Send custom emails for specific products
Write your own email for buyers of a product – course materials, a download link, instructions – and it goes out right after their order confirmation.
Some products need more than the standard order confirmation. A course needs a link to its materials, a digital product its download page, a device its setup instructions. A custom email is a message you write once and link to those products: everyone who buys one of them gets it automatically, right after their order confirmation.
Create a custom email
Open Email Automation and switch to the Custom tab, then click Create custom email.
- Give it a name. Only you and your team see it, so call it something you'll recognise in the list, like "Course materials".
- Under Products, pick every product this email is for. One email can cover many products.
- Write the subject and the message. A new email starts from a short template you can replace.
- Click Save.
The preview on the right shows the email as your customer will see it, with sample details filled in. Your message is wrapped in your store's branded email, with a button that opens the order.
You can also start from a product: open it in Products, and in the Custom emails card on the right choose Add custom email. The product is already picked for you.
Personalise the message
Click a variable under the message to insert it where your cursor is. Each one is replaced with the real details when the email is sent.
| Variable | What it becomes |
|---|---|
{{customer_name}} | The buyer's name |
{{product_name}} | The products from this order the email is linked to |
{{order_number}} | The order number |
{{order_total}} | The order total |
{{order_url}} | A link to the order page |
{{view_orders_url}} | A link to the customer's orders in their account, when your store offers it |
{{store_name}} | Your store's name |
A line where every variable comes out empty is left out of the email, so a line with only {{view_orders_url}} simply disappears when there is no account page to link to.
When it's sent
A custom email goes out every time a customer gets an order confirmation for an order that contains one of its products:
- Card and other online payments: as soon as the payment goes through.
- Bank transfer: once you mark the order as paid.
- Cash on delivery: when the order is placed, like the confirmation.
- Subscriptions: with every renewal order, not only the first one.
Each custom email is sent once per order, even if the order contains several of its products. If an order matches two different custom emails, the customer gets both. Orders imported from marketplaces don't receive any emails from your store, custom ones included.
The Send this email switch at the top turns a custom email on or off. It works on its own: switching off the standard purchase confirmation doesn't stop your custom emails.
Write it in every language
If your store sells in more than one language (see Sell in multiple languages), save the email first, then use the language tabs at the top to write each version. Every customer gets the version in the language they shopped in.
You don't have to translate everything. A language where you leave the subject or the message empty uses your store's default language for that part, and the preview shows exactly what those customers will get.
Test it
Click Send test above the preview to send the email to yourself, or to any address you type. It goes once, with sample details and your unsaved edits, and nothing is added to your customers or subscribers.
Duplicate or delete
In the Custom list, open the menu at the end of a row:
- Duplicate copies the email with all its languages but without its products, so you can adapt it for other products without anyone getting the same email twice.
- Delete removes it. Buyers of its products stop getting it.
FAQ
Can I link one product to several custom emails?
Yes. A buyer of that product gets each of them, once per order.
Will customers who bought before I created the email get it?
No. A custom email goes out with the order confirmation, so it reaches orders placed after you link the product.
How do I see which emails a product sends?
Open the product. The Custom emails card lists every custom email linked to it, and marks the ones that are switched off.
Can I change the standard order confirmation instead?
Yes, under the Built-in tab, but that changes it for every order. A custom email only reaches buyers of the products you pick. See Email notifications & automation.
What's next
- Edit the standard emails in Email notifications & automation.
- Sell downloads and courses with Digital products.