Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to convert visitors into buyers and keep them engaged. Email can have a huge impact on your conversions.
It’s more personal than social media, presents great opportunities for customer engagement, and gives you direct access to your customers’ inboxes. The effects of email marketing are clear – the results speak for themselves.
There are different types of email flows, such as a welcome, post-purchase, or abandoned cart email flow, that can boost the performance of your eCommerce business and increase sales if done right.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the most important eCommerce email flows, along with examples and advice on how to set them up effectively.
eCommerce Email Flows You Must Have & Why
eCommerce email flows are a sequence of emails sent to a segmented group of customers that you can automate based on certain criteria.
The best eCommerce email flows have the same end goal: to generate sales.
But they can achieve that goal in a variety of different ways, from reminding the customer of abandoned items in their shopping cart to recommending products that complement what they’ve already bought.
The key is to identify the right flow for each customer and the right moment for each message.
Here are some of the most important eCommerce email flows.
Welcome Email Flow
A welcome email flow is the sequence of emails that a new subscriber receives right after signing up for your newsletter or via an opt-in.
It’s a great way to:
- Introduce your brand
- Offer incentives
- Drive traffic back to your site.
Someone who has just signed up for your email list might not be ready to make a purchase just yet.
However, as they get to know you better over time (and start receiving awesome newsletters from you), their desire to buy will grow.
A welcome email flow has been created with precisely this in mind.
You can use it to:
- Introduce your brand
- Nurture new leads
- Get subscribers more comfortable with the idea of buying from you.
Post-Purchase Email Flow
A post-purchase flow is sent to new customers after they make a purchase with you. The goal of this email flow is to thank them for their purchase and help them get all set up with your products.
This flow can include additional information about their purchase, such as:
- Where they can find tracking information
- How they can return or exchange items
- What other products might be of interest to them based on their recent purchase.
It’s also a great opportunity to let them know you’re there if they need help with anything related to their recent order, while also highlighting some of your other products to encourage repeat purchases.
Abandoned Cart Email Flow
The abandoned cart email flow triggers whenever a visitor places items into their shopping cart and starts the checkout process, but doesn’t complete it.
Its goal is to remind customers why they came to your site in the first place and offer them a way to pick up where they left off without having to search again for the products they already chose to buy.
The abandoned cart email sequence can be triggered as soon as someone leaves your site or after a few hours have passed.
For example, if someone leaves your site within 5 minutes and doesn’t take action on the first abandoned cart email, you could send them another one 24 hours later. If they still haven’t taken any action, you could send another email 48 hours later.
5 Tips for a Successful eCommerce Email Flow
The best eCommerce email flows are highly personalized and part of a larger strategy that drives email growth, engagement, and revenue. Creating a successful email flow that integrates with the rest of your marketing efforts can be challenging.
Here are five quick tips to help you get started:
- Decide which actions you want your subscribers to take when they receive your emails.
- Develop a plan before writing your whole email sequence.
- Segment your list to target specific audiences and increase engagement by sending relevant messages to the people who are most likely to read them.
- Add personal touches to your email campaigns, such as names and locations, to create meaningful messages that engage subscribers more effectively than generic content.
- Create email flows tailored to the customers on each stage of their customer journey with your brand.
3 Examples of Powerful eCommerce Email Flows
To help you find inspiration for your eCommerce email flows, let’s take a look at some brilliant email examples from different eCommerce brands.
Welcome Email from Chipotle
This welcome email from Chipotle is everything a welcome email should be: it’s concise, it’s catchy, and it makes you want to order a delicious burrito.
It also has all the necessary elements.
- It thanks the subscribers for signing up to the newsletter
- Sets their expectations for what’s to come
- Includes an enticing call to action.
Post-Purchase Email from Food52
This is an excellent example of an effective post-purchase email.
It’s clear, concise, and contains all the relevant info about the customer’s purchase, such as:
- The tracking number
- A quick link to the order summary
- And an invitation to get in touch.
It also contains a referral link, which is a great strategy to encourage customers to recommend the brand and buy from it again.
Abandoned Cart Email from Pulp & Press
This abandoned cart email has a catchy headline that gently reminds the subscriber about their abandoned purchase.
It also gives the customer a reason to continue with their purchase by mentioning that the product is a “fan favorite.”
Plus, Pulp & Press also takes this opportunity to promote some of their other products that the customer might like.
Ready to Set Up Effective eCommerce Email Flows?
Email flows are one of the best ways to keep your customers coming back. Effective email flows can help you:
- Educate consumers about your brand, products, or services
- Re-engage with inactive customers
- Cross-sell and upsell products, based on past purchases
- Promote events (like sales, deals, or launches)
- Build stronger relationships with your customers.
We hope that this guide has given you a deeper understanding of the most important email flows for eCommerce and how to create them successfully. Good luck!
