Order Confirmation Email Template and What to Include

An order confirmation email tells a customer their order reached your store, shows what they bought and explains when to expect it. Put the order number and payment status near the top. The customer must be able to tell whether they need to do anything else before you dispatch.

Use the template below for paid, in-stock orders, then change the delivery lines for pre-orders or collection. Keep payment-pending orders on a separate version so a received order never looks like a completed payment.

What an Order Confirmation Email Must Contain

A useful order confirmation gives the customer enough detail to recognise the purchase and spot a mistake before dispatch. Include these fields.

• Your store name, order number and order date.
• Payment status, with any outstanding amount or action stated plainly.
• Each item’s name, thumbnail, size or colour, quantity and line total.
• Discounts, shipping charge and final total, with currency and goods and services tax (GST) shown correctly.
• The delivery address or collection location.
• Dispatch timing and the estimated delivery window.
• A secure order-status link, shipping policy and a working help contact.

Use a subject such as “Order {order_number} confirmed - {store_name}”. A shopper scanning their inbox can recognise the receipt immediately. That reduces the uncertainty that can lead them to place the same order again. “Thanks for shopping” alone leaves the order’s status unclear.

Order Confirmation Email Template

Use this template for an order whose payment has completed. Replace the brace-delimited fields with your platform’s order variables. Repeat the item line for every product and place its thumbnail beside the details in the HTML version.

Subject: Order {order_number} confirmed - {store_name}
Preview text: We’ve received your order. Dispatch within {dispatch_window}.

Hi {customer_first_name},

Thanks for your order. Your payment is complete and we’re preparing it.

Order number: {order_number}
Order placed: {order_date}

Your order
{product_name} | {size_and_colour} | Quantity: {quantity}
Item total: {line_total}

Subtotal: {subtotal}
Discount: {discount_amount}
Shipping: {shipping_charge}
Total paid: {total_paid} AUD
GST included: {gst_amount}

Delivering to
{recipient_name}
{delivery_address}

We expect to dispatch within {dispatch_window}.
Estimated delivery: {delivery_window} after dispatch.
We’ll send your tracking link when your parcel leaves us.

View your order: {secure_order_status_url}
Shipping information: {shipping_policy_url}

Need help or spotted an address mistake?
Reply to this email or contact {support_email}.
Include your order number so we can find your purchase.

{store_name}

Remove the GST-included line if it doesn’t match your tax treatment. Display payment pending and the payment instructions when funds haven’t cleared. Never populate “Total paid” with an unpaid order balance.

For a pre-order, replace both timing lines with “This is a pre-order. Expected dispatch: {expected_dispatch_date}. Estimated delivery: {delivery_window} after dispatch.” For a backorder, identify the affected item and state its expected dispatch separately from items available now. Explain whether you’ll send the order together or in separate parcels.

For click and collect, replace the address and delivery lines with the collection location and “We’ll send a ready-for-collection message before you visit.” Include opening hours and what the customer must bring. A confirmed order alone doesn’t mean it is ready to collect.

Editing Shopify and WooCommerce emails

You need access to notification settings and a saved copy of the existing template before changing it. Preserve the platform’s item loops and tax calculations when adding your wording.

1. In Shopify, open Settings > Notifications > Customer notifications > Order confirmation.
2. Select Edit code to change the email subject and HTML/Liquid body. The notification template is kept here, separately from your storefront theme.
3. Preview the result and send a test email before saving the final version.

In WooCommerce, open WooCommerce > Settings > Emails. Select Manage beside the customer’s Processing order email for paid orders awaiting fulfilment. New order is the staff notification. An unpaid order can need the customer’s On-hold email instead.

Change the subject, heading and additional content in the email settings. Shared appearance controls sit in Email Template. For custom PHP changes, WooCommerce’s developer guidance uses a child-theme override, such as woocommerce/emails/customer-processing-order.php, copied from the plugin’s templates/emails/ directory. Keep overrides updated when WooCommerce changes its templates.

Sending one confirmation with Klaviyo

Adding Klaviyo doesn’t automatically stop Shopify’s receipt. Klaviyo’s notification guide says to disable an overlapping notification immediately before enabling its replacement flow.

For a Shopify Plus store, the owner can ask Shopify Support to disable the order confirmation notification. First prepare the Klaviyo order-triggered email, request transactional status for copy without marketing and test its order data. Coordinate the switch so there’s always one working sender, then place a test order and confirm one receipt arrives.

On other Shopify plans, keep Shopify sending the confirmation and leave the duplicate Klaviyo confirmation flow off. You can design a Shopify notification in Klaviyo, export its HTML and paste it into Shopify’s notification editor. Shopify still sends that email. A toggle for another notification doesn’t establish that the core confirmation can be disabled.

Order confirmation email design example

Picture a narrow email with a small store logo followed by “Order received”, the order number and payment status. Product thumbnails sit beside item names and variants. Totals follow the items, then the delivery address and dispatch estimate. A single “View your order” button leads to the secure status page, with help details beneath it.

Keep that order summary above any promotional content. The receipt must remain readable with images blocked, so item names and totals stay as text. The simplest transactional design leaves promotions out entirely. ACMA’s guidance on messages containing ads explains that promotional content in a service message can bring it under spam rules. Obtain marketing consent and provide sender details and an unsubscribe option when those rules apply.

Shopify SMS order confirmations

Shopify supports native SMS order confirmations for stores with an Australian business address. Under Settings > Checkout > Customer contact method, Phone number or email permits a phone-number checkout. Shopify sends one confirmation text only when the customer has no email address on their profile. Otherwise it sends email.

The native text is fixed. Customer and order details update automatically, and the confirmation links to the checkout’s thank-you page. It can’t hold your custom receipt layout or be edited into a promotional message. A transactional SMS app is needed for custom text or further order updates.

Explain at checkout that the phone number is used for order notifications. Keep that purpose separate from the SMS marketing opt-in. A purchase or phone number alone isn’t permission to send promotions. For app-based messages, capture the required order-update consent and retain the record before sending. ACMA’s consent guidance covers commercial messages.

Tax Invoice Details

An order confirmation can also be a tax invoice if a GST-registered seller includes the required information. Calling the email a tax invoice doesn’t make an incomplete receipt compliant.

The Australian Taxation Office’s tax invoice requirements require the document to identify its tax-invoice purpose and seller. Include the seller’s Australian business number (ABN), issue date and item descriptions, with quantity where applicable and prices. Show the GST amount and which supplies are taxable. For sales of $1,000 or more, also include the buyer’s identity or ABN.

When GST is exactly one-eleventh of the total price, the ATO permits a statement that the total includes GST. Mixed taxable and GST-free orders need their actual tax treatment shown. Use the platform’s calculated amounts, not a blanket division of every order total.

If the confirmation lacks those details, prepare a separate invoice. In Shopify’s Order Printer app, edit the Invoice template to include your business and tax details. Select the order, produce the invoice and save it as a PDF through the print dialog. Send that document to the customer through your support email. An invoice requesting payment and a receipt confirming payment must show the correct status.

For warranty or refund claims, a proof of purchase receipt identifies the business and its ABN or Australian company number (ACN). It also shows the product or service, supply date and price. The ACCC’s receipt guidance recognises digital receipts and other proof, including card statements. Don’t make possession of the original email the only route to a claim.

Setting Delivery Expectations Early

State dispatch timing separately from delivery time. Dispatch describes when the warehouse hands the parcel to the carrier. Delivery estimates describe the journey after that handover.

For example, an in-stock order might say “Dispatch within two business days. Estimated delivery three to five business days after dispatch.” This is an illustrative promise, not a standard to copy. Use the warehouse’s actual capacity and the carrier service available to that postcode.

If you provide a dispatch date, populate the date field from the order’s fulfilment estimate. Change it when a pre-order or backorder has different timing. Tell customers how you’ll contact them if that estimate changes.

Link the email to your order tracking page and current shipping terms. Use the shipping policy template to organise those terms without copying the full policy into every receipt. The guide to post-purchase emails covers the messages that follow dispatch and delivery.

Testing the Email Before It Goes Live

Place test orders in your platform’s test environment and inspect the messages that actually arrive. An editor preview alone won’t show whether the right notification fires.

1. Test a paid order with multiple variants, a discount and a shipping charge. Match every line total and GST figure to the order record.
2. Test an unpaid order and each special order type you sell. Confirm payment wording and delivery or collection instructions match the order’s status.
3. Open the received emails on a phone and desktop, including the email apps your customers use. Check item names and totals with images blocked.
4. Follow the secure order link, shipping policy and help link. Confirm the order link opens the correct order and the reply address reaches your team.
5. Check the subject and preview text in the inbox. Confirm exactly one initial receipt arrives, including after a Klaviyo changeover.

A blank variant, wrong GST amount or duplicate receipt is a reason to fix the relevant template or sender setup before enabling it for customers.

When Confirmation Emails Land in Spam

Start by checking the email address and the sending log. A typo or unsent notification needs a different fix from a message that reached the junk folder.

For your own sending domain, configure Sender Policy Framework (SPF) to authorise your email provider. DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signs outgoing messages. Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) checks authentication against the visible From domain and defines how failures are handled. Follow your sender’s domain-authentication instructions so the records cover the service actually sending receipts.

Google’s email sender guidelines explain authentication requirements. Use a From name shoppers recognise and a monitored address on your store’s domain. Large promotional banners, image-only receipts and link shorteners can increase filtering risk. Keep the receipt focused on the order and use direct links to your site.

Run a free email deliverability test with mail-tester. Copy its generated test address and send a test receipt through your real notification sender, using fictional customer data. Open the result and read the spam score, authentication results and flagged links. Correct the records or content it identifies, then repeat the test. A clean score doesn’t guarantee inbox placement, so also inspect delivery to ordinary customer email services.

Give shoppers a recovery route on your site. Prompt them to check their junk folder, verify the checkout email address and contact you for a resend. Let them view the secure order-status page without depending on the missing receipt.

shoppa’s on-site AI shopping agent helps customers find and compare your products and buy in the chat, using your catalogue and policies. It also checks order status by order number, while signed-in customers can see their orders across devices. Route unresolved access or email problems to a person so the customer gets confirmation without placing another order.