WooCommerce transactional emails are essential for keeping customers informed about the status of their orders.
These emails play a crucial role in order fulfillment and fostering a strong relationship with customers.
Transactional emails have an average open rate of 80-85%, significantly higher than the typical open rate of around 20-25% for other emails. [Source: name]
Leveraging this higher open rate can effectively engage customers with your brand, foster loyalty, and encourage repeat sales.
In this article, we will explore two different methods for customizing WooCommerce transactional emails.
We will also share how you can use these emails to strengthen the customer relationship with your brand, resulting in repeat sales.
Let's dive in.
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Transactional emails are automatically sent to users in response to their actions on a website, such as placing an order or creating an account, etc.
Unlike marketing emails, transactional emails are one-to-one communications that contain customer-specific information rather than generic promotional content.
Some of the common types of transactional email are:
These emails help in providing timely and relevant information to customers, enhancing the overall experience with your brand.
WooCommerce sends many transactional emails based on the user’s interaction with the store.
These emails not only respond to customer actions but also notify the admin about store activity.
Here are the default WooCommerce transactional emails:
These were all the default transactional emails that WooCommerce sends to its customers.
However, with the use of additional plugins, you can send other transactional emails to your users, such as:
While these emails are not mandatory, they can significantly improve customer relationships and boost sales by engaging customers more frequently with personalized messaging.
You will need an additional plugin to send these emails along with WooCommerce. We will share more details about this later in the blog.
WooCommerce transactional emails are essential for a good shopping experience, as they allow direct communication with customers.
Keeping customers informed about order statuses is crucial in today’s online shopping environment. Customers now expect updates at every step of their shopping journey, and not utilizing transactional emails can spoil the shopping experience and result in losing customers altogether.
Ensuring that your store sends customers transactional emails is crucial for a successful business.
However, the default transactional emails are extremely generic. While they inform customers about various order statuses, they are unlikely to leave a lasting impression on your brand.
Additionally, they do not utilize emails to create more opportunities for sales, such as product recommendations or collecting feedback.
Let’s look at the WooCommerce transactional email example. Here is a default order email by WooCommerce 👇
That’s why customizing the WooCommerce transactional emails is essential to give them a personalized touch and enhance your opportunities to sell more.
Here are some of the reasons why you should customize WooCommerce transactional emails:
Hopefully, now you know how beneficial customizing WooCommerce transactional emails can be for your business.
As mentioned earlier, we'll explore two methods for customizing WooCommerce transactional emails.
The first involves using the free default WooCommerce settings, which offer limited customization options.
The second method entails using a premium plugin, which offers extensive email customization capabilities and the ability to send additional transactional emails to boost sales further.
Here are the simple steps one has to follow to customize the content and style of WooCommerce transactional emails.
From the WordPress dashboard, go to WooCommerce ⇒ Settings. Then, move to the “Emails” tab.
Here, you will see all the emails WooCommerce sends by default.
You must ensure the email notification is turned on for each email you want WooCommerce to send.
To turn on any email notifications, click the “Manage” option next to it.
For example, we will show the process of customizing the emails sent for “Processing Order.” This email notifies users when it is received successfully and the store starts the process.
Now, make sure you check the “Enable this email notification” option.
Scroll down to customize this email.
Now, you can customize the following options for email content:
Make sure to click on “Save Changes” to update the custom content.
🔔 Note: Repeat Steps 2 and 3 to customize each email type in WooCommerce.
Return to the email templates page and scroll down to configure the email sender options:
Scroll down a bit further to customize the following style settings:
Finally, click on “Save Changes” to update the WooCommerce transactional email for order completion.
Here is how a default email looks with all the customization we made:
These default emails look nice, but customization options are limited when creating your brand identity and maximizing personalization to turn customers into loyal repeat customers.
For instance, you can’t change the layout or add product recommendations, coupons, etc. You can’t even add customer information in the subject line, which is essential to personalization.
That’s why we recommend choosing a WooCommerce plugin that will give you maximum flexibility.
To learn more about it, move to the next section.
Our experts recommend using FunnelKit Automations to customize your transactional email because it:
And many more reasons. For more details, read our blog on FunnelKit Automations 3.0.
Before we move to the main process, make sure to install FunnelKit Funnel Builder.
You can customize WooCommerce emails using the free version of FunnelKit Funnel Builder.
However, to create a more effective and personalized transactional email, we will require both the free and pro versions, as we will utilize some of the pro features.
If you need help with installation, read our installation guide to install and activate FunnelKit Automations.
🔔 Note: Here, we will show you how to customize the WooCommerce transaction email for the “Completed Processing” status. This email is sent to customers after the order is successfully placed.
Customers eagerly await this email because it confirms that the order has been placed, which is why these emails tend to have higher open rates.
You can leverage this opportunity to bring your customers back to your site, promote relevant products, and encourage them to make another purchase by including a coupon code they can use on their next purchase.
All of these can be achieved with FunnelKit Automations.
After installing the plugins, follow these next steps:
First, you need to disable the “Processing Order” email. To do so, go to WooCommerce ⇒ Settings ⇒ Emails tab and click on the go to manage option for “Processing Order.”. Now uncheck the “ Enable this email notification” option.
Make sure to click on Save Changes. This will stop WooCommerce from sending the default email.
We’ll now create a custom email that is automatically sent to the customers when the order is placed successfully.
The first step is to create a new automation.
To do so, navigate to FunnelKit Automations ⇒ Automations and click on “Create Automation”.
Here, you will find many prebuilt automation recipes. But we will build an automated email campaign from scratch. So, click on the ‘Start From Scratch’ option.
After that, provide a name and click on ‘Create’.
The next step is to select a trigger. A trigger is an event that starts the automation and sends the email to customers.
To select a trigger for your automation, click on “Select an Event”.
Go to the WooCommerce tab, then under “Orders,” select “Order Created”. Finally, click on ‘Done’.
Now, you must configure the status change that will trigger this email campaign. Here
Click on “Save” to update the settings.
To set the send email action, click the “+” icon and then click on Action.
Now, on the Messaging Tab, select “Send Email” under Email and click on Done.
This will add the email action to your workflow.
Now, it’s time to customize and design the Order Processing email.
Before we move to the email body, let’s customize the subject line and preview text.
🔔 Note: WooCommerce's default customization option doesn't allow you to personalize the email subject line and preview text.
You can use the Merge tag feature of FunnelKit Automations to personalize the email subject line, preview text, and email body.
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, we're incorporating the customer's first name and order ID to enhance the subject line and preview text, making it more personalized and attention-grabbing.
Now, we need to design the body of the email. You can design emails using Visual Builder (New), Rich Text, Raw HTML, and Visual Builder.
We will use a Visual Builder (New) for this blog, so choose Visual Builder (New) and click Edit.
Now, let's utilize one of the prebuilt email templates from FunnelKit Automations to craft our order-completed email.
You can find many prebuilt templates that you can use to send different types of transactional and marketing emails.
We'll select the “Order Notification 2” template and tailor it to create an email notifying users about the completion of their order while also providing enticing discounts for their next purchase. Simply hover over the template and click on ‘Preview’.
Click on "Import This Template" to import.
After importing, you can customize the email to make it an Order processing email. For instance, here, we updated the logo, heading, etc. Make sure to add merge tags in the heading text to personalize it.
🔔 Note: You can customize the email style and layout along with content.
The prebuilt template already includes sections for order summary, billing, and shipping information, so there's no need to add these. However, feel free to modify the appearance if desired.
This email template has a coupon field section where you can share discount coupons with your users. You can either use a store discount coupon from your WooCommerce store or a dynamic coupon built with automation.
🔔 Note: It is a better idea to share a discount coupon with the order confirmation email instead of the order processing email.
You can also add a product recommendation section to this email using the product block. Here, you can share related products, upsells, cross-sells, or best-selling products.
It’s also a good idea to add a check order status CTA. For more details, check our blog on shipment tracking email.
After designing the email, save the template.
🔔 Note: You can click "Preview and Test" to view how the email appears and send a test email to experience how the layout, design, and content appear in an actual inbox.
Here is the preview of the email built with FunnelKit Automations:
🔔 Note: Make sure to mark this email as a transaction email, as the order processing email for the order is transactional. Then click on “Save and Close.”
To complete the process, simply activate the email automation you've just set up. Just toggle the button located in the top right corner to turn it on.
Thats it! Your custom personalized WooCommerce transaction email is ready.
Sending WooCommerce transactional emails on time is crucial for effective communication and the success of your online store.
However, you may sometimes find that WooCommerce is not sending transactional emails, or they are not getting delivered to the inbox.
Here are a few reasons that can cause the "WooCommerce not sending transactional emails" issue:
To solve these issues, if you are using default email, make sure your transactional emails are enabled from WooCommerce settings and that the recipient’s email is correct.
In case you want to use customized emails using FunnelKit Automations, make sure the email automation campaign is activated.
To fix the deliverability issue, you need to install and configure an SMTP plugin like the WP Mail SMTP version.
Find out more about how to fix the deliverability issue plugin.
Here are some steps you should follow to make the most of transactional emails to foster customer loyalty:
Personalize your emails by including the customer's name and relevant details. Personalized emails tend to have much higher open rates than generic ones. So, make sure to personalize your email subject and preview text along with the email body.
Maintain consistency in branding, tone, and design to reinforce brand identity and build customer trust. Ensure the purpose of the email is clearly communicated concisely to avoid confusion and save customers’ time.
Optimize transactional emails for mobile devices to ensure they are easily accessible and readable on smartphones and tablets. With FunnelKit Automations, you can easily make your WooCommerce transactional emails device-responsive.
Include clear CTAs to encourage customers to take further action, such as adding a “track order” button in the order processing email we designed in this article. Similarly, you can add other CTAs for actions like leaving a review, signing up for updates, or exploring related products.
Don’t just stop with one email; follow up with customers after transaction emails to cultivate ongoing relationships. You can follow-up emails asking for feedback, offering exclusive deals, or providing helpful resources to foster ongoing engagement and loyalty.
A/B tests your emails to determine what works best for your audience. You can A/B test your email subject line and preview text and email content to optimize performance. With FunnelKit Automations, you can efficiently conduct split path testing and gather insights to improve your email strategy.
By following these tips, write something beneficial here………….
Here are some of the commonly asked questions about transactional emails in WooCommerce, along with their answers:
To send transactional emails from your WooCommerce store, you can manage the emails from WooCommerce settings.
WooCommerce sends transactional emails automatically. However, you need to ensure the emails are enabled from WooCommerce⇒ settings ⇒Emails.
Yes, WooCommerce sends transactional emails, such as New order emails, Processing orders, Orders on hold, Cancelled orders, Failed orders, Completed orders, New accounts, Reset passwords, etc.
You can customize WooCommerce transactional emails either using the default settings or by using an additional email customizer plugin like FunnelKit Automations.
Sending WooCommerce transactional emails is essential to running an online store successfully. However, if you don’t personalize the emails or establish your brand in them, they may not bring the success you are hoping for.
That’s where FunnelKit Automations comes into play. It allows you to completely transform the default emails and personalize them for maximum effect.
The best part is that you get multiple prebuilt email templates that are ready to use, saving you valuable time.
Additionally, FunnelKit Automations offers in-depth analytics to track how your emails are performing.
You can also A/B test your emails to determine what resonates with your audience, using these insights to develop stronger customer loyalty.
So, are you ready to personalize WooCommerce transactional emails to build customer loyalty?
Start now with FunnelKit Automations and watch your engagement and sales grow!
