Email notifications
Overview
Email notifications keep you informed when products are nearing expiration so you can take action — whether that means running a promotion, reordering stock, or pulling items from your shelves. Rather than checking the dashboard daily, you receive alerts directly in your inbox.
Setting up notifications
Configure email notifications under Products → Expirations → Settings → Notifications:
- Enable email notifications.
- Set the recipient email address(es) — you can add multiple addresses separated by commas.
- Configure the threshold — how many days before expiration should the notification include products.
- Choose an email schedule — how often you want to receive the digest.
- Save your settings.
Notification threshold
The threshold determines which products are included in each digest email. For example, if you set it to 14 days, all products expiring within the next 14 days will be listed.
Choose a threshold that matches your business workflow. Perishable goods with short shelf lives might need a 7-day threshold, while products with longer shelf lives could use 30 or 60 days.
Email frequency
Choose how often the digest is sent — daily, weekly, or monthly — from the email schedule setting. On each run the plugin checks for products expiring within your configured threshold and sends a single email listing all of them.
A digest is only sent when at least one product with stock falls within your threshold, so you won’t receive empty emails. While a product stays within the threshold it will appear in each digest — set an expiry action, extend its date, or sell through the stock to clear it from future emails.
Batch information in customer emails
If you use batch tracking, you can enable the Show batches in customer emails setting. When enabled, order confirmation emails sent to customers will include the batch reference and expiration date for the items they purchased.
Email content
The digest lists the products in a table:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Product | The name, linking to the product in your WordPress admin, with its SKU underneath. Very long names are shortened. |
| Date | The expiration date, in your store’s date format. |
| Days left | How many days remain, or Today. Rows expiring within a week are highlighted. |
| Stock | How many units you have, so you can see what’s at risk. For batch-tracked products, the units in the batches that expire within your threshold. |
Out-of-stock products are left out, since there is nothing to discount, sell or write off. Restocking keeps a product’s current date, so a restocked product comes back in the next digest with that date, which is your reminder to update it. Products on backorder can still be sold, so they stay in the table.
A See all expiring products button opens the full list on the Overview.
The email uses WooCommerce’s email template system, so it carries your store’s logo, colours and footer from WooCommerce → Settings → Emails — the button uses the same colour as your other store emails.
Optional 30-day summary
Tick Include a 30-day waste & recovery summary under Settings → Notifications to add a short summary below the table: what expired stock cost you, what expiry discounts recovered, and the value at risk in the next 7 and 30 days. It is off by default, and lines with nothing to report are left out.
Testing notifications
To verify delivery before relying on notifications:
- Go to Products → Expirations → Settings → Notifications.
- Enter your recipients and save.
- Click Send test email — a sample digest is sent immediately to those recipients (or the site admin if none are set).
- Check the inbox to confirm delivery.
If the test email does not arrive, check your WordPress email configuration — many hosting providers require an SMTP plugin for reliable email delivery.
Troubleshooting
- Emails not arriving — Verify your site can send emails. Install an SMTP plugin if needed and check your spam folder.
- Too many notifications — Reduce the threshold so you are only notified closer to expiration, or change the schedule from daily to weekly or monthly.
- Missing products in notifications — Ensure the products have expiration dates set. Products without dates will not trigger notifications.