All About eCommerce Email Marketing: Types, Examples, and What to Include

Who doesn’t love a good marketing strategy? And Emails have been ruling the promotional activities for ages! So, let’s learn a bit about eCommerce Email Marketing and how you can use them to stay in touch with your customers in 2021. The most important detail of email marketing is ‘Right Message, Right Time’. This is a simple yet effective funda, which means if you send the wrong message, then the marketing is ineffective; also, even if the message is correct, but the timing is wrong, you lose customers. 

Did you know that billions of people use emails, and this figure is set to increase till 2023, i.e., roughly half of the world’s population!

• Nearly four (4) Billion global users have emails as of 2019, and they are likely to increase to 4.3 Billion by 2023.
• You can expect $42 as an average return on investment by spending only $1 on email marketing.
• Email Marketing is used to distribute organic content, and nearly 9 out of 10 companies use email marketing.
• Nearly 81% of small and medium businesses owners use email marketing for customer acquisition and retention

Approximately 49% of customers prefer promotional emails from their favorite brands on a weekly basis

Emails may seem to be very simple. You put your customer’s email address, your subject, and your message, and voila, it is done. Well, though technically, it is true, but there is a lot of depth to it. Your information, subject line, and message should be attractive, appealing, and well-curated. And not to forget the design!

• To and From Information

Make sure the customer’s email address is mentioned correctly. Make sure you mention your ‘company name’ or ‘your name’ in the From section and not just your email address. This way, the message seems more personalized, and the customer can easily relate to you. Try avoiding messages from ‘no-reply@xyz.com’ because it becomes tough for the customers to reach out to you if they have to contact you for any promotional offer. Instead, send emails from ‘hello@xyz.com’. This way, the customer can immediately and easily contact you.

Image Courtesy: Terminus

• Subject Line

‘Hey Matt, what a wonderful morning. Find your morning offer in here.’

How does this sound? It makes you want to open the email, right? Well, that is why your subject line should always be punchy and engaging. According to data collected by CrazyEgg, a subject line carries nearly 62% of an impact compared to the rest of the factors in an email marketing campaign. 

Image Courtesy: Business to Community

Try to personalize your subject line. Keep it interactive, short, and engaging. Remember, even before opening the email, the customer will read the subject line. If that is not attractive enough, they will not even open the email. So, put in good enough time and thoughts in drafting your subject line

• Main Message

What do you prefer – email full of content or email full of graphics and images or a perfect balance of both? I know it is not hard to read your mind; everyone loves balance. Everyone wants to have a perfect balance of content and images. So, don’t overload your customers with either one. 

Instead, do these little things. Write the correct message. Stick to the message and be precise, to-the-point. Use fancy fonts suitable to your business (for example: for B2B, use format fonts, for an apparel or footwear email, you can use a little casual and italic fonts). Make a perfect blend of images and content. Mention your ‘Call to Action’ and put a link or tab. Lastly, personalize your message. And don’t forget, ‘Right Message, Right Time’.

Image Courtesy: Hook, Line and Clincher

• Design

What matters is a good design. Do you agree or not? Now, imagine you get an email with no design, only pure content. Would you be interested in it? Similarly, you too have to make sure your customers get a good designed email from you. This is your one shot in communicating with them, showing your company. Why would you risk it by sending a simple content? So, make sure you throw in the best of your colors, good-looking fonts, and a pinch of images and videos. 

Image Courtesy: Twitter

eCommerce Email Marketing is used widely for many marketing purposes. It may create awareness, send a promotional message, introduce a new product, or update them on the new policies or new updates. To sum it up, eCommerce Emails are widely divided into three groups: Promotional Emails, Transactional Emails, and Lifecycle Emails. 

• Promotional Emails

This type of email solely means for promotional activities. For example, the launch of a new book, adding a new product, new limited offers, discounts, or even sending warm greetings. 

Image Courtesy: Chamaileon

• Transactional Emails

When you complete an order, do you receive ‘Thank you for shopping with us, your order has been confirmed’. Well, these are order confirmation emails, a type of transactional email. Also, receiving order notifications, order shipment emails, order receipts are transactional emails.

Image Courtesy: Unific

• Lifecycle Emails

The Lifecycle Emails are those that send the customers a reminder of an incomplete action, for example, left items in a cart. These emails are generally triggered, and with the help of eCommerce Automation, companies send a reminder email to encourage the customers to complete the activity. 

Image Courtesy: Lyft

eCommerce Email Marketing is about staying connected with your customers. It also helps with customer retention and engagement. So let us see a few examples of eCommerce Email Marketing and a few emails you can send to your customers.

• Welcome Email

Hey, let us make an impression. You know how the saying goes, ‘First Impression is the Last Impression’. According to the email marketing statistics conducted by Oberlo, roughly 82% of customers open an email with a welcome email.

One of the best examples of a Welcome Email is Gopuff.com

Image Courtesy: Medium

• Order Confirmation

eCommerce businesses need to send emails to their customers upon confirmation of orders. This way, customers always feel that they are valued and noticeable. This email need not be wordy, so don’t overdo it by writing too much. All you need to include is the order name, order number, contact information, and order value.

For Example: GILT 

Image Courtesy: SmartrMail

• Order Shipment Email

Yes, we all like to be updated and stay in the loop. So, you need to offer the same to your customers. Always keep them updated with the latest information on their orders. It may be confirmation, shipment, or out for delivery. Keep them in loop as this helps in building trust over your brand.

For Example: FitBit

Image Courtesy: SmartMail

• Cart Abandonment Email

Customers need to be reminded of their orders. Many customers leave the shopping page before completing the purchase due to many reasons. Maybe they were in a hurry, or got interrupted due to a call or meeting, or they just lost interest in the purchase, or felt the prices were too high. There can be many reasons! But understand, if the customer came to the purchase page, they did find something interesting about the product. So, you need to keep the spark on by sending them emails. According to Oberlo, if you send three (3) cart abandonment emails, the chances of order completion rise to 69% compared to one (1) email.

For Example: AWAY

Image Courtesy: Sleeknote

• Discount Email

Everyone enjoys a good discount or a reason to visit back on a website. Well, even like a discount, if someone offered you a discount, wouldn’t you take it? So, offer your customers too! Keep them engaged, give them a reason to visit you once again. Also, by offering discounts, you are boosting your sales. 

For Example: Tarte

Image Courtesy: Milled

• Thank You Email

When someone visits your store, you do say ‘Thank You’, right? Or when you have a guest at your residence, then also, you say, ‘Thank You for Visiting Us’. So, how will you thank your customers when they shop online? Well, send them a thank you note. Make them feel special and let them know that you are grateful for them stopping by your eCommerce store. 

For Example: Amazon

Image Courtesy: BeanPrint

eCommerce Email Marketing is an organic, natural, and beautiful way to be connected with your customers. Always remember, you need to call out to your customers every once in a while. Make sure you don’t overload them by sending tons of emails but rather be subtle in your approach. Yes, it is a task always to remember sending an email, and you also may forget due to the immense workload. In such cases, as most of the companies are doing, use eCommerce automation to ease your worries. It will help you send regular emails and stay connected with them.

• Learn all about Email Marketing
• Learn more about eCommerce Email Marketing
• Examples of eCommerce Email Marketing
• Best Examples of Welcome Email Marketing
• Detailed Statistics of Email Marketing