8 Smart Ways to Automate EDD and Reclaim Your Time

Automate EDD and save hours every days. Optimize sales and marketing, subscriptions, and customer management with Uncanny Automator—no coding required!

Running a WordPress business with Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is, you guessed it… easy. However, as your business grows, so too does your list of daily tasks. Manually tracking purchases, managing customer accounts, handling refunds, and processing subscriptions can quickly become a full-time job—or two.

The good news? You don’t have to do it all yourself.

By integrating Uncanny Automator with EDD, you can automate repetitive tasks, eliminate errors, and optimize workflows—all without writing a single line of code. And, in this guide, we’ll show you eight powerful EDD automations that can help you reclaim dozens or even hundreds of hours every month.

Ready to save time? Let’s get started.

Why Automate EDD?

Regardless of how easy Easy Digital Downloads makes running your ecommerce store, there are some essential tasks that pile up, day after day. Whether it’s processing orders, responding to support requests, or segmenting your customer lists, these tasks consume valuable time and make it feel like you’re always playing catch-up.

But, by automating key processes, you can begin to pull ahead. Automate EDD to:

• Save hours every month by eliminating manual work
• Reduce human error and ensure processes run smoothly
• Improve the customer experience with faster, more reliable interactions
• Scale your business without increasing your workload

Below, we’ll break down seven of the most impactful EDD automations that will help you power through your daily workload so you can focus on what really matters. Planning your next vacation!

1. Automate EDD Customer Onboarding with Mailchimp

The problem:

After every sale, you need to manually add or update customers to your email list and tag them appropriately. Skipping this step can lead to missed engagement opportunities, but doing it manually takes time and creates the opportunity for errors.

The solution:

By automating customer onboarding, you can instantly add new customers to Mailchimp, apply relevant tags, and fill in or update fields—all without lifting a finger.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe.
• Step 2: Configure your trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A customer purchases a download.
• Step 3: Configure your action, Mailchimp > Add a contact to an audience.
• Step 4: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 2 minutes/sale

Automate your EDD email marketing with Uncanny Automator >>>

2. Auto-Sync EDD Sales with Google Sheets

The problem:

Tracking your sales in a spreadsheet offers greater flexibility in analysis and more security in data storage. However, entering customer names, products, and order details by hand is time consuming. This not only takes hours each month but also increases the risk of errors.

The solution:

By automating sales tracking, every new purchase can be recorded in Google Sheets instantly, keeping your records up to date and eliminating the risk of errors.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe.
• Step 2: Configure your trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A customer purchases a download.
• Step 3: Configure your action, Google Sheets > Create a row in a Google Sheet.
• Step 4: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 3 minutes/sale

Sync EDD sales with Google Sheets instantly >>>

3. Automatically Delete EDD Customer Data for GDPR Compliance

The problem:

If a customer requests data deletion under GDPR, CCPA, or other privacy regulations, the process can be time-consuming and prone to errors. Manually deleting customer records in EDD takes multiple steps and must be done promptly to stay compliant.

The solution:

With Uncanny Automator, you can automate customer data deletion, ensuring compliance with privacy laws without manual intervention.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe.
• Step 2: Configure your trigger, WPForms > A user submits a form.
• Step 3: Configure your action, Easy Digital Downloads > Delete a customer by email.
• Step 4: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 3 minutes/request

Automate GDPR compliance with Uncanny Automator >>>

4. Auto-Tag EDD Customers in a CRM (HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, and more)

The problem:

Segmenting customers based on their purchase behavior is essential for targeted marketing. However, manually tagging users in your CRM after each sale is time-consuming and easy to forget.

The solution:

With automation, every new purchase can be instantly logged in your CRM, and customers can be tagged accordingly.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe.
• Step 2: Configure your trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A customer purchases a download.
• Step 3: Configure your first action, Constant Contact (or a CRM of your choice) > Create or update a contact.
• Step 4: Configure your second action, Constant Contact (or a CRM of your choice) > Add a tag to a contact.
• Step 5: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 2 minutes/sale

Automate email contact list segmentation with Automator >>>

5. Instantly Enroll EDD Customers in eLearning Courses

The problem:

If you sell online courses through EDD, then enrolling students manually is a constant chore. Every time a course is purchased, you must manually add the student to LearnDash, TutorLMS, or your preferred LMS platform, which delays access and creates unnecessary work.

The solution:

Automate course enrollments so that every student gets instant access to their purchased course(s) immediately after purchase.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe.
• Step 2: Configure your trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A customer purchases a download.
• Step 3: Configure your action, LearnDash (or a LMS of your choice) > Enroll the user in a course.
• Step 4: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 4 minutes/sale

Automate course enrollments with Uncanny Automator >>>

6. Notify Your Team of High-Value Purchases via Slack

The problem:

Tracking big-ticket sales in real time is crucial for connecting with your highest-value customers. However, manually checking sales reports and notifying your team takes too much effort and leaves your VIPs waiting.

The solution:

Automatically send a Slack notification when a high-value purchase is made, so your team can react instantly.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe.
• Step 2: Configure your trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A customer purchases a download.
• Step 3: Configure your action, Slack > Send a message to a channel.
• Step 4: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 2 minutes/sale

Improve team responsiveness with Uncanny Automator >>>

7. Automatically Restrict Access to Additional Content When a Subscription Expires

The problem:

When a customer’s EDD subscription expires or is canceled, they may still have access to premium content on your website beyond your EDD downloads unless removed manually. This requires constant monitoring and tedious management to ensure that your premium ecosystem is protected.

The solution:

With Uncanny Automator, you can automatically revoke access to restricted content as soon as a subscription expires.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe.
• Step 2: Configure your first trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A cancels a subscription to a download.
• Step 3: Configure your second trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A user’s subscription to a download expires.
• Step 4: Set the recipe to run when Any of the triggers is completed.
• Step 5: Configure your first action, WordPress > Change the user’s role to a new role.
• Step 6: Configure your second action, BuddyBoss > Remove the user from a group.
• Step 7: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 5 minutes/expiration or cancelation

Automate subscription management with Uncanny Automator >>>

8. Track Code Redemptions to Monitor Promotions and Sales Performance

The problem:

Sales, discounts, and coupon codes are an integral part of any successful marketing strategy. However, tracking their success can be difficult, time-consuming and time-consuming.

The solution:

Automator makes it easy to monitor coupon usage, allowing users to tie coupon codes to customers, orders, dates and times, and much more.

• Step 1: Create and name a new Automator recipe
• Step 2: Configure your trigger, Easy Digital Downloads > A product is purchased with a discount code.
• Step 3: Configure your action, Google Sheets > Update a row in a Google Sheet.
• Step 4: Toggle your recipe from Draft to Live.

Time Saved: 3 minutes/sale

Track your EDD coupon code redemptions with Automator >>>

More Ways to Automate Easy Digital Downloads

Looking for more ways to automate Easy Digital Downloads? Apply Automator’s R.I.C.H framework to your business to identify additional opportunities to save time.

Tasks that are ready for automation are:

• Repetitive: Tasks, particularly unavoidable ones, that you perform over and over again. 
• Iterative: Tasks that you can and/or do perform across any measurable number of customers, products, posts, pages, etc. or a subset thereof.
• Costly: Tasks that consume significant resources, namely time and money.
• Hard: Tasks that are complex and prone to human error.

If a task satisfies one or more of these criteria, it’s a strong candidate for automation. Remember, when it comes to automation, think RICH!

Ready to create EDD automations of your own?

Get your Automator Pro license and reclaim your time >>>

Frequent Asked Questions

Conclusion

Managing an EDD store doesn’t have to be a full-time job. With Uncanny Automator, you can eliminate manual work, reduce errors, and streamline your workflow—saving hundreds of hours each month. (Just think of all the beach time you’ll have.)

From automating customer onboarding to protecting your subscription-based content, these eight automations will help you run your business more efficiently. Ready to get started?

Your time-savings await with an Automator Pro license >>>

Until next time, happy automating!

Brendan Da Costa

Brendan Da Costa is a WordPress content writer with a Shakespearean-level gift of gab (his words, not ours). He left a successful career in economics to pursue his passion for writing and discovered the wonderful world of WordPress while building his own website to showcase his work. As a self-taught enthusiast who spends more time tinkering with plugins and themes than he would care to admit, Brendan writes equally for WordPress beginners and veteran developers alike. With his unique blend of expertise and creativity, he continues to elevate the digital landscape one WordPress article at a time.

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