Send an Email When a WooCommerce Order Status Changes

Want customers or staff emailed the moment a WooCommerce order changes status? Zapify sends the email for you. Pair the free An order changes status trigger with the free Send an email action, and every time an order moves to (or from) a status you choose, Zapify sends a message you have written. No code, and both the trigger and the action ship in the free plugin.

What this automation does

A Zapify automation is one or more triggers plus an ordered list of actions — "when this happens, do this." This one uses:

• Trigger: An order changes status (WC_ORDER_STATUS_CHANGED, WooCommerce)
• Action: Send an email (WP_SEND_EMAIL, WordPress)

When a WooCommerce order reaches the status you configured, Zapify sends the email you built, with live order details substituted in from tokens.

Build the automation

Step 1: Create a new automation

1. Go to Zapify → Automations in your WordPress admin.
2. Click Add New to open the builder.
3. Give the automation a clear name, such as Email customer when order is processing.

Step 2: Add the trigger

1. In the builder, add a trigger and choose the WooCommerce integration.
2. Select An order changes status.

Step 3: Choose which status change fires it

The trigger has two fields. Both default to Any, and setting them is part of the free trigger — this is not a paid condition.

Field	What it does	Default
New status	The status the order moves to that starts the automation.	Any
Previous status	The status the order moved from. Leave as Any unless the transition itself matters.	Any

To fire only on a specific transition — for example, an order moving from Processing to Completed — set Previous status to Processing and New status to Completed. Available statuses are Pending payment, Processing, On hold, Completed, Cancelled, Refunded, and Failed (plus any custom order statuses your store registers).

Step 4: Add the Send an email action

1. Below the trigger, add an action and choose the WordPress integration.
2. Select Send an email.

Step 5: Configure the email

Fill in the action fields. Use the token menu (the {} button beside a field) to insert live values from the order that triggered the automation.

Field	Notes
To	Recipient. Insert the Billing email token to email the customer, or type a fixed address to notify staff.
Subject	The email subject. Tokens are allowed.
Format	HTML (default) or Plain text.
Body	The message. Tokens are allowed.
Cc / Bcc	Optional extra recipients.
From name / From email / Reply to	Optional sender overrides.

Step 6: Set the steps Live and save

Each trigger and action has its own switch: Live, Off, or Draft. A new automation starts as a Draft and does nothing until its steps are Live.

1. Set the trigger and the action to Live.
2. Click Save.

Order tokens you can use in the email

The An order changes status trigger exposes these tokens for the To, Subject, and Body fields:

Token	Value
Order ID	Numeric order ID
Order number	The order number shown to customers
Order status	Current order status
Order total	Order total
Currency	Store currency
Order date	Date the order was placed
Payment method	Payment method used
Number of items	Item count
Items	Line items
Billing email	Customer billing email
Billing first name / last name	Customer name
Billing phone	Customer phone
Order admin link	Link to the order in wp-admin
Previous status	The status the order moved from
New status	The status the order moved to

Conclusion

With the free An order changes status trigger and the free Send an email action, Zapify keeps customers and staff informed on every status change automatically. To act on the order itself instead of emailing about it, see change an order status or add an order note when the status changes.

FAQs

Is sending an email on an order status change free in Zapify?

Yes. Both the An order changes status trigger and the Send an email action are free, and WooCommerce is a free Zapify integration. You can build and run this automation on the free plugin. Only automation-level Conditions — extra filtering beyond the trigger's own from/to status — require Zapify PRO.

How do I email the customer instead of an admin?

In the Send an email action, put the cursor in the To field and insert the Billing email token from the token menu. Zapify fills in that order's billing email at run time. To notify staff instead, type a fixed address, or add both by using the Cc or Bcc fields alongside the customer address.

Can I email only when an order becomes Completed?

Yes. In the trigger, set New status to Completed. To restrict it further to a specific transition — such as Processing to Completed — also set Previous status to Processing. Both fields are part of the free trigger, so this narrowing does not require PRO.

Why didn't the email send when I changed the order status?

Check that both the trigger and the Send an email action are set to Live (a Draft automation never runs), that the order's new status matches the trigger's New status, and that WordPress can send mail on your server. Zapify logs every run, so open Zapify → Logs to see whether the automation fired.

Can I include order details like the total or items in the email?

Yes. The trigger exposes tokens for Order number, Order total, Currency, Items, Number of items, Billing name, and more. Insert them into the Subject or Body with the token menu, and Zapify replaces each with the real value from the order that triggered the automation.

Do I need to write any code?

No. The trigger, the action, and their fields are all configured visually in the Zapify builder. WooCommerce and Zapify handle the rest once the steps are Live.