For every $1 spent, the average ROI for email marketing ranges between $36 to $40, according to multiple studies.
But what kinds of emails can you send, and what strategic campaigns can you plan to maximize this potential?
In this article, we present 19 ecommerce email marketing examples, meticulously categorized to cater to diverse needs and objectives:
- Lead Nurture Emails: (Welcome Email Sequence, Reactivation Email Campaign) – they serve the purpose of onboarding new subscribers, winning their trust, and moving them to the next stage of your sales funnel.
- Promotional Emails: Emails that are sent to subscribers for the purpose of encouraging them to make a purchase. (Offer emails, Upsell emails, Cross-Sell Emails, New Product Announcement, Holiday Emails, Cart Abandonment Email, Birthday Emails)
- Engagement Emails: Keeping your customers engaged is a great way to ensure that your brand is always top of mind when your customer needs something you supply. (Newsletter Emails, Educational Emails, Customer Loyalty Emails)
- Transactional Emails: (Thank You Email, Order Confirmation Email, Feedback/Survey Email) – categorized into transactional emails.
- Essential Emails: This section will show you four emails that offer a differentiation factor. (Set Your Preferences Email, “You Missed It” Email, Browse Abandonment Email, Complete Your Profile Email)
Ecommerce Email Examples For Your Inspiration
Lead Nurture Emails
One of the most important types of ecommerce emails you need to master is the lead nurture email. Lead nurture emails are simply emails that are sent to build a relationship with subscribers. Most importantly, they serve the purpose of onboarding new subscribers, winning their trust, and moving them to the next stage of your sales funnel. And studies show that brands that employ lead nurturing strategies generate over 50% sales-ready leads – and that at a 33% lower acquisition cost.
Here are 2 important lead nurture emails every ecommerce business should be sending:
1. Welcome Email Sequence
A welcome email sequence is specifically designed to become more familiar with your brand. They do this by:
- Reminding subscribers how and why they ended up on your list
- Encouraging engagement with your brand and emails
- Set the tone and expectations of future emails
While the exact number of emails needed for an effective welcome email sequence varies, anything between 3-7 should do the job. This number is determined by several factors, such as your business model. Read more about Welcome Email Examples here.
2. Reactivation Email Campaign
The average email list decays by about 22% every year. However, of the 22% that have stopped engaging with your emails, a sizable percentage can be encouraged to revive their relationship with your brand. This can be pulled off by running a reactivation campaign. A reactivation campaign is simply a series of emails designed to get inactive subscribers to open and interact with your emails.
So, before you delete those inactive subscribers, run a reactivation campaign first. You’ll be surprised at how many subscribers will “come back”.
Promotional Emails
Promotional emails are emails that are sent to subscribers for the purpose of encouraging them to make a purchase. Usually, a sale is offered by offering an incentive. Examples of promotional emails you need to be sending include:
3. Offer Emails
An offer email is one of those ecommerce emails you send out to your subscribers to offer them an incentive such as a discount, coupon, free shipping or training, or any other limited-time offer. Offer emails can be used to:
- Drive sales
- Reward loyal customers
- Hook new subscribers
No matter your business model, sending out offer emails should be something you should do regularly. You’ll definitely benefit from them as this is the type o0f email with the highest open and engagement rates.
4. Upsell Emails
As the name suggests, upsell emails are designed to get a customer who has recently purchased to get an upgraded version of your product. One of the reasons this type of email works so well is that your customer already trusts your brand and products are more likely to respond to your recommendations. And no, this is not a form of grabbing as much money as you can from a customer, proper upselling is offering your customers a better product. A few tips on creating winning upsell email campaigns include:
- Make it easy to upgrade. Especially if you sell a product that requires a refill, you can send a reminder email that includes an offer to upgrade.
- Show the benefits of upgrading. People want to know what they get for spending those few extra dollars.
- Leverage purchase momentum. When a customer completes a purchase, you have their attention. Before they start thinking of other things, send an order confirmation with a twist – highlighting better products.
Many people don’t buy something until they need it – and sometimes, you need to show them what they really need.
5. Cross-Sell Emails
Like upsell emails, cross-sell emails are also aimed at getting a paying customer to buy something else from your store.
What’s the difference?
While upselling involves getting customers to buy a better product or upgrade their account, cross-selling involves selling your customers other products related to what they’ve already bought.
When cross-selling:
- Promote products that add value. These are products that will help your customers have a better experience with the product they bought.
- Personalize your pitch. Show your customers that you’re not just pitching them to make a sale. You’re suggesting a more holistic solution.
- Package your “cross-sell” well. Rather than just showing your customers what else they need, design your email in such a way that it shows how the purchased product looks when used in conjunction with the products you’re cross-selling.
Executed well, a cross-sell campaign can help not only drive sales but also position you as an authority to be trusted for recommendations.
6. New Product Announcement
Another email you have to send to your email list religiously is the new product announcement email. Every time you have a new product in stock, let your subscribers know, after all, that’s probably one of the reasons they signed up in the first place.
New product emails work best with those who love to be the first to own the latest stuff. Using your analytics tools, you can easily identify them and run a campaign specifically targeted for them. A couple of advantages of sending out this type of email for ecommerce include:
- Jump starts your sales. Your loyal customers are the best people to get your new products flying off the shelves.
- Encourages word of mouth marketing. People love showing off their new purchase, this on its own is great marketing for you. Even if they don’t buy it, if your new product is good, they’ll probably share your email with their friends.
When you launch a new product or get a new inventory, don’t expect people to find it by visiting your website. Be proactive and let your subscribers know about it. You can even build buzz by talking about the new product before it goes on sale.
7. Holiday Emails
Everyone loves holidays.
They are a time of great joy and loose purse strings.
And that’s why you need to help your customers celebrate in style – by gifting themselves or a loved one with something from your shop. You do this by sending out holiday emails. As the name suggests, these are email campaigns sent over a holiday season. Here are a few pointers to ensure your ecommerce email campaign results in some merriment on your part:
- Start your campaign before the holiday. One main reason for this is so that you ensure your customers get their goodies in time for the holiday. You can drive more sales by encouraging your customers to order before a certain date for the sake of timely shipping.
- Intensify your campaign as the holiday approaches. If there’s one thing that helps drive sales over a holiday season, it’s the excitement of the holidays. Leverage this by intensifying your campaigns as the holiday draws near.
- Throw in a freebie. Freebies have a greater impact over a holiday season as your customers will see them as your gift to them. Throw in anything from free shipping to a free accessory to encourage more spending.
One disadvantage of running holiday email campaigns is that everyone will be doing it. This is why you need to design your campaign and email content in such a way that they stand out from the crowd.
8. Cart Abandonment Email
While an abandoned cart is a pain in the…, well you know, it is actually a great marketing opportunity. This is because an abandoned cart tells you that the customer was ready to buy.
No matter the reason for your customer failing to complete the checkout process, send out a cart recovery email campaign. According to research, cart recovery emails have a whopping 43.3% open rate. The same study reveals that the conversion rate for cart abandonment emails is slightly over 18%. This is why one of the most important ecommerce emails in your repertoire is the cart abandonment email.
9. Birthday Emails
Everyone needs to feel appreciated. That’s why you need to send birthday emails to your customers. Not only will your customers feel appreciated, but they’ll spend more on your store too – 382% more than they would spend when you send a regular promotional email. That’s right, birthday emails generate 342% more revenue than other promotional emails. Definitely not an ecommerce email to be left out of your arsenal.
Engagement Emails
With many ecommerce brands being launched every day, the competition for customers becomes stiffer by the day.
How do successful brands continue to thrive?
Winning brands have mastered the art of engagement. Keeping your customers engaged is a great way to ensure that your brand is always top of mind when your customer needs something you supply.
So, how can you win the battle to keep your customers engaged?
By sending engagement emails. Here are some engagement email types you need to be sending:
10. Newsletter Emails
Many ecommerce stores overlook the humble newsletter in their email marketing strategy. That’s because they think this type of email has no returns. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Newsletter emails, although primarily designed to be informative, can be used to promote your products. In fact, experts agree that a newsletter email should be 90% informational and 10% promotional.
This means a newsletter is like a double edged sword – driving engagement and sales at the same time. Therefore, omitting it from your email marketing strategy is shooting yourself in the foot.
So why are newsletters some of the best ecommerce email types to keep your subscribers engaged? Here’s why:
- Customer’s love knowing what’s happening with their favorite brands
- Newsletters give subscribers a breather from promotional emails
- Executed well, newsletters can be used to tell your brand story. This will help build your reputation
- Ecommerce Newsletters are an excellent way to showcase your authority and expertise
If you’re not sending out newsletters, there’s no better time to start than now. They are a great way to build a tribe of loyal customers.
11. Educational Emails
Educational emails have one primary goal – to give your customers value-based content. This is content that is beneficial to them or helps them get the best experience out of your product. One of the best ways to deliver educational emails is right after they sign up. This will show that your business is more customer-focused than it is sales-focused, thereby helping you earn their trust.
So what kind of content can you include in an educational email?
- Tips, hacks, and maintenance instructions
- Links to your best content
- Short tutorials (video or text-based)
The sky’s the limit as to what kind of content you can pack into your educational emails. The key is to give your audience information that they find useful.
12. Customer Loyalty Emails
If there’s one thing that will help you inspire your customers to stick with your brand, it’s customer appreciation. Don’t take your loyal customers for granted and assume they’ll continue being loyal. Customer loyalty is never automatic – you have to foster it. And one great way to do that is by sending out customer loyalty emails.
A customer loyalty email is simply an email whose purpose is to reward loyal customers for their support. You can show your appreciation by:
- Giving them a freebie
- Offering a discount or coupon
- Sending an appreciation card
An appreciated customer always appreciates in their customer lifetime value. This is because they’ll not only keep on buying from you, but they’re also more likely to increase their spending.
Transactional Emails
Another ecommerce email type that’s never given the effort it deserves is the transactional email.
What exactly is a transactional email?
A transactional email is a type of email that facilitates a transaction between you and your customer. Because they contain valuable information a customer needs, their open rates are quite high.
Unfortunately, most ecommerce businesses give little thought to this email type as it is usually sent after the businesses goal has been reached. However, executed well, transactional emails can help build relationships with your customers.
13. Thank You Email
While everyone does send thank you emails, many ecommerce businesses don’t send them the right way. Sure, the main purpose of a thank you email is to thank your customers for their patronage, but it can do so much more than that. It can lead to repeat buyers if you design it well and send it strategically. Some ideas for strategically sending thank you emails (apart from after a sale) include sending:
- After a customer signs up. Use a thank you email to encourage a subscriber to shop around.
- When a customer reaches a certain milestone. When a customer hits a certain milestone (like being a subscriber for a year) send them a thank you email.
- When you hit a certain milestone. Thank your customers for helping you achieve your goals.
Of course, every thank you email you send must also contain an offer as a reward. By so doing, you’ll be killing 2 birds with one stone – appreciating your customer and driving sales.
14. Order Confirmation Email
When a customer purchases a product, it’s important that you confirm the order with them using an order confirmation email. In essence, this is simply a digital receipt.
But for the savvy marketer it’s more than that – it’s another great marketing opportunity. Designed well, an order confirmation email can be used to spark excitement and foster repeat sales. Here’s how you can do just that:
- Build excitement. To do this, use your email to let your customer know where their product is and when it will reach them.
- Build trust. Highlight your returns policy in your email so customers can know they can trust you if anything were to go wrong.
- Grow your following. Use your order confirmation email to encourage first time customers to sign up for your newsletter or follow you on social media.
Every opportunity you get to communicate with a customer is a marketing opportunity. And an order confirmation email is no different,
15. Feedback/Survey Email
One ecommerce email that can have a big impact on your business’ growth is a feedback email. This is because it’s the one email that gets your customers to tell you exactly what they need from you and how they want it delivered. How do you get customers to share their thoughts with you?
- Keep your email design simple
- Use clear and concise language
- Use personalization to let them know you really need their help
- Explain why their feedback will benefit them
- Offer an incentive for participating
Customer feedback is essential in ensuring you offer your customers exactly what they need. Failure to do so could lead to a high unsubscribe rate.
While feedback emails usually fall under transactional emails (if sent post purchase and in regard to a purchase) they also work well as engagement emails if they’re sent independently from a transaction.
4 Ecommerce Emails You Should Be Sending (But Probably Aren’t)
Now that we’ve looked at the top 15 ecommerce email examples you should be sending, let’s quickly look at 4 that few do send. Remember, just one slight difference in your email marketing campaign can set you apart from your competition. And this section will show you 4 emails that will give you that differentiation factor.
1. Set Your Preferences Email
One of the reasons for high unsubscribe rates is that customers get fed up with receiving too many emails. This is why it’s important that you send your subscribers an email asking them to set their preferences. The result will be an increase in customer satisfaction and engagement.
Another advantage of sending your subscribers to a preference center is that they will self-segment, cutting down your work of creating segments. The result is that you’re more able to send personalized emails, which in turn results in an increase in sales.
2. “You Missed It” Email
“We’re sorry you missed our special offer…”
This is one ecommerce email that can help you maximize your special offer campaigns. Sending this email to subscribers who missed your offer is a great way to:
- Remind customers who forgot to take advantage of your special offer
- Leverage the power of FOMO in the case of subscribers who just hate missing a good deal
Everything a subscriber does, and in this case what they don’t do, is an opportunity for you to enhance your marketing campaign. Sending a ÿou missed it” email is definitely a great way to extend your marketing campaign and increase its impact.
3. Browse Abandonment Email
Sometimes shoppers visit your website and browse through your category product pages but don’t load their cart. In fact, only about 10% of website visitors actually make it to your cart page.
This is why you need to utilize browse abandonment emails.
Browse abandonment emails are simply emails that are designed to retarget website visitors who leave your site before purchasing anything. When a subscriber does this, it’s easy to notice. Send them an email to ask if they were looking for something specific and that you can help them find it. Doing this is a great way to increase your conversion rates.
For more information Check our browse abandonment email examples here
4. Complete Your Profile Email
Sometimes a new customer can get distracted whilst in the midst of completing their profile. Don’t lose heart when this happens. All you need to do is send them an email reminding them to complete their profile. Of course, an incentive will increase your open and conversion rates.
So, before you delete those inactive subscribers, run a reactivation campaign first. You’ll be surprised at how many subscribers will “come back”.
In conclusion, mastering the art of ecommerce email marketing is not just about sending messages; it’s about crafting meaningful connections with your audience. By leveraging the diverse array of email types and campaigns outlined in this article, you have the tools to engage, nurture, and convert leads into loyal customers.
Want to know which other automations you can set for your ecommerce store? Here’s our guide on ecommerce email automation.
If you need help managing your email campaigns, then get in touch with our ecommerce email agency.
