14 Ecommerce Email Ideas and Tips

Introduction

The amount of emails ecommerce businesses can create and send is endless. In this article, I share some ideas and tips that you can use for inspiration. They can be used at different stages of your prospective customers' and customers' journey with you.

Thanks For Your Purchase

Saying "thank you" can also leave a lasting impression; it can look like you've made more of an effort than just a simple landing page.

The email does not have to be sent straight after somebody has purchased something. It can tie in with another objective, for example, ensuring your customer is happy with their product. If you find out they aren't, it gives you the opportunity to fix any issues should they arise.  

That being said, if you want to send a thank you email straight after payment, do! I recommend testing the amount of emails you send to your customers though. You don't want to send too many which could result in them unsubscribing. 

Product Emails 

Product Recommendations 

If done right, I really like product recommendation emails! Connect your email platform to your CRM system and send product recommendations based on your customers' buying behaviour and wishlist preferences. Test the content you write to get the balance of sales and "hey, have you seen this?" and you could find your sales increase thanks to your loyal customers and automated emails.

Wishlist Reminder

Similar to product recommendations, using your CRM system, you can remind your customers what items they have in their wishlist. This retains your customers interest and could prompt them to purchase items in their wishlist. 

The timing on this email is vital, you might want to consider the common paydays (the last working day of the month), birthdays (to treat themselves) and when the items are low in stock.

When you create the email, use a positive tone – afterall you're delivering positive news.

Loyalty Programmes 

If you have a loyalty programme, give your customers an update about their points every now and then. It's a great way to remind them that they have points to spend or that they're a few purchases of the next loyalty tier.

If you create a campaign for your reward programme – like receiving double points, email is a good platform to promote it on – your target audience are already there. 

Birthday/Anniversary Gift 

It's always great to feel appreciated. On your customers birthday and/or anniversary with you, give them a discount code for them to use on their next purchase (you can make this time limited). 

These types of emails help build brand loyalty and drive your sales, whilst reiterating you put them first (you aren't just sending Newsletters every month).

Instructional

If your product requires assembly or instructions on how to use it best, you could email your customers an instructional video. This will make sure they are going to get the most out of your product and potentially reduce the number of questions you have to answer.

Re-Engagement Emails 

Cart Abandonment 

People leave their shopping cart all the time and for different reasons. Bring people back to your website and encourage them to make a purchase by using triggered emails. You will need to test various things within this email journey including language and timing.

Use persuasive language in your content and test the fear of missing out emotion too (the item you were looking at is now low in stock), it could work for your business. 

Within your email, remind your customers about the product they were looking at, include a short  description and remind them of the price too.

Re-Engagement  

In your email system, set up a workflow to email those that don't shop with you after a certain amount of time – perhaps with a discount code or with free shipping.

Updates

Order Confirmation

Continue building trust with your customers by updating them wherever possible. Let them know that you've received their order, you're packing it and you've sent it off to the courier. Sometimes it won't be possible to send all of these emails, but it's nice to update them every now and then.

Despatch Notification  

Delivery emails have to be one of our favourite emails to receive, right? So make sure you're sending them! If you work with ecommerce platforms like Despatch Bay, it's likely these will be automated.

Conclusion  

As you can see, you can send your customers and prospective customers lots of different targeted emails on their journey with you. I hope these ideas have given you inspiration to help you start writing some content.