WooCommerce Post-Purchase Emails: What to Send After an Order, and When

Out of the box, WooCommerce sends order status emails. The customer gets the processing order email once payment clears, which works as the order confirmation, then the completed order email when you mark the order complete, plus refund and customer note emails when those happen. You can edit their wording under WooCommerce > Settings > Emails.

Each product also has a purchase note field, under Product data > Advanced. The note appears in the order emails for that product, which makes it a simple place for care instructions or a download link.

What WooCommerce does not do on its own:

• Send an email a set number of days after an order or after delivery.
• Run a sequence where the next email depends on what the customer did.
• Ask for a review. There is no built-in review request email.
• Send different follow-ups by product, category or type of customer.

Everything in the sequence below sits on top of the built-in emails, which stay as they are.

1. Order confirmation. Right after payment. Confirms what was bought and when it arrives. Transactional, so it always goes out.
2. Shipping and delivery updates. When the parcel ships and when it is delivered, by email or SMS. Cuts where-is-my-order tickets. Also transactional.
3. Product tips. 1 to 3 days after delivery. Helps the customer get value from what they bought. Skip it if they already contacted support.
4. Review request. 5 to 10 days after delivery, longer for products that take time to judge. Stop if a return or refund is open, or they already left a review.
5. Cross-sell. 10 to 20 days after delivery, from the category they bought. Stop as soon as they order again.
6. Reorder reminder. For consumables only, a few days before the product usually runs out. Stop if they reorder or subscribe.
7. Second-order nudge. When a customer passes the usual gap between first and second orders. Win-back takes over after that.

First-time buyers and repeat customers

The first order is where most customers are lost, so first-time buyers get the full sequence, with more help and less selling. Repeat customers can skip the tips email and get cross-sells sooner. Your best customers, for example the top tenth by spend, can get early access or a thank-you instead of discounts.

Stop rules keep the sequence polite: skip the review request while a refund is open, stop cross-sells once the customer orders again, and cap marketing emails at one per customer per day across all your flows.

Most plugins time follow-ups from the order date or from the completed status. In WooCommerce, completed usually means shipped, not delivered, and orders with only virtual or downloadable products complete as soon as they are paid. An email set to go out 5 days after completed can arrive before the parcel does, which is the worst moment to ask for a review.

Two ways to time emails to delivery:

• Use a delivered event. Shipment tracking tools can mark an order as delivered when the carrier confirms it. Start the tips and review emails from that event.
• Add a delay per shipping zone. If you cannot track delivery, measure how long orders usually take to arrive in each zone and add that to the delay.

Either way, keep the order confirmation and shipping updates instant. Only the marketing emails wait for delivery.

A review request works best once the customer has used the product. For most products that is 5 to 10 days after delivery. For products that take weeks to show results, such as skincare or supplements, wait two to three weeks.

• Link straight to the review form for the exact product, not to your homepage or a general survey.
• Send one reminder a few days later to customers who did not open or click, then stop.
• Skip customers with an open return, refund or support ticket.
• If you offer a reward for reviews, check the rules where you sell. Review platforms and consumer law often limit incentives or require you to disclose them.

For wording, see these review request email subject lines.

Bestseller emails that ignore what the customer bought get ignored in turn. The cross-sells that work come from the order itself:

• Recommend from the same or a matching category: a case for a phone, a refill for a device, the next size up.
• Leave out products the customer already owns and anything out of stock.
• For variable products, suggest the matching variation, such as the same size or color.

For consumables, time the reorder reminder from your own data. Take the customers who bought the product twice and find the median number of days between the two orders. Send the reminder a few days before that point. It is more accurate than guessing from the pack size, and it adjusts as your data grows.

For copy, see these cross-sell email examples and replenishment email examples.

• Managed service. A team such as Jellyreach builds, runs and improves the flows. You maintain nothing day to day. Fits when you want the results without learning another tool.
• Built-in emails. Processing, completed and refund emails, plus the purchase note. You maintain the wording. Fits when order updates are all you need.
• WooCommerce extensions such as AutomateWoo or Follow-Ups. You maintain the rules, templates and plugin updates. Fits when you want everything inside WordPress.
• WordPress plugins such as FunnelKit Automations, ShopMagic, FluentCRM or MailPoet. You maintain the rules, templates and sending setup. Fits when you have time to build and test flows.
• Email platforms such as Klaviyo, Omnisend or Mailchimp. You maintain the flows, templates and data sync, plus a monthly bill. Fits when you want segmentation and reporting outside WordPress.

Consent: transactional and marketing emails

Order confirmations, shipping updates and delivery notices are transactional, so every buyer gets them. Review requests, cross-sells and reorder offers count as marketing in most places. In the EU and UK, existing customers can often receive marketing about similar products if they had a clear chance to opt out at checkout and in every email. Add a marketing opt-in to checkout, including for guest buyers, and check the rules in the countries you sell to.

Deliverability

WordPress sends email through your web server by default, and those emails often land in spam. Send through a sending service such as Amazon SES, SendGrid or Postmark, or through your email platform, and set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domain before you switch the sequence on.

If you would rather not build and maintain this yourself, Jellyreach sets up and runs these flows for WooCommerce stores. It starts with a free 30-minute retention audit call, where we look at your order history and show which emails are missing.

Product tips, timed to delivery

Subject: Your [product name] arrived. Three tips for day one

Hi [first name], your order was delivered today. Here is how other customers get the most out of [product name]: [tip one], [tip two] and [tip three]. Questions? Just reply to this email.

Review request

Subject: How is the [product name] working for you?

Hi [first name], it has been a week since your [product name] arrived. Would you rate it in one click? It helps other customers choose. [Rate your product]

Category cross-sell

Subject: The perfect match for your [product name]

Hi [first name], customers who bought [product name] often add [related product] next, because [one-line reason]. [See the match]

For full templates, see these post-purchase follow-up email examples, plus order confirmation and order shipped emails.

Opens and clicks show whether an email was read. They do not show whether customers come back. Track three numbers instead:

• Repeat purchase rate: customers with two or more orders, divided by all customers in the same period.
• Median days to second order: how long first-time buyers take to order again. A working sequence shortens it.
• Revenue per recipient: the revenue each email brings in, divided by the number of people who got it. When volume allows, hold back a small group that gets no emails and compare.

The WooCommerce Customers report shows orders per customer, and an order export gives you the first and second order dates. Measure before you switch the sequence on, and again after 60 to 90 days.

When customers stop ordering after a few purchases, a win-back email takes over. These win-back email subject lines are a good starting point, and retention for WooCommerce stores covers the full set of flows we run.