Gifting conversations start in Instagram DMs. Then the gift ships, and the follow-up — the "it's on the way," the "it landed, how does it look?", the "would love to see the post" — moves to email, where creators famously do not live. The post you were owed dies in an unread inbox.
Seed closes that loop: you queue follow-up DMs from inside Shopify, and a small Chrome extension sends them from your own Instagram account, in the same threads where the relationship already exists. This is the complete walkthrough — setup to autopilot.
How it works (the 30-second version)
- Seed (in Shopify) is the brain: you pick who, write what, and see everything that happened.
- The extension (in Chrome) is the hands: it pulls your queue and types each DM into instagram.com like a careful human would.
- Nothing sends by itself. Queueing in Seed is safe; sending only happens when you press Start in the extension, with Instagram-safe pacing built in and impossible to turn off.
One-time setup (~2 minutes)
In Shopify admin, open Seed → DMs. The setup card walks you through three steps:
- Your Instagram @. Type the handle you send from. Seed never sees your password — this is just identity, and it doubles as a guard so the extension refuses to run from the wrong account.
- Install the extension. One click to the Chrome Web Store listing ("Seed — IG DM Sender"). Pin it after installing.
- Connect. Copy your connect key from the setup card, paste it into the extension's Connect field, and press Pull queue once. That's the handshake — the badge in Seed flips to "Active," and the setup card retires itself. One key covers every campaign you'll ever run.
Sending your first batch: the Send tab
The Send tab answers two questions — who and what — and shows you the exact result before anything is queued.
Who: pick an audience chip. "Shipped" is everyone whose gift has tracking. "Delivered" is everyone whose box actually arrived (Seed tracks delivery from your carrier through Shopify). "No post yet" is the nudge list. Or hit "Pick creators…" and check names by hand. The line under the chips always explains the math: how many will get a DM, how many were skipped because they were DM'd recently, how many have no Instagram handle on file. A zero is never silent.
What: write one message with tokens — {name} becomes their name,{tracking} their tracking number (its whole sentence drops automatically when there's no number, so nobody gets "your tracking is null"), and {post_link} a personal page where they submit their post. The preview rail on the right renders the final message for every recipient as you type. What you see is byte-for-byte what gets queued.
Press Queue. The success banner tells you the rest: open the extension → Follow-ups → Pull queue → Start. About fifteen seconds of clicking, then it works through the list with randomized delays while you watch. Prefer to approve each one? Switch the extension to Manual confirm and every DM waits for your click.
Autopilot: the Journey tab
Manual batches are for campaigns; the Journey tab is for the rhythm. Rules check your orders every morning and queue matching creators automatically. The recommended journey is one click and covers the three moments that matter:
- Gift shipped — "it's on the way," with tracking, on ship day.
- Gift delivered — "how does it look?" the day after the carrier confirms delivery. This is the highest-leverage DM in gifting: excitement peaks the day the box lands.
- Post nudge — five days after delivery, only for creators who haven't posted, with their personal submit link.
Each rule shows a forecast — "Tomorrow: queues 3 of 12" — computed by the same engine that runs in the morning, so it can't lie. And to be precise about what automations do: they queue. Sending still happens in your browser, when you press Start.
Did it actually send? The Activity tab
Every DM's life is visible: queued → pulled → sent, with timestamps. Skipped creators show the reason ("DM'd 2 days ago," "no Instagram handle"). Queued rows cancel instantly; cancelled rows can be re-queued. If you ever wonder whether something went out — this is the page that knows.
The safety rails (and why you can't turn them off)
- Hard cap: 50 sends/day per Instagram account, shared across everything the extension does.
- Your automation budget: default 20/day for rules, adjustable in Settings — spillover waits for tomorrow.
- One DM per creator per 3 days across all rules and manual sends (adjustable). Overlapping rules can't pile onto one person.
- Randomized 45–120s gaps + human typing cadence. No burst patterns.
- Stops dead on any Instagram warning, captcha, or action-block signal — and tells you why.
- Follow-ups only. Audiences come exclusively from your gift orders. This flow cannot cold-DM strangers.
FAQ
Does Seed send DMs from its servers? Never — your account, your browser, your supervision. Can it DM people I haven't gifted? No, structurally. What if I queue something by mistake? Cancel it in Activity before you press Start; nothing sends on its own. Will overlapping rules spam someone? No — the suppression window is enforced across everything.
The whole system exists for one number: the percentage of gifts that turn into posts. Following up on the right day, in the channel creators actually read, is the cheapest way anyone has found to move it.