# Emails to customers

> The emails Commerce Orbit sends to customers and when, how to change their wording and translations with variables, your own templates, and sending from your own domain.

Source: https://docs.bifrostorbit.com/commerce/everyone/emails-to-customers/

Commerce Orbit emails your customers at each step of an order, in your shop's name and in the language they shopped in. Admins change the wording under **Email templates**; everyone can read them.

## The emails

| Email | Sent when |
| --- | --- |
| **Order confirmed** | An order is paid by card. |
| **Invoice** | A company orders on invoice terms. The invoice PDF is attached. It replaces the order confirmation. |
| **Order shipped** | You mark items as sent and leave the email to the customer on. It has a button to follow the parcel when you add a tracking link. |
| **Refund** | You refund all or part of an order. |
| **Order cancelled** | You cancel an order, unless you choose not to tell the customer. |
| **Left in the cart** | A shopper typed their email and left without ordering. Sent at each step of your [cart reminders](https://docs.bifrostorbit.com/commerce/everyone/cart-reminders/), an hour after their last change to the cart unless you change it, with a link back to it. Switch reminders off in **Settings**. In the Growth and Enterprise plans. |

Each email has a summary of the order and a button to the customer's order page, where they can follow it and download their receipt or invoice. Replies go to the **contact email** in **Settings**.

## Change the wording

Open **Email templates** and choose an email. Change the subject and text, and put in variables by typing them in braces, such as `{firstName}`. Every email knows:

| Variable | Fills in |
| --- | --- |
| `{firstName}`, `{name}` | The customer's first name, or full name |
| `{reference}` | The order number, such as NW1042 |
| `{items}` | How many items are on the order |
| `{total}` | The order total, such as €467.00 |
| `{brand}` | Your shop name |
| `{orderLink}` | The link to the order page |

Some emails know more:

| Email | Extra variables |
| --- | --- |
| Order confirmed | `{paymentNote}`: how it was paid |
| Invoice | `{invoiceNumber}`, `{dueDate}` |
| Order shipped | `{carrier}`, `{trackingNumber}`, `{trackingLink}` |
| Refund | `{amount}`: the amount refunded |
| Order cancelled | `{refundNote}`: how much is on its way back, when you refunded |
| Left in the cart | `{firstName}`, `{brand}`, `{items}`, `{cartLink}`, and `{discountCode}` and `{discountText}` for a step with a code |

The preview fills in an example order, and you can send a test to yourself. A variable the email doesn't know is refused when you save, so a customer never sees `{something}` in an email.

To start again, reset an email to Commerce Orbit's own wording.

## Languages

Commerce Orbit's own wording comes in English, Norwegian and German. For another language you sell in, choose it in the language picker on **Email templates** and write the translation. Anything not translated goes out in your main language. Each email goes out in the language the customer used when they ordered. See [Languages and currencies](https://docs.bifrostorbit.com/commerce/everyone/languages-and-currencies/).

## Your own templates

Add your own templates for emails your team sends by hand, such as a thank-you note or a question about an order. One, **Thank you note**, comes ready. On an order, select **Email the customer**, choose the template and send it: it fills in the order and the customer, and `{senderName}` with your name. The order's history records it.

Your own templates can go in the [bin](https://docs.bifrostorbit.com/commerce/everyone/bin/) and come back from it. The emails Commerce Orbit sends itself can't, only be changed.

## Who it comes from

Emails come from your shop name and an address on Commerce Orbit's own mail domain, made from your shop address. To send from your own domain instead, such as `Northwilds <orders@northwilds.com>`, open **Email sending** under Settings. Admins set it up in three steps:

1. **Choose the address:** the part before the @, such as `orders`, and your domain, such as `northwilds.com`.
2. **Add the DNS records** shown, wherever your domain's DNS is managed. If your DNS is at Cloudflare, Commerce Orbit can add them for you with a token you create there; the token is used once and never stored.
3. **Check:** Commerce Orbit checks by itself regularly, or check straight away. Records can take from minutes to hours to be found.

Once the domain shows **Verified**, every email to customers comes from your address. If it stops being verified, emails go back to Commerce Orbit's address by themselves.

### A domain you already use in Travel Orbit or Careers Orbit

A sending domain is set up once for your whole organisation. If you already send from northwilds.com in Travel Orbit or Careers Orbit, **Email sending** offers it: choose the part before the @ and use it, with no DNS records to add. Stopping it here leaves it working in the other satellites, so keep its DNS records in place.

## Emails to your team

Your team gets notifications by email, such as new orders and MAM problems. Each person chooses which. See [Notifications](https://docs.bifrostorbit.com/commerce/everyone/notifications/).