Is a Shopify customer segment a live list or a snapshot?

Does a Shopify customer segment update itself after you create it?

It does. Shopify calls segments "dynamic, rule-based customer lists that let you group together customers who have similar characteristics," and its overview page ties that to the moment of creation: "After you create a customer segment, customers are automatically added or removed to the segment list based on whether they meet the segment criteria." Its page on managing segments states each direction on its own — a new customer who matches is "automatically included", while an existing one who stops matching is "automatically removed".

Segments that filter on RFM group carry a timing gap of their own. The rfm_group filter includes customers by the group they're categorized into, and Shopify's RFM report warns that its total customer count can run ahead of the number with an assigned group because of "a brief delay in when new customer data is synced from the store". A customer the sync hasn't reached carries no group yet, so a filter on the group can't include them until it does.

Why does the number next to your segment look out of date?

Because live membership and a live number are not the same thing.

That lag belongs to the count column, not to who is in the segment. To see how stale a figure is, hover over the count on the segments index and Shopify shows when it was last updated.

Do you need to refresh a segment before you send a campaign?

Membership needs nothing from you, apart from the RFM-group timing gap covered below. If it is the count you want to trust, open the segment details page first. Which groups deserve a campaign is a separate question, answered in our guide to RFM segmentation.

One kind of send takes the audience out of your hands. Of the emails Campaign Autopilot creates, Shopify says: "You can't change the target audience. Autopilot selects the segment to maximize results."

When should you check an RFM-group segment before a send?

When the newest customers are the point of the message. The sync delay concerns new customer data, so how much it costs you depends on which group you target, and Shopify's own descriptions of the groups show where recent buyers land:

• Champions, Loyal, At risk, Previously loyal. Shopify's descriptions of these call for many orders or a strong history of orders and spend, so a customer with no group yet is unlikely to belong in them; use the segment as it stands.
• New, Active, Prospects. Shopify describes New as customers "with very recent purchases, few orders, and low spend", Active as customers with "recent purchases, some orders, and moderate spend", and Prospects as "Customers with no orders yet" — groups a newly created customer can land in. Before sending, open the RFM customer analysis report and compare the total customer count with the number assigned to a group. Shopify also says its customer reports "might not display all the activity on your store from the past 12 hours," so two matching counts don't prove that the most recent customers are included. A gap between those two numbers means some new customer data hasn't synced yet. If the send must reach everyone who just bought, hold it and compare the counts again later; Shopify calls the delay "brief" but doesn't say how long that sync delay lasts.

The rfm_group filter also has a "Doesn't exist" operator (rfm_group IS NULL), so you can build a segment of customers who have no RFM group yet.

Say you end a weekend sale on Sunday night and plan a Monday follow-up to the New group. The customers most likely to be missing are the last ones to order before you send — exactly the people the follow-up is for. Compare the two counts first, keeping in mind that customer reports might not show all of the last 12 hours of activity, then decide whether to send now or wait.