How to Use Shopify Flow to Automatically Cancel Free Orders from Unintended Customers

If you're offering free items (like samples or gifts) to specific customers — for example, tagged B2B buyers or VIPs — you may want to cancel any $0 orders placed by unauthorized users automatically.

With the Shopify Flow app from the Shopify App Store, you can create an automation to catch and cancel these unintended free orders. This helps prevent abuse and ensures that only the right customers receive your promotional items.

Watch this walkthrough on Loom:

Use Case Example

You're offering a free sample that shows up as a $0 order in the checkout. You want to make sure:

• Only customers with a specific tag(s) can claim a Free Gift.

• If an unauthorized customer (no tags or wrong tags) places the free order, it gets automatically cancelled.

Step-by-Step: Set Up the Order Cancel Automation in Shopify Flow (tag-based)

1. Install the Shopify Flow app from the Shopify App Store.
   
   

2. Open Shopify Admin → Go to Apps → Open Shopify Flow

3. Click Create Workflow
   

4. Select a trigger as:
   👉 Order Created
   

5. Click on Condition
   
6. Now, click on the "Add variables" button under the "IF" condition > And choose Order option
   
7. Search for customer tags and select tags String[]
8. Select Not equal to condition from the dropdown
   Now enter: b2b, vip, wholesale, or your preferred tags. Here we added free_gift_customer 

9. In the Then branch of the condition, add an Action: 👉 Cancel Order
   
   
   (Optional: Add a description, like “Unauthorized Free Order”)

10. Check Restock items
    
    Note: You can also add another Action to send an internal email or Slack alert so your team knows when this happens.

11. And finally, click the Turn on workflow button to activate the workflow.

To configure this with our Wholesale Lock Manager app, please check the above video.