How to Send WooCommerce Automated Emails – A Complete Guide

Like 99% of email users, I myself check my emails several times a day, including first thing in the morning and whenever I check my mobile. And I most definitely check my email after making an online purchase to make sure the store has sent order-related emails.

This creates a sense of trust in me and gives me relief that my money is safe with this store and that my orders are being processed.

This isn’t just me; in fact, 65% of people check order confirmation emails after they place an order online.

In addition, people are highly tempted to open most of promotional emails from eCommerce stores.

Did you know eCommerce email marketing delivers a jaw-dropping 4400% return on investment?

Yup, you read it right; it’s that massive!

So now, how do you do it? Do you manually write/design every single email you send to your customers from your Woo store?

Unless you have a superpower, you would opt for an automated solution. I mean, even Santa relies on automation during peak season!

Let’s see how you can too.

✅ In this article, we will cover what WooCommerce automated emails are and why you need them, and we will provide step-by-step instructions for setting up WooCommerce automated emails.

What are WooCommerce Automated Emails?

In simple words, WooCommerce automated emails are pre-written messages that get sent out to your customers automatically based on their actions or specific events in your store.

Let’s check with an example. For instance, let’s say a customer ordered some water dispensers. Right after they place the order successfully or, in terms of WooCommerce, complete the checkout process, they will receive WooCommerce automated follow-up emails.

The first one is an order confirmation email.

For a smooth customer experience, consider customizing your order confirmation emails. Our guide on “How to Set WooCommerce Order Confirmation Email” will walk you through the process.

After the store ships the products, the customers will get another email with tracking information.

Finally, after successful delivery, the customer will receive a package delivery email.

These automated messages not only keep your customers informed but also save you tons of time you’d otherwise spend sending manual emails.

Types of WooCommerce automated emails

We can divide the emails into two categories for email automation for WooCommerce.

1. Transactional Emails

These emails are triggered by specific actions a customer takes in your store and are crucial for keeping them informed throughout the buying journey. WooCommerce sends a wide range of transactional emails to keep customers updated throughout their shopping journey.

Here are some common types:

• Order Confirmation: This is sent automatically when a customer places an order. It contains details like the order summary, estimated delivery date, etc.
• Order Update: Keeps customers informed about changes in their order status, like “processing,” “shipped,” or “delivered.”
• Invoice: Provides a digital copy of the customer’s invoice for their records. You can choose to send it with the order confirmation email or in a separate one.
• Refund Notification: Informs the customer about a processed refund and may include details like reason and refunded amount.
• Platform-related WooCommerce Automated Emails: These emails handle web account actions such as creating new accounts, resetting passwords, onboarding messages, etc.

2. Marketing WooCommerce Automated Emails

These emails aim to nurture customer relationships, promote your products, and encourage repeat purchases. WooCommerce offers some basic automation options, but plugins can unlock more advanced functionalities.

Here are some common examples where you can practice WooCommerce email marketing automation:

• Abandoned Cart Recovery: This email reminds customers about items left in their cart and entices them to complete the purchase. Automated WooCommerce abandoned cart emails are the most effective marketing emails, yielding 3x higher conversion rates than other automated emails.
• Welcome Email: Automated welcome email for WooCommerce are sent to new customers after they create an account. They introduce your brand and offer a discount or incentive.
• Win-Back Emails: Targets inactive customers to re-engage them with your store, offering promotions or personalized recommendations.
• Product Review Request: With these emails, you can request your customers to leave a review for a product they purchased. You can schedule these after an order is successfully delivered and completed.
• Special Offers and Promotions: Everyone is familiar with this type. Informs customers about ongoing sales, new product launches, seasonal discounts, or exclusive deals. In addition, you can segment your audience by different conditions such as purchase history, browsing behavior, demographics, etc., and send automated email WooCommerce based on their preference.

By strategically using these WooCommerce automated emails, you can streamline communication with your customers, improve customer experience, and boost your WooCommerce store’s sales.

Why Should You Send WooCommerce Automated Emails?

There are several compelling reasons to send WooCommerce automated emails:

Effortless Efficiency

• Save Time: Automated emails eliminate the need for manually crafting and sending emails for common scenarios. This frees you up to focus on other aspects of running your store.
• 24/7 Salesperson: Your automated emails can act like a tireless salesperson, nurturing leads and converting sales even outside of business hours.

Enhanced Customer Experience

• Improved Communication: Automated emails keep customers informed about their orders, providing a sense of trust and transparency.
• Personalized Touch: You can effortlessly personalize emails with customer names, order details, and targeted recommendations. This creates a more engaging experience.

Boosted Sales and Conversions

• Recover Abandoned Carts: WooCommerce automated emails can remind customers about forgotten items in their carts. This creates a better chance of potentially bringing them back to complete the purchase.
• Promote Additional Sales: Targeted emails can showcase complementary products, upsell options, or offer special discounts, increasing the average order value.
• Drive Repeat Business: Automated welcome emails and win-back campaigns can nurture customer relationships and encourage repeat purchases.

Overall, using WooCommerce automated emails allows you to streamline operations, improve customer satisfaction, and ultimately increase sales and conversions.

Does WooCommerce Have Email Automation?

WooCommerce is the undisputed king of eCommerce platforms for its bundle of features and flexibility. Along with payment gateway, order, and tax handling, it also comes packed with email automation features as well.

However, the built-in email automation features are dedicated to transactional emails only. Here’s the list of built-in WooCommerce automated emails –

• New order: As you know, these WooCommerce automated emails are sent to customers immediately after they place an order. They confirm the purchase and provide details like the items ordered, the total amount, and the estimated delivery timeframe.
• Canceled order: This email confirms to your customers that their order has been canceled.
• Failed order: These emails notfies the customer that their payment for an order was unsuccessful.
• Order on-hold: These WooCommerce automated emails are sent to the customer informing them that their order is on hold, usually due to pending payment verification or other reasons.
• Processing order: An email sent to the customer after their order has been confirmed and is being processed for fulfillment.
• Completed order: Sent to the customer after their order has been shipped or completed.
• Refunded order: This is sent to the customer to inform them that their order has been refunded.
• Customer invoice / Order details: A digital copy of the customer’s invoice sent via email, containing details like product breakdown, pricing, and any applicable taxes.
• Customer note: Sent to the customer by the store regarding their order. This might include updates, clarifications, or responses to customer inquiries.
• Reset password: These WooCommerce automated emails are sent to customers at their request to help them reset their account passwords. They include a link to create a new password.
• New account: WooCommerce sends these to your customers after they create a new account through the checkout or account page on your WooCommerce store.

Where to Edit the Automated Emails from WooCommerce

The default WooCommerce automated emails offer some basic edit functionalities. Let’s break down how to edit built-in Woo emails step by step.

Step 1: Navigating to WooCommerce Automated Emails Settings

Go to WooCommerce > Settings and click on the Email tab. Here’s what the page looks like.

Step 2. Edit WooCommerce Automated Emails Content

Click on the Manage button in any of the emails. For example, let’s click the Manage button in the New Order email.

Here’s what you can do or edit –

1. Checkmark to enable the email type.
2. Assign recipient.
3. Set email subject line.
4. Set an email heading. For example – New Order: # {order_number}
5. Set body contents for the WooCommerce automated emails.
6. Select email type – HTML, Text, Multiple.

Step 3: Adding Body Contents to WooCommerce Automated Emails

We have already seen the existing body content of the new order/ order confirmation email. Pretty basic, right?

An order confirmation email should include the store name, customer’s name, order number, date, estimated delivery date, tax, subtotal, payment method, order billing address, etc.

You can insert this information in the WooCommerce automated emails Additional Content box using variables. You can find all the variables in the official Woo documents.

Here’s an example email using variables –

Subject: Your Order Confirmation from {store_name} (Order # {order_number})

Dear {customer_first_name} {customer_last_name},

Thank you for choosing {store_name}! We’re thrilled to confirm your recent order with us.

Order Details:

• Order number: {order_number}
• Order date: {order_date}
• Billing address: {order_billing_address}
• Shipping address: {order_shipping_address}

Items Ordered: [Order items table]

Order Total:

• Subtotal: {order_subtotal}
• Shipping: {order_shipping}
• Tax: {order_tax}
• Total: {order_total}

Tracking Your Order: We’ll notify you via email with tracking information once your order has been shipped.

Need Help? If you have any questions or concerns regarding your order, feel free to reach out to us by replying to this email or visiting our customer service page at [customer_service_link].

Thank you again for shopping with {store_name}! We appreciate your business.

Sincerely, The {store_name} Team

Note: This email is autogenerated. Please do not reply directly to this email.

Step 4: Senders Details of WooCommerce Automated Emails

Return to the Email tab and scroll down to find the following section.

You can set the email and sender name on behalf of which emails will be sent.

Step 5: Edit WooCommerce Email Template

This section allows you to design your email template with custom logo/header images, segment backgrounds, and font colors.

Here’s what the template looks like with our settings.

As you can see, the default email options provided by WooCommerce are notably limited and fall seriously short compared to the polished and professional emails you receive from other reputable stores.

If you want to stick to the default emails but further customize them, you can use a plugin such as “Decorator – WooCommerce Email Customizer.” This tool allows you to significantly personalize the standard WooCommerce automated emails and includes a variety of pre-designed templates.

However, if you want to leverage the full potential of WooCommerce email marketing, you should opt for an email marketing platform or plugin.

How to Send WooCommerce Automated Emails Using Plugins

Dedicated platforms and plugins are the ultimate jailbreak for your marketing strategy. You are no longer limited to just order confirmations and shipping updates.

These tools unleash a wave of marketing automation, which allows you to send targeted campaigns on autopilot. 

Imagine ditching the manual grind and unleashing a powerful arsenal of features that automate repetitive tasks, personalize messages for maximum impact, nurture leads with personalized welcome emails, re-engage dormant customers with special offers, and drive sales with automated abandoned cart reminders and fuel results that would make Mario jump for joy!

It’s like having a tireless marketing assistant working 24/7 to keep your customers engaged and your sales pipeline overflowing!

There are a plethora of email marketing platforms and plugins available, both free and paid, for you to choose from. For this article, we will use WooCommerce’s own – MailPoet.

MailPoet – WooCommerce Automated Emails Plugin

MailPoet is your all-in-one solution for newsletters, email marketing, and automation right from your WordPress dashboard. The best thing about it is this plugin allows you to effortlessly create, send, manage, and grow your email marketing campaigns without ever leaving your WordPress environment.

Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned email marketer, MailPoet offers a seamless experience with its intuitive newsletter builder and responsive templates. Most importantly, MailPoet provides robust segmentation options, allowing you to target specific subscriber groups based on behavior and interests.

For WooCommerce users, MailPoet offers powerful features to enhance your eCommerce email strategy. You can welcome new customers, upsell related products, and recover abandoned carts with automated email sequences tailored to your store’s needs.

One standout feature is the MailPoet Sending Service, which ensures reliable email delivery and high inbox placement rates. This saves you from the WooCommerce not sending emails issue. You can reach your audience effectively and avoid spam folders by leveraging advanced email delivery infrastructure.

Setting up MailPoet Email Marketing Plugin

Start by installing the plugin from the WordPress repository.

After you activate it, the plugin will redirect you to this page and prompt you to start the setup wizard.

Click the Begin Setup button to get started. First things first, set up your sender information.

Next, confirm your privacy and data settings.

The following window is for WooCommerce stores. Allow the plugin to import your buying customers as subscribers and collect cookies to enhance your email and site engagement analytics, as well as eCommerce metrics.

You can connect to MailPoet server with a free or paid plan or choose to select your own email service. We quickly registered a free plan and collected the activation key.

Input your key and verify your account.

You will be redirected to this page –

If you are using MailPoet mail-sending services, you need to connect your site to MailPoet. MailPoet will first verify your site and then allow you access to connect, which may take a day.

Creating WooCommerce Automated Emails

Let’s start creating WooCommerce automated emails. We will start with a Welcome/Thank you email.

The plugin offers various templates to get you started. We have picked the Celebrate first-time buyers option.

After a customer completes a purchase, this email is triggered and sent to welcome and thank them. Click on Start Building.

You can edit, modify your automation flow, and finally activate the email.

To edit and design your email, click on the email. After that, the sidebar will open, where you can set your email name, header, sender info, and subject line.

Click on the Design button.

Now, here’s the treasure trove – pre-made template designs! MailPoet packs several email templates, including WooCommerce-specific email templates, to get you started.

Here’s the template edit window.

You can extensively edit/modify your email template from the editor. The plugin allows you to drag and drop elements such as text, images, buttons, coupons, divider & spacer, headers, footer, and most importantly, product and latest posts.

You can drag them from the right panel to the design panel and also set their individual property from the right panel. Finally, you can preview it for different devices or send this design to your email for you to check out.

Click Save & Continue and then Activate the email. This will activate this email automation, and from now on, whenever a customer completes a purchase, this email will be triggered and sent to the customer automatically.

MailPoet paid plans allow you to connect your WooCommerce automated emails to Google Analytics. This lets you monitor your customer responses, such as open rates, clicks, etc., allowing you to make informed marketing decisions based on their behavior.

Whether to automate dropshipping emails WooCommerce or setting up automated renewal emails WooCommerce, this plugin empowers you to achieve all your email automation goals.

Customizing Existing WooCommerce Transactional Emails with MailPoet

If you wish to use your built-in WooCommerce transactional emails but edit their design, you can do so with MailPoet. Go to MailPoet Settings >> WooCommerce and enable the Use MailPoet to customize WooCommerce emails settings.

After that, save your settings and click on the Open Template Editor button.

Again, you can customize the design by adding elements from the right sidebar. However, you cannot delete or move WooCommerce auto-generated elements.

Save the design when you are done, and your customers will receive your designed emails from now on.

Wrap up

WooCommerce email automation is no longer a secret weapon; they are a necessity. By leveraging the power of email and automation, you can nurture your leads, build strong relationships, and turn them into loyal returning customers.

We hope this article will help you efficiently create, edit, and send targeted WooCommerce automated emails and make your customers’ journey with your store seamless.