20 Types Of Emails You Must Send To Your Online Buyers
Reading Time: 9 minutesThe email has become an important channel for the eCommerce industry. Not just the eCommerce marketers and business owners want to use it, even online buyers expect emails for almost all types of communication from the eCommerce brands.
Sending different types of emails no longer remains an option for an online brand. But the question is- what types of emails an eCommerce brand must plan and send to fulfill buyers’ expectations?
Let’s find out.
1. Welcome email
In eCommerce, you can receive a person’s email address when they,
- Sign up for your newsletter, eBooks, whitepapers, lookbooks, etc.
- Register themselves as a user on your online store
Whichever way they pick up, you get an email address for which you need to,
- Thank them
- Provide information about your business
- Inspire to keep reading what you’ve sent
- Persuade them to keep on purchasing your products
Welcome email is one of first email types every eCommerce store must send the FIRST time whenever you receive an email address. This type of email differs based on the way a user has registered on the site.
Let’s look at a welcome email type from Ola-
2. Offers email
Another type of email you should send to your eCommerce users is the Offers Email.
How would your users come to know about the discounts you offer from time-to-time? This is the email you can use for the same.
Use this email type to offer incentives to your subscribers/previous customers, which can be a discount coupon, the holiday season offers free shipping offers, announcements for upcoming offers, limited-time offers, and many more.
This type of email not only helps you drive sales but even reward loyal customers.
Here is how Verge Girl, a popular Australian fashion brand, sends out an Offers Email type-
3.New Arrivals
Being a business, you need to keep evolving with time and must get new products in your store. But, bringing in new products is not enough. You need to tell each of your customers to know the same.
That’s the time when you need to send this “New Arrivals” kind of an email just like Nike.
4. Cart abandonment email
One of the biggest challenges eCommerce businesses face is to identify a permanent solution to the increasing cart abandonment rate. Well, we all know that this is nearly impossible but marketers can take the opportunity to reduce the cart abandonment rate.
A cart abandonment email is the type of email that you can use to reach out to the customers who you know we’re ready to buy from your online store. Google Analytics and many other marketing analytics tools can help you identify the users who left the store without checkout.
You can create different types of cart abandonment emails that can help you persuade different types of customers in different ways.
Here is a cart abandonment email example by Nykaa-
5. Order confirmation email
You provide a Thank-you page whenever a user buys from you where you thank them for their purchase and provide other information such as expected shipping & delivery on the same page.
But, considering user experience, the Thank-You page cannot be remembered and visited again to check back all the information about the order and hence, cannot be used for a digital receipt that confirms the order.
Hence, the order confirmation email type is used as a digital receipt of the order placed.
6. Order status email
Online shopping is completely different from offline shopping. Unlike offline shopping, online consumers receive products at their doorstep and not at the moment they make the purchase.
Keeping your customers informed about their orders is the most crucial step in making sure their buying experience is flawless.
That’s where this email type comes into the picture. The Order Status email keeps your customers informed about everything related to their order status.
Here are the types of email comes under the Order Status email group-
A. Dispatch email / Shipping email
Here is an order dispatch email example by one of the world’s leading marketplaces, Amazon.
B. Out-for-delivery email
Amazon sends out an email for order status- “Out for Delivery”
C. Delivery email
D. Exchange email – Myntra
Here is an email example for order exchange by one of the leading fashion eCommerce brands, Myntra
E. Return email
7. Back in Stock
Sometimes, while browsing on an eCommerce website, you often see the products you love to go out of stock. And, you have this tendency of wishlisting them so that you can monitor whether they are back in stock. Such a situation prevails with your online customers.
What if your potential customers forget about those wishlisted products that are now back in stock? You need to send an email to inform them that your loved products are back in stock.
Here is how Nykaa sends this email-
8. Wishlist reminder email
We’re humans, we tend to forget things. And, distraction is one of the biggest reasons here.
While browsing products, people add the products that they liked the most to the wishlist. But sometimes, distractions make them leave your eCommerce store without making the purchase. Such scenarios are not good for your business and you need to play tactfully here.
This is where this type of email comes into play. A Wishlist reminder email becomes a part of the strategic email marketing campaigns to increase the conversion rate.
9. Feedback request or Rate Your Products email
Feedback is crucial for every business. If you get the right one, you can improve and serve your customers better.
That’s the reason why every eCommerce store must plan a Feedback Request email. With this type of email, you can learn about their shopping experiences, buying expectations, and love for your brand.
You can send this email after every purchase as well as once in 2-3 months.
MakeMyTrip sends out an email after the stay for reviews and ratings, here is its email example,
Udemy, one of the leading online learning platforms, also sends emails after a few months to get feedback on their courses. Take a look at their email type-
10. Browsing history email
Now we know that forgetting things comes easily to us even as consumers so let’s make sure that you have a plan B on top of cart abandonment email to increase conversions, a browsing history email.
Many times, people browse products on your online store, but they neither add them to wishlist nor even to cart.
Those people could become your loyal customers if handled with care. This is the time when it becomes crucial to remind them that there are some products that they browsed on your online store. Adding the reviews of those products in the email can instantly boost conversions.
New visitors can become new customers, and existing customers can become loyal ones with this type of email.
Amazon utilizes its marketing technology to send out such recommendations based on the browsing history-
11 . Product recommendation email
The product recommendation is all about personalization showing that you care for your customers, and their choice & preferences.
We recently published the types of Product Recommendations you can use on your eCommerce store. But, let us tell you that such product recommendations also work in email marketing.
Use the Product Recommendation email type and add the relevant products based on their past activity on your online store.
Check out another product recommendation email type by Coursera-
12. Emails on special occasions
Personalization is everywhere for eCommerce businesses. You just need to explore. Keep a track of your customers’ birthdays and anniversaries, and not just wish them on their special day, but even offer them a small discount. Do all of these with the help of this email type.
Also, you can send emails on the birthdays of your brand as well. Such emails make them feel special and inspire them to buy from you.
Say if you don’t have their birth dates, inspire from Swiggy and find out how you can ask them for their birthday-
13. Brand Birthday
Special occasions are not just for customers, it can be for the brand as well. So, when a brand turns older, your customers also need to celebrate along with you. That’s when you need to announce offers and deals.
Start announcing your brand birthday deals from 1 week before by sending this type of email. Almost all brands do this and so should you.
That’s another email example by CourseraMyntra on Brand’s birthday emails-
14. Brand and User Anniversary
Well, this is something unique, and not all eCommerce brands are able to do it. This is a special occasion between a brand and a user- an anniversary of when a user signed up, bought first, etc. on your website.
To send such email types you need marketing technologies in place that help you retrieve such data, and plan your email marketing campaigns accordingly. Nike does it perfectly-
15. ‘How-to’ email
Marketplaces have over millions of sellers selling different types of products, and billions of buyers with different buying preferences. But, small-scale or niche eCommerce sites have a very limited type of audience that looks for personal attention.
That’s where the ‘How-to’ email comes into the picture. This email type differs based on the type of industry you belong to.
For example, if you’re a jewelry brand, you can send an email on “How to keep your jewelry clean?”
Now, if you’re a fashion eCommerce brand, you can send an email on “How to prevent the clothes from fading?”
For an online furniture store, an email on “How to fix scratches on your furniture?” would make your customers feel you not only inspire them to buy their products but even don’t want them to throw away their furniture for such damage.
So such email types help you boost consumer trust that directly impacts your sales.
Take a look at this email type by Verge Girl-
16. Brand assurance email
Promoting products in most emails is understood, but sometimes, you need to tell your customers that they’ve trusted the right brand.
Such assurance you can give by sending them this email. This email type brings a significant impact on your business growth as it helps build the reputation of your brand amongst the customers. The email content emphasizes the brand value, making the users feel the promise kept by your brand.
You can send user-generated content from social platforms, media mentions, and more in this type of email.
One of the topmost jewelry brands, Bluestone sends out this email type periodically-
17. Company newsletter email
Just like all other businesses, eCommerce ones also have news to share with their customers. The news could be related to a merger or acquisition, new eCommerce feature launch, partnership, collaboration, and more.
Sending such news in an email keeps your customers informed about the steps the brand is taking to advance in the way they deliver user experience, expand, and grow.
Again Bluestone nails in sending such a type of email for company news-
18. Loyalty/Customer Thanking for being a loyal customer email
If you’ve implemented this Thanking or Customer Appreciation strategy, you would know how important it is to let your customers know how valuable they are for your brand.
Customer appreciation inspires loyal customers to continue showering their loyalty to your brand. You can appreciate such customers with the help of customer loyalty emails, which include a discount coupon or just an appreciation card.
19. Unsubscribe email
No marketer likes to send an Unsubscribe email, but use it as an opportunity to inspire users to either subscribe for your newsletter again or make a purchase again.
The moment a user unsubscribes from your email, you send this email while letting them know how valuable they’re for you by showcasing the products they’ve browsed or bought earlier. Also, add a little come-back discount that can help them come to your store for one more time.
20. Welcome Back
What if a user who unsubscribed from your email or removed your app from their mobile phones comes back?
Just like a lover, you should notice that and welcome them with all your love. But, this time, you cannot send the same welcome email that you had sent them when they joined for the first time.
You need to send a “Welcome Back” email with some fresh message and a special discount just like Swiggy-
Add automation to all the types of emails you send
It’s not just about reading what types of emails you must send to your eCommerce customers, but it’s also about making sure that it doesn’t eat up too much of your time. Use the appropriate tools so that you don’t just read and go, but even start sending these email types easily and quickly. After all, conversions, brand reputation, and customer loyalty— everything matters.
