Tendlio emails your customers only while sending is switched to Live on the Email sending page, and only through the sending method you set up there. The same page shows what’s waiting, what went out today, and why an email was skipped or failed, so start there.
Check that sending can go out #
Open Tendlio → Settings → Email sending, and look for three things:
- Is sending Live? In step 4. Go live, Emails to customers starts at Off: keep customer emails waiting. While it’s Off, customer emails wait, and test emails to yourself still go out. To send, choose Live: send customer emails and click Save sending settings.
- Did Tendlio keep sending Off? If you chose Live and the page then says Sending was kept Off, the sending method in step 1. How your emails go out isn’t ready. Brevo needs its API key, and Amazon SES needs its keys and an account that’s out of Amazon’s sandbox. The message says what’s missing, and Check my SES status checks the SES account for you.
- Is this a copy of your store? If a strip at the top says This looks like a staging copy of your store, This site’s address changed or You said this site is a copy of your store, Tendlio doesn’t send customer emails from this site. Staging copies and moving your store explains what to do.
To see all three answers in one place, open Help → System status. Under Sending, Actually sending says yes only when Switched to Live says yes, Credentials saved says yes (or not needed when your emails go out through WordPress), and Recognized as the live store says yes.
Read the Waiting emails section #
Lower on the Email sending page, the Waiting emails section shows where your emails are:
- Waiting: emails that haven’t gone out yet.
- Sent today: how many went out today, next to your daily limit when you have one, for example “200 / 200”. When the two numbers match, the rest wait until the next day. The count starts again at midnight UTC. If your sending plan allows more, raise Daily sending limit in step 4.
- Skipped: emails Tendlio decided not to send. The list Recently skipped, and why gives the reason for each one, such as They unsubscribed, They finished the order, You turned that email type off or Waited too long to still make sense.
- Failed: emails your sending service kept refusing. The list Failed emails (gave up after retries) shows the error for each one.
A notice above the numbers can tell you about three situations:
- “…did not go out on its last try, so we are trying it again shortly” means the last try failed on a problem that can pass, such as a busy provider. Tendlio tries again on its own, and there’s nothing for you to do.
- “…emails are stuck on a problem that retrying will not fix” means every try fails the same way, for example because Brevo rejected your API key or the From address isn’t a verified sender. The notice says what to check.
- “Your sending account has reached its own provider limit” means your email provider has stopped accepting emails from your account for now. Tendlio holds those emails and tries them again the next day, and they don’t count as failed.
While sending is Live, Send waiting emails now sends the next batch right away.
If one kind of email never goes out #
Each kind of email has its own switch, and Tendlio only adds emails of that kind to your waiting emails while the switch is on:
- Cart reminders and offers: on Recover sales, the Settings and email tab, turn on Send recovery emails automatically after the wait time, next to Automatic recovery emails. Tendlio sends them only for checkouts and carts it has saved, so Capture has to be on too. Checkouts and carts that had already passed their wait time when you turned automatic emails on never get one, and Recently skipped, and why lists them as Left before automatic reminders were on.
- Review requests: on Reviews, turn on Email a review request after orders complete. Reviews is an Experimental feature, so it takes two switches before its page appears. Tendlio asks about an order only once you’ve marked it Completed and your Send after days have passed, so an order that stays at Processing never gets a request.
- Welcome email and second-order nudge: on Welcome & second order, each tab has its own switch. A first order starts these emails only if it reaches a status that counts as a sale while the switch is on.
- Campaigns: you start each one yourself on Campaigns. Before your first one, tick the box under Before your first campaign and click Confirm. Your store address also needs to be filled in under WooCommerce → Settings → General, because every campaign email carries it in the footer. Tendlio also holds a campaign back when your customer groups are out of date, for example while an analysis is running or after you’ve changed a setting it uses, and the Campaigns page says why.
If emails go out slowly #
Tendlio sends waiting emails a batch at a time. Its sending task is due every minute, but it runs only when WordPress runs its scheduled tasks, or when you open a Tendlio page while sending is Live. WordPress runs those tasks when someone visits your site, or on a timer your host sets, so on a quiet site, or one whose host runs them only a few times an hour, emails go out later.
To check, open Help → System status:
- Under Email queue, Oldest one due says how long the oldest email that’s ready to go has been waiting.
- Under Scheduled tasks, the Email queue row says when sending last ran. OVERDUE: WP-Cron may not be running means that task is late and Tendlio hasn’t seen WordPress run any of its scheduled tasks in the last day, and your host can tell you why.
A big campaign also takes time on purpose: it goes out within your daily limit, so it can run for days or weeks, and cart reminders, review requests and welcome emails keep a share of each day. How sending works explains the order emails go out in, and how the limit is shared.
If emails land in spam #
If your emails reach customers but land in spam, or show “via brevo.com” next to your name, check Deliverability: is your domain set up? on the Email sending page. It checks the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records of the domain in your From address, and says what to fix for each. After you change a record, click Check again. DNS changes can take a few hours to show up.
The summary email Tendlio sends you #
The weekly or monthly summary of your store goes to you, not to your customers, so it doesn’t wait for Live. It goes out through your site’s own WordPress mail, whatever you picked in step 1 of the Email sending page. Its switch, Email this summary to me, and the Send to address are under Email this summary on Reports → Store summary. A copy of your store doesn’t send it.
Why sending starts Off #
Sending starts Off so you can set up your emails and send yourself tests before any customer gets one. While it’s Off, the emails wait. When you switch to Live, Tendlio drops cart reminders, review requests, welcome emails and second-order nudges that have waited more than 14 days, because a reminder that arrives weeks late reads as a mistake. Campaign emails wait until they go out.
Additional resources #
- How to set up email sending and switch it to Live: the sending method and the switch to Live.
- How sending works: waiting emails, the daily limit and email analytics: the order emails go out in, the daily limit, and why emails are skipped.
- How to check that your emails reach the inbox (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- Staging copies and moving your store
- How to ask customers for a review after their order
Frequently asked questions #
Why do test emails arrive when customer emails don't? #
Test emails go out while sending is Off, and even from a copy of your store. Customer emails go out only while sending is Live, through a sending method that's ready, on the site Tendlio knows as your live store.
Why did some cart reminders never go out after I switched to Live? #
Recently skipped, and why, on the Email sending page, gives the reason for each one. Two you might not expect: checkouts and carts that had already passed their wait time when you turned on automatic recovery emails never get a reminder, and when you switch to Live, Tendlio drops cart reminders, review requests, welcome emails and nudges that waited more than 14 days, because they'd arrive too late to make sense.
Why don't my customers get a review request? #
Tendlio asks about an order only after you mark it Completed and your Send after days have passed. Orders that stay at Processing never get one.