A Smart Flows Link-Based Flow is a flow that runs only for shoppers who open its link, so you can tie a promotion to one email, ad, influencer post, SMS, or printed QR code. This article covers how to create a Link-Based Flow and every setting on its Your Smart Link panel: the Short Code, the Smart Link, the QR code, the Landing Page, UTM parameters, and Cart Settings. The steps a Link-Based Flow runs, such as Add Items to Cart, Discount, and Popup Message, work the same as in a Global Flow.
The Smart Link in a Smart Flows Link-Based Flow is generated from the flow's Short Code in the Smart Flows editor, and it is not the separate Rebuy Smart Links widget listed under Widgets, which builds its own links with its own settings.
How a Link-Based Flow differs from a Global Flow
A Smart Flows Link-Based Flow starts from a link, while a Global Flow runs for every visitor to your store. The table below compares the behaviors that differ, with the Link-Based Flow in the second column and the Global Flow in the third.
Behavior | Link-Based Flow | Global Flow |
How the flow starts | A shopper opens a URL that carries the flow's rsf parameter | Any visitor loads your store |
How many can be live at once | Any number of Link-Based Flows | One Global Flow. Publishing a Global Flow replaces the Global Flow that was live. |
Templates at creation | No templates. You build the steps yourself. | Pre-built templates available |
Smart Link and QR code | Generated for every Link-Based Flow | Not available |
Click reporting | Clicks and QR Clicks tracked | Not tracked |
While a Smart Flows A/B test is running | Keeps running for shoppers who open its link, and can still be turned on or off | Cannot be turned on or off until the test ends |
Create a Link-Based Flow
A Smart Flows Link-Based Flow is created from the Smart Flows page in your Rebuy admin. To create one:
In Rebuy, go to Flows & A/B Testing, then Smart Flows.
Click New Flow. If your store has no flows yet, the button reads Get Started.
On the Select Flow Type screen, choose Link-Based Promotion, then click Next.
Enter a Name for the flow, such as the name of the campaign the link belongs to, then click Create. The name defaults to Link-Based Promotion.
The Smart Flows editor opens with your flow's Start card in the Start Lane. Click Add Starting Step to add the flow's first step.
When the flow is ready, turn on the Live toggle and click Save.
A new Link-Based Flow is created turned off, so its link does nothing on your storefront until you turn on Live mode.
Add steps that run when a shopper opens the link
The steps you add to a Link-Based Flow's Start Lane run when a shopper opens the flow's Smart Link, its QR code, or any page URL carrying its rsf parameter. Opening the link is the trigger for every promotion, message, and targeting rule on a Link-Based Flow's canvas.
For example, to give shoppers who use a Link-Based Flow's link a discount, click Add Starting Step, choose Discount, and enter a code in the Discount Code field, such as SAVE20. When a shopper opens the link, Rebuy applies that code to the shopper's cart automatically, so the shopper does not have to type it at checkout.
The code in a Link-Based Flow's Discount step must already exist and be active in Shopify, since the discount amount and conditions are set in Shopify and the Discount step only applies the code. If Shopify does not accept the code, the shopper's cart gets no discount and Rebuy shows the shopper no error, so open the link yourself before sharing it.
Steps added with Add Starting Step in a Link-Based Flow run at the same time, not one after another. To run a step after another step, add it to that step's connector instead, such as a Popup Message on the Discount step's After Added connector to announce the discount. For the settings of each step, see Smart Flows Settings Explained.
Can I limit a spend-threshold free gift to shoppers who open a campaign link?
Yes, a Link-Based Flow can give a free gift over a cart subtotal only to shoppers who open the flow's link, such as a link in one email campaign. To set it up:
In the Link-Based Flow, click Add Starting Step and choose Cart Subtotal.
Set the condition to is greater than or equal to and enter the threshold, such as 120.
On the Cart Subtotal step's If True connector, add an Add Items to Cart step with the gift product and At Discount set to Free.
Leave If Trigger Fails set to Remove offer from cart, so the gift is removed if the cart drops back below the threshold.
Click the LINK-BASED FLOW badge in the editor's top bar to copy the flow's Smart Link, then paste it into the email or promotional button.
To start the free gift offer on a set date, add a Date step as the Link-Based Flow's starting step instead, and put the Cart Subtotal step on the Date step's If After connector.
The Link-Based Flow's Cart Subtotal step checks the cart again each time it changes, so a shopper who lands with an empty cart and reaches the threshold later in the visit still gets the gift. Anyone who opens the link qualifies, including someone the email was forwarded to. Rebuy stores the link's Short Code in a browser session cookie, so the offer stays active in that browser across pages and tabs until the cookie is cleared. Browsers usually clear a session cookie when the browser is fully quit, not when a tab is closed, and browsers that restore previous tabs on restart can keep it longer. The cookie belongs to one browser on one device, so a shopper who opens the email on a phone and shops on a computer does not get the gift on the computer.
How to edit your Link-Based Smart Flow
The Smart Link settings for a Link-Based Flow live on the flow's Start card, not on a step. To open them, click the Start card at the top of the Start Lane, or click its gear icon. The Your Smart Link panel opens on the left side of the editor. The Start card shows the flow's name and its current Landing Page setting.
To copy a Link-Based Flow's Smart Link without opening the panel, click the LINK-BASED FLOW badge in the editor's top bar.
Smart Link and Short Code settings
The Smart Link section of a Link-Based Smart Flow holds the link you share and the code that identifies the flow.
Short Code
The Link-Based Flow Short Code is the code that identifies the flow in its link, as the value of the rsf parameter. Every new Link-Based Flow gets a random Short Code made of letters and numbers.
The Short Code is locked by default. Click the lock icon, then Yes, Unlock, to edit it, or click Generate Random for a new random code.
A Short Code can be up to 16 characters and can contain letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores, and periods. Letters are saved in uppercase, and any other character is removed as you type.
A readable Short Code such as SUMMER-SALE can make the link easier to recognize in a campaign.
Changing the Short Code of a live Link-Based Flow breaks every link and QR code that uses the old code. Rebuy warns you about this when you unlock the Short Code. Once you have shared a link or printed a QR code, keep the Short Code as it is.
Smart Link
The Link-Based Flow Smart Link is the ready-to-share URL that activates the flow. Rebuy builds the Smart Link from your store's primary domain plus the rsf parameter, for example https://yourstore.com/?rsf=SUMMER-SALE, and adds any UTM Parameters you fill in. Click the Smart Link field to copy it.
When Landing Page is set to Custom URL and that URL is on your store's domain, the Smart Link uses the Custom URL as its base instead of your homepage.
Download QR
The Link-Based Flow Download QR button opens the Smart Link QR window, which shows a QR code for the flow's Smart Link. Click Download QR in that window to save the QR code as a PNG image for print or signage. Visits from the QR code are counted separately as QR Clicks in the flow's reporting.
Dynamic Smart Link
You can control the functionality of the user experience by passing in URL parameters. This can be useful in email campaigns, ad campaigns, and other use cases. To learn what's possible via Smart Flow URL parameters, please visit developers.rebuyengine.com
Landing Page settings for a Link-Based Flow
The Link-Based Flow Landing Page setting, under Landing Page Settings, decides which page the shopper ends up on after opening the flow's link. The table below lists each Landing Page option and where the shopper lands with it.
Landing Page option | Where the shopper lands |
Current Page (default) | The page the link itself points to, with no redirect. The copied Smart Link opens your homepage, and a product, collection, or other page URL with the rsf parameter added opens that page. |
Homepage | Your store's homepage. A link built from any other page URL redirects to the homepage. |
Cart | Your store's cart page, whichever page URL the link was built from. |
Custom URL | The address entered in the Custom URL field. |
The Link-Based Flow Custom URL field appears when Landing Page is set to Custom URL. The address must start with https:// and must not contain rsf=, since Rebuy adds the Short Code for you. When the Custom URL is on a different domain from your store, the shopper is sent there and the flow's steps do not run on that domain.
The Link-Based Flow Landing Page setting has no Checkout option. To send shoppers from a Link-Based Flow to checkout, add a Redirect step set to Checkout on the flow canvas.
What does the Current Page landing page option mean in Smart Flows?
The Current Page landing page option in a Smart Flows Link-Based Flow keeps the shopper on whatever page the link points to, with no redirect, and runs the flow's steps there. Current Page is the default for every new Link-Based Flow.
The copied Smart Link points at your store's root domain, so with Current Page selected it opens your homepage. To land shoppers on a specific product, collection, or landing page with Current Page, add ?rsf=YOURCODE to that page's URL, or &rsf=YOURCODE when the URL already has a parameter. For example, https://yourstore.com/products/mug?rsf=SUMMER-SALE opens the mug's product page and activates the flow there.
UTM Parameters for a Link-Based Flow
The Link-Based Flow UTM Parameters fields, under Landing Page Settings, add campaign tracking values to the flow's link so your analytics tools can attribute the visit. The fields are utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, and utm_content, and every field is optional.
Rebuy adds any filled-in UTM values to the copied Smart Link and QR code. When a shopper opens a Link-Based Flow link that does not already carry those exact UTM values, such as a page URL you added the rsf parameter to by hand, the page reloads once with the UTM parameters added. With Current Page selected, that reload keeps the shopper on the same page.
Cart Settings for a Link-Based Flow
The Link-Based Flow Cart Settings control what happens to the shopper's cart at the moment the flow's link is opened.
Clear Existing Cart: Empties the shopper's cart each time the link is opened, before the flow adds any products.
Show Smart Cart Automatically: Opens Rebuy Smart Cart when the shopper lands. Requires Smart Cart to be active on your store.
Display: Appears when Show Smart Cart Automatically is checked. Automatically Show opens Smart Cart every time the link is opened, and Automatically Show if Items Present opens Smart Cart only when the cart has at least one item.
Link-Based Flow Cart Settings run only when the shopper opens the link, not on the later pages the shopper visits.
How a Link-Based Flow runs on your storefront
A Smart Flows Link-Based Flow behaves as follows once a shopper opens its link:
The Link-Based Flow activates on any page of your store whose URL carries its rsf parameter, and Rebuy removes the rsf parameter from the browser's address bar after the page loads. A link that loses its rsf parameter in the address bar is working as expected.
The Link-Based Flow stays active as the shopper moves around your store until the browser session ends, because Rebuy stores the Short Code in a browser session cookie. The link starts the flow but does not limit it to one page.
Each time a shopper opens the link, the Link-Based Flow starts over from its first step.
A shopper has one Link-Based Flow active at a time. Opening a second Link-Based Flow's link replaces the first one for the rest of the session.
A Link-Based Flow runs alongside your live Global Flow, and Rebuy processes the Link-Based Flow first.
A Link-Based Flow that is turned off does nothing when its link is opened.
Link-Based Flows do not run on headless storefronts, since Smart Flows depends on Rebuy's storefront JavaScript.
Track Link-Based Flow results on the Insights page
The Smart Flows Insights page shows one Link-Based Flow's clicks, visitors, orders, and sales for a date range you choose. A Link-Based Flow's Insights page includes Total Clicks, QR Clicks, and a Daily Click Count chart, which a Global Flow's Insights page does not show, since a Global Flow has no link to click.
Open a Link-Based Flow's Insights page
To open the Insights page for a Link-Based Flow:
In Rebuy, go to Flows & A/B Testing, then Smart Flows.
In the Your Flows table, click the three-dot menu at the end of the Link-Based Flow's row.
Click View Insights.
To go back to the flow editor from a Link-Based Flow's Insights page, click Edit Flow in the top-right corner, or click the flow's name in the breadcrumb at the top of the page.
Choose the date range for a Link-Based Flow's Insights
A Link-Based Flow's Insights page opens on the last 7 days ending yesterday, so today's clicks and orders are not included until you change the date range. Click the date field to pick a start and end date on the calendar, or choose a shortcut such as Today, Last 30 Days, or Year To Date. Insights dates follow your store's time zone in Shopify.
The CLICKS, VISITORS, CONVERSION, TOTAL SALES, and REV PER VISITOR columns in the Smart Flows Your Flows table count a flow's full history through today, while the Insights page counts only the selected date range. The Your Flows table and the Insights page can show different numbers for the same Link-Based Flow for this reason. For the definitions of the Your Flows table columns, see Smart Flows Reporting Analytics.
Link-Based Flow Insights metrics
The summary cards at the top of a Link-Based Flow's Insights page cover the selected date range. The table below lists each Insights card and what it measures.
Insights card | What it measures for the Link-Based Flow |
Total Clicks | Visits from a URL carrying the flow's rsf parameter, including visits from its QR code |
Total Visitors | Shoppers the flow started running for |
Orders | Orders attributed to the flow |
Conversion | Orders divided by Total Visitors, as a percentage rounded to one decimal place |
Total Sales | Combined value of the orders attributed to the flow |
Rev Per Visitor | Total Sales divided by Total Visitors |
QR Clicks | Visits from the flow's downloaded QR code, which are also counted in Total Clicks |
AOV | Average order value, which is Total Sales divided by Orders |
Below the summary cards, a Link-Based Flow's Insights page plots each metric by day in the Daily Click Count, Daily Visitor Count, Daily Order Count, Daily Conversion Rate, Daily Sales Rate, and Daily Revenue per Visitor charts. The Daily Sales Rate chart plots each day's Total Sales, not a rate.
How Link-Based Flow clicks are counted
Rebuy records a Link-Based Flow click when a shopper opens a URL carrying the flow's rsf parameter, and records it as a QR click as well when the visit came from the flow's downloaded QR code. Visits you make with the Smart Flows Preview option are not counted in any Insights metric.
When a Link-Based Flow's Landing Page is a Custom URL on a different domain from your store, Rebuy records the click before sending the shopper to that domain. The flow's steps do not run there, so that Link-Based Flow shows clicks on its Insights page with no visitors, orders, or sales.
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