How to Customize WooCommerce Transactional Emails: 2 Effective Methods

WooCommerce transactional emails are the automated messages your store sends after a customer takes an action.

This includes shipping updates, password resets, and welcome notices.

Open rates for these alerts sit at 80-85%, which completely crushes regular marketing campaigns that typically struggle to hit 25%. [Source: Mailgun]

Why? Buyers wait for them. That attention makes these functional alerts highly valuable real estate.

Customizing these notices does more than confirm a purchase. Instead of relying on the default text that looks identical to that of thousands of other online stores, editing these emails lets you introduce cross-sell recommendations that drive traffic right back to your product pages.

In this article, we'll explore two 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.

Here's a complete tutorial you can learn to customize your transactional emails in WooCommerce:

Why Customize Your WooCommerce Transactional Emails?

WooCommerce transactional emails are essential for a good shopping experience, as they enable direct communication with customers.

Keeping customers informed about order statuses is crucial in today’s online shopping environment.

Customers expect updates at every step of their shopping journey, and failing to use transactional emails can spoil the experience and cause customers to leave altogether.

Ensuring your store sends customers transactional emails is crucial for a successful business.

However, the default transactional emails are highly generic. While they inform customers about various order statuses, they are unlikely to leave a lasting impression on your brand.

Additionally, they do not use email to create more sales opportunities, such as product recommendations or feedback collection.

Let’s look at the default WooCommerce transactional email example👇

That's why customizing WooCommerce transactional emails is essential for adding a personalized touch and increasing your chances of selling more.

Here are some of the reasons why you should customize WooCommerce transactional emails:

• Repeat sales: According to Campaign Monitor, when appropriately implemented, personalized shopping experiences lead to a 60% increase in repeat buyers and a remarkable 760% increase in email revenue. Email personalization boosts sales.
• Reinforce your brand identity: Default emails are generic and lack your unique brand voice. Customizing them allows you to showcase your logo, colors, and tone.
• Stand out from competitors: A well-designed, personalized email experience helps you differentiate your store in a crowded market.
• Drive engagement: Incorporate cross-sell recommendations, exclusive offers, or valuable resources to make these emails more than just order updates.
• Personalized communication: Custom WooCommerce emails with customer names, purchase details, and tailored messages ensure engaging, individualized experiences.
• Promotional opportunities: By customizing emails, you can promote new products, related products, special offers, or exclusive deals, driving sales and encouraging repeat business.

Types of Default WooCommerce Transactional Emails

WooCommerce provides various transactional emails catering to customers and store administrators.

These emails are automatically triggered by user interactions and store activities, ensuring seamless communication and efficient order management.

Here are the default transactional emails in WooCommerce:

• New order: Sent to the admin to inform them that a new order has been placed.
• Cancelled order: Inform the admin that previously processed or held orders are marked as cancelled.
• Failed order: Sent to the admin when previously processed or held orders are marked as failed.
• Order on hold: Sent to customers when an order status is placed on hold from Pending. On hold means there is a temporary pause in order processing.
• Processing order: Sent to customers when the payment is completed with the order details.
• Completed order: Sent customers the order details when the order is shipped.
• Refunded order: Sent to customers to inform them that their order has been refunded.
• Customer invoice/Order details: Includes order information and payment links. Users can use the payment link to complete payment.
• Customer note: Send a note to customers if the store owner adds one to the order.
• Reset password: Sent to customers with a reset link when they request a password reset.
• New account: Sent to customers when they create their accounts in your WooCommerce store.
• POS completed order: Let customers know once their POS order is complete.
• POS refunded order: Let customers know when a full or partial refund is on its way to them for their POS order.
• Updated order: Send an email to the customer when they accept an upsell offer and the current order is updated.
• Updated order admin: Send an order email to the admin when they accept any upsell offer and the current order is updated.

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:

• Cart abandonment emails: Remind customers of items left in their cart and encourage them to complete their purchases.
• Shipment tracking emails: Provide customers with real-time updates and tracking information for their orders.
• Product review collection emails: Request customers to leave reviews and feedback on their recent purchases.
• Product education emails: Inform customers about how to use products effectively and maximize their benefits.
• Purchase anniversary emails: Celebrate a customer's purchase anniversary or birthday with special offers or personalized messages.
• Winback emails: Re-engage inactive customers with special incentives or personalized messages to encourage them to return. 

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.

Method 1: Customize WooCommerce Transactional Emails With Default Settings

Here are the simple steps to customize the content and style of WooCommerce transactional emails.

Step 1: Navigate to WooCommerce email settings

From the WordPress dashboard, navigate to WooCommerce ⇨ Settings and click on the 'Emails' tab.

Here, you'll see all the emails WooCommerce sends by default.

Step 2: Enable email notification

You must ensure that email notifications are enabled for each email you want WooCommerce to send. 

To turn on any email notifications, click on the 'Manage' option next to it.

For example, we will show how to customize the emails sent for 'Processing Order'. This email notifies users when their order is successfully received and the store begins processing it. 

Now, check the 'Enable this email notification' option. 

Scroll down to customize this email.

Step 3: Customize the email content

Now,  you can customize the following options for email content: 

• Subject: Set the email subject line here. You can use {site_title} to dynamically print the store name on the subject line. 
• Email heading: Enter the email heading here.
• Additional content: Enter additional content to include in this email. 
• Email type: Choose an email type such as HTML, Plain Text, or Multipart. 

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.

Step 4: Set email sender options

Return to the email templates page and scroll down to configure the email sender options:

• "From" name:  Set the name you want to show as the sender.
• "From" address:  The email address from which emails will be sent.

Step 5: Customize the style of your email template

Scroll down a bit further to customize the email style with the following settings:

• Header image: Enter the URL of the image you want to use as the header image in your email
• Footer text: Specify the text that will appear in the email footer
• Base color: Select the base color for your email template
• Background color: Choose the background color for your email template
• Body background color: Set the background color for the main body of the email
• Body text color: Select the color for the body text

Finally, click “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, discount coupons, or customer information in the subject line, which is essential to personalization.

You can also customize your emails using WooCommerce email hooks, but this approach requires advanced coding knowledge. Even a small error can disrupt your emails, making them challenging to manage and customize effectively.

That’s why we recommend choosing a WooCommerce customizer plugin that offers maximum flexibility.

To learn more about it, move to the next section.

Method 2: How to Customize WooCommerce Transactional Emails To Ensure a Personalized Experience 

To customize WooCommerce transactional emails with a visual drag-and-drop editor, we will use FunnelKit Automations.

FunnelKit Automations is a complete marketing automation platform for WordPress that includes a visual email builder, transactional email customization, abandoned cart recovery, and a built-in CRM.

The transactional email feature lets you replace the default WooCommerce email templates with professionally designed, branded emails.

You get a drag-and-drop editor, personalization tags, dynamic product blocks, and mobile-responsive templates, all managed from your WordPress dashboard.

FunnelKit Automations is available in both the lite (free) and premium versions. We'll use the Pro version to create an effective, personalized transactional email with the built-in visual builder.

If you need help with installation, read our installation guide to install and activate FunnelKit Automations.

Here, we will show you how to customize the WooCommerce transaction email for the 'Order 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.

After installing the plugins, follow these next steps:

Step 1: Go to the transactional emails section in FunnelKit Automations

Navigate to FunnelKit Automations ⇒ Emails and click on the 'Transactional Emails' section.

Here, you will find prebuilt automation transactional emails for your WooCommerce store:

• Processing order
• Completed order
• Order on hold
• Refunded order
• Order details
• Customer note added
• New account
• Reset password
• New order
• Failed order
• Cancelled order

Click on 'Processing Order', which we'll customize using the built-in visual email builder.

Let’s start customizing this email.

Step 2: Design your WooCommerce order processing transactional email

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.

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 into the subject line and preview text to make them more personalized and attention-grabbing.

Now, we need to design the body of your transactional email. Click ‘Edit’ to customize the email with FunnelKit Automations’ drag-and-drop builder.

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 the 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.

You can change the alignment, font, and line height, show or hide the billing and shipping addresses, set padding, and more.

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 select the feed for related products, specific or latest upsells, cross-sells, or best-selling products.

It’s also a good idea to add a check order status or explore best-sellers on your store's call-to-action button.

For more details, check our article on shipment tracking email.

Make sure to use the pre-built footer layout to add high-converting footer text and social media links to your transactional email.

Once you’re satisfied with the design, save the template.

Once done, 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.

You can even audit your email to find issues before it goes to your customer.

Here is the preview of the WooCommerce transactional email built with FunnelKit Automations:

Great! This is how you can design a custom order processing email in WooCommerce that is engaging and on-brand.

Step 3: Activate your transactional email

Go back to your transactional email window and turn on the toggle to enable the order-processing transactional email.

Now that you have activated this email, every customer will receive this email as soon as they place an order on your website.

You can also send woocommerce custom emails per product for your customers' orders, ensuring each email is highly relevant and aligned with the product they purchased.

Popular WooCommerce Transactional Emails

WooCommerce transactional emails are essential for communicating key updates to customers throughout their shopping experience.

Here are some popular emails that you need to customize:

1. Order confirmation emails

The order confirmation email reassures them that their order has been received and processed.

This email includes vital information such as order number, product details, billing and shipping addresses, and the total payment amount.

It sets the tone for the customer's post-purchase experience and is often the first interaction they have after buying a product.

2. Completed order email

This email is sent when the order is marked as 'Completed', typically after it has been shipped or delivered.

It includes important details such as tracking links, carrier information, and a delivery confirmation message.

3. Refund notification email

The refund notification email informs customers about refunds processed for their orders. It includes the refunded amount, order number, and the reason for the refund.

This email ensures transparency and helps maintain trust during refund-related interactions.

4. Failed order email

This email triggers when an order fails due to payment issues. It informs the customer about the failure and provides clear instructions on how to retry the payment to place the order.

Include error messages and a link to alternative payment methods in the email to help customers resolve the issue quickly.

5. New account email

When a customer creates an account, they receive a welcome email from your store.

Include login credentials, links to account settings, and tips on managing their accounts.

A personalized welcome message creates a positive first impression and sets the stage for long-term customer relationships.

6. Password reset email

The password reset email is sent when customers request a password change. It includes a secure password reset link and instructions to help keep your account safe.

You can use a timely delivery and reassuring tone for this email to address security concerns effectively.

7. Invoice/Order details email

This email provides customers with a detailed invoice or order summary, often upon request or as part of the purchase process.

It includes itemized product details, tax information, and payment amount. 

8. Canceled order email

The canceled order email confirms that an order has been successfully canceled, either by the customer or admin.

It reassures customers that no further action is required while also providing information on refunds or next steps, if applicable.

Bonus: Fixing WooCommerce Email Delivery Issue

Sending WooCommerce transactional emails on time is crucial for effective communication and your online store's success. 

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:

• The transactional email is not enabled in WooCommerce email settings.
• The recipient’s email address is not set correctly.
• Emails are being sent but not delivered to the user's inbox.

To solve these issues, if you use the default email, ensure your transactional emails are enabled from WooCommerce settings and that the recipient’s email is correct.

If you want to use customized emails using FunnelKit Automations, activate the email automation campaign.

Most WordPress hosting servers aren’t properly configured to send email via the PHP mail () function. These servers are also not designed to send bulk emails.

Even though your emails have been sent successfully, they may be incorrectly identified as spam and automatically deleted.

That’s why experts recommend sending emails through an SMTP service. It’s the best way to ensure your emails reach your customers’ inboxes.

To fix the deliverability issue, install and configure an SMTP plugin like WP Mail SMTP.

Find out more about how to fix the deliverability issue plugin in WordPress and WooCommerce.

6 Best Practices to Get More Value From Every WooCommerce Transactional Email

Here are some steps you should follow to make the most of transactional emails to foster customer loyalty:

• Write engaging subject lines

Replace default subject lines like "Your order is complete" with ones that include the order number or customer name, as personalized email subject lines can increase open rates by 26%.

So, make sure to personalize your email subject and preview text along with the email body. 

For example, "Your order #1234 has shipped, Sarah" is more engaging and easier to find in a crowded inbox.

2. Keep the email design consistent with your storefront 

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. 

3. Ensure emails are device-responsive

Optimize transactional emails for mobile devices to ensure they are easily accessible and readable on smartphones and tablets. 

Apply your brand colors, logo, and tone of voice to every WooCommerce email template.

4. Add a clear call-to-action (CTA)

Include clear CTAs to encourage customers to take further action, such as adding a “track order” button to the order-processing email we designed in this article. 

Similarly, you can add additional CTAs for actions such as leaving a review, signing up for updates, or exploring related products.

5. Follow up to cultivate customer relationships

Don’t just stop with one email; follow up with customers after transaction emails to cultivate ongoing relationships. 

You can follow up with emails that ask for feedback, offer exclusive deals, or provide helpful resources to foster ongoing engagement and loyalty.

6. A/B test your emails to find customer insights

A/B tests your emails to determine what works best for your audience. 

You can A/B test your email subject line, 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.

7. Track email performance and iterate

Monitor open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates on your transactional emails.

If a cross-sell block in your order confirmation email is not getting clicks, test different products, placements, or copy.

Small improvements in transactional email engagement compound over time because these emails are sent to every single customer.

Frequently Asked Questions About WooCommerce Transactional Emails 

Here are some of the commonly asked questions about transactional emails in WooCommerce, along with their answers: 

Ready to Transform Your WooCommerce Transactional Emails?

WooCommerce transactional emails are vital in keeping your customers informed and engaged.

But if these emails aren't personalized or aligned with your brand, you could miss out on a powerful opportunity to boost customer loyalty and drive repeat business.

That’s where FunnelKit Automations comes in.

Its robust features allow you to elevate your default transactional emails into tailored, engaging communications that leave a lasting impression.

Choose from a library of prebuilt, professionally designed email templates to save time and create stunning messages in minutes.

But that's not all. You can also provide detailed analytics to track performance and optimize your campaigns.

Use A/B testing to refine your email strategy and uncover what resonates with your audience. Turning data into actionable insights can build stronger customer relationships and grow your business like never before.

So why settle for ordinary when you can create extraordinary?

Start personalizing your WooCommerce transactional emails with FunnelKit Automations today and watch your engagement soar, loyalty strengthen, and sales thrive!

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