What is a Journey?
A Journey is an automated email or SMS campaign in Cents Accelerate that gets triggered based on a specific event, like when a customer places an order, a new customer is created, or a customer joins a group. Journeys live under My Stores > Marketing > Journeys in the Business Manager.
Note: Journeys are different from Blasts. Blasts are one-time sends to a list. Journeys are trigger-based and will continue sending automatically every time the trigger condition is met once activated.
Important: Journeys are forward-looking only. Once activated, a Journey only enrolls customers who meet the trigger condition going forward. Customers who already met the condition before activation will not be enrolled. If you need to message customers who already match the criteria today, send a Blast instead.
Before You Start
You need to be on Cents Accelerate to access the Journeys feature.
Customers must not be opted out of marketing messages. If a customer texted STOP to your Accelerate number, they will not receive marketing emails or texts. Customers can text START to re-enable SMS notifications.
By default, your sending email address is automatically provisioned by Cents and will look like [email protected]. The "yourbusiness" portion is pulled from your company name in Admin > Account Details.
You can also connect your own custom sending domain (e.g. [email protected]). See: How to Set Up a Custom Sending Domain for Email Campaigns in Accelerate.
Test emails may land in Spam/Junk on the first few sends. This is expected and improves over time as your sending reputation builds.
For SMS Journeys, your Accelerate number must be registered with Twilio (A2P 10DLC). Unregistered numbers will show as sent but will fail with error "30034: Message from an Unregistered Number." Reach out to your CSM or IT if you suspect a registration issue.
Step 1: Create a Customer Group (Optional but Recommended)
If you want to target a specific segment (e.g. loyal customers), you'll need to create a group first.
Go to My Stores > Customers
On the left side of the screen, click Groups > New Group
A sidebar will appear on the right. Use any of the available filters to define your audience:
Date (e.g. Signed Up Date or Last Order Date)
Address
Total Orders
Total Order Value
Average Order Spend
Locations
Customer Type
Customer Attributes
Click Apply Filter
Give the group a name (e.g. "Loyal Customers") and click Save
Your group is now available to select when setting up a Journey.
Step 2: Create a New Journey
Go to My Stores > Marketing > Journeys
Click New and select Blank, or choose a pre-built template like "Welcome Email" or "No Orders in Last 30 Days"
Fill in the Journey Name. This is just an internal label to identify your campaign (e.g. "Welcome Email Message" or "Wash & Fold Promotion")
Journey name cannot be blank. Make sure to fill this in before saving or testing.
Step 3: Configure the Journey Settings
When should the message be sent?
Select a triggering event from the dropdown:
A customer is created, fires when a new customer account is made
An order is placed, fires every time a qualifying customer places an order
An order is completed, fires when an order reaches completed status
A customer joins a group, fires when a customer is added to a specific group (requires a group to be selected)
If you select "A customer joins a group," you must also select which group, otherwise the journey won't save.
Restrict to a Specific Audience (Optional)
Check the Restrict to a specific audience box if you only want this journey to send to a certain group of customers. Then select either:
A specific group (e.g. your "Loyal Customers" group)
A specific list of customers (useful for testing, select yourself)
Currently you can only select one group per Journey. If you need to target multiple groups, create separate Journeys.
Quiet Hours (Recommended for SMS)
Under Advanced Options, you can set quiet hours so SMS sends only between, for example, 9 AM and 9 PM in the customer's local time. Quiet hours are not on by default. Set them per Journey before activating.
Step 4: Add Your Email Content
In the Steps section, click Select an Existing Template
Choose a template from the library. Cents-recommended templates are available under Campaigns > Email Templates > Cents-Recommended Templates
To edit the template content, click the Edit button at the bottom right of the Steps section, then click Edit Manually in the upper right corner
Click on any text block to modify it. You can change the copy, adjust text alignment, and customize the message for your promotion
When done, click Save
The Sending Email Address shown at the bottom of Step 1 is the "from" address your customers will see. This is auto-generated by Cents and cannot be manually changed unless you set up a custom sending domain.
Step 5: Test the Journey Before Activating
Always test before going live.
At the bottom of the journey editor, click Test Journey
In the popup, switch to Manual and enter an email address directly (e.g. your personal or work email)
Click Send. You should receive the test email shortly
If the test fails with an error like "customer has no email address," switch to Manual mode and type the email directly instead of selecting from the customer list.
Test emails may go to Spam/Junk on the first send. Check there if you don't see it in your inbox.
Step 6: Save and Activate
Once you're happy with the journey, click Save Journey
You'll be taken to the journey summary screen showing the journey name, status (Draft), and triggering event
To start sending, click Activate
Once activated, the journey will automatically send the email every time the triggering condition is met going forward.
How to Edit an Existing Journey
Go to My Stores > Marketing > Journeys
Find your journey in the list (it will show as Draft or Active)
If the journey is Active, click Deactivate to pause it before editing. You can re-activate after saving.
Click on the journey, then click the Edit button in the upper right corner
Click Edit Manually to modify the email content
Make your changes and click Save and Exit. If no changes were made, click Cancel
FAQs
Setup and Activation
Why didn't my Journey enroll customers who already match the trigger?
Journeys only run forward from activation. A customer who placed their last order 35 days ago when you turned on a "No Orders in 30 Days" Journey will not be enrolled, because the 30-day mark passed before the Journey was active. To message customers who already match the condition, save the segment as a Group and send a Blast to that Group.
Can I edit a Journey while it's running?
You'll need to pause it first. On an active Journey, click Deactivate, make your edits, save, then Activate again. Pausing and resuming will not double-send to customers already in the Journey.
Can I select more than one group for the audience?
Not currently. Each Journey can target one group at a time. If you need to reach multiple segments, create separate Journeys for each, or build a single combined Group in the Customers tab.
Can I manually send a Journey to all my customers right now?
No. Journeys are trigger-based. They only fire when the trigger event occurs. If you want to send a one-time message to all customers immediately, use a Blast instead.
Can I reuse the same template for multiple Journeys?
Yes. You can go back to any saved draft, edit it, and save it as a new Journey with a different name and trigger condition. You can also save a copy of any Cents-Recommended Template to your own library and reuse it.
Sending Address and Deliverability
What determines my sending email address? Can I customize it for stores with different branding?
By default, your "from" address is [email protected], where "businessname" is pulled from your company name in Admin > Account Details. You can also connect a custom sending domain (e.g. [email protected]) for stronger brand credibility and deliverability. The custom domain flow lives at the bottom of the Blast or Journey editor under From Email > Add New Email, and is automated through our DNS partner Entri (no manual DNS records required if your provider supports OAuth).
Why is there a separate domain for email marketing instead of just using my existing email account?
Using a separate domain protects your main domain's reputation. If marketing emails get flagged as spam, it lowers the risk of harming the deliverability of mission-critical messages from your primary inbox. Cents automatically provisions an Accelerate sending address so you can start sending right away.
Why are my test emails going to Junk/Spam?
First one-off sends are expected to land in Spam, especially on a brand-new sending address. Deliverability improves over the first several days as your sending reputation builds.
A few tips to speed this up:
Stagger the start dates of multiple campaigns. Don't launch everything at once.
For your first campaigns, keep the audience small (around 100 customers) so volume builds gradually.
Watch the open rate on each campaign. If it stays below 10% with more than 100 emails sent, contact Support.
My test email arrived on my personal address but not my work address. Why? This is usually a spam/junk filter at your work email's domain level. Check your Junk folder first. If it's still missing, double-check that the work address on file is spelled correctly.
Customer Replies and Opt-Outs
Can customers reply to my emails and texts? Yes.
For email: replies go to the address set in Contact Center > Escalation Settings > Email. If that's not configured, replies go to your Business Manager login email (Admin > Account Details).
For SMS: replies appear in Contact Center > Messages, alongside your other customer messages.
How do customers opt out of marketing?
Customers can text STOP to your Accelerate number to opt out of SMS. Replies like "unsubscribe" or "opt out" will also opt them out automatically. To re-enable SMS, the customer texts START to the same number.
Can I manually remove a customer from a Journey?
There is no self-serve way to manually remove a single customer from a live Journey. Your options are: opt them out at the customer level (which removes them from all future Accelerate sends), exclude them via the audience filter, or pause the Journey if you need to stop all sends. If you need a customer removed urgently, contact Support.
Why does the Activity tab show a customer as "In Progress"?
"In Progress" means the customer hasn't completed all the steps in the Journey yet. This could be because they unsubscribed, because a scheduled delay step hasn't fired yet, or because they're still mid-Journey. It does not necessarily mean they opted out.
Building the Audience
How do I segment my customers for different sends?
Go to the Customers tab, apply the filters you want (Date, Total Orders, Average Order Spend, Locations, Customer Type, Customer Attributes, etc.), click Apply Filter, then Save Group. Your saved Group is available as the audience for any Journey or Blast.
Will Cents help me customize email campaigns or new templates?
We don't customize personalized templates for you, but we offer a set of default templates designed by our marketing experts under Campaigns > Email Templates > Cents-Recommended Templates. You can copy any of these into your own library and edit the copy, branding, and design.
Reporting
Where do I see how a Journey is performing?
Open the Journey and check the Activity tab. You'll see analytics like emails sent, opened, and bounced, plus a list of customers currently enrolled and the step they're on.
A customer says they didn't get my SMS. What's the most likely cause?
In order of likelihood:
The customer has opted out (texted STOP at any point in the past).
Your Accelerate Twilio number isn't registered (A2P 10DLC). The error to look for in the message log is "30034: Message from an Unregistered Number." Reach out to your CSM or IT to confirm registration status.
The customer was enrolled before quiet hours and the message was held until morning.
The customer doesn't have a valid mobile number on file.
The Journey trigger condition fired before the Journey was activated (see "Why didn't my Journey enroll customers who already match the trigger" above).