Deliver User Stories: Storevine Campaigns

Scenario

With the Campaigns PRD and Figma specs finalized, Storevine’s growth PM worked with the Engineering Lead to translate the guided first-campaign flow into an engineering-ready user story before the sprint kickoff. This story represents the highest-priority Campaigns ticket . the experience that non-adopter merchants see when they launch Campaigns for the first time.

Source Notes:

CAN-SPAM Act (FTC, ftc.gov) . one-click unsubscribe and physical sender address are legally mandatory in every commercial email, directly informing the compliance validation acceptance criteria that must pass before any campaign send is permitted.
Nielsen Norman Group research on first-use experiences (nngroup.com) . establishes that a guided path producing visible value within the first session is the primary driver of retention for new users of productivity tools, validating the investment in a pre-populated first-campaign flow over a blank-canvas editor.
SendGrid documentation (sendgrid.com/docs/for-developers/tracking-events/) . technical reference for the email send API and Event Webhook that underlie the unique_args attribution event recording requirement in AC-5.

Prompt

/user-stories

Project: Campaigns . native email marketing for Storevine merchants
Sprint: Q2 2026 Campaigns build (kickoff Mar 3, GA Apr 28)

Story I need:
  Guided first-campaign flow for non-adopter merchants

Who: Merchant with no active external email tool and no prior Storevine
     email sends (non-adopter segment, ~38% of active base [fictional])
What: Send their first email campaign using a pre-populated template seeded
      with their own products and a default audience
Why: Start driving repeat purchases without needing to figure out email
     marketing from scratch

Prior work to reference:
- Hypothesis: first-send rate target 12% → 30% [fictional] in 60 days
- Spike summary: SendGrid attribution via unique_args confirmed feasible
- Design rationale: pre-built named segments as default audience selection
- PRD: Campaigns v1 scope locked

Need: full user story with acceptance criteria (Given/When/Then),
design notes, technical notes, and dependencies. P0 priority.

Output

User Story: Guided First-Campaign Flow for Non-Adopter Merchants

Story Header

Field	Value
ID	US-CAM-001
Title	Guided first-campaign flow . pre-populated template for non-adopter merchants
Persona	Non-adopter merchant (no active external email tool, no prior Storevine campaign sent)
Priority	P0
Epic/Feature	Campaigns v1
Estimate	L

User Story Statement

As a Storevine merchant with no active email marketing program,

I want to send my first email campaign using a pre-filled template with my own products and a pre-selected audience of recent customers,

so that I can start driving repeat purchases from my existing customer base without needing to understand email marketing tools or build anything from scratch.

Context & Background

Merchant interviews identified three participants (P3, P6, P8) who have no email program despite acknowledging they should have one. All three cited setup complexity as the barrier: the moment they see a blank template or a list of filter options, they close the tab. The guided first-campaign flow eliminates that moment by presenting a ready-to-send campaign on first open . the merchant’s own products in a pre-designed template, addressed to an audience that makes intuitive sense (customers who have already purchased). The hypothesis tied to this story targets an increase in first-send rate from 12% [fictional] to 30% [fictional] within 60 days of GA. This story is the primary delivery mechanism for that hypothesis.

Acceptance Criteria

AC-1: First-campaign detection triggers the guided flow

Given a merchant has no prior sent campaigns in Campaigns and no existing campaign drafts

When the merchant navigates to the Campaigns section of the Storevine admin for the first time

Then the system displays the guided first-campaign setup flow (not the standard campaign creation flow or an empty campaigns list)

AC-2: Template is pre-populated with merchant product data

Given the merchant is in the guided first-campaign flow and has at least one published product in their Storevine storefront

When the guided flow loads

Then the system automatically populates the campaign template with the merchant’s top 3 products by sales volume in the last 90 days [fictional], including product image, name, and price pulled directly from the Storevine product catalog . no merchant action required

AC-3: Audience defaults to recent purchasers

Given the merchant is in the guided first-campaign flow and has at least one customer in their Storevine account

When the guided flow loads

Then the system defaults the audience selection to the “Customers who purchased in the last 90 days” named segment, with the current recipient count displayed (e.g., “147 customers [fictional]”) . the merchant may change this selection before sending but is not required to

AC-4: Compliance validation passes before send is enabled

Given the merchant has completed the subject line and confirmed the audience

When the merchant clicks “Send campaign”

Then the system validates that: (a) a subject line is present and not blank, (b) the merchant account has a physical sender address on file (required by CAN-SPAM), and (c) an unsubscribe link is present in the template . and blocks the send with a specific, actionable error message if any of these checks fail, rather than silently proceeding

AC-5: Attribution events are recorded for each recipient

Given the campaign has passed compliance validation and the merchant has confirmed the send

When the system submits the campaign to SendGrid via the send API

Then the system includes unique_args in the API payload with campaign_id, merchant_id, and recipient_customer_id for each recipient . enabling the attribution webhook receiver to link subsequent purchase events to this campaign within the 7-day attribution window

AC-6: Post-send confirmation is shown in-app

Given the campaign has been submitted to SendGrid and the send API has returned a 202 Accepted response

When the send completes

Then the system displays an in-app confirmation: the number of recipients the campaign was sent to, the campaign subject line, and a message directing the merchant to check the Campaigns dashboard in 24 - 48 hours to see open rates and revenue attributed . replacing the guided flow with the standard Campaigns dashboard view

Design Notes

The guided flow must not display a “start from blank” option in the primary view; the pre-populated template is the only path. A small-text link “Start from scratch instead” may appear below the template, but it must not compete visually with the primary CTA.
The audience selection step displays the named segment library (per the audience selection design rationale) with “Customers who purchased in the last 90 days” pre-selected. The merchant can change the selection; the recipient count updates dynamically when a new segment is selected.
If the merchant has fewer than 3 published products, the template is populated with however many products are available; if zero products are published, the template shows a placeholder with a prompt to publish a product before continuing.
Error states for AC-4 must follow the Error Messages spec from the edge cases document: plain language, specific cause, immediate next action.
Figma: Campaigns guided first-campaign flow v4 spec (internal . Figma workspace)

Technical Notes

First-campaign detection: query the campaigns table for the current merchant_id with status IN ('sent', 'scheduled'); if zero records returned, display guided flow.
Product pre-population: query the products table ordered by total_sales_last_90_days DESC [fictional] with status = 'published'; limit 3.
unique_args payload structure: { "campaign_id": "<uuid>", "merchant_id": "<uuid>", "recipient_customer_id": "<uuid>" } . one entry per recipient. See spike summary for the confirmed schema.
SendGrid send API: POST to /v3/mail/send; each recipient is a separate personalization object to enable per-recipient unique_args. This impacts payload size at high recipient counts; Platform Squad to confirm batch size limits before implementation.
The 202 Accepted response from SendGrid confirms the campaign has been accepted for delivery; it does not confirm delivery to individual inboxes. The in-app confirmation copy should reflect this (avoid “Your campaign has been delivered” . use “Your campaign has been sent”).

Dependencies

Dependency	Type	Status
`unique_args` attribution schema (US-CAM-002)	Story	Blocked . must be merged before this story is implemented
SendGrid API contract (`unique_args` field spec)	Engineering spec	Ready (confirmed in spike summary)
Audience selection named segment library (US-CAM-003)	Story	Blocked . named segments must be defined and queryable before the guided flow can default to one
Physical sender address field in merchant account settings	Existing feature	Ready . field exists in account settings; validation logic is new
CAN-SPAM/GDPR Legal sign-off	Legal	In progress . required before any send functionality is enabled in production

Out of Scope

Scheduled send (time-delayed campaigns): the guided first-campaign flow is send-immediately only in v1; scheduling is a standard campaign creation feature available after the first send
A/B testing for subject line or content: not in Campaigns v1
Klaviyo list import or template migration: not in v1 guided flow

Open Questions

If a merchant has zero customers in their account (very new stores), should the guided flow be shown with a “You don’t have any customers yet” state, or should the Campaigns entry point be suppressed until the first customer is recorded?
Should the product pre-population use the last-90-days sales window or best-all-time sales? For merchants with very recent store launches, the 90-day window may return fewer than 3 products even if they have products published. Define the fallback logic before implementation.