How to Enroll Past Customers in WooCommerce Automations

The WebToffee eCommerce Marketing Automation app allows you to reach customers retrospectively by enrolling those who qualified for an automation before it was turned on. To enable this, select the ‘Order Placed’ trigger in your automation and toggle on the ‘Include existing eligible customers’ option. The system uses your first ‘Time Delay’ block as a lookback window, ensuring that customers who made a purchase within that specific timeframe are automatically added to the workflow.

Before enabling Retrospective Triggering, ensure you meet the following conditions:

• Supported Trigger: This feature currently only applies to the Order Placed trigger; it cannot be used with Abandoned Cart, Sign-up, Abandoned checkout, Site Visit, or Restock Alert triggers.
• Mandatory Delay: Your automation must start with a Time Delay block immediately following the trigger.
• Delay Duration > 0: The first delay must be set to a value greater than zero (e.g., 1 hour, 7 days). If the delay is set to 0, the system will skip retrospective enrollment.
• Subscription Status: Ensure your target customers have a “subscribed” status; the system strictly filters out unsubscribed contacts.
• Single Enrollment Logic: If a customer has multiple qualifying orders within your lookback window (e.g., 30 days), such as one from 20 days ago and another from 6 days ago, the system will enroll them based only on the most recent order. This ensures they receive the automation only once and at the most relevant time.

Imagine you are a store owner who wants to reach out to customers who haven’t purchased in a month. You decide to build an automation to encourage them to return.

Because you set a 30-day delay, the system uses the “Lookback Window” to identify the last 30 days. The system calculates the send time by subtracting the elapsed time from your total delay.

• Customer A: Placed an order 30 days ago. They have already completed the required 30-day wait period. The system enrolls them, and they receive your email immediately.
• Customer B: Placed an order 10 days ago. The system enrolls them in the automation and will receive your email in 20 days (completing the 30-day total wait time).
• Customer C: Placed an order 31 days ago. The system does not enroll them because they fall outside the 30-day lookback window defined by your delay block.

The most efficient way to use this feature is by selecting one of our high-converting pre-built templates:

1. Navigate to Automations > Create automations.
2. Pick a template under the Post-Purchase Experience or Repeat Purchase & Retention categories (Order Placed trigger) (e.g., Instructions after product delivery, Customer satisfaction survey, or Win-back series).

3. Click on the Trigger block at the start of the flow.
4. In the right-hand Trigger settings panel, enable Include existing eligible customers.
5. Add a Delay: Ensure your workflow begins with a Time Delay block before the first email is sent.

6. Add your email content and any necessary filters.
7. Click Publish to enable the automation.

Now that you’ve mastered retrospective enrollment, you’re ready to unlock immediate marketing value from your store’s historical data.