How to write better WooCommerce welcome emails in 2025

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Your WooCommerce welcome email delivers whatever your customers signed up for — the discount code, free shipping, or exclusives that convinced them to share their email addresses.

A welcome series expands this initial touchpoint into multiple emails that nurture and encourage engagement. You might start with your founding story, follow up with customer reviews, and then share your best-kept shopping secrets.

Getting these emails right means nailing the basics — subject lines people open, messages that have value, and descriptive call to action (CTA) buttons.

Continue reading to discover why welcome email automation improves retention, how to create messages that convert, and ways to track your success.

Why your WooCommerce welcome email is key to customer retention

Customer retention starts the moment someone subscribes. That first email sets expectations, delivers value, and shows subscribers what they can expect from your brand moving forward.

Welcome emails have high engagement metrics because your new subscribers just handed over their email addresses — they’re actively interested right now.

In 2024, welcome messages were responsible for 87% of all automated orders alongside abandoned carts and browse abandonment emails.

Additionally, the average open rate of a welcome email was 34.79%, and the click-to-conversion rate stood higher than all other automations at 58.26%.

The retention multiplier effect

One welcome email can increase customer lifetime value (LTV) through a chain reaction:

• Subscribers who open your welcome email are more likely to open additional messages
• Multiple opens lead to site visits and browsing
• Browsers eventually become buyers
• First-time buyers often become repeat customers

Each step builds on the last to improve customer retention. Miss that first welcome email, and you’ll find it harder to grab their attention later.

The money impact is real, too — subscribers who engage with your emails from the start tend to place bigger orders and shop more often than those who never really connect.

Why single welcome emails aren’t enough

Here’s what happens without welcome emails: subscribers sign up, hear nothing, and forget about you. When your first campaign finally arrives weeks later, they don’t remember subscribing. Some might mark you as spam or ignore every message.

A welcome series fixes this problem:

• The first email confirms their subscription when interest is at its peak
• Additional emails keep you top-of-mind during those crucial early days

The best part? Once your series is live, it runs itself. New subscribers get their welcome sequence whether they sign up at midnight on Christmas or during your busiest sale day. No manual sending, no missed opportunities.

How to create welcome emails that drive results

Your welcome emails should have descriptive subject lines, templates that match your site branding, and high-quality content. They should also reward your customers or deliver on the promise that made them sign up in the first place.

Let’s take a look at some of the best practices to create engaging WooCommerce automated emails.

Appropriate timing

Send welcome emails immediately. Someone subscribing expects to find your message in their inbox right away. Make them wait, and they lose interest, forget they signed up, or assume something went wrong.

The dropoff is severe. Welcome emails sent within an hour see much higher engagement than those delayed by even a day. After 48 hours, most subscribers have mentally moved on.

Omnisend lets you trigger your welcome automation instantly. Weekend signups, midnight subscribers, and international customers should all receive the same immediate response.

Subject lines

Your welcome subject lines should lead with value, not your brand name. If someone just subscribed for 15% off, your subject line should mention that discount. If they signed up for exclusive content, reference what they’ll find inside. Here are some examples:

• Delivering the promise — “Your 15% discount code”
• Adding personalization — “Sarah, welcome to [Brand]”
• Sparking curiosity — “The thing our customers love most”

Mobile devices truncate subject lines around 30-40 characters. Put your key message first and use Omnisend’s subject line generator if you’re short on ideas.

Personalization and segmentation

Segmentation divides your list based on behavior and characteristics. Someone who subscribes from a blog post goes into a different segment than someone who signs up at checkout. Each group receives tailored welcome messages.

Key segments to create:

• New subscribers vs existing customers
• By signup source (homepage, checkout, blog)
• By browsing categories or products
• By geographic location

Within each segment, personalize further. For instance, you could use browsed products for recommendations and reference their location for shipping times.

Omnisend has pre-built segments to help you group customers by demographics, behavior, orders, and more. You can even generate a custom segment with AI:

High-converting content

Your welcome email needs structure, but not a rigid template. Start by acknowledging your customer’s subscription — keep it brief. Then, deliver what they came for.

If they signed up for 20% off, that code should jump off the page. Make it huge. Make it bold. Make it impossible to miss.

Pick one thing you want them to do next. Browse bestsellers? Read your blog? Join your VIP group? One button performs better than three.

Give subscribers other ways to connect. Drop your Instagram handle and mention your SMS list. Some people prefer different channels, so let them choose and create segments for those preferences.

Social proof

Numbers like “10,000 happy customers” mean more than empty claims. Trustpilot ratings and verified reviews show real people trust you. If Forbes, BuzzFeed, or trade publications featured your brand, those logos belong in your email.

A good example comes from hotel bookings retailer ResortPass — its welcome email includes press logos and a star rating next to its app section:

Purchase policies matter, too. New subscribers scan for return windows, free shipping minimums, and money-back guarantees before buying, so add them to your email.

Want to know what subscribers want? You can send an email asking how they found you or what products interest them most. Their answers tell you what to send next instead of guessing what might work.

Design and brand consistency

Your emails should look like they came from your website — same colors, same fonts, same feel. It isn’t about being fancy. It’s about being recognizable.

For example, Maeve Chocolate’s welcome email matches its website design with bold colors, fonts, and a blocky layout. Check it out:

Now, let’s look at the company’s website:

See the resemblance? Maeve’s customers receive a welcome email that matches its website, creating a cohesive experience.

It’s also crucial to put offers in text, not images, because that gorgeous hero image might never load while your discount code needs to. Design for phones first since most people check email there, which means one column, readable text, and tappable buttons.

Test everything before launching. Send yourself the email and open it everywhere — your phone, Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail. Each one displays emails differently, so check them all and fix whatever looks broken.

Here’s a table showing each element of a welcome email, its purpose, and best practices:

How to automate your WooCommerce welcome email

WooCommerce’s default emails are suitable for orders but not for marketing. They confirm purchases but can’t nurture subscribers or track who opens what. You’re stuck with basic templates and zero automation options.

Why WooCommerce alone isn’t enough

The problems run deep. You get no behavioral triggers, meaning someone who subscribes via your blog popup receives the same message as someone who signed up during checkout.

Analytics? Forget it. You won’t know if anyone even opened your email. Want to test different subject lines? Not happening. Need to send follow-up messages? You’ll be doing it manually.

Your automation options

Multiple email marketing platforms will integrate with your WooCommerce store and provide email automations, including welcome series.

Here’s a quick overview of some of the best WooCommerce email tools:

Why Omnisend works for WooCommerce stores

Omnisend syncs your WooCommerce store with a single plugin. Products, customers, and orders flow automatically. It comes with pre-built welcome series templates designed for ecommerce — customize the content, and you’re good to go.

Add as many emails as you want to your welcome series, with delays between each message. You can also drop an SMS or push notification into your flow.

You manage your email marketing via an external dashboard, so you’re not limited by WordPress or constrained by website updates. It’s intuitive and provides high-quality documentation and videos to help you get started.

AutomateWoo’s hidden drawback

AutomateWoo seems appealing — it is embedded into WordPress, so everything stays in one dashboard. But your server processes every email, every automation rule, and every subscriber action. The result? Potential for slowdown.

During Black Friday sales or viral campaigns, your site might slow to a crawl while processing welcome emails. Cloud platforms, such as Omnisend, handle this load externally. You can run an external tool without worrying about bottlenecks.

Getting started with Omnisend

Follow these steps to set up your welcome email automation:

Step 1 — Install the plugin and create your account

• In WordPress admin, go to Plugins > Add Plugin
• Search for “Omnisend for WooCommerce”
• Click Install Now, then Activate

• Choose to create a new account or connect an existing one
• Approve the connection request when prompted

Step 2 — Build your welcome series

• Log in to Omnisend
• Go to Automations in the sidebar
• Click + Create Workflow
• Find the Welcome Series workflow and click Customize workflow:

• You’ll see the visual workflow builder with drag-and-drop elements

Step 3 — Customize your emails

• Click the first email block to edit:

• Add your subject line, preheader, and sender’s name:

• Scroll down to reveal the email content — click Edit content:

• Match the design to your brand
• Click Finish editing when done
• Repeat for additional emails in your series

Step 4 — Set timing and triggers

• Adjust delays between emails (typically one to three days)
• Click on your flow’s Trigger settings to add filters:

Step 5 — Test and activate

• Send test emails to yourself
• Check rendering on mobile devices
• Verify all links work correctly
• Click Start workflow to activate
• Your welcome series now runs automatically for every new subscriber

Using personalization and segmentation to increase engagement

Personalization can go way beyond your customer’s name, provided your email marketing tool can access purchase data, browsing behavior, and signup context to create messages that matter to each person.

Let’s run through some personalization tactics you can use for your welcome series:

Basic personalization tactics

Start with what you know:

• Use their name in subject lines and greetings
• Reference their last purchase in follow-up emails
• Show products from categories they’ve browsed
• Mention their location for shipping times or local events
• Include their loyalty points balance or VIP status

Advanced personalization with dynamic content

Dynamic product recommendations change everything. Instead of showing the same bestsellers to everyone, display:

• Items frequently bought with their last purchase
• Products in their abandoned cart
• New arrivals in categories they browse
• Items similar to what they’ve viewed
• Restocks of previously purchased items

Segmentation strategies that work

Create separate welcome paths for different subscriber types:

New subscribers (no purchase history)

• Focus on bestsellers and customer favorites
• Include first-purchase incentives
• Share your brand story and values
• Highlight product categories

Existing customers who subscribe

• Skip the introduction
• Show products complementing past purchases
• Offer loyalty rewards
• Focus on new arrivals and exclusive access

Zero-party data collection

Zero-party data is the data that your customers share with you, such as:

• Product preferences
• Birthday dates for special offers
• Size preferences for clothing stores
• Interests for content personalization

Omnisend’s pre-built segments make this easy. Use templates like “Window shoppers” for browse abandonment emails or “Deal hunters” for sale announcements. Each segment receives content matched to their behavior, increasing opens compared to generic welcome messages.

See this video for more ideas:

Tracking results and tackling email challenges

Your welcome emails are working — but how well? Measuring performance tells you whether subscribers buy, stick around, and spend more over time. Without tracking, you’re guessing at what works and can’t calculate your return on investment (ROI).

Metrics that matter

Track these numbers for your welcome series:

• Open rate: Shows if your subject lines work (aim for 50%+)
• Click rate: Reveals if your content engages (target 15-20%)
• Conversion rate: Measures how many subscribers become customers
• Average order value: Tracks spending per purchase from welcome emails
• Lifetime value: Shows the long-term impact of welcome series engagement
• Unsubscribe rate: Flags content or frequency problems (keep under 0.5%)

Finding your data

Omnisend puts all welcome series metrics in one place. Head to Reports > Automation to see opens, clicks, and revenue. Compare different emails to spot winners and losers.

UTM parameters turn basic tracking into complete journey mapping. Tag your links to see which welcome emails drive first purchases, repeat visits, or high-value orders in Google Analytics.

Attribution windows matter — set them too long, and you’ll credit welcome emails for unrelated purchases. We recommend setting your window for seven days and taking it from there.

Common problems and fixes

Watch for these problems when sending welcome emails:

Low deliverability rates

Poor sender reputation or missing authentication causes emails to land in spam, and things can get so bad that you’ll see open rates below 10%, even with great subject lines.

The way around this is to authenticate your domain with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. You should also clean your list monthly to remove bounced addresses and inactive subscribers.

Poor engagement metrics

If every subscriber gets identical messages regardless of interests or behavior, then you can expect a lack of engagement.

Use dynamic content blocks in Omnisend. Show different products based on browsing history. Change discount offers based on customer status. Adjust messaging for signup source — blog readers need different content than checkout subscribers.

Incomplete revenue tracking

Standard analytics only show direct sales from email clicks, missing how welcome emails influence repeat purchases weeks or months later.

Look beyond immediate conversions when measuring revenue. Track whether welcome email recipients buy again within 90 days, compare total spending, and check customer lifetime value to see the full impact of your WooCommerce welcome email templates.

Testing for better results

A/B test one element at a time:

• Subject lines: Try benefit-focused vs curiosity-driven
• Send times: Morning vs evening, weekday vs weekend
• Content length: Short and punchy vs detailed and informative
• Discount amounts: 10% vs free shipping vs gift with purchase

Omnisend’s A/B testing lets you split traffic 50/50 or test with smaller segments first. Run tests for at least one thousand sends before declaring winners.

Build stronger relationships, one email at a time

Welcome emails create the foundation for profitable customer relationships. Get them right, and subscribers open future emails, buy more, and spend more. Get them wrong, and you’re just another ignored sender in a crowded inbox.

The path forward is clear — automated sequences that send instantly, content personalized to subscriber behavior, and matching offers and future communications to preferences.

WooCommerce’s basic emails won’t cut it. You need proper automation that segments, tests, and optimizes based on browsing and purchasing data.

Omnisend is the best WooCommerce email marketing tool to help you do just that. Plus, it lets you combine email with SMS and push notifications to cover your whole customer journey.

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