WooCommerce Backorder Email Template for Partial Orders

A WooCommerce backorder email should answer a fulfilment question before it apologises for a delay: which items can leave, which cannot, and what has the customer agreed to? Check those answers before choosing a template. If the shipment plan is still open, describe the options as options—not as parcels already on their way.

Check the order before you write the backorder email

Open the WooCommerce order and compare its line items, quantities and notes with your stock and fulfilment records. An overall order status does not establish whether an individual item has shipped. Check previous emails and chats too: a dispatch promise or a customer request to receive everything together changes what you can say now.

For other situations, see the customer service templates for EU online stores. Here, keep the review specific to this backorder and the delivery terms shown to this customer.

If the order and fulfilment records conflict, resolve the discrepancy before promising dispatch. You can still tell the customer that you are checking the shipment plan and when you will return with an answer.

Decide whether to split the shipment or hold the order

Use this decision rule for mixed orders. Hold together if that is the confirmed plan, taking account of the customer's preference and any earlier delivery promise. Split only when fulfilment can dispatch the ready lines independently, the charge arrangement is settled and the customer's agreement has been checked where needed. Ask first if either plan still depends on the customer's choice or an internal decision.

“Available” is not the same as “dispatched”: the items may still need packing or an address check. Likewise, approving a split does not confirm a date. Ask the dispatch team about the queue before putting a date in the email. If the customer was previously promised something different, have the responsible person review that promise rather than silently replacing it.

Before sending, read your draft as the customer would. Can they tell which products are ready, whether anything has already left, whether they need to reply, whether a charge applies and when they will hear from you again? If any answer is missing because your team has not decided it, say so plainly.

WooCommerce backorder email template for a single delayed item

Use this when the backordered product is the only item in the order. Choose just one date sentence and replace every bracketed field.

A restock estimate concerns stock arriving with you; a dispatch commitment concerns a parcel leaving you. Do not use the first as shorthand for the second. If the supplier estimate is too uncertain to be useful, omit it and use the no-date template below.

Email templates when only part of the order is ready

List ready and delayed lines separately, including variants where they matter. Choose the hold or split version only after that plan is confirmed. Neither template should imply that a parcel has shipped unless the fulfilment record confirms it.

Template: hold everything and dispatch together

Remove the request for a preference if a separate shipment is not feasible. If holding the order is not yet agreed and the customer's choice matters, do not announce it as decided; use the choice wording after the split template instead.

Template: dispatch the ready items separately

Do not add a tracking link until the shipment has been created and the link verified. If an extra charge has not been agreed, do not present the split as final.

If the plan is still open, use this instead: “Your [ready items] are available, while [backordered item] is delayed. Would you prefer us to check whether the ready items can ship separately, or would you prefer the order to ship together? Reply with your preference. We’ll confirm what we can arrange, including any extra shipping charge, before changing the plan.” A request for a preference is not itself agreement to a split.

What to write when there is no reliable restock date

When the supplier cannot give you a dependable date, promise an update you control rather than a dispatch date you do not. Put the reminder in the team's workflow and send the update even if the answer remains unchanged.

Offer only options your team can assess for this order. If the customer asks about cancellation, a refund or statutory rights, route the request for review against the order, the information given to the customer and the applicable rules. Do not paste a blanket legal answer into a backorder email.

Keep the follow-up consistent with the shipment plan

A colleague answering the customer's reply needs the status of each shipment, not just the original order. Save a line-item handoff note alongside the order or conversation, and update it when a parcel is created or the customer changes their preference.

For a follow-up, check the fulfilment record again before replying. Here is wording for a held order; change it if the shipment status has changed.

For chat follow-ups, askVela’s WooCommerce plugin can show WooCommerce order information in chat where the shop provides it, including line items and shipping information when available. That does not verify an unrecorded agreement to split an order: staff still need to check the handoff note or ask the customer. In askVela’s team inbox for follow-up questions, assignment and internal notes can help keep that decision visible to the next person replying.