Order confirmation emails are essential in eCommerce. They allow you to thank customers for their purchase, provide a receipt, and serve as timely notifications that customers highly anticipate.
Why send order confirmation emails?
Order confirmation emails provide customers with a clear summary of their purchase, including product details, order total, and shipping and billing information. These emails not only reassure customers that their order has been successfully placed but also help build trust in your business.
Brevo uses its tracker to monitor when a contact completes a purchase. Once the contact is identified, they will enter the order confirmation automation and automatically receive an order confirmation email. |
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Before you start
- Make sure you have installed the Brevo tracker on your website and set up our three purchase events (cart_updated, cart_deleted, order_completed). To learn more, check our dedicated article What is the Brevo tracker and how to install it?.
- If you use the Brevo plugin for WooCommerce and want to send your order confirmation emails directly through WooCommerce (and not through an automation), check our dedicated article WooCommerce plugin - Create an order confirmation email to send through WooCommerce.
Select the order confirmation automation
Brevo offers a pre-configured order confirmation automation. To select it:
- Go to Automations.
- Click Create an automation.
- Select the pre-configured automation named Product purchase.
- Click Create automation.
You will now be automatically guided through a series of three steps to create your order confirmation automation.
Step 1/3: Let contacts enter the automation when they complete a purchase
The trigger for the order confirmation automation is called "Order created". This trigger allows contacts to enter the automation as soon as they complete a purchase.
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(Optional) Refine the "Order created" trigger by applying Event filters. For example, if you want to send your order confirmation emails in multiple languages, you could choose to start the automation only for contacts in a specific country. To learn more, check our dedicated article Send automated emails in multiple languages.
- Next to Event filters, check Add filter.
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Click Add filters and choose the conditions you want to apply to refine the trigger. For this example, we selected the condition Checkout session country > is exactly > France.
- Click Add filters.
- Next to Event filters, check Add filter.
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(Optional) Restrict your automation to contacts who meet specific criteria by applying Contact filters. This gives you more control over which contacts can enter the automation. For example, you could create a dedicated automation for first-time orders to thank new customers.
- Next to Contact filters, check Add filter.
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Click Add filters and choose the conditions you want to apply to control which contacts can enter the automation. For this example, we selected the condition Ecommerce > Placed an order > exactly 1 time > Over all time.
- Click Add filters.
- Next to Contact filters, check Add filter.
- Click Next.
Step 2/3: Add a delay before sending the order confirmation email
After a contact enters the automation, they will go through a brief waiting period before receiving the order confirmation email. We recommend setting a short delay of 1 to 2 minutes.
- Select the delay period you want contacts to wait between completing their purchase and when the order confirmation email is sent.
- Click Next.
If you prefer not to include a time delay, you can delete this step from your automation later.
Step 3/3: Send the order confirmation email
You'll now set up the order confirmation email that you'll send to your customers.
The default order confirmation email template includes all the essential elements to help you list all the products purchased by customres. To view what the default email template looks like, expand the following accordion:
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To edit the default email template:
- Under the email preview, click Edit.
- Design your email template by updating its content and adding any extra content or blocks as needed. To learn how to use the Drag & Drop editor, check our dedicated series of articles.
- The default order confirmation email template includes a Dynamic content block that personalizes each email with a list of items purchased by the recipient. This block contains variables that are dynamically replaced when the email is sent to display the following details about each item:
- Image
- Name
- Currency
- Price
- Variant ID name
- Quantity
- (Optional) Click Preview & test to verify personalized details, such as the products purchased, and review the design and layout of your email template. You can preview your email using JSON data or information from a previous abandoned cart event.
- Once you're done, click Use this design in automation in the top bar of the email editor to save your email template and return to the automation editor.
- Configure the settings of your email template:
- Event data (latest instance of the "Order created" event)
- Subject line and preview text
- Sender email address and name
- Additional settings, including email sending time, email copy, reply-to address, tags, attachment, update profile form, unsubscribe form, and more.
- Click Save.
- Sending additional emails after a few days (e.g., feedback form, cross-sell, or bundle emails),
- Creating a deal or a task to follow up with customers,
- Updating a contact attribute after the purchase (e.g., mark customers who have spent more than $500 on your website as VIPs).
Activate the automation
Once everything is set up, you can activate the order confirmation automation:
- In the top bar of the editor, click Activate automation.
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The Re-entry after exit settings is already configured for the automation. It allows contacts to re-enter the automation if they exit it once and complete a purchase again.
- Click Activate automation.
Test the order confirmation automation
To ensure that your automation works well and that the email sent includes the personalized list of purchased items, it is recommended that you test it yourself. For the order confirmation automation, here is a real test scenario you can perform:
- Create or log in to an account on your website.
- Complete a purchase.
- Wait for the delay you set at Step 2/3: Add a delay before sending the order confirmation email.
This should trigger the automation and give you an accurate sense of its functionality.
Troubleshooting issues with your order confirmation automation
Expand the following accordions to learn how to troubleshoot issues with your order confirmation automation:
There could be several reasons for this:
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The Brevo tracker is not properly installed on your website
Make sure you have installed the Brevo tracker on your website and set up our three purchase events (cart_updated, cart_deleted, order_completed). To learn more, check our dedicated article What is the Brevo tracker and how to install it?. -
Your customers block third-party cookies or use ad/script blockers
If customers block third-party cookies or use ad/script blockers, the Brevo tracker may not be able to identify them, preventing order confirmation emails from being sent. -
Your automation is paused or inactive
If your automation is paused or inactive, customers who make a purchase won't enter the automation and won’t receive the order confirmation email.
To prevent duplicate order confirmation emails, we recommend disabling any order confirmation emails sent outside of Brevo (such as those generated by your website or store).
🤔 Have a question?
If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.
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