Send a separate message to a checkout recipient
Additional recipient email lets a buyer enter another person's email, name and a personal message at checkout. Your store sends that person a separate message with the content you configure, when the order starts processing or is marked completed.
For example, a customer buys a gift, enters the recipient's email and writes “Happy birthday!”. Your message can greet that recipient with {{name}} and include the dedication with {{note}}. The purchaser continues to receive the usual WooCommerce order notifications.
This feature does not change delivery addresses or add a CC to every order email. It creates one independent notification with its own subject, heading, content and sending event. An order table, prices and addresses are not added to its content automatically.
Configure the checkout fields and message
You need WooCommerce and access to POM Tweaks settings.
- Open Settings → POM Tweaks → E-Commerce → Emails → Additional recipient email.
- Enable the module and click Save.
- Set Checkout section heading, for example “Send a gift message”. This title appears above the optional recipient fields in classic checkout.
- Optionally set Recipient email placeholder, Recipient name placeholder and Personal message placeholder. These are hints inside the classic checkout inputs; they do not supply default recipient values.
- Select Send the additional email.
- Choose When to send using the table below.
- Decide whether to enable Send to the buyer when the recipient email is empty.
- Write Additional email subject, Additional email heading and Additional email content. The email heading is the title inside the message, separate from the checkout section heading. Empty content skips the notification.
- Choose Additional email format, click Save and verify the result on a staging site.
| Sending choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| When a pending, on-hold, failed or cancelled order starts processing | Sends on one of those transitions into Processing. A direct transition to Completed does not trigger this choice. |
| When the order is marked completed | Sends when the order enters Completed. |
| Do not send automatically | Retains the fields and message without registering an automatic status notification. |
Sending follows the selected order status; it does not independently verify that payment was received. Marking an order with the qualifying status again after another status can send another message. This feature is tied to status transitions, not a scheduled delivery date or a single lifetime send per order.
Send the additional email controls this message only. You can turn it off while continuing to collect the checkout fields. Disabling the entire module also removes those checkout fields and its order-admin information panel; previously saved order data remains stored.
Who receives the message?
- With a valid recipient email entered at checkout, that address receives the separate message.
- With the recipient field empty and the buyer fallback enabled, the billing email receives it. The buyer may therefore receive both this message and the normal order email.
- With the recipient field empty and the fallback disabled, no additional message is sent.
- An invalid nonempty email is rejected at checkout. An invalid saved address is skipped when sending; it is not silently replaced with the buyer's address.
The recipient name and personal message are optional. The recipient details are saved on that order, not added to the customer's address book. In the order editor, Additional email recipient shows the saved values, including a name or message when the email was left empty.
Message content and merge tags
Use HTML or ordinary text in Additional email content. Only the content you configure is included, wrapped in WooCommerce's email header and footer for HTML messages. Shortcodes and PHP are not executed. Avoid including prices or purchaser details in a gift message unless that is intentional.
| Tag | Value |
|---|---|
{{name}} |
Recipient name entered at checkout. |
{{note}} |
Personal message entered at checkout, with line breaks preserved. |
{{billing_first_name}}, {{billing_last_name}} |
Purchaser's billing name. |
{{blogname}} |
Site name. |
{{order_number}} |
Order number. |
{{order_date}} |
Order creation date in the store's date format. |
For example:
<p>Hello {{name}},</p>
<p>{{billing_first_name}} has a message for you:</p>
<p>{{note}}</p>Leave the subject empty to use [{{blogname}}] (Order {{order_number}}) - {{order_date}}. The subject and email heading support the same value tags.
Repeat a section for each order line using {{order_product}} and {{/order_product}}:
{{order_product}}
<p>{{product_name}} × {{product_cart_qty}}</p>
{{/order_product}}Inside that section, the available tags are {{product_name}}, {{product_slug}}, {{product_price}}, {{product_description}}, {{product_stock}}, {{product_sku}}, {{product_cart_qty}} and {{product_cat_slug}}. Category slugs are comma-separated. Product price, description, stock and other catalog values reflect the product when the message is generated; quantity comes from the order line. If a product has been deleted, its order-line name and quantity remain available and unavailable catalog values are empty.
Checkout and email compatibility
Classic checkout displays three optional fields after the order notes, with a multi-line personal message and your configured heading and placeholders. POM Theme uses that checkout hook too.
Block checkout displays the three fields in Order information, using WooCommerce's additional checkout fields API. The personal message is a single-line field there. The classic heading and placeholders do not change the block's layout. Keep the Order information block in your checkout if you want these fields to appear.
Orders use WooCommerce's storage API, including HPOS. The notification uses the active WooCommerce header, footer and styling, including the enhanced email design. Plain text removes HTML and retains link destinations; HTML and plain text provides both parts. Final appearance depends on the active template and the recipient's email client.
The Additional recipient email entry under WooCommerce → Settings → Emails links to POM Tweaks. Configure the message in POM Tweaks, so there is one source of settings.
Verify and troubleshoot
On a staging site, place an order using a recipient address you control and a recognizable name and message. Move the order through the selected transition. Confirm the additional recipient receives the intended custom message and the buyer's normal notification is unchanged. Verify the name, dedication, product loop and both message formats that you use.
Then test an empty recipient with the fallback on and off. If no message arrives, check the module and message switches, event selection, saved recipient, message content and the store's mail delivery service. Saving the settings alone does not send a message or resend older orders.
If a tag is blank, check whether that value was entered on the order. If block fields are missing, check that Order information is present. If a classic theme replaces the checkout layout, it must retain the native after-order-notes hook.