How to Send Shopify Order Notifications to Different Staff Based on Product or Collection

You have multiple team members handling different parts of your business. Your clothing orders go to one warehouse. Electronics go to another. Custom orders need to reach your design team. But Shopify's default notifications send everything to the same inbox.

The result? Your warehouse team wades through irrelevant orders. Important alerts get buried. Things fall through the cracks.

What you need is conditional routing—sending order notifications to different people based on what the customer ordered. This guide shows you how to set it up.

The Problem with One-Size-Fits-All Notifications

Shopify's built-in staff notifications are basic. You can add email recipients and choose which events trigger notifications (new order, order paid, etc.), but you can't filter by what's in the order.

This creates problems as your business grows:

Notification overload. Your electronics fulfillment team doesn't need alerts for clothing orders. When they receive notifications for everything, they start ignoring notifications entirely.

Delayed response. If all orders go to a general inbox, someone has to manually triage and forward to the right person. That's wasted time and delayed fulfillment.

Missed handoffs. Orders requiring special handling—custom products, items from specific vendors, high-value items—don't automatically reach the people who need to see them.

Multi-location complexity. If you fulfill from multiple warehouses or work with dropship vendors, orders need to reach the right location based on what's being shipped.

What Conditional Routing Looks Like

Here's an example of how product-based notifications might work for a store selling both apparel and electronics:

When an order comes in with a laptop (Electronics collection) and a laptop bag (Accessories), the system evaluates the rules and sends notifications to the appropriate teams.

Method 1: Using Shopify Flow

If you're on Shopify Advanced or Plus, Shopify Flow provides native workflow automation.

Setting Up a Basic Product-Based Notification

Step 1: Create a new workflow

Go to Apps → Shopify Flow → Create workflow. Select "Order created" as your trigger.

Step 2: Add a condition

Add a condition block that checks order line items. You can filter by:

• Product title contains [keyword]
• Product is in collection [collection name]
• Product vendor equals [vendor name]
• Product tag contains [tag]

Step 3: Add notification action

If the condition is met, add an action to send an email notification. Configure the recipient and message template.

Step 4: Repeat for other conditions

Create additional branches for different products/collections with their respective recipients.

Limitations of Shopify Flow

• Only available on Advanced ($399/month) and Plus plans
• Email-only notifications (no native WhatsApp or SMS)
• Workflow builder has a learning curve
• Complex multi-condition scenarios can become unwieldy

Method 2: Third-Party Notification Apps

Several Shopify apps specialize in conditional order notifications with more flexibility than Flow.

Smart Notifications

Smart Notifications lets you create notification rules based on various order attributes:

• Product SKU or title
• Product tags or vendor
• Collection membership
• Order value thresholds
• Customer country
• Payment method

You configure rules through a visual interface, and the app sends notifications to specified email addresses when orders match.

Example rule: "When order contains products tagged 'Fragile', send email to warehouse-fragile@yourstore.com with packing instructions."

Notifications by Modd Apps

This app supports sending order details to different recipients based on conditions like:

• Specific products or vendors
• Order tags or customer tags
• Geographic location
• Custom conditions using Liquid logic

It can also update order attributes (add tags, notes) based on the same conditions.

ShopAlert: Order Notifications

Primarily focused on alerting store owners to important events, ShopAlert can send notifications based on:

• New orders (with filtering options)
• Low stock alerts for specific products
• Customer behavior triggers

Common App Limitations

Most notification apps share some constraints:

• Email-only delivery. Few support WhatsApp or SMS natively, requiring additional integrations.
• Per-app pricing. Costs add up if you need multiple apps to cover all your notification needs.
• Setup complexity. Configuring rules across multiple apps creates maintenance overhead.

Method 3: Webhook-Based Custom Integration

For full control over notification logic, you can build a custom system using Shopify webhooks.

Architecture Overview

Shopify Order → Webhook → Your Server → Notification Service → Team Member
                              ↓
                       Evaluate rules:
                       - Check products
                       - Match collections
                       - Apply conditions
                       - Select recipient

Implementation Steps

1. Set up webhook endpoint

Create a server endpoint (Node.js, Python, or serverless function) to receive order data from Shopify.

2. Register webhooks in Shopify

Go to Settings → Notifications → Webhooks. Add webhooks for relevant events (order created, order paid) pointing to your endpoint.

3. Build routing logic

Your endpoint receives the full order JSON, including line items with product details. Parse this to determine which notifications to send:

// Pseudocode example
for (lineItem of order.line_items) {
  if (lineItem.vendor === 'DropshipVendor') {
    notify(vendorEmail, order);
  }
 
  if (productInCollection(lineItem.product_id, 'Electronics')) {
    notify(electronicsTeam, order);
  }
 
  if (lineItem.properties.includes('custom')) {
    notify(designTeam, order);
  }
}

4. Send notifications

Connect to your notification service (email API, WhatsApp Business API, SMS gateway) to deliver alerts to the appropriate recipients.

Pros and Cons of Custom Integration

Pros:

• Complete control over logic and routing
• Can integrate any notification channel (WhatsApp, SMS, Slack, etc.)
• No per-message fees from third-party apps
• Scales with your business without increasing costs

Cons:

• Requires development resources to build and maintain
• You're responsible for uptime, error handling, and monitoring
• Changes to routing rules require code updates (unless you build an admin interface)

Practical Scenarios

Scenario 1: Multi-Warehouse Fulfillment

You fulfill orders from two locations based on product type.

Rules:

• Products in "Clothing" collection → Warehouse A team email/WhatsApp
• Products in "Electronics" collection → Warehouse B team email/WhatsApp
• Orders with items from both → Both teams notified

Scenario 2: Dropshipping Mixed with Own Inventory

Some products you fulfill yourself; others ship directly from vendors.

Rules:

• Products with vendor "YourCompany" → Your fulfillment team
• Products with vendor "DropshipPartner1" → Partner 1's order email
• Products with vendor "DropshipPartner2" → Partner 2's order email

Scenario 3: Custom/Made-to-Order Products

Certain products require production before shipping.

Rules:

• Products tagged "Custom" or "MadeToOrder" → Production team with customer specifications
• Products tagged "Personalized" → Engraving team with personalization details
• All other products → Standard fulfillment team

Scenario 4: High-Value Order Escalation

Orders above certain thresholds need manager approval.

Rules:

• Order total > $500 → Store manager WhatsApp alert
• Order total > $1,000 → Store manager + owner notification
• Standard orders → Normal fulfillment flow

Combining Product Rules with Other Conditions

The most powerful notification systems combine product-based rules with other factors:

• Product + Payment method: Electronics collection AND COD payment → Extra verification alert
• Product + Customer type: Custom order AND first-time customer → Design team + manager notification
• Product + Geography: Fragile items AND international shipping → Special packing instructions alert

This layered approach ensures notifications are both relevant and actionable.

Building This With Staff Ping

This exact use case—routing order notifications to different team members based on what was ordered—is a core feature we're building into Staff Ping.

Instead of complex webhook code or cobbling together multiple apps, you configure rules through a simple interface:

• If order contains products from [Collection], notify [Team Member]
• If product vendor is [Vendor], notify [Team Member]
• If product has tag [Tag], notify [Team Member]

Notifications go via WhatsApp, so your team sees them instantly—not buried in an email inbox they check twice a day.

We're currently in early access. Join the waitlist if this is the kind of notification routing you need.

Key Takeaways

• Shopify's default notifications don't support product-based routing
• Shopify Flow offers basic conditional logic but requires Advanced/Plus plans and only supports email
• Third-party apps provide more flexibility but often lack WhatsApp support and add monthly costs
• Custom webhook integrations offer full control but require development resources
• The most effective systems combine product rules with other conditions (payment method, order value, customer type)
• WhatsApp delivery ensures notifications actually get seen, unlike email

The goal is getting the right order information to the right person without manual triage. When your electronics team only sees electronics orders and your clothing team only sees clothing orders, everyone responds faster and nothing falls through the cracks.