Welcome new subscribers

What it does and when to use it

Someone who has just subscribed is more interested in your shop than they will ever be again. A welcome email sent at that moment thanks them, tells them what they will receive, and invites them back. Azimea sends it on its own, the moment a person becomes a subscriber, and never to someone who has not confirmed yet.

Use it in every shop that collects newsletter sign-ups. Products with user accounts use the same idea from their own sign-up event (see How flows work).

How it works

Someone subscribes: a newsletter form, a popup, the newsletter box at checkout, or the shop’s own newsletter (MerchantPro, Shopware). Their consent and its proof are kept.
If you use double opt-in, they first receive a confirmation email and stay PendingConfirmation. The welcome waits: it starts only when they click the confirmation link. Someone who never confirms is never welcomed.
They become Subscribed, and Azimea records contact.subscribed on their timeline.
The welcome flow starts. A flow whose trigger is Store events › New subscriber begins for them; the ready-made Welcome flow sends its email right away.
A person who ticked “subscribe” while creating an account in your shop starts the flows whose trigger is Customer created or updated instead, so you can greet new account holders differently. An account created without the tick starts nothing: it gives no right to marketing.

The ready-made flow sends one email. The Welcome series template in Flows › New workflow sends three: on the day, two days later and three days after that.

What each status means and what to do

Only these consent statuses lead to a welcome; the full list is in consent statuses:

Status or reason	What it means	What you do
`Subscribed`	They ticked a box or signed up to hear from you; the proof is kept in their consent history.	Everything reaches them, once you have declared how you collect consent (Settings › Consent).
`PendingConfirmation`	They asked to subscribe and have not clicked the confirmation link yet (double opt-in).	Nothing to do: the confirmation email is on its way. Cart reminders still reach them; marketing waits for the click.

A welcome is a marketing email, so the sending gate applies. It can be stopped for:

Status or reason	What it means	What you do
`sending.gate_bounced`	The person's address does not work any more.	Nothing: the address is no longer used.
`sending.gate_complained`	The person marked one of your emails as spam.	Nothing: they are never written to again.
`sending.gate_not_declared`	You have not yet declared how your shop collects consent, so no marketing goes out, even to subscribers.	Settings › Consent: choose your method and declare it.
`sending.gate_topic_opted_out`	The person turned off the topic this email belongs to; they still receive your other topics.	Nothing: respect their choice.
`sending.gate_unsubscribed`	The person unsubscribed from your marketing emails.	Nothing: they said no. Service emails still reach them.

Events involved

Event	What it means	When it happens	Who sends it
`contact.subscribed`	A contact became a subscriber: a newsletter or form sign-up starts welcome flows; someone who ticked marketing while creating a shop account starts the flows on new customer accounts.	When a contact's consent becomes Subscribed.	Azimea

The shop sends the sign-up itself as subscriber.created (or customer.upserted for an account); both are explained in the events catalog.

Set it up in the dashboard

Settings › Consent: choose how your shop collects consent and declare it. Until you do, no marketing email goes out, the welcome included.
Optional, in the same place: turn on double opt-in.
Flows › Welcome: check the email and press Publish. The flow was created as a draft when you set up your first emails; until it is published, nobody is welcomed.
Optional: use the Welcome series template for more than one email.

Do it from your code

A product without a shop starts welcome flows from its own sign-up: send user.signed_up to POST /events and build the flow on Something happens in your app. See What you can build today.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Subscribers appear but get no welcome	The Welcome flow is not published, or consent is not declared.	Publish the flow; declare consent in Settings › Consent.
Some subscribers get it, others not	Double opt-in is on and they have not confirmed.	Nothing: they are welcomed when they click the confirmation link.
The flow history says “Email not sent”	The sending gate stopped it; the reason is shown next to it.	See why an email was not sent.
A new shop account got no welcome	The account was created without the newsletter tick.	Expected: an account alone gives no right to marketing.