Magento: How to Customize System Email Templates

This post will walk you through the commonly overlooked steps to customize and apply Magento's system generated email templates for things such as new account verification, order confirmation, shipping update, forgotten password recovery, send to a friend, and many more. Screenshots are included for each step. Magento Commerce excels in making powerful commerce easy to use.

Important Note: You can also edit the default templates in the file structure, but I don't recommend it as they are under the core of Magento and could be overwritten in a future update.

Overview

1. Create New Email Templates
2. Assign Your Email Templates to System Events

Create New Email Templates

1. Login to Magento Admin and go to System > Transactional Emails.

2. Click the button at the top right labeled "Add New Template."

3. Choose the default template you want to edit from the dropdown box labeled "Template."

4. Click the button labeled "Load Template."

5. Name your new template in the field labeled "Template Name." I like to name my templates the same name as the default template I am copying—it makes it a lot easier to assign them to events later.

6. Edit the HTML.

7. Click the button at the top right labeled "Save Template."

Assign Your Email Templates to System Events

1. In Magento Admin go to System > Configuration.

2. Browse through the tabs on the left and look for options that allow you to assign an email template.

The full list:

• Currency Setup (1) > Scheduled Import Settings > Error Email Template
• Contacts (1) > Email Options > Email Template
• Catalog (2) > Product Alerts > Stock alert Email Template, Product Alerts Run Settings > Error Email Template
• Email to a Friend (1) > Email Templates > Select Email Template
• Newsletter (3) > Subscription Options > Unsubscription Email Template, Subscription Options > Success Email Template, Subscription Options > Confirmation Email Template,
• Customer Configuration (4) > Create New Account Options > Default Welcome Email, Create New Account Options > Confirmation Link Email, Create New Account Options > Welcome Email, Password Options > Forgot Email Template,
• Wishlist (1) > Share Options > Email Template
• Sales Emails (16) > (two per section)
• Checkout (1) > Payment Failed Emails > Payment Failed Template
• Admin (1) > Admin User Emails > Forgot Password Email Template
• System (1) > Log Cleaning > Error Email Template

Example: Go to Customer Configuration > Create New Account Options. You will see three templates you can set: "Default Welcome Email," "Confirmation Link Email," and "Welcome Email."

3. Click the button at the top right labeled "Save Configuration."

Done!

If you get stumped please contact me or leave a comment below. I'm also available for hire!

Magento: How to Setup Simple Customer Specific Discount Pricing

This post will walk you through the steps to create simple custom pricing for customer groups/tiers, single customers, or wholesale dealers with screenshots of every step and details about other options not covered. Magento Commerce is extremely flexible in this area - much better than most other shopping carts on the market.

Important Note: The methods described here are for simple discounts by customer group (example: a fixed percent off all products, or a fixed amount off specific products). If you need alternate dealer/wholesale pricing that is different for every product, you should create a second "website" within Magento, allowing you to set distinct prices by website.

Overview

1. Create Customer Groups
2. Create Catalog Price Rules
   • Global Discount By Percentage Rule
   • Other Rule Examples
3. Apply New Catalog Price Rules

Create Customer Groups

1. Login to Magento Admin and go to Customers > Customer Groups.

2. Click the Add New Customer Group button.

3. Create a Group Name, select the appropriate Tax class, and click the Save Customer Group button.

Note about Group Name: I recommend some sort of standardization or nomenclature to your group names, incase you eventually have a lot to manage.

Examples: Wholesale - [Company Name] Wholesale [Tier/Level] [A,B,C/1,2,3] ([Discount Percent])

Note about Tax class: Magento only creates a Retail Customer Tax class by default. If you need to add a non-taxed, Wholesale Tax class, you can do that in the Tax Administration area located at Sales > Tax

Create Catalog Price Rules

1. In Magento Admin go to Promotions > Catalog Price Rules

2. Click the Add New Rule button.

3. Create a Rule Name, change the Status to "Active", select the appropriate Customer Group(s).

4. Click the Actions tab from the navigation menu on the left.

Global Discount By Percentage Rule

In the Actions tab: Enter the Discount amount without the % symbol, change Stop further rules from processing to "Yes," and click the Save Rule button.

Other Rule Examples

In the Actions tab: You have the ability to discount by a fixed amount, to a fixed amount, or to a percentage of the original price (as apposed to by percentage).

In the Conditions tab: You have the ability to configure various product conditions or combinations of multiple conditions.

Examples:

• Discount products in specific categories
• Discount products that are over x dollars in price
• Discount products by a list of specific SKUs
• Discount products by a custom attribute
• Etc., etc., etc....

Note: You can also apply multiple rules for each group and if you allow other rules to process, they can all be applied at the same time. There is so much you can do with this - feel free to contact me if you need help setting up a Promotion or leave a comment below.

Apply New Catalog Price Rules

1. In Magento Admin go to Promotions > Catalog Price Rules

2. Click the Apply Rules button.

3. Setup a cron job to fire Magento's housekeeping routines at least once per day (I recommend hourly). See instructions in their wiki here: http://www.magentocommerce.com/wiki/how_to/how_to_setup_a_cron_job. If you are not a developer this can be a little confusing as it's different for nearly every web host. If you get stuck I suggest you hire a web developer to set it up for you—it should take less than an hour of their time.

You're All Set

Browse to your store and refresh your browser to see the changes. Your customers will only see the discounted prices when logged in!

Again, if you get stumped please contact me or leave a comment below.

-Travis Cable