if you're following my approach, you want anyone who has started checkout to skip that 2nd email (they'll be receiving your abandoned checkout flow emails).

BTW, I always set new flows to manual and review the intended recipients to make sure all is OK. If OK, I manually send those emails, then switch to live. More effort, but I'm risk adverse :-)

Regards

Andy

PS using 'Checkout Started zero times over all time' will exclude anyone who has ever started checkout which I don't recommend for this flow. Often contacts will have started checkout historically then they subscribe to your list. I think that explicit action of subscribing requires an email to be sent to them with the welcome discount code.

That's fantastic! Activating a welcome flow on checkout can significantly enhance the customer experience and drive more meaningful interactions. If you need any tips or ideas on how to make the most of this opportunity, feel free to ask!

Yes, changing the filter to "Started Checkout zero times overall" on the Welcome Flow trigger should work. This means customers who haven't started the checkout process at all would not receive the first Welcome flow email. If you're okay with that and it aligns with your marketing goals, it sounds like a viable solution. Let me know if you need further assistance!