A WooCommerce order confirmation email shares information about the completed order and paves the groundwork for the next sale.
When used wisely, it can bring you sales as well.
According to research, confirmation emails have an average open rate of 65%, a click rate of 17%, and an order rate of 3.77%.
Do you also want to design a WooCommerce order confirmation email that brings high conversions?
In this blog, we will show you how to create and send custom WooCommerce order confirmation emails that generate repeat sales.
And the best part?
We will be using a drag-and-drop email builder! No coding is required!
Let's get started…
If you are in the mood to read, you can watch the video below 👇
Contents
An order confirmation email is a transactional email sent to a customer after they've completed a purchase in your store or placed an order.
The primary goal of such an email is to inform the customer that the store has received the order and is on its way to delivery. Usually, such emails include order confirmation details such as
Nowadays, almost every order confirmation email contains the mentioned information. However, there is no rule to limit your email to only this information.
An order confirmation email is a good chance for store owners to build customer relationships. So, depending on your brand and marketing strategy, you can include many things in your order confirmation email (which we have discussed later in this blog).
Order confirmation emails are extremely crucial for any eCommerce business. That’s because
64% of customers consider order confirmations to be the most valuable type of email. The reason is obvious: it confirms they will soon receive the product they ordered.
And of course, if it’s valuable for the customers it’s valuable for store owners as well. Because these emails give businesses the much-needed opportunities to incentivize repeat sales by delivering an excellent customer experience.
Here are some of the reasons why WooCommerce order confirmation emails are so important :
Purchasing stuff online is a different experience than buying products from a physical store. People can get frustrated if they aren’t informed about the whereabouts of their products
So, if you want to ensure customers have a good shopping experience, send them an informative confirmation email. This will relieve customers from post-purchase anxiety.
Any chance you get to communicate with your customer is a chance to build the relationship a little stronger than before. As mentioned, customers expect to receive a confirmation email when ordering.
A well-designed and timely order confirmation email will leave a good impression of your brand and thus lay the groundwork for a strong relationship in the future. So, utilize customer anticipation for a confirmation email to build long-term relationships.
Order confirmation emails have an open rate of 70%. The more users engage with your brand the better chance you have of convincing them to buy more.
Therefore, if you are looking to improve user engagement with your brand effectively then you must send customers confirmation emails. In addition, make sure to put relevant information so users are tempted to click on and engage more.
Almost one in three people are likely to make an order from a confirmation email even though it's offered to them a short time after they made a purchase. So, you can imagine the power of the order confirmation email.
Basically, you apply the “strike while the iron is hot” approach with an order confirmation email. So, if you want to increase repeat sales in your store, then you must utilize an order confirmation email in WooCommerce.
WooCommerce, by default, sends an order confirmation page when someone successfully places an order in an online store. However, these default emails may not be enough to establish a stronger brand impression and increase repeat sales.
Here is a preview of what the default WooCommerce order confirmation email looks like:
As you can see, it's very basic and doesn't have the wow factor. While you can edit the order confirmation email WooCommerce to change the color and header or add additional text, it doesn't offer enough options to change the layout of the email without advanced coding knowledge.
As a result, it may not be as impactful as you would like it to be. That's why our experts recommend sending custom WooCommerce order confirmation emails for better results.
In the next section, we will share how to send an order confirmation email to WooCommerce using an additional plugin.
In this section, we will show how to send an order confirmation email in WooCommerce. We will share how you can design a custom order confirmation email in WooCommerce using a drag-and-drop email builder and automate the email-sending process.
And to achieve this, we are going to use FunnelKit Automations. It's an all-in-one marketing automation and broadcast engine that allows you to automate your marketing workflows, such as cart abandonment, new user registration emails, WooCommerce follow-up emails, WooCommerce first order discount, product review email etc.
The best part is it comes with a pre-built workflow and email templates that you can import and use within moments. If you want to build your workflow and design your email template, you can do that as well.
Moreover, it comes with a powerful visual email builder that comes with many WooCommerce blocks that you can use to design your order confirmation email with WooCommerce elements easily.
Along with the option to add WooCommerce elements, you also get the flexibility to structure your email the way you want. You can also personalize the emails with customer information using merge tag for better user experience.
First, you need to install and activate FunnelKit Automations. Please note that FunnelKit is available in both the free and premium versions. We will need both the versions for this guide.
After activating the FunnelKit automations, you need to disable the default WooCommerce automated email for order confirmation. To do so, from WordPress Dashboard, go to WooCommerce ⇒ Settings ⇒ Emails tab and click on the go to manage option for a new order.
Now uncheck the Enable/Disable option and click on Save Changes to update.
Now it’s time for the main process.
For that, navigate to FunnelKit Automations ⇒ Automations and then click on Create Automation.
Here, we are going to build an order confirmation email template from scratch. So, click on the Start From Scratch option. Now, provide a name and click on Create.
The next step is to select a trigger. A trigger is an event that will start the automation and send the WooCommerce order confirmation email each time someone orders a place.
To select a trigger, click on “select trigger”.
Go to the WooCommerce tab, then under Order select Order Created. Finally, click on ‘Done’.
Now, we will set the action to send the email. To do so, click on the “+” icon and select the “Action” step.
Now, on the Messaging Tab, under email, select Send Email and click on Done.
Now it’s time for the fun part! That is to design the order confirmation email.
Let’s start with the subject line. In the subject line and throughout the email, you can incorporate dynamic information such as customer email using the Merge tag feature of Funnelkit.
To add any merge tag, click on the “{{..}}” icon, then search for the tag you want to use and click on the Copy Icon to add it to your email.
Here as an example, we are using the subject line - Hi Customer Name! Your Order No. #000 is Confirmed!
You can use the merge tag for both the customer name and order number, so whenever a customer receives this email, he sees both his name and his order number.
Now, provide suitable preview text. After that, we need to design the email body. You can design an email using Visual Builder (New), Rich Text, Raw HTML, or Visual Builder (old version). For this, we are going to use Visual Builder (New).
🔔Note: Visual Builder (New) was introduced with FunnelKit Automations 3.0.
Choose Visual Builder (New) and click on “Edit”.
Once the visual builder opens, you will see many prebuilt email templates by FunnelKit Automations. You will find two different templates for order confirmation emails.
To choose one, hover on the one you like and click on Preview. We are going with Order Notification 1 here.
Now, to import, click on the “Import this template” option.
Now, you can customize the template to fit your brand and the message you want to send to your customers.
For starters, you can change the logo. After changing the logo, you can customize the related property on the left side.
Similarly, you can customize the heading. It’s important you replace the Demo with merge tag “{{contact_first_name}}” so it dynamically displays the customer's first name, whoever receives it. Also, add the {{order_id}} to displace the Order Id.
Similarly, you can customize the order summary section. Under Preview Content, you can choose which information you want to display, like Order Date, OrderId, Payment, Product Images, and Qty.
In the Customer Address section, the Billing Address and Shipping Address will show up automatically.
Once you click on the section on the left side, You can choose to hide the Billing Address or Shipping Address. You can also customize things like alignment, font family, line height, etc.
Follow the same steps to customize all the sections of this WooCommerce order confirmation email template.
If you don’t want to be offered a discount, you can simply delete the discount code section.
You can just click on the whole section, then click on the three dots, and then hit Delete to remove this section from the email.
However, if you choose to offer the discount which our experts highly recommend, don’t skip the next step.
The coupon code section of the prebuilt template has three sections to encourage customers to make another purchase by offering some discount on the next purchase.
For this to work, you need to click on the Coupon Code and select the coupon code you want to offer. You can choose a coupon code you already created in your WooCommerce store or one dynamically generated coupon code using FunnelKit Automations.
After adding the coupon code, ensure to customize the coupon-related text. Also, add the URL (shop page or any promotional page)you want customers to visit when they click on the CTA.
Now, the question arises: Do you want to offer discounts to all users? Because if all customers claim the discount, even though you may increase sales, your profitability might not be as high.
Fortunately, with FunnelKit Automations, you can set conditions on which customers will receive this coupon code. For instance, here we will demonstrate how you can share or offer this coupon only to customers who have made their first purchase.
To do this, select the entire section and click on "Add Condition."
Then Click on Add New Condition and then on Order.
Now choose Order Total.
Set the Condition Order Total is equal to 1, which means people who placed their first order will only see this discount coupon. Make sure to click on Save to update.
🔔 Note: The CAN-SPAM Act requires the inclusion of unsubscribe links, business names, and addresses in emails; while the GDPR doesn't mandate it, it recommends it for transparency.
We can use a prebuilt footer template by FunnelKit Automations to add this information to a footer.
To add a footer, go to Layouts, Select Prebuilt, and then Footer. After that, drag and drop the footer template you like to the email footer to add it.
After that, you can replace the business name and business address with the relevant merge tag.
After all the customization is done, you can preview and send test emails to see how the email structure and content look in a real inbox.
If you are happy with how the email appears in the inbox, make sure to save the email template.
Here is a preview of the WooCommerce order confirmation email template:
Turn the toggle button on the top-right corner to activate the automation. Once you activate it every customer that orders on your website will receive this email.
Now that you know how to design a custom WooCommerce order confirmation email that brings in repeat sales.
🔔 You can also read our blog "How to Send WooCommerce SMS Notifications?"
Here are some of the best practices you need to keep in mind when sending order confirmation emails in WooCommerce:
You should send a confirmation email right after someone orders on your website. If you want, you can add a maximum delay of 1 minute but not more than that. Otherwise it will unnecessarily add up to your customer's post-purchase anxiety.
Your subject should make it clear that the email is about order confirmation. If the subject line provides the right information, like Order ID, it will excite the users to read what’s in the email. It’s also recommended to personalize the email subject line and address the customer by their name to encourage them to click on the email.
Since it’s an order confirmation email you must ensure all the important information such as order details, shipping address, billing address, order total, payment method, estimated delivery date is included in this email.
This way customers will be relaxed knowing all the information is correct. And in case some information such as estimated delivery address is wrong they can contact your customer service team.
Since order confirmation has high open and click-through rates, you should include content to give them the opportunity to engage with your brand.
For example, you can add your best seller items, provide them a discount on your next purchase, ask them to refer your brand to a friend to earn a discount, ask them to follow you on social media, add a proper call to action etc.
While you want to incorporate as much information as possible, it should be presented simply so users can easily read it. Designing an email that has too many things going on and isn’t user friendly will not get you the desired user engagement. That’s why you should keep your email simple.
According to research, 60% of people check their email from mobile devices which includes order confirmation email too. So, it’s crucial that your emails are device responsive and look great on all devices - mobile, tablets and desktops.
These were some of the basic things one should keep in mind when sending an order confirmation email. Keeping the best practices in mind, you can design your email however you want.
Have a look at some of the common questions about WooCommerce order confirmation emails with answers:
WooCommerce has a default option to send order confirmation emails which you need to make sure it’s enabled from Email settings. However, if you want to send customized WooCommerce order confirmation emails, you can opt for FunnelKit Automations. This is a drag-and-drop email builder that allows you to create beautiful emails and add an automatic coupon field. We have covered all the details in this blog.
WooCommerce, by default, sends emails for certain order statuses such as New Order, Processing, Completed, On-Hold, Cancelled, Refunded, and "Failed.". To learn more about you can read our blog on “Order status emails”.
You can edit small things like logos, color, etc using default WooCommerce settings. However, if you want to transform the order confirmation email in WordPress and WooCommerce completely, you should try FunnelKit Automations.
You can start by thanking the customer for purchasing from your store. After that provide all the order related information and followed by content that will engage the customers more. You can also offer a discount code for the next purchase to seal more sales.
Order confirmation emails are not required, but they’re highly recommended if you want to build strong relationships with your customers and ensure they enjoy shopping without any post-purchase anxiety.
🔔 You can also read our blog on how to customize WooCommerce emails.
Sending custom WooCommerce order confirmation emails can also earn you both customer loyalty and more revenue. Just make sure to follow the best practices we shared on this blog.
Using FunnelKit Automations, you can easily design a WooCommerce order confirmation email that looks elegant on all devices and increases user engagement. Moreover, you can easily add a discount coupon to entertain the idea of a repeat purchase.
Moreover, with this WooCommerce plugin, you can easily automate the process of sending order confirmation emails.
So, are you ready to design your first custom WooCommerce order confirmation email?
