---
title: WooCommerce with Hive Mail
description: "What Hive Mail does when WooCommerce is active: the Customers tab, the checkout sign-up box, shop rules, merge tags and flow triggers."
url: "https://hiveplugins.com/docs/hive-mail-woocommerce/"
updated: "2026-10-28"
category: Hive Mail
---

# WooCommerce with Hive Mail

When WooCommerce is active, Hive Mail reads your orders so segments, flows and reports can use what people bought, and your checkout gets an email sign-up box. The **WooCommerce** item in the menu appears only while WooCommerce is active. Hive Mail reads orders through WooCommerce's own code, never places or changes them (apart from order notes and a few sign-up box values), and sends no receipts: WooCommerce sends its own order emails. It reads your existing orders once, in the background, the first time it sees the shop.

## The Customers tab

Go to **Commerce > WooCommerce > Customers**. The other tab, **Abandoned carts**, is covered in [Abandoned cart recovery](/docs/hive-mail-abandoned-cart-recovery/). **Checkout box and cart settings** opens [WooCommerce settings](/docs/hive-mail-settings-woocommerce/).

1. Read the cards: **Customers**, **Paid orders**, **Total spent**, **Also contacts**. While old orders are being read, a bar shows "Reading your existing orders…" with progress.
2. Choose **Sort by** (Last order by default, Total spent, Number of orders, First order, Email) or use **Search by name or email…**.
3. Click a name to open the contact, or an order number to open the order in WooCommerce.

Columns: **Customer** (with a status badge or "Not a contact"), **Orders**, **Total spent**, **First order**, **Last order**. 25 per page.

![The Customers tab after the first read finished](https://hiveplugins.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/hivemail-shops-woo-customers-02.webp)

**Rebuild the customer list** (then **Rebuild**) works every customer out again from their orders in the background; segments and flows keep working meanwhile. Only people who can change settings see it.

Only **paid** orders count (by default Processing and Completed), and **Total spent** is net of refunds. A customer is stored per email address and linked to a contact when one exists. The **Total spent** card adds amounts without converting currencies, so it means little on a multi-currency shop. This screen never changes a contact or a status.

## The checkout sign-up box

An unticked checkbox, default wording "Yes, send me news and offers by email". On the classic checkout it sits under the billing email; on the block checkout it needs WooCommerce 8.9 or newer. It is not shown to a logged-in customer who is already subscribed. Change it in **Settings > WooCommerce**: **Show an email sign-up box at checkout** (on), **Wording of the box**, **Add people who tick it to this list**.

When a customer ticks it and the order is placed:

- They become a **subscribed** contact (a new contact, or a pending or transactional one is upgraded). The consent source is `woo_checkout`; the time and exact wording are saved on the contact's timeline and in an order note. The chosen list is joined too.
- Nobody who unsubscribed, bounced or complained is subscribed again by the box, and nobody the do-not-email memory holds is added. The order note says so.
- A customer who does not tick the box is not subscribed; marketing emails skip them.

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

## Flow triggers

In a flow, open **What starts the flow** and look at the **WooCommerce** group: an order is placed, processing, completed, refunded or cancelled; a customer's first order; a product or category is bought; a customer account is created; a cart is abandoned; an order is still waiting for payment. Settings are on [Triggers](/docs/hive-mail-triggers/). Buyers who are not contacts yet become transactional contacts: they get the flow's transactional emails, never marketing, unless they ticked the box.

## Rules for segments, If and Goal

The rule editor has a **WooCommerce** group:

| Rule | Options |
| --- | --- |
| **Purchases** | has ordered / has not ordered, ever or in the last N days (includes people who never ordered) |
| **Number of orders** | is at least / is less than / is exactly |
| **Total spent** | is at least / is less than |
| **Product** | bought / did not buy (includes variations, paid orders only) |
| **Product category** | bought / did not buy |
| **Last order date** | is before / is on or after a date; within the last / more than N days (people who never ordered match none) |
| **Abandoned cart** | has one waiting / has none waiting |

See [Segments](/docs/hive-mail-segments/).

## Merge tags

| Tag | Shows |
| --- | --- |
| `{{orders_count}}`, `{{total_spent}}` | Number of orders, total spent |
| `{{last_order_number}}`, `{{last_order_date}}`, `{{last_order_total}}` | The customer's last order |
| `{{order_number}}`, `{{order_total}}`, `{{order_date}}` | The order that started the flow |
| `{{order_pay_url}}` | Link to pay for that order (or the My Account page if it is no longer unpaid) |
| `{{cart_total}}`, `{{cart_items}}`, `{{cart_url}}` | Abandoned cart total, items, and a link that refills the cart |

The customer tags also work in campaigns: [Merge tags and fallbacks](/docs/hive-mail-merge-tags-and-fallbacks/). If you deactivate WooCommerce, its screens say "That shop plugin is not active."

> **Tip:** The recipes **Post-purchase thank-you**, **Abandoned cart recovery** and **Complete your payment** are good starting points: [Automation recipes](/docs/hive-mail-automation-recipes/).

Next: [Reports and revenue attribution](/docs/hive-mail-reports-and-revenue/), [Easy Digital Downloads with Hive Mail](/docs/hive-mail-easy-digital-downloads/).