The emails your shop sends, rewritten in your voice
The emails a shop sends and what each must contain by law, from the order confirmation to the refund, with before-and-after rewrites, subject lines, and how to send them from your own domain so replies reach you. Checked 9 November 2026.
This is for the shop owner who reads their own order confirmation and winces because a machine wrote it. By the end you will know which emails a shop sends, what the confirmation must contain by law, how to rewrite the five emails customers read, and how to send them from your own domain so replies reach you. Disclosure: we build Orbit Commerce, so weigh the Orbit parts accordingly. Every rule below was checked against its source on 9 November 2026.
In short
- Confirm every order by email no later than delivery, with the Schedule 2 information unless you gave it before the sale.
- Order emails are service messages; add an offer and they become marketing, which needs consent and an unsubscribe.
- Say what happened, what happens next and when, and how to reach a person.
- Google requires SPF or DKIM from every sender; the NCSC says publish all three, starting DMARC at “none”.
- Only VAT-registered shops send VAT invoices, and only VAT-registered customers must get one.
Which emails does an online shop send?
On most platforms, including ours, every email in this table goes out automatically except the delay notice.
| Moment | What the customer needs to know | Sent |
|---|---|---|
| Order placed | Items, total, address, arrival date, how to cancel | Automatically |
| Payment failed or expired | What went wrong, how to pay again | Automatically |
| Shipped and tracking | Carrier, tracking number, expected day | Automatically |
| Delay | What is late, the new date, a refund offer | By hand |
| Cancelled or refunded | Amount, where it goes, roughly when | Automatically |
| Return requested, approved, completed, declined | Next step, the address, when the refund lands | Automatically |
| Welcome, verification, password reset | One link, one job | Automatically |
| Digital delivery | Download links or licence key | Automatically |
| Subscription changes, renewal reminder | What changed, next date, how to stop | Automatically |
| Gift card received | Code, balance, the sender’s message | Automatically |
| Booking confirmed, changed or cancelled | Time, place, a calendar file | Automatically |
| Abandoned basket | One reminder with a way back | Automatically |
What must the order confirmation contain by law?
Regulation 16 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 requires confirmation of the contract on a durable medium, which regulation 5 says includes email. It must arrive within a reasonable time and no later than delivery of the goods or the start of a service, and carry the Schedule 2 information unless you gave it on a durable medium before the sale (read 9 November 2026). Regulation 11 of the Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 adds that a web order must be acknowledged “without undue delay and by electronic means”. One email does both.
The Schedule 2 list is long; what matters in the confirmation itself:
- Your trading name, geographical address and email address; the total price including taxes and delivery; and the time by which you undertake to deliver.
- The right to cancel, with its time limit and procedure and who pays return postage, or the fact that no right exists; and a reminder of your legal duty to supply goods that conform to the contract.
Repeat the cancellation terms in the confirmation: it avoids the 12-month trap explained in our post on returns law. Regulation 6 of the Electronic Commerce Regulations wants every online business to show its name, geographic address, email and VAT number if it has one. A limited company must also show its registered name, number, registered office and where it is registered on business letters, order forms and websites (the 2015 trading disclosure rules). Treat an order email as a business letter.
The VAT invoice
Skip this unless you are VAT registered. Section 16 of VAT Notice 700 (read 9 November 2026) says you must give a VAT invoice to a VAT-registered customer for standard or reduced-rated supplies, normally within 30 days of the tax point, and need not issue one to customers who are not registered. For £250 or less a simplified invoice will do, and section 17.7 accepts electronic invoices. On Orbit a VAT-registered shop has the VAT invoice emailed the moment payment is captured.
How do you write an order email that sounds like you?
- The first line says what happened. “We have your order and your payment went through”, not “Thank you for choosing us”.
- One email, one job. The confirmation confirms; it does not sell, survey or ask for a review.
- Say what happens next, and when. A day, not “in due course”, and one you can keep.
- Write as a person and sign with a name. “Your parcel left this morning” beats “your order has been dispatched”.
- Keep the facts in a block: order number, items, total, address, tracking.
- Make replying the obvious next step, which means sending from an address you read.
And cut the stock phrases: “Dear valued customer”, “please do not reply to this email”, “we apologise for any inconvenience caused”, “your order is being processed” and “please allow 5 to 10 business days”, the robot’s favourite number.
Before and after: five emails rewritten
The shop is made up. The words in double braces, such as {{customerName}}, are fields Orbit fills in from the order.
The order confirmation
Before: Dear Customer, your order #1048 has been received and is being processed. Please do not reply to this email.
After: Hi {{customerName}}, we have your order #{{orderNumber}} and your payment went through. It leaves tomorrow and Royal Mail Tracked 48 usually takes two or three working days. Check the details below; if anything is wrong, reply and I will fix it before it goes. Your cancellation rights are at the bottom. Jo, {{storeName}}.
The shipped email
Before: Your order has been dispatched. Tracking number: AB123456789GB. Please allow 3 to 5 working days.
After: Hi {{customerName}}, order #{{orderNumber}} is on its way. {{carrierName}} has it, the tracking number is {{trackingNumber}}, and the tracking page is one tap below. Nothing by Friday? Reply and we will chase it.
The delay email, written by hand
Before: We regret to inform you that your order has been delayed due to unforeseen circumstances.
After: Hi Sam, I am sorry: the green mug in your order #1052 has not come back from the kiln, so I cannot post it on Thursday as promised. It is now due on Tuesday 17 November and I will send it that day. If that is too late, reply and I will refund the whole order today. Jo.
Section 28 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (read 9 November 2026): with no agreed time you must deliver within 30 days, and a customer kept waiting can set a new deadline and then end the contract. Name a date and offer the refund first.
The refund email
Before: A refund has been processed for order #1052. Please allow 5 to 10 business days.
After: Hi Sam, your refund of {{refundAmountFormatted}} for order #{{orderNumber}} is on its way back to the card you paid with. We sent it today; banks usually show it within a few working days. Sorry it did not work out. Questions? Just reply.
Regulation 34 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations: the refund goes back by the same means of payment, with no fee, within 14 days of the goods coming back or of proof of posting. Never promise the bank’s timing as your own.
The return approved email
Before: Your return request #R-204 has been approved. Items must be unused and in original packaging.
After: Hi Sam, your return #{{returnNumber}} is approved. Wrap the mug well, put it in any box, stick the label below on it and drop it at a Post Office within 14 days. We refund it and your original standard delivery charge to the card you paid with, within 14 days of it arriving back or of your proof of posting, so keep that proof.
Return postage is the customer’s only if you said so before they bought, and the original delivery charge is refunded up to your cheapest standard rate. Our shipping post covers which services suit returns.
Order email subject lines that get opened and found again
The default subject on most platforms is a label and a number, “Order Confirmation - #1048”. It is dull but searchable, because customers hunting for an order type the number. Keep the number and the event, then add the voice:
- “Order Confirmation - #1048” becomes “Got it: your order #1048 from Hollow Tree Pottery”.
- “Order Shipped - #1048” becomes “Your mugs left this morning (order #1048)”.
Keep it short enough to show whole on a phone, use your shop’s name as the sender rather than “noreply”, and mind the preview line: most inboxes show the first sentence under the subject, so make it say something.
How do you send shop emails from your own domain?
Three kinds of DNS record (settings on your domain) do the work, and the NCSC’s email security guidance (read 9 November 2026) explains them. SPF publishes the servers trusted to send for your domain. DKIM lets a sender “cryptographically sign email you send to show it’s from your domain”, against a key in your DNS. DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails both, and sends you reports. The NCSC says start DMARC at “none”, which “does not interfere with your email traffic in any way” while the reports show whether SPF and DKIM are right.
Google’s sender guidelines (read 9 November 2026) have required every sender to Gmail since 1 February 2024 to authenticate with SPF or DKIM, use TLS and keep the reported spam rate below 0.3%. Senders of 5,000 messages a day or more also need both SPF and DKIM, a DMARC record (none is enough), an aligned From address and one-click unsubscribe on marketing mail. Unauthenticated mail is what lands in spam.
On Orbit the set-up is the Branding tab of Email Notifications: enter the Sender Name and a Sender Email Address at your domain, add the three DKIM CNAME records Orbit shows you, then press Check verification. DNS changes can take up to 72 hours; until the domain is verified the emails go out from Orbit’s address. Once it is, your order, payment, refund, return, subscription, gift card and digital emails go out from your address and replies come straight to you. SPF for your mailbox provider and a DMARC record are yours to publish.
What should never go in a transactional email?
An offer. Regulation 22 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (as amended on 5 February 2026, read 9 November 2026) bans unsolicited marketing email to individuals without prior consent. The soft opt-in needs an address collected during a sale or negotiations for one, your own similar products only, and a simple, free way to refuse at the time and in every message since. The ICO adds that you must not disguise who you are and must give a valid opt-out address, and says its guidance is under review after the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.
The ICO’s page on identifying direct marketing (updated 20 August 2025) settles it. Administrative and customer service messages are not direct marketing, and general branding or logos do not change that. But a service message that “has elements that are direct marketing, even if that is not the main purpose” counts. So your logo, colours and a link to your shop are fine; “20% off your next order” is marketing, and a confirmation with no unsubscribe link fails the soft opt-in’s own condition. Keep offers in a tool built for them.
How do you test the emails before a customer sees them?
- Preview every template with sample data on desktop and mobile and look for the empty field.
- Send a test to yourself and open it on your phone first: is the subject whole, does the first line say something, can you read the total without zooming? Reply to it: does the reply reach an inbox you read? Then read the footer as a stranger.
- Place a real order on your own shop and follow the chain: confirmation, shipped, refund. Repeat after any change to a template, and once a quarter anyway: the checkout you launched is not the checkout you have, as our checkout post says.
On Orbit the preview shows unsaved changes with sample order data, and Send test sends the template as last saved, so save first.
Where Orbit fits
The customer email templates are included on every plan, from Solo at £25 a month (£19 a month billed yearly, ex VAT). The set covers the order, payment and refund emails, the account emails, the return emails, digital delivery, the subscription emails including an optional upcoming renewal reminder sent a set number of days ahead, the gift card email and the booking confirmed, changed and cancelled emails. It also covers the team notifications for new orders, payments, returns and security alerts, routed by category to the store owner or the addresses you add.
Every template opens in the same editor. Change a block’s words, image, colours, font or spacing, or rework the layout in the HTML tab, then preview on desktop and mobile with sample data. An edited template carries a Customised badge, and Reset puts the default back. Your store name, logo and primary colour apply to every template from the Branding tab. Nebula, Orbit’s dashboard assistant, can draft a template or a warmer subject line for you to check before saving.
The abandoned basket reminder is one of the templates, sent once per basket on the delay you choose (see the guide); returns run through the returns workflow; and the booking emails are covered in how to sell services online. Newsletters and marketing campaigns run through the Mailchimp or Omnisend sync plugin, which keeps contacts and marketing consent in step with your store. To ask for a review, add a line to the Order Shipped template, or the Workflows plugin can send a templated email on a fulfilment trigger.
Read next: fifteen shop jobs you can stop doing by hand, popups and banners that do not cost you customers and live chat for a one-person shop.
Questions people ask about shop emails
Does an online shop have to send an order confirmation email?
Yes. Regulation 16 of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 requires confirmation on a durable medium, which includes email, no later than delivery of the goods or the start of a service. Regulation 11 of the Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 requires a web order to be acknowledged without undue delay by electronic means.
What must an order confirmation email include?
The Schedule 2 information, unless you gave all of it on a durable medium before the sale. That means your trading name, address and email, the total price including taxes and delivery, how and when you will deliver, the right to cancel and who pays return postage, and a reminder of your duty to supply conforming goods.
Can I put a discount code or an offer in my order emails?
Not safely. The ICO says a service message with elements of direct marketing counts as direct marketing even if that is not its main purpose, and marketing email needs consent or the soft opt-in, which requires an opt-out in every message. A confirmation has no unsubscribe link, so it fails that test.
Do I need SPF, DKIM and DMARC for a small shop?
Yes. Google has required every sender to Gmail to authenticate with SPF or DKIM since 1 February 2024, and the NCSC advises publishing all three, starting DMARC at a policy of none. On Orbit the three records you add are DKIM records for your domain; SPF and DMARC are yours to publish.
Do I have to send a VAT invoice with every order?
Only if you are VAT registered, and only to VAT-registered customers for standard or reduced-rated supplies, normally within 30 days of the tax point; you need not issue one to customers who are not registered. For £250 or less a simplified invoice is enough, and electronic invoices are acceptable.
To see your own words on your next order confirmation, the 14-day free trial, no card required, includes the template editor, the test sends and the sender domain.