Every WooCommerce email, what triggers it, and how to customize it

The emails, and when each is sent

Some go to the store owner, some to the customer.

• New order (to you): an order is placed and paid or confirmed.
• Order processing (to the customer): the order is received and payment is done, and you now need to fulfil it.
• Order completed: you marked it complete. This is the “it is on its way” email for most stores.
• Order on hold: waiting for something, often a bank transfer.
• Order cancelled (to you): an order was cancelled.
• Order failed (to you): payment failed.
• Order refunded: a full or partial refund was made.
• Customer invoice and customer note: sent from the order screen, or when you add a note for the customer.
• New account and reset password: account emails.
• Failed subscription payment, if you use WooCommerce Subscriptions.

Turn them on, off and edit the basics

In WordPress, go to WooCommerce, then Settings, then Emails. Open any email to change its subject, heading, extra text and whether it is on. The Emails page also sets the sender name and address, the header image and the footer text.

Make the sender address one on your own domain, such as shop@yourstore.com, and make sure that domain is set up to send. Mail “from” a domain that does not authorize your server is the top reason these emails land in spam.

Why one of them goes missing

• Your host’s default mail function is blocked or not authenticated. This is the cause most of the time. Here is how to fix it.
• The email is switched off in WooCommerce, Settings, Emails.
• WordPress’s scheduled tasks are not running, so queued emails never go out.
• The customer’s address was mistyped at checkout, or is on a suppression list because it bounced before.

Send them through a real email service

Every WooCommerce email goes out through WordPress’s mail function. Point that function at an email service and all of them become authenticated and trackable at once. The SendSend WordPress plugin does this without any SMTP settings, and you can see every order email, and what happened to it, in the dashboard.

Make them look like your store

The default WooCommerce emails are plain. We made a free, ready-to-use version of every one of them: the WooCommerce email templates, with an order table, totals, addresses and a button to the order. Use them as they are, or add your logo and colors and change the wording in the builder.