Emails are how your store talks to people when you’re not there. Order confirmations, shipping updates, VIP welcomes — they all shape how customers feel about your business. Think of them like the follow-up conversation after a great in-person interaction: get it right, and people trust you more. Get it wrong (or skip it entirely), and they wonder if anyone’s home.
Tracksies gives you control over every email your store sends, with a visual editor and live preview so you can see exactly what your customers will see before anything goes out.
—
Why It Matters
Here’s the thing: your emails are often the only communication a customer gets between placing their order and receiving their package. That gap can be a few hours or a few weeks. Without good email templates:
- Customers wonder if their order went through
- Shipping updates feel generic and impersonal
- Your brand disappears between checkout and delivery
- VIP customers don’t feel any different from first-time buyers
Well-crafted emails keep customers informed, reduce support tickets (“where’s my order?”), and make your store feel polished and professional — even when you’re asleep.
—
Before You Start
- An SMTP plugin is essential. WordPress can technically send emails on its own, but it’s a bit like posting a letter without a stamp — it might arrive, but don’t count on it. An SMTP plugin connects your site to a proper email delivery service. WP Mail SMTP is a solid free option. Set this up first, or your beautiful email templates won’t reach anyone.
- Brand Hub styling (optional but recommended). If you’ve already configured your brand colours and logo in Tracksies > Designer, your emails can automatically use them. No extra setup needed — it flows in from your existing branding.
—
Where to Find It
- In your WordPress admin, go to Tracksies > Settings in the left sidebar
- Click the Emails tab at the top of the settings page
You’ll land on a two-column layout: the email list and editor on the left, and a live preview on the right. At the top, you’ll see three sub-tabs — Store Alerts, Customer Emails, and Settings — each controlling a different category of email.
—
Store Alerts
These are emails that go to you — the store owner or admin. They’re your early warning system for things that need your attention.
- VIP Customer Order — Fires when a customer you’ve flagged as VIP places an order. Because VIP orders deserve VIP attention.
- Caution Customer Order — Alerts you when a flagged customer orders. Useful for customers with a history of chargebacks or disputes.
- Do Not Serve Order — An urgent alert when a banned customer manages to place an order. This one’s designed to stop you in your tracks so you can cancel before it ships.
- High Value Order — Triggers when an order exceeds your configured threshold (set in the Settings sub-tab under Limits). A $2,000 order probably deserves different handling than a $15 one.
- New Customer Alert — Lets you know when a first-time customer places their first order. Great for stores that like to include a personal touch — a handwritten note, a bonus sample, a little something extra.
For scheduled email summaries of store activity (daily, weekly, or on whatever cadence suits you), use the Scheduled Reports feature — it’s a configurable report builder that emails a summary to whoever you nominate.
—
Customer Emails
These go directly to your customers. They’re the emails people actually look for in their inbox after placing an order.
Order Status Emails
- Order Received (Processing) — The “we got your order” confirmation. This is the most-opened email your store sends, so make it count.
- Order Complete — Lets the customer know their order is finalised.
- Order On Hold — Notifies the customer that their order needs attention (usually a payment issue). A clear, friendly message here prevents unnecessary support emails.
- Order Refunded — Confirms that a refund has been processed. Customers appreciate knowing exactly how much was refunded and when to expect it.
- Customer Note — Sends when you add a note to an order and tick “send to customer” in WooCommerce.
Custom Status Emails
- Order Packed — Tells the customer their order has been packed and is ready to ship. A small update that builds anticipation.
- Partially Shipped — For split shipments, so the customer knows part of their order is on the way and the rest is coming.
- Order Shipped — The big one — dispatch notification with tracking details. This is the email customers refresh their inbox waiting for.
- Ready for Pickup — For click-and-collect orders, letting customers know they can come grab their stuff.
Customer Engagement Emails
- Tag Earned — A celebration email when a customer earns a new tag. It’s like a digital high-five.
- Tenure Anniversary — Marks the anniversary of when someone became your customer. A small thing that means a lot.
- Win Back — Reaches out to inactive customers to re-engage them. Think of it as a friendly “hey, we miss you.”
- VIP Welcome — Sent when a customer is promoted to VIP status. Roll out the red carpet.
Returns Emails
- Return Approved — Confirms a customer’s return request has been approved, with instructions on what to do next.
- Return Rejected — Lets the customer know their return request was declined, with the reason why.
- Return Refunded — Confirms the refund from a return has been processed.
—
Editing a Template
- Click any email in the list on the left side of the screen to select it
- The editor panel opens below, showing the current template content
- You’ll see controls for that specific email at the top of the editor:
– Enable/disable toggle — Turn this email type on or off. Turning it off stops the email from sending but keeps your customised content intact for later.
– Recipients field (store alerts only) — Enter the email addresses that should receive this alert, separated by commas. This lets you send alerts to your team, not only yourself.
– Subject line — Edit the email subject. You can use placeholders here (more on those below) so the subject line includes dynamic information like the order number.
- Use the rich text editor to modify the email body. It’s TinyMCE — the same editor WordPress uses for posts — so you can format text, add links, insert images, and structure your message however you like
- To insert dynamic content, type a placeholder using curly braces like
{customer_name}in either the subject line or body. The available placeholders for that email type appear below the editor — you don’t need to memorise them. More on placeholders in the next section. - Watch the live preview on the right side of the screen update as you make changes. This shows you roughly what the final email will look like, using your Brand Hub styling if enabled.
- When you’re happy with your changes, click Save Template at the bottom of the editor
Your updated template will be used for all future emails of that type.
—
Available Placeholders
Placeholders are the bits that turn a generic template into a personalised email. They look like {this} in the editor, and they get replaced with real data when the email is sent. For example, {customer_name} becomes “Sarah Johnson” and {order_number} becomes “#1234”.
Which placeholders are available depends on the type of email you’re editing. A shipping email has tracking placeholders; a tag email has tag placeholders. The full list always appears below the editor when you’re editing a template.
Here’s the complete set:
Global Placeholders (Available in All Emails)
| Placeholder | What It Becomes |
|---|---|
{site_name} | Your website name |
{site_url} | Your website address |
{date} | Today’s date |
{time} | The current time |
{admin_email} | Your site admin email address |
Customer Placeholders
| Placeholder | What It Becomes |
|---|---|
{customer_name} | The customer’s full name |
{customer_first_name} | First name only — for a more casual feel |
{customer_last_name} | Last name only |
{customer_email} | The customer’s email address |
{customer_phone} | The customer’s phone number |
{customer_status} | Their Tracksies status (Active, VIP, etc.) |
{customer_ltv} | Their lifetime value (total spend) |
{customer_order_count} | How many orders they’ve placed |
{customer_intel_panel} | A Customer Intelligence panel showing lifetime value, tags, and status — designed for admin-facing emails like store alerts |
Order Placeholders
| Placeholder | What It Becomes |
|---|---|
{order_number} | The WooCommerce order number (e.g., #1234) |
{order_total} | The order total, formatted with your currency |
{order_date} | The date the order was placed |
{order_url} | Link to the order in the customer’s account |
{order_details} | A formatted summary of the order items |
{view_order_url} | Direct link to view the order |
Shipping Placeholders
| Placeholder | What It Becomes |
|---|---|
{tracking_info} | Full tracking details block |
{tracking_url} | Direct link to the tracking page |
{tracking_number} | The shipment tracking number |
{carrier_name} | The shipping carrier (e.g., Australia Post, FedEx) |
Returns Placeholders
| Placeholder | What It Becomes |
|---|---|
{rma_number} | The return authorisation number |
{return_address} | The address to send the return to |
{return_instructions} | Your return instructions text |
Tag Placeholders
| Placeholder | What It Becomes |
|---|---|
{tag_name} | The name of the tag earned |
{tag_channel} | The tag category (e.g., Spending, Loyalty) |
{tag_icon} | The tag icon |
Other Placeholders
| Placeholder | What It Becomes |
|---|---|
{refund_amount} | The amount refunded |
{pickup_location} | The collection/pickup location (for ready for pickup) |
{customer_note} | The note text added to the order |
—
Sending a Test Email
Before you send a new template to real customers, send yourself a test to make sure it looks right:
- Save your template by clicking Save Template at the bottom of the editor
- Click the Send Test Email button
- Enter an email address (yours, ideally)
- Click Send
- Check your inbox — and your spam folder, because test emails sometimes end up there
Test emails pull in real order data when available, so you can see exactly how placeholders like {customer_name} and {order_total} look with actual information rather than placeholder text.
Important: Test emails (and all emails from your store) need an SMTP plugin to send reliably. If you haven’t set up SMTP yet, WP Mail SMTP is a solid free option. Without it, your test email might not arrive at all — and that’s an SMTP problem, not a Tracksies problem.
—
Enabling and Disabling Individual Emails
Every email in the list has a toggle switch next to it. This is your on/off control for each email type.
Turning off an email stops it from sending, but it doesn’t delete your template. Your customised content stays right where you left it. This is handy for emails you don’t need right now but might want later — like turning off the “Win Back” email during your busiest season when you’re already overwhelmed with orders, and switching it back on when things calm down.
To toggle an email:
- Find it in the list under the Store Alerts sub-tab or the Customer Emails sub-tab
- Click the toggle switch next to the email name to turn it on or off
- The change saves automatically — no need to click a separate save button
—
The Settings Sub-Tab
The Settings sub-tab (the third sub-tab on the Emails page) controls the nuts and bolts of how your emails are sent and styled. Here’s everything in it:
Sender Settings
From Name — This is who the email appears to come from in your customer’s inbox. It defaults to your site name, but you can change it to your personal name, your team name, or something like “Sarah from Widgets & Co” — whatever feels right for your brand.
From Email — The reply-to address. When a customer hits reply on one of your emails, this is where it goes. Defaults to your site admin email. Make sure it’s a real, monitored inbox — nothing frustrates customers more than replying to a no-reply address.
Branding & Enhancements
These settings control how your emails look and what information they include.
Use Brand Hub Styling (woo_use_branded_emails toggle) — When enabled, your emails automatically get the header, footer, and colour scheme from your Brand Hub settings in Tracksies > Designer. The header follows your chosen style (standard, minimal, or banner), colours come from your Brand Hub palette, and your logo appears in the header. No need to configure anything separately — if your Brand Hub looks right, your emails will too.
Include Tracking Info (email_show_tracking toggle) — Adds tracking information to relevant emails. When a customer’s order has tracking data, it shows up in their emails automatically.
Track Button Text (email_track_button_text) — The text on the tracking button in emails. Defaults to “Track My Order” but you can change it to match your brand voice — “Where’s My Stuff?” works too.
Require Tracking Before Completing (email_require_tracking toggle) — When enabled, orders can’t be marked as complete until tracking has been added. This ensures customers always get tracking info in their completion email, because an “order complete” email without tracking feels incomplete.
Show Packed By (email_show_packed_by toggle) — Adds the name of the staff member who packed the order to the email. It’s a personal touch that makes your operation feel human.
Packed By Text (email_packed_by_text) — The format for the packed-by message. Defaults to “Packed with care by {name}” — the {name} part gets replaced with the staff member’s name automatically.
Show Order Items Table (email_show_items_table toggle) — Includes a table of order items in emails. On by default, because customers like seeing what they ordered. You’d only turn this off if your emails are getting too long.
Shipped Email Settings
Auto-Send Shipped Email (email_auto_send_shipped toggle) — When enabled, the shipped email goes out automatically instead of waiting for you to send it manually.
Shipped Email Trigger (email_shipped_trigger) — Controls what triggers the shipped email. Three options:
- Tracking Added — Sends as soon as tracking information is added to the order. This is the most common choice.
- Status Shipped — Sends when the order status changes to “shipped.”
- Manual — Only sends when you manually trigger it. Good if you want to review before sending.
Limits
Max Emails Per Week (email_max_per_week) — Prevents email flooding by capping the number of emails a single customer can receive per week. Defaults to 3, and you can set it anywhere from 1 to 10. This protects your customers if something goes sideways — a bulk status update, a runaway automation — by stopping your store from bombarding people with dozens of emails in quick succession.
Digest Recipients (email_digest_recipients) — The email addresses that receive the digest, separated by commas. This lets you send the digest to your whole team, not only the site admin.
—
How the Email Queue Works
Emails don’t fire the instant something happens — they go through a queue, which gives you more control and reliability.
Here’s how it works behind the scenes:
- When an event triggers an email (an order ships, a customer earns a tag, etc.), the email is added to the queue with a status of queued
- The queue is processed every 5 minutes via WordPress cron
- Each email can have a delay (
delay_minutes). Setting it to 0 means it sends on the next cron run (within 5 minutes). Setting it higher lets you space things out. - Once processed, the email status changes to sent or failed
- If an email fails, the error message is stored so you can see what went wrong
This queue system means your site doesn’t slow down trying to send emails in real-time during checkout. It also means that if your email service has a temporary hiccup, you’ll see the failure logged rather than the email disappearing silently.
—
Brand Hub Integration
When you enable Use Brand Hub Styling in the Settings sub-tab, your emails get wrapped in your brand’s visual identity:
- Header — Follows the style you’ve set in Tracksies > Designer: standard (logo only), minimal (small and clean), or banner (full background with logo and tagline)
- Colours — Header background, header text, footer background, and footer text all come from your Brand Hub colour settings
- Logo — Your primary logo from Brand Hub appears in the email header
- Footer — Styled to match your brand with your configured footer colours
This means if you update your brand colours in the Designer, your emails update too. One place to manage your look, everywhere.
—
WooCommerce Integration
If you go to WooCommerce > Settings > Emails, you’ll notice that Tracksies’ custom status emails (Packed, Shipped, Partially Shipped, Ready for Pickup) appear there too. This is by design — it keeps everything visible in one place.
However, Tracksies email settings take priority over anything configured on the WooCommerce emails page. You’ll see an admin notice on that page pointing you back to Tracksies > Settings > Emails as the place to manage these templates. Think of the WooCommerce listing as a directory — it shows you what’s there, but you manage it from Tracksies.
—
Common Questions
Can I use HTML in templates?
Yes. The editor supports HTML. If you want to get into the code directly, click the Text tab in the top-right corner of the editor to switch to raw HTML mode. Switch back to Visual for the formatted view.
Will my brand colours show in emails?
Yes — when Use Brand Hub Styling is enabled in the Settings sub-tab, emails automatically use the colours and logo from your Brand Hub. If you’ve configured your brand in Tracksies > Designer, every email inherits it.
Can I add my logo to emails?
Your logo from the Designer / Brand Hub appears in email headers automatically when branded emails are enabled. Upload it once in Tracksies > Designer on the Branding tab, and it flows into every email.
What if I break a template?
No stress. Click Reset to Default on any template to restore it to the original version. Your broken masterpiece will be replaced with the default content, and you can start fresh.
Can I send different emails to different staff members?
For store alerts, yes. Each alert email has a Recipients field where you can enter multiple email addresses separated by commas. So your VIP Order alert could go to the store owner, while High Value alerts go to the whole team.
Do I need SMTP?
Yes. WordPress on its own isn’t great at sending emails — messages often end up in spam or don’t arrive at all. An SMTP plugin connects your site to a proper email delivery service (like Gmail, SendGrid, or Mailgun). Think of it like this: WordPress writes the letter, but SMTP actually posts it. WP Mail SMTP is a popular free choice.
What happens to emails when I disable an email type?
Any emails already in the queue will still be sent. Disabling an email type only stops new emails of that type from being queued. Your template content is preserved — turning it back on later uses the same template you had before.
How long do queued emails take to send?
The queue processes every 5 minutes. So an email with no delay will send within 5 minutes of the triggering event. Emails with a configured delay will wait the specified number of minutes before being picked up by the queue.
—
Troubleshooting
Emails aren’t sending at all
The most common cause is a missing SMTP configuration. Go to your SMTP plugin’s settings and verify it’s connected and sending successfully. Most SMTP plugins have their own “Send Test Email” feature — use that to confirm the basics are working before troubleshooting Tracksies emails. If you don’t have an SMTP plugin yet, install WP Mail SMTP. It’s free and takes about 10 minutes to set up.
Some emails send but others don’t
Check two things. First, make sure the email type is enabled — find it in the list under Store Alerts or Customer Emails and check that the toggle switch is turned on. Second, check your Max Emails Per Week setting in the Settings sub-tab under Limits. If a customer has already received the maximum number of emails this week, additional emails will be held back.
Emails send but look plain (no branding)
Make sure Use Brand Hub Styling is enabled in the Settings sub-tab under Branding & Enhancements. Then check that you’ve actually configured your brand in Tracksies > Designer — the email system pulls your header, footer, colours, and logo from there.
Preview looks different from the actual email
Email clients (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) all render HTML slightly differently — it’s one of the great frustrations of email design. The live preview in Tracksies is a close approximation, but the final result may vary slightly depending on where your customer reads it. The core content and layout will be consistent; it’s usually small things like spacing and font rendering that shift.
Placeholders show as raw text in the received email
Make sure you’re using the exact placeholder syntax with curly braces — {customer_name}, not (customer_name) or {{customer_name}}. The safest way is to use the placeholder list that appears below the editor rather than typing them manually. If you’ve typed one manually and it’s not working, delete it and re-insert it from the list.
Logo not appearing in emails
Check three things: first, that Use Brand Hub Styling is enabled in the Settings sub-tab. Second, that your logo is uploaded in Tracksies > Designer on the Branding tab. Third, send yourself a test email to confirm it’s coming through — sometimes the live preview shows the logo but the email itself needs a test to verify.
Emails going to spam
This is almost always an SMTP and domain authentication issue, not a Tracksies issue. Make sure your SMTP plugin is properly authenticated, and that your sending domain has SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records configured. Your email service provider (SendGrid, Mailgun, Gmail, etc.) will have guides for setting these up. It sounds technical, but it’s a one-time setup that makes a massive difference to deliverability.
Shipped email not sending automatically
Check the Settings sub-tab under Shipped Email Settings. Make sure Auto-Send Shipped Email is toggled on, and that the Shipped Email Trigger matches your workflow. If it’s set to “Tracking Added” but you change the order status to shipped without adding tracking first, the email won’t fire. If it’s set to “Manual,” it won’t send automatically at all — that’s by design.
Failed emails in the queue
When an email fails to send, the error message is stored in the queue. Common causes include SMTP connection timeouts, invalid recipient email addresses, or email service rate limits. Check your SMTP plugin’s logs for more detail on what went wrong. Failed emails don’t automatically retry — you’ll need to address the underlying issue and resend if needed.
Toggle changed but emails still sending (or not sending)
Toggle changes save automatically, but if you have a caching plugin, try clearing your cache. In rare cases, a cached version of the settings can persist for a few minutes. Also remember that emails already in the queue when you toggled will still be processed — the toggle only affects new emails going forward.