Ecommerce Email Marketing: How to Drive More Sales From Your List

However, most ecommerce companies pay close attention to advertisements in order to attract more traffic to their websites. Nonetheless, you have one highly profitable channel which you might not be using enough, email marketing for ecommerce brings back $45 return for each dollar invested which exceeds all other channels.

This guide will explain the best way to create, segment and automate your ecommerce email marketing campaigns in order to turn them into buying subscribers.

Table of Contents

Why Ecommerce Email Marketing Matters

It is an owned marketing channel which you own and your subscribers are already interested in your company, unlike the cold audience you need to attract through advertisements.

What Makes Email So Powerful for Ecommerce

Direct communication with your customers without platform restrictions
Best conversion rate of all digital marketing channels
Works 24/7 automatically
Customer loyalty building process

The Ecommerce Email List: Building It Right

It is impossible to deliver emails if you don’t have a list. Here is how you can generate the list that will bring conversions:

1. Use Pop-Ups Strategically

Pop-ups with exit intent offering 10–15% off work effectively. You need to show such pop-ups when users want to leave your website.

2. Add Email Capture to Your Checkout Flow

You need to have opt-in checkboxes at checkout. They convert 3–5 times better than those coming from pop-ups.

3. Run Giveaways and Contests

A “win a $200 gift card” contest can bring you thousands of new subscribers in a few days. However, make sure that you’re targeting the right subscriber.

4. Create a Loyalty Program

“A special offer for our VIPs – early sales notifications and access to unique deals” provides people with an extra incentive to subscribe other than the price reduction.

5. Use Referral Programs

Incentivize your current subscribers to introduce their friends to the service for store credit.

The 7 Essential Ecommerce Email Flows

Those are the automations which you need to install prior to everything else because they work on autopilot and bring you money around the clock.

1. Welcome Series (3–5 Emails, Days 0–7)

Introduce your brand story, your best-selling products, and the promised discount at sign-up time. It’s your high open rate series, make sure you don’t ruin it with just one welcome mail.

2. Abandoned Cart Sequence (3 Emails, Hours 1/24/72)

On an average, 70% of the people abandon their carts during the checkout process. A well-written series of three emails help to recover 5%-15% of them.

Email 1: Soft reminder (One hour post-abandonment)
Email 2: Objectives resolution + Social proof (24 hours)
Email 3: Final chance + discount/urgency (72 hours)

3. Browse Abandonment (2 Emails)

Fired when the user looks at the product many times without adding it to cart. Remind him what he was looking at and why he should buy it.

4. Post-Purchase Sequence (4 Emails)

Confirmation of order
Update on shipping
“Get more out of your purchase”
Review request (7–14 days post-delivery)

5. Win-Back Campaign (3 Emails)

Customers that haven’t bought from you within the last 90-180 days. Remind them why they love you. Give them a reason to come back.

6. VIP/Loyalty Emails

Create segments of your best 10-20% customers. Provide them with unique treatment. Early access, personalized discounts, and thank-you emails will be well-received.

7. Back-In-Stock Alerts

If the customer looked at an out-of-stock item, inform them about the product being restocked in an automated email. Emails in this scenario have open rates higher than 60%.

Ecommerce Email Segmentation

The same email goes to all your subscribers in the newsletter is equal to showing the same ad to everyone who came to your website, regardless of what he saw there. Segmentation is the way to personalize each message.

Key Segments to Build

New customers versus loyal customers
Heavy spenders versus light spenders
Interest in product type (derived from browsing or purchasing habits)
Geographic location (helpful for shipping-related offers and holiday-themed messages)
Active subscribers versus inactive subscribers

A segmented campaign is 760% more profitable than a generic one, says research from Campaign Monitor.

Writing Ecommerce Emails That Convert

Subject Lines

With ecommerce, you need both curiosity and urgency, but add clarity.

High-Performing Ecommerce Subject Line Formulas

“You forgot this 🙄” (abandoned cart)
“We only have 3 left in stock; your cart is expiring soon”
“Hey [name], this exclusive offer is about to expire at midnight”
“Just for you: new arrivals that we think you’ll love (based on your last purchase)”

Email Design

Keep it simple and mobile-friendly
Highlight only one product or offer at a time
Use real pictures of the products (not generic images)
Have one strong call-to-action button only

Promotional Email Calendar for Ecommerce

Apart from automation, there is a need for scheduling the emails for broadcasting. Here is an outline:

Weekly: New arrivals, blog posts, editorials
Monthly: Sales, collection, brand stories
Seasonal: Black Friday, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Back to School
Reactive: Low stock notifications, weather marketing campaign, trending products

Avoid over-marketing. One tip that may come handy here is: 3 value-based emails to one promotional email.

Metrics to Track in Ecommerce Email Marketing

Open Rate: Shoot for 20–35%
Click-through Rate: Shoot for 2-5%
Conversion Rate: % of email clicks resulting in a sale
Revenue per Email Sent: Revenue ÷ number of emails sent (your North Star metric)
Unsubscribe Rate: Keep under 0.5%
Subscriber Growth Rate: Are you acquiring subscribers at a higher rate than unsubscribing?

Best Tools for Ecommerce Email Marketing

Klaviyo

The industry benchmark for ecommerce emails. Seamless Shopify/WooCommerce integration, advanced segmentation tools.

Omnisend

Fantastic tool for multichannel marketing (email + SMS + Push notifications). Cheaper than Klaviyo.

Mailchimp

Great tool to start with for smaller businesses. Not very advanced in terms of segmentation.

Drip

Advanced automation options; favorite of mid-sized ecommerce companies.

Common Ecommerce Email Mistakes

1. Only Emailing During Sales

The list will only react when they smell a deal, and ignore you otherwise.

2. Ignoring Mobile

More than 60% of ecommerce emails are opened via smartphones. Mobile test everything first.

3. Not Cleaning Your List

Unengaged subscribers damage your deliverability. Get rid of those who haven’t opened in six months after making attempts at re-engagement.

4. Sending Without Segmentation

Your loyal customer that purchased from you yesterday does not require the “first purchase” discount.

5. Weak Product Photography in Emails

Poor visuals kill conversions.

Final Thoughts

Ecommerce email marketing is the only true revenue stream you can own. It doesn’t rely on an algorithm, a platform policy shift, or an ad bidding system. This is your list. Your connection.

Get your basic automations working first, welcome series, abandoned cart, and post-purchase. From there, plan out your broadcast strategy and segmentation strategy. Even simple segmentation can increase your email income by 100 percent in 90 days.

The businesses killing it in email aren’t just emailing more. They’re sending better emails to the right customers.