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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.

Reference4 min read

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

Order confirmed
Sent when
An order is paid by card.
Invoice
Sent when
A company orders on invoice terms. The invoice PDF is attached. It replaces the order confirmation.
Order shipped
Sent when
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
Sent when
You refund all or part of an order.
Order cancelled
Sent when
You cancel an order, unless you choose not to tell the customer.
Left in the cart
Sent when
A shopper typed their email and left without ordering. Sent at each step of your 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:

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

Some emails know more:

Order confirmed
Extra variables
{paymentNote}: how it was paid
Invoice
Extra variables
{invoiceNumber}, {dueDate}
Order shipped
Extra variables
{carrier}, {trackingNumber}, {trackingLink}
Refund
Extra variables
{amount}: the amount refunded
Order cancelled
Extra variables
{refundNote}: how much is on its way back, when you refunded
Left in the cart
Extra variables
{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.

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 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.

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OrdersHow an order moves from checkout to paid, sent and done, what each payment, sending and MAM status means, and how to find an order and read its history.Send orders and add trackingMark all or part of an order as sent, add the carrier and tracking, and choose whether the customer gets an email with the tracking link.Invoices and receiptsHow companies order on invoice, how invoice numbers and due dates work, what the PDF says, and how to mark an invoice as paid. Card orders get a receipt.The hosted shopCommerce Orbit gives every organisation a ready shop with product, collection, cart, checkout and order pages, in your languages and currencies. When to use it, and when to sell on your own website instead.Languages and currenciesSell in several languages and currencies, with your own price in each currency rather than a conversion, and translations of products, collections and emails.The binRestore products, collections, email templates and images moved to a shop's bin, or a whole shop from the organisation's Bin, and who can delete them for good.