Category Notifications for WooCommerce
Send WooCommerce low-stock and out-of-stock emails to different people per product category. One rule per supplier, warehouse or category owner.
Use with caution
Category Notifications for WooC… works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 60/100 on our health check.
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Small user base (<10 active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & support
Daily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Category Notifications for… stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| inventory | >100 |
| low stock email | >100 |
| out of stock alert | >100 |
| stock notification | >100 |
| supplier notification | #34 |
About Category Notifications for WooCommerce
From the official readme · v2.3.1Description
WooCommerce sends every low-stock and out-of-stock email to one store-wide address. If you have more than one supplier, warehouse or category owner, that address belongs to someone who has to forward the alerts by hand — or ignore them.
This plugin adds rules. Pick one or more product categories, list the email addresses that should hear about them, done. When a product in those categories hits low stock or sells out, those addresses get the mail. Everyone else stays quiet.
What people use it for
- Suppliers. Your supplier hears about their own products running low, and nothing else.
- Warehouses. Alerts go to the location that actually holds the stock.
- Category owners. A purchase or brand manager gets their range only.
- Drop-shipping. The alert lands with whoever fulfils that product line.
Categories are hierarchical, so a rule on a parent covers everything under it — and you can exclude a sub-category that belongs to someone else. Variable products use the parent product’s categories, so per-variation stock works too.
Features
- Add unlimited rules — each with one or more include categories, optional exclude sub-categories, and one or more email recipients.
- Comma-separated email lists per rule (
a@example.com, b@example.com). - Hierarchical category support. Set a rule on a parent category and it automatically covers all child categories. Set a rule on a child category and it only covers that branch.
- Sub-category excludes. Include a parent category but exclude specific sub-categories that should be handled by a different recipient.
- Multi-include. One rule can match several categories at once, sharing the same recipient list and the same exclude set.
- Variation-aware. Variable products correctly use the parent product’s categories when a single variation hits the threshold.
- Rich select2 UI. Both include and exclude fields use WooCommerce’s enhanced select, with categories indented by hierarchy depth for easy navigation.
- Works alongside the standard WooCommerce stock notification — these are additional recipients, not a replacement.
- Translation-ready (
jalma-category-notifications-for-woocommercetext domain). Swedish (sv_SE) included. - No external services, no telemetry, no API keys.
How it works
- Configure rules at WooCommerce → Category notifications: pick one or more include categories, optionally pick sub-categories to exclude, and enter the email addresses that should be notified.
- When a product reaches low stock or sells out, the plugin checks the product’s categories (and parent categories) against your rules.
- Matching rules fire and their email addresses receive a clear notification with the product name, current stock, and a link to edit the product.
This runs on top of WooCommerce’s existing low-stock / out-of-stock hooks, so it respects all your normal stock-notification settings (thresholds, manage-stock, etc.).
Installation
- Upload the plugin folder to
/wp-content/plugins/, or install via the Plugins → Add New screen in WordPress. - Activate Category Notifications for WooCommerce through the Plugins menu.
- Make sure WooCommerce is active and that stock management and low-stock / out-of-stock notifications are enabled in WooCommerce → Settings → Products → Inventory.
- Go to WooCommerce → Category notifications to add your rules.
Frequently asked questions
Does this replace WooCommerce’s built-in stock notifications?
No. The store-wide WooCommerce notification still goes out as normal. This plugin adds extra recipients on top of that, filtered by category.
What happens if a product belongs to multiple categories?
All matching rules fire. Each rule’s email addresses receive one notification per stock event. Duplicate addresses across rules are de-duplicated, so each recipient only gets one mail per product per event.
Can I exclude specific sub-categories from a rule?
Yes. Each rule has an optional “Exclude categories” field where you can pick one or more categories to skip. This is useful when you want a parent-category rule to cover most of its branch but skip specific sub-categories that are handled by a different recipient. The exclusion is hierarchical too — excluding a category also covers its descendants.
Can a single rule match multiple categories?
Yes. The “Product category” field is a multi-select. One rule can include several categories, share the same email recipients, and share the same exclude list — useful for grouping several product lines under one supplier.
If I set a rule on a parent category, does it cover child categories too?
Yes. The plugin walks the full category tree. A rule on a parent category automatically covers all its descendants, regardless of how deep the hierarchy goes.
Does it work with variable products?
Yes. When a variation triggers a low-stock or out-of-stock event, the plugin uses the parent product’s categories to match against your rules. This means you only configure categories on the parent product, as you normally would in WooCommerce.
Will recipients get an email for every product they don’t care about?
No. A recipient only gets emails for products in categories that match their rule. If you want a recipient to get notifications for the whole store, just add a rule on a top-level category that contains everything.
How are emails sent?
Through WordPress’s standard wp_mail() function. If you have an SMTP plugin (such as WP Mail SMTP, Post SMTP, FluentSMTP), it will be used automatically.
Does this plugin store any personal data?
The configured email addresses are stored in the WordPress options table (jcnwc_rules). No customer data is collected. No external services are contacted. No telemetry.
Can I translate the plugin?
Yes. Use the jalma-category-notifications-for-woocommerce text domain. Swedish (sv_SE) is included. Pull requests for more translations are welcome.
Changelog
The Pro upgrade box now includes a direct download link for the Pro add-on, next to the existing link to its plugin page. Plain links only — nothing is installed or downloaded for you, and no external server is contacted.
2.3.1
- The Pro upgrade box now offers a direct download of the Pro add-on’s .zip alongside the existing link to its plugin page, so you can install Pro and buy the license from inside it if you prefer. Both are plain links — this plugin still installs, activates and downloads nothing on your behalf, and contacts no external server of its own.
2.3.0
- Removed the in-plugin LemonSqueezy purchase, license-activation and auto-install flow entirely. The free plugin no longer contacts any external service. Pro purchases now happen on the project landing page (https://jonashjalmarsson.se/plugins/jalma-category-notifications-for-woocommerce-pro/) and the Pro plugin itself handles license activation in its own License tab. The “Get Pro” link in the Plugins screen and the upsell card above the settings page now simply open the landing page in a new tab.
2.2.1
- Re-style the PRO upsell card on the settings page so it no longer uses WordPress core notice classes. Same scope (only the plugin’s own settings page) and same content, but the visual is now a self-styled card with a small “Pro upgrade” label, distinct from a system message. Also drops the inline color/weight from the “Get Pro” link on the Plugins screen.
- PRO upsell card is now collapsible — click the × in the corner to shrink it down to just the “Pro upgrade” pill; click the pill to expand it back. State persists per browser via localStorage.
2.2.0
- New: a “Get Pro” link in the Plugins list and a small notice at the top of the settings page when the PRO add-on isn’t installed. Both auto-hide when PRO is active.
- New: clicking “Get PRO” opens the LemonSqueezy checkout in an overlay (lemon.js) instead of a new tab. After purchase, the same notice swaps into a short installer flow that fetches your license, downloads PRO from our update server, installs and activates it, and pre-fills the license key in PRO’s License tab — without leaving wp-admin. A paste-the-key fallback is shown if anything in the auto flow stalls.
- The license itself is now activated against LemonSqueezy during the install, so any activation error (most often “this license has reached its activation limit”) shows up immediately on the install notice rather than three steps later when you’d otherwise have clicked Activate manually.
2.1.2
- Developer: added two new actions for add-on plugins that need to render an extra column in the rules table.
jcnwc_render_rule_header_before_emailsfires inside a<th>cell before the emails column, andjcnwc_render_rule_field_before_emailsfires inside the matching per-row<td>cell. The column is only rendered when at least one handler is attached, so the table layout stays clean for end users without add-ons.
2.1.1
- Developer: added action
jcnwc_render_after_headingon the settings page so add-on plugins can render a tab nav or upgrade banner between the heading and the rules form. No visible changes for end users.
Screenshots
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FAQ
Category Notifications for WooComme…: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 5, 2026
Is Category Notifications for WooC… free?
Yes. Category Notifications for WooC… is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Category Notifications for WooC… safe to use in 2026?
Category Notifications for WooC… works, but test it on a staging site before relying on it in 2026. Was last updated 2 months ago, and scores 60/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Category Notifications for WooC…?
Category Notifications for WooC… is active on <10 WordPress websites and has been downloaded 455 times since it launched in April 2026. It was downloaded 58 times in the last 30 days.
Does Category Notifications for WooC… work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested Category Notifications for WooC… up to WordPress 7.1.2, the latest release. It requires WordPress 5.0 or newer.
What PHP version does Category Notifications for WooC… need?
Category Notifications for WooC… requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Category Notifications for WooC… last updated?
The latest version, 2.3.1, was released on August 13, 2026 (2 months ago).
Who makes Category Notifications for WooC…?
Category Notifications for WooC… is developed and maintained by Jonas Hjalmarsson.
What are the best alternatives to Category Notifications for WooC…?
The most popular alternatives to Category Notifications for WooC… are Smart Manager (10K+ installs), WCPOS (5K+ installs) and PayPal POS for WooCommerce (4K+ installs).
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