How To Send A Custom Woocommerce Order Receipt

How to Send a Custom WooCommerce Order Receipt: A Beginner’s Guide

Want to add a personal touch to your WooCommerce store? One easy way is to customize your order receipt emails. Instead of the standard, sometimes bland, email that WooCommerce sends, you can create a custom WooCommerce order receipt that reflects your brand, provides helpful information, and even encourages repeat business. This guide will walk you through how to achieve this, even if you’re new to WooCommerce and coding.

Why Customize Your WooCommerce Order Receipts?

Imagine ordering a beautiful handmade product. Receiving a generic, purely functional receipt can feel… impersonal. Now, imagine getting a receipt that includes:

• A thank you Learn more about How To Add Custom Text Input Woocommerce Product message specifically tailored to your purchase.
• Care instructions for the product.
• A discount code for your next purchase.
• A beautiful branded design.

Which receipt would leave a better impression? The answer is obvious! Here’s why customizing your WooCommerce order receipt is beneficial:

• Reinforce Your Brand: Showcase your logo, brand colors, and brand voice.
• Improve Customer Experience: Provide a more personalized and helpful experience.
• Increase Customer Loyalty: Offer discounts, special offers, and useful information to encourage repeat purchases.
• Reduce Customer Service Requests: Clearly explain shipping policies, return procedures, and contact information.
• Upsell and Cross-sell: Promote related products or services directly in the receipt.

Method 1: Using a Plugin (The Easiest Way)

For most users, the easiest and fastest way to customize WooCommerce order receipts is by using a plugin. Several excellent plugins offer drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-built templates, making customization simple and code-free.

Example Plugins:

* YayMail – WooCommerce Email Customizer: A very popular and feature-rich option for visually customizing all WooCommerce emails.

* Email Customizer for WooCommerce: Offers a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.

* Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer: Integrates seamlessly with the Kadence theme.

How to Use a Plugin (General Steps – using YayMail as an example):

1. Install and Activate the Plugin: Search for your chosen plugin in the WordPress plugin repository (Plugins -> Add New), install it, and activate it.

2. Access the Email Customizer: Usually found under WooCommerce -> Email Customizer (or a similar named menu based on the plugin). In YayMail, it would be under YayMail > Workflows.

3. Select the ‘Processing Order’ or ‘Completed Order’ Email: These are the Read more about How To Change Woocommerce Emails emails WooCommerce uses for receipts after purchase.

4. Customize the Email: Use the plugin’s interface to:

• Change the logo.
• Edit text.
• Add images.
• Modify colors and fonts.
• Add custom fields (like care instructions).
• Insert discount codes.

5. Preview and Test: Most plugins allow you to preview the email and send a test email to yourself. ALWAYS TEST! Make sure everything looks correct on different devices and email clients.

6. Save Changes: Publish your customized receipt.

Real-Life Example: Let’s say you sell handmade candles. Using a plugin, you can:

• Include a high-quality photo of your candle.
• Add care instructions like “Trim wick to ¼ inch before burning.”
• Provide a 10% off discount code for their next candle purchase.

Method 2: Custom Code (For Advanced Users)

If you’re comfortable with PHP and WordPress development, you can customize WooCommerce order receipts using code. This gives you more control but requires technical knowledge. Be careful and always back up your website before making any code changes.

Steps for Custom Code Customization:

1. Choose a Method: You can either:

• Override the WooCommerce email templates directly (not recommended, as updates may overwrite your changes).
• Use WooCommerce hooks and filters (the recommended approach).

2. Understand WooCommerce Email Templates: WooCommerce uses templates located in `woocommerce/templates/emails/`. The main template for order receipts is `email-order-details.php`. Do NOT edit these files directly. Copy them to your theme’s directory as explained below.

3. Copy Templates to Your Theme: Create a Check out this post: How To Add Products To Page Woocommerce `woocommerce` folder within your child theme’s directory Read more about Woocommerce How To Limit Purchase Quantity (if you don’t have a child theme, create one!). Then, create an `emails` folder within the `woocommerce` folder. Copy the WooCommerce email template files you want to customize (e.g., `email-order-details.php`) into this new directory: `your-child-theme/woocommerce/emails/`.

4. Customize the Templates: Now you can safely edit the copied template files. For example, you can add a custom thank you message, display additional product information, or change the layout.

 <?php /** 
This template can be overridden by copying it to yourtheme/woocommerce/emails/email-order-details.php.
 
* HOWEVER, on occasion WooCommerce will need to update template files and you
 
(the theme developer) will need to copy the new files to your theme to
 
maintain compatibility. We try to do this as little as possible, but it does
 
happen. When this occurs the version of the template file will be bumped and
 
the readme will list any important changes.
 
* @see https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/template-structure/
 
@package WooCommerceTemplatesEmails
 
@version 3.7.0
 */ 

defined( ‘ABSPATH’ ) || exit;

$order = wc_get_order( $order_id );

if ( ! is_a( $order, ‘WC_Order’ ) ) {

return;

}

$order_items = $order->get_items( apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_purchase_order_item_types’, ‘line_item’ ) );

$show_purchase_note = $order->has_status( apply_filters( ‘woocommerce_purchase_note_order_statuses’, array( ‘completed’, ‘processing’ ) ) );

$show_sku = $args[‘show_sku’];

$show_product_id = $args[‘show_product_id’];

$show_downloadable_files = $args[‘show_downloadable_files’];

$show_variation = $args[‘show_variation’];

$has_visible_downloadable_items = $order->has_downloadable_item() && $order->is_download_permitted();

if ( $has_visible_downloadable_items ) {

$order->add_meta_data( ‘_has_downloadable_item’, ‘true’ );

}

?>

<?php

if($order->has_status( ‘completed’ )){

echo esc_html_e( ‘Order Completed Details’, ‘woocommerce’ );

}else{

esc_html_e( ‘Order Details’, ‘woocommerce’ );

}

?>

<th class="td" scope="col" style="text-align:;”>

<th class="td" scope="col" style="text-align:;”>

<th class="td" scope="col" style="text-align:;”>

<?php

echo wc_get_email_order_items( // phpcs:ignore WordPress.Security.EscapeOutput.OutputNotEscaped

$order,

array(

‘show_sku’ => $show_sku,

‘show_purchase_note’ => $show_purchase_note,

‘show_variation’ => $show_variation,

‘show_downloadable_files’ => $show_downloadable_files,

‘show_product_id’ => $show_product_id,

)

);

?>

<?php

$item_totals = $order->get_order_item_totals();

if ( $item_totals ) {

$i = 0;

foreach ( $item_totals as $total ) {

$i++;

?>

<th class="td" scope="row" colspan="2" style="text-align:; “>

<td class="td" style="text-align:; “>

<?php

}

}

if ( $order->get_customer_note() ) {

?>

<th class="td" scope="row" colspan="2" style="text-align:;”>

<td class="td" style="text-align:;”>get_customer_note() ) ); ?>

<?php

}

?>

$order, ‘plain_text’ => false, ’email’ => $email ) ); ?>

<?php

/

* Action hook fired after the order details table in email templates.

*

* @since 2.5.0

*

* @hooked WC_Emails::email_address_details() Shows billing/shipping address details.

*/

do_action( ‘woocommerce_email_after_order_table’, $order, $sent_to_admin, $plain_text, $email );

?>

5. Use Hooks and Filters: This is the recommended way to customize without directly editing templates. WooCommerce provides numerous hooks and filters that allow you to modify email content dynamically. For example, you can use the `woocommerce_email_order_meta` hook to add custom metadata to the order details. This involves adding PHP code to your theme’s `functions.php` file (or a custom plugin).

 add_action( 'woocommerce_email_order_meta', 'add_custom_order_meta', 10, 3 ); 

function add_custom_order_meta( $order, $sent_to_admin, $plain_text ) {

echo ‘

Thank you for your purchase! Here is your 15% off code: SPRING2024

‘;

}

This code will add “Thank you for your purchase! Here is your 15% off code: SPRING2024” to the bottom of every order receipt email.

6. Test Thoroughly: After making any code changes, always test your order receipts by placing test orders. Check for errors and ensure the customization looks correct.

Real-Life Example (Code): Imagine you want to add the expected delivery date to the order receipt. You could use a hook to calculate the delivery date (based on shipping method and processing time) and then add it to the email. This requires more advanced PHP skills and understanding of WooCommerce’s shipping and order processing.

Important Considerations:

• Child Theme: Always use a child theme when making code customizations. This prevents your changes from being overwritten when the parent theme updates.
• Backup: Back up your website before making any code changes. This ensures you can restore your site if something goes wrong.
• Testing: Test your customized order receipts thoroughly on different devices and email clients.
• Accessibility: Make sure your customized emails are accessible to users with disabilities. Use appropriate color contrast and alt text for images.
• GDPR Compliance: Ensure your customizations comply with GDPR and other privacy regulations.