Example rules for real shops

Here are four rules as real shops set them up, each from its first step to its posts. Start from the one closest to your shop and change what's different. The examples count posts and products rather than credits: the exact credits depend on your AI models and your products' photos, and your rule's preview shows them before anything is spent.

A home decor shop: one product every weekdayCopy Anchor Link

A home decor shop on Shopify wants a steady presence on Instagram and Facebook without writing every day. It starts from the A product every weekday example.

• What SemPost does. Each weekday's posts are prepared in the first hour of the day before: one product, two posts, one per account, written in one go and sharing one scene picture. Until the accounts have engagement data, one post gets 12:00 and the other 12:30: the same product's posts are kept 30 minutes apart when the accounts allow.
• What it costs. 30 days hold 20 to 22 weekdays, so about 21 products and 42 posts; the preview's The next 30 days line gives the exact numbers and credits.
• What to watch. With 30 days before a product repeats, the collection needs about 22 products. If it has 15, the preview warns On … no product is left to share for …: they add products, or choose after 14 days.
• Every evening, someone opens the Approval queue, selects the next day's posts and presses Approve and plan.

A boutique: new arrivals introduced in three postsCopy Anchor Link

A women's clothing boutique on Shopify adds new pieces every week and wants each one introduced at once. It starts from An introduction for new products.

• When it's switched on, the rule reads the collection and treats what's in it as known: the pieces already there make no posts.
• On Tuesday at 21:00 they add a linen dress. The rule's next reading, within about an hour, finds it. Nothing is prepared and the dress isn't read until the 6-hour wait ends, early on Wednesday. Wednesday has begun by then, so the first post is for Thursday: the posts are prepared as the wait ends and wait in the Approval queue for Thursday 20:00, one of them moved to 20:30.
• Post 2 follows on Saturday and post 3 the next Wednesday, 3 and 7 days after the day the wait ended, each telling the dress from another angle with another photo. Approved TikTok posts reach TikTok as drafts: they publish them in the TikTok app.
• What it costs. Each new product costs one product's posts on both accounts, three times. The preview shows it as One event's credits.
• What to watch. The dress is read only when its wait has ended, so the boutique can finish its photos and description in those 6 hours. A piece that needs longer stays a draft in Shopify until it's ready: drafts aren't in the collection's list, and a piece counts as new on the day it's set to Active, however long it was a draft. One that went on sale more than 7 days before the rule found it isn't announced; they share it with Generate from products instead.

A cosmetics brand: products on sale at the weekendCopy Anchor Link

A skincare brand on WooCommerce wants its weekend offers seen on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok. It starts from On sale, every day and narrows it to the weekend.

• What SemPost does. Saturday's posts are prepared in the first hour of Friday, Sunday's in the first hour of Saturday. The product with the largest discount goes to all three accounts, at about 10:00, 10:30 and 11:00; the next product goes to Pinterest alone at 18:00. A product rests 7 days on an account, so next weekend another offer leads.
• Approvals. Pinterest posts always wait for approval, whatever the approval setting. TikTok posts reach TikTok as drafts.
• Prices. The posts state today's price only, never a former price or a percentage off; a post whose text claims more waits as a draft. Just before each post goes out, the product is read again: if its price changed, the post is held for them to check. See No misleading prices.
• What it costs. 30 days hold 8 to 10 weekend days, two products a day, the first on three accounts.

A ceramics workshop with its own websiteCopy Anchor Link

A ceramics workshop sells on its own website, which SemPost doesn't connect. It uses its product pages.

• What SemPost does. Each day is prepared two days ahead. The chosen page is read again then: name, price, photos and stock as the page shows them. A page that can't be read is skipped that day at no cost; if no page can be read on three of the rule's days in a row, the rule stops and the owner and admins get an email.
• What it costs. With Product photo, the posts use the shop's own photos and no scene picture is made, so each product costs only its writing.
• What to watch. They first chose after 30 days, but 12 products at three a week last only four weeks: the preview warned that a day in the fifth week had no product left. after 14 days fixed it. Only use pages you own or have permission to use.

Pausing and stoppingCopy Anchor Link

Pause on a rule's card stops its new preparations; the posts already prepared stay in the queue until someone approves, rejects or deletes them. Pause all at the top of the Automation page stops every rule at once, and Days without automation keeps chosen days free, such as a holiday.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link

• Create your first automation rule
• Post when something happens in your store
• Credits and the monthly cap
• Pause everything, and days without automation