How Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation Helps You Make Smarter Sales
As competition in the ecommerce space grows every day, businesses are wondering if email is a thing of the past. That’s not the case, because emails remain the most commonly used marketing strategy – with over 361 billion emails being sent each day. Not to mention, 2024 statistics show that the number of global email users is 4.48 billion; no other medium offers the same scalability.
The only thing you have to do is level up your approach, and that’s where ecommerce email automation comes in. Because if you’re manually sending emails, you’re not leveraging its full potential. Ecommerce email marketing automation lets you scale campaigns, personalize them, and automate them for higher open rates.
Let’s explore how ecommerce email marketing automation can allow smarter sales.
What is Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation?
This refers to building emails and automating them so they’re sent to your email list based on specific criteria. Your business can use it for transactional and promotional emails as part of your overall marketing strategy.
Today, automation means more than setting a timer on emails – you can also set triggers for emails, like a recipient subscribing to your newsletter, clicking on a link, or when some time has passed since their last purchase.
Despite its ease of use, you need a smart email automation tool that lets you design and personalize email campaigns – like Mailgo. Its functionality allows you to quickly write engaging email copy that hooks readers and helps improve your business’s conversion rate.
Here are some examples of ecommerce email marketing automation flows that can increase sales:
Encourages Purchases With Abandoned Cart Emails
Cart abandonment is a common phenomenon in the ecommerce world, with about 7 out of every 10 carts abandoned before purchase. By automating emails, you can salvage a portion of these abandoned carts and make notable returns. And all it will take is to set up a couple of automated cart abandonment emails. Mailchimp data shows that abandonment emails deliver 34 times the orders per recipient as opposed to traditional marketing emails.
Sometimes, all it takes is a little nudge to get customers to finalize their purchase! Generally, the automation flow goes like this:
- Automate a cart abandonment email for 24 hours after a customer leaves their cart before completing a purchase, reminding that the product is still available.
- Automate a second reminder for 48 hours after they leave their cart, addressing problems that might be keeping them from checking out.
- If the first two don’t work, send a third email 72 hours after the customer abandons their cart, giving them a discount code or freebie.
After setting up this flow, you can track cart abandonment rates using analytics features and see if the emails are compelling enough based on conversion rates.
Gives Personalized Product Recommendations
With automated email marketing, your business can show potential and current customers personalized product recommendations that engage their interest. This isn’t just a guess; data from Barilliance shows that the average order value increases by 369 percent when prospects consider one product recommendation.
Besides forming strong relationships, product recommendations allow you to upsell or cross-sell a new product to customers who are likely to buy it. Product recommendation emails have two goals: the first is to encourage repeat purchases from existing customers. The second is to show customers that you’re paying attention to what they like and value them.
Automates Discounts For Repeat Purchases
Sending out discount codes is a popular automated email marketing strategy among e-commerce businesses. One study shows that about 44 percent of consumers check emails from brands to get discounts and notable offers.
But for the best results, your discount offers should be based on customer behavior. So if a consumer browses a certain product, you can consider sending a discount code to welcome them. Similarly, you can automate discount emails if a specific time has passed since the customer’s last purchase.
By sending discount emails, you can encourage conversions by giving customers savings on the products they’re highly interested in. It’s an effective way to track the success of discount emails. Tools like Mailgo make it easy to automate discount campaigns with customizable triggers and smart scheduling.
Greet New Customers With Automated Welcome Messaging
What’s a great way to show new potential customers that you care? Welcome them to your brand with a short and simple email! Data shows that welcome emails greeting new customers have an average open rate of 50 percent.
These numbers indicate that welcome emails have an 86 percent higher open rate compared to newsletters. When your brand says hello to new customers and gives them product highlights, it’s an effective way to engage them about what your brand can provide. This is the best time to give welcome discounts and planning the next purchase.
The end goal of a welcome email is to convert your subscribers into loyal and paying customers. This makes conversion rate an important factor to when sending out emails. You can set up automated welcome emails so they're sent each time a new subscriber adds their name to your email list.
With a higher open rate, welcome emails give your brand the opportunity to promote high-value products. If you're looking to set up simple, automated welcome emails, Mailgo offers an easy way to get started.
Confirmations, Receipts, and Shipping Emails Give Updates
The greatest advantage of email automation is that it streamlines and speeds up the process of sending transactional emails. Compared to marketing emails, customers expect to receive fast order confirmations, status updates, receipts, and more.
Let’s say your brand sends out email receipts whenever a customer makes a purchase, and these emails have an average open rate of 70.9 percent. This means they’re more likely to be opened and read compared to other kinds of messages.
And even the smallest delay can reduce the customer's confidence in your service, causing a large number of customer queries to come in. Using email automation, you inform customers about any changes or possible delays before time,
Here’s how you have a winning email strategy for confirmation emails and updates.
- The most important thing is to send an order confirmation email as soon as the customer makes a purchase, ensuring the add a receipt to the email.
- Send a shipping confirmation email whenever the order is shipped, ensuring that the customer’s order is shipped and typically include the tracking number. That’s what customers will use to follow their product.
- Even though update emails are meant to keep the customer informed, they also present the opportunity to market additional products to customers who’ve already made a purchase.
Targeted Emails Engage Repeat Customers
A report on customer loyalty shows that repeat customers can make up almost 25 percent of your brand’s revenue – even though they make up just 11 percent of your customer base. This makes it a wasted opportunity if you don’t engage repeat customers, and that’s where ecommerce email marketing automation comes in.
Interacting with these repeat customers ensures that they continue coming back to your store, and that’s when you need automated email campaigns that target customers according to their interests. These targeted emails can include blog reads, product ideas, and other types of content, like promo codes and interesting hacks.
To set up engaging emails for repeat customers, you should:
- Schedule a check-in email approximately two days after the customer receives their order, so you can ensure that they’re satisfied.
- Give them a personalized product recommendation via email about four days after they receive their order – this triggers a repeat purchase. Your brand can also send out personalized product recommendation emails to the entire group of emails.
- Add discount codes tailored for your repeat customers as a way to reward them for being loyal to your brand.
Benefits of Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation
Automating your email flows lets you enjoy all the perks of email marketing without requiring more man hours and man power to scale up your campaigns. Here are some of the benefits of automating campaigns:
Delivers High Returns and Reduces Acquisition Costs
When it comes to delivering a return on your investment, email marketing is unmatched – giving returns of about $36 for every dollar. The reason for such a high ROI is that email marketing is a low-cost method that only requires an email automation platform like Mailgo. And with continued email campaigns, increased engagement and customer loyalty can lead to higher conversions and increased customer lifetime value.
Increases Customer Engagement
Automating emails, whether it’s for transactional or promotional reasons, increases engagement with your customers. When you send responses to customer service requests at the drop of a hat, your customers will feel valued – making transactional emails effective for self-service. It also encourages continued interaction with the brand, as data shows that most subscribers who get re-engagement emails will go on to open subsequent emails.
Strengthens Customer Relationships
Giving customers exclusive deals, sending reminders for items left in their carts, and asking for feedback builds your reputation as an attentive brand. Keeping track of their buying behaviors and telling them when it’s almost out of stock shows that you understand their needs. Similarly, giving them early access to discounts, creating loyalty programs, or rewarding points based on customer behavior sets you apart from the rest.
Allows Upselling and Cross-Selling
With automated email marketing, you can segment subscribers based on their interests and purchase history to create targeted cross-selling and upselling opportunities. Platforms like Mailgo include features like smart sequencing that lets you set up different steps in the email flow based on the recipient’s behavior.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between email marketing and email marketing automation?
In email marketing, you send all potential customers the same email, regardless of their action. On the other hand, marketing automation tracks their behavior to send personalised follow-up emails.
Is email automation different from autoresponder in email marketing?
In email marketing automation, you set up automated email workflows triggered by specific conditions for each prospect. Meanwhile, autoresponders send pre-written emails in response to one trigger, like a new subscriber signing up.
Which tool is commonly used for email automation?
Tools like Mailchimp, lemlist, and Mailgo are examples of commonly used email automation platforms. Mailgo includes features like built-in email warm-up, a personalised AI email writer, and smart sequencing for multi-step email sequences that can respond to every type of reaction.
What is B testing in email marketing?
A/B testing is a technique to compare two versions of an email, A and B, to see which one performs better. You’ll send each version to a similar segment of the audience and compare metrics like opens, click-throughs, and conversions.
How does email marketing automation work?
You start by creating an email campaign with a platform like Mailgo. Then, set the triggers and a sequence of emails that will be sent based on each reaction. Your recipients will then receive emails based on the set conditions and campaigns.
Conclusion: Do You Need Ecommerce Email Marketing Automation?
Ecommerce email marketing allows you to make smart sales by creating campaigns and setting up smart sequences of emails. Automated email workflows can encourage customers to complete a transaction, cross-sell or upsell different products, and give discounts to re-engage customers. When done right, it increases your ROI, reduces customer acquisition costs, and strengthens customer relationships.
But if you’re spending hours to perfect your email marketing strategy and convert leads, you’re doing it wrong. Mailgo uses AI capabilities to validate leads, write compelling emails, and send emails based on customers’ behavior.
It’s time to upgrade your ecommerce email marketing automation strategy. Try Mailgo today.