---
title: Easy Digital Downloads with Hive Mail
description: "What Hive Mail does when Easy Digital Downloads is active: Customers and Purchases tabs, the checkout sign-up box, triggers and rules."
url: "https://hiveplugins.com/docs/hive-mail-easy-digital-downloads/"
updated: "2026-10-28"
category: Hive Mail
---

# Easy Digital Downloads with Hive Mail

When Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is active, Hive Mail reads your purchases so segments, flows and reports can use what people bought, and your checkout gets an email sign-up box. The menu item appears only while EDD is active. The first time Hive Mail sees the shop it reads your existing purchases once, in the background. EDD has no abandoned carts, so there is no cart tab, rule or trigger, and EDD still sends its own receipt.

## The screen

Go to **Commerce > Easy Digital Downloads**. **Checkout box settings** opens [Easy Digital Downloads settings](/docs/hive-mail-settings-easy-digital-downloads/). The tabs are **Customers** and **Purchases**.

![The Easy Digital Downloads screen, Customers tab](https://hiveplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hivemail-shops-edd-customers-01.webp)

**Customers** works like the WooCommerce tab ([WooCommerce with Hive Mail](/docs/hive-mail-woocommerce/)): the cards **Customers**, **Purchases**, **Total spent**, **Also contacts**; a progress bar while old purchases are read; **Sort by** and **Search by name or email…**; and **Rebuild the customer list** (then **Rebuild**) for people who can change settings. A purchase counts when it is complete, partially refunded, revoked or a renewal (not "on hold"); **Total spent** is net of refunds and does not convert currencies.

**Purchases** shows one row per customer, their latest purchase, newest first. Every purchase, one by one, is on EDD's own Orders screen.

| Column | Shows |
| --- | --- |
| **Purchase** | The number, linking to EDD's order details. |
| **Date**, **Total** |  |
| **Customer** | As on the Customers tab. |
| **Status** | Complete, Partly refunded, Revoked or Renewal. |
| **Customer since** | A "First purchase" badge, or "{n} purchases · {total}" and "since {date}". |

![The Purchases tab: each customer's latest purchase with its status and the Customer since column](https://hiveplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hivemail-shops-edd-purchases-02.webp)

## The checkout sign-up box

A checkbox, default wording "Yes, send me news and offers by email", in the personal-information area of the EDD checkout. It is not shown to a logged-in customer who is already subscribed. Its settings (**Show an email sign-up box at checkout**, **Wording of the box**, **Add people who tick it to this list**) are in the settings page above.

Hive Mail draws the box unticked. Depending on your copy of Hive Mail, it may be ticked in advance when the cart total is above zero (a free cart is never ticked in advance); look at your own checkout to see which. The customer can always untick it. A tick is saved the same way however the box got ticked, because Hive Mail only sees the box as it was sent. A box ticked in advance is weaker proof of permission, and in many countries it does not count as permission at all: check your own rules. **This is information, not legal advice.**

When it is ticked:

- The person becomes a **subscribed** contact (a new contact is created subscribed; a pending or transactional one is upgraded). The consent source is `edd_checkout`; the time and exact wording are saved on the contact's timeline and the order, and the chosen list is joined.
- Nobody who unsubscribed, bounced or complained is subscribed again, and nobody on the do-not-email list is added.
- People who do not tick it are not subscribed.

Hive Mail adds suggested text to WordPress's privacy policy guide. **This is information, not legal advice.**

## Flow triggers

In the **Easy Digital Downloads** group of **What starts the flow**: a purchase is complete, a customer's first purchase, a purchase is refunded (**Only when the whole purchase is refunded**, on by default), a download is bought (**Download** or **Download category**; a bundle counts as the bundle). All have **Only purchases of at least (0 = any)** and **Add buyers who are not contacts yet**. Buyers who are not contacts become transactional contacts. A free download is a purchase of 0; enter 1 to leave those out. Details: [Triggers](/docs/hive-mail-triggers/).

## Rules and merge tags

The rule editor (Segments, **If**, **Goal**) has an **Easy Digital Downloads** group: **Purchases** (has ordered / has not ordered, ever or in the last N days), **Number of purchases**, **Total spent**, **Download** (bought / did not buy), **Download category**, **Last purchase date**.

Merge tags: `{{orders_count}}`, `{{total_spent}}`, `{{last_order_number}}`, `{{last_order_date}}`, `{{last_order_total}}`, `{{order_number}}`, `{{order_total}}`, `{{order_date}}`, `{{download_name}}` (the download the flow is about) and `{{download_names}}` (all downloads in the purchase). See [Merge tags and fallbacks](/docs/hive-mail-merge-tags-and-fallbacks/). The **First EDD purchase** recipe is a good start: [Automation recipes](/docs/hive-mail-automation-recipes/).

Next: [Reports and revenue attribution](/docs/hive-mail-reports-and-revenue/).