---
title: 'Marketing automations'
description: 'Emit lifecycle events (welcome, abandoned-cart, post-purchase) to Resend Automations — consent-gated, flag-off by default.'
canonical: 'https://cartwright.app/docs/features/marketing-automations'
---

# Marketing automations (/docs/features/marketing-automations)



The `marketingAutomations` feature drives lifecycle email sequences — welcome, abandoned-cart recovery, post-purchase — through [Resend Automations](https://resend.com/features/automations).

Cartwright's job is small and self-contained: it **emits events** at the right moments. Resend runs the actual sequences (timing, steps, content) you wire in the Resend dashboard. Cartwright never owns the drip content or scheduling. Source: `lib/marketing/automations.ts`.

## Turning it on [#turning-it-on]

<Steps>
  <Step>
    Set a 

    **Resend API key**

     (

    `/admin/integrations`

    , or 

    `RESEND_API_KEY`

    ) — the same key Cartwright already uses for transactional email.
  </Step>

  <Step>
    Enable 

    **`marketingAutomations`**

     in 

    `/admin/features`

     (or 

    `brand.features.marketingAutomations = true`

    ). Default off.
  </Step>

  <Step>
    In the Resend dashboard, create one Automation per sequence, each with a trigger whose event name matches the table below.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Without a Resend key the feature is inert — every emit is a no-op.

## Events Cartwright emits [#events-cartwright-emits]

| Event name                  | Fired when                                                | Payload                                      |
| --------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- |
| `cartwright.user.created`   | a customer registers                                      | `{ name }`                                   |
| `cartwright.cart.abandoned` | the abandoned-cart cron finds a logged-in cart idle ≥ 24h | `{ cartUrl, itemCount, items }`              |
| `cartwright.order.placed`   | an order is marked paid (Stripe webhook)                  | `{ orderId, totalDkk, currency, itemCount }` |

Resend auto-creates the contact from the event's email and runs the matching automation. Use the payload fields in your templates.

## Consent [#consent]

Marketing events fire **only for customers with marketing consent** — defined as a confirmed newsletter subscriber (`Subscriber.status === "confirmed"`), including `order.placed`. The whole policy lives in one function, `hasMarketingConsent(email)` — change it there to broaden the rule. Cookie consent is per-browser and can't address an email server-side, so the newsletter opt-in is the gate.

## Relationship to the abandoned-cart cron [#relationship-to-the-abandoned-cart-cron]

With `marketingAutomations` on, the existing `abandonedCart` cron emits `cartwright.cart.abandoned` (Resend runs a multi-step drip) instead of sending its own single recovery email — no double send.

| `abandonedCart` | `marketingAutomations` | Behavior                                             |
| --------------- | ---------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| on              | off                    | Direct single recovery email                         |
| off             | on                     | Emit `cart.abandoned` → Resend drip                  |
| on              | on                     | Emit `cart.abandoned` → Resend drip (no direct send) |
| off             | off                    | Cron no-ops                                          |

<Callout type="info">
  Resend-specific by design — Resend is already the transport. There is no ESP-agnostic event bus.
</Callout>

<Cards>
  <Card title="Email (Resend)" href="/docs/features/email-resend" />

  <Card title="Newsletter & subscribers" href="/docs/features/customer-storefront" />
</Cards>