E-business owners are always looking for more sales and profit to gain growth at the lowest possible cost. For most, ecommerce email marketing will deliver any marketing effort’s highest return on investment (ROI).

Email marketing is a form of retention marketing. It sends emails to people who have already engaged with your brand, either through purchase or actively joining your newsletter list. It’s an old business adage that it is “cheaper to keep a customer than to buy a new one.”

Your customers and shoppers are key to your success. Treat them as such by making them well-informed on your value proposition and products.

Whether you’re new to ecommerce or a seasoned store owner, understanding the best way to use email marketing can improve your sales, customer relationships, and overall business growth. In this guide, we’ll break down everything you need to know about ecommerce email marketing.

Email marketing isn’t a maybe for most businesses. It’s a must-do.

What is Email Marketing?

Email marketing is short for electronic mail. It allows businesses to send messages, promotions, updates, and more directly to their customers’ inboxes. Thus offering instant access to new information free of both the delay and cost of snail mail.

It’s a versatile tool for building relationships, driving sales, and nurturing customer loyalty. Unlike social media, where algorithms decide how much visibility you get, email marketing ensures your message lands right in front of your audience.

It’s also a creative space. If you’re sending nothing but “blah, blah, blah, this stuff is on sale,” you’ll likely see mediocre results. If you get creative, and segment your audience well, and personalize the messaging you can see phenomenal results.

At its core, email marketing is about creating a relationship with your audience. It’s not just about selling—it’s about engaging and building trust over time.

How is Email Marketing Different for Ecommerce?

Email marketing for ecommerce stands apart due to its focus on driving conversions and sales, by enhancing the information relationship you have with your shoppers. While other industries might use email marketing primarily for brand awareness, ecommerce businesses use it to:

• • • Promote new products or collections.
    • Notify customers about discounts or sales.
    • Recover abandoned carts.
    • Send post-purchase follow-ups or upsell recommendations.

Email for ecommerce benefits enormously from all the behavioral actions your customers take. These days you can literally market based on what a specific customer viewed prior, and even create campaigns based on what people who bought “A” in the past also liked.

Artificial intelligence, when combined with a great customer database is incredibly powerful. We’ve seen revenue boosts of 45%!

Another perk of using email for ecommerce is that while most businesses are limited to marketing emails, an online store sends transactional emails as well. These do not require advance permission to market. You can put marketing information in transactional emails. Try a coupon to get them to buy again.

Why Email Marketing is Important for Ecommerce?

Your site is likely one of tens of thousands competing for the same eyeballs and dollars as your competition in the online space. The use of email marketing helps your business stand out. Here’s why it’s crucial for ecommerce:

• • • Direct Communication: You have total control of the message and can ensure it reaches your audience.
    • Cost-Effective: Compared to paid ads, email marketing offers a much higher return on investment (ROI). Advertising is doing well if you get a 10X ROAS. By comparison, sales bumps of 25-35% can deliver 45X ROI or more.
    • Retention and Loyalty: Regular communication keeps your brand top-of-mind for existing customers.
    • Ownership: Unlike social media platforms, you own your audience – your email list, giving you more control over your customer interactions. Your email address list can also be used for retargeted advertising, creating custom look-a-like audiences for advertising, and more.

Benefits of Email Marketing for Ecommerce

• • 1. Increased Sales: This is the entire reason you think you do email – making more money. Email campaigns drive direct purchases by promoting relevant products to your customers. It can also help shoppers return to become buyers. Abandoned cart, checkout, and browse automated emails bring shoppers back before they buy elsewhere. Informative emails can lower product return rates. Help your customers get the most value from their purchase.
    2. Personalized Shopping Experiences: Tailored recommendations present the right products to interested parties. Personalized campaigns are a key aspect to modern email marketing and its success.As an example: it is of low value to send an email full of iPhone cases on sale to an audience that owns Android phones. Personalization is a must in your email marketing campaigns.
    3. Improved Customer Retention: Regularly staying in touch fosters loyalty and repeat purchases. They won’t wonder “Where did I buy that widget?”
    4. Automation: Save time and boost efficiency with automated emails for onboarding, cart recovery, and more. Some stores run hundreds of automated flows to provide targeted messaging that really drives sales.
    5. Usable Data: Email marketing tools provide metrics to track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, helping you refine your strategy.

Why Email Marketing Works So Well

Email marketing remains one of the most effective tools for ecommerce businesses due to its unique advantages:

• • • High Reach: Emails go directly to your audience’s inbox, ensuring higher visibility compared to social media posts. Social posts or ads can get lost in crowded feeds or missed because your audience did not log-in.
    • Personalization: Advanced tools enable dynamic content tailored to each recipient’s preferences, making messages more relevant and engaging.
    • Immediate Impact: Emails are delivered instantly, allowing you to communicate time-sensitive offers like flash sales or seasonal discounts. Have you tried a flash sale?
    • Cost Efficiency: Email campaigns are highly cost-effective, especially when compared to traditional advertising or pay-per-click campaigns. This is one of the least expensive marketing tools at your disposal.
    • Measurable Results: With analytics tools, you can track open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, giving you actionable insights to optimize future campaigns.
    • Automation: Automated workflows ensure consistency and efficiency, keeping your communication relevant without constant manual effort.

The combination of these factors makes email marketing an invaluable tool for driving engagement, building trust, and boosting sales in the ecommerce space.

Email Marketing Automation for Ecommerce

Automation is a game-changer when you are building your email marketing strategy. By setting up automatic workflows, you can:

• • • Recover Abandoned Carts: Send reminders to customers who leave items in their carts. This keeps your items top-of-mind. Having a strong and optimized abandoned cart email automation is the first flow most business owners should implement.
    • Welcome New Subscribers: Create a welcoming email series to introduce your brand. Use this series to build trust with your audience.
    • Upsell and Cross-Sell:* Make product recommendations based on past purchases.*
    • Post-Purchase Engagement:* Thank customers for their purchases and encourage reviews.* Send usage guides and “you may also like” emails using AI to match items to past purchases.
    • Re-Engage Inactive Customers:* Send special offers or reminders to customers who haven’t interacted with your brand in a while.*

The types of emails you can automate and personalize into workflows is nearly infinite. Your options are limited by your creativity and imagination. In the end, campaigns with high-engagement emails convert better.

Automation ensures timely, relevant, and personalized communication without constant manual effort. It not only saves time but also enhances the customer experience by delivering the right message at the right time.

Audience Segmentation: Reaching the Right People

Audience segmentation is the practice of dividing your email list into smaller, more targeted groups based on shared characteristics. This approach ensures your messages are relevant and engaging, which boosts open rates and conversions.

Here are some ways to segment your audience effectively:

• • • Demographics: Age, gender, location, and income level can inform tailored messaging. You can also send birthday emails, back-in-stock reminders, and wishlist prompts.
    • Behavior: Segment based on browsing history, purchase behavior, or engagement with past emails.
    • Interests: Use data from surveys or browsing habits to identify customer preferences. Asking your audience what they would like to see helps you provide better content and an experience.
    • Lifecycle Stage: Group customers as new subscribers, loyal shoppers, or inactive users.
    • Purchase History: Recommend complementary products or highlight similar items based on past purchases.

By sending personalized emails to each segment, you demonstrate that you understand your customers’ unique needs, which can significantly enhance your relationship with them.

The Importance of Good Customer Data

Good customer data is the foundation of effective email marketing. Without accurate, detailed information about your audience, your campaigns are likely to miss the mark. Here’s why good customer data is essential:

• • • Personalization: Data allows you to tailor your messages, making them more relevant and engaging.
    • Segmentation: Accurate information helps you divide your audience into meaningful segments.
    • Targeting: With quality data, you can send the right message to the right person at the right time.
    • Improved ROI: Well-targeted campaigns driven by data are more likely to convert, maximizing your return on investment.
    • Customer Insights: Data reveals trends and preferences, helping you understand your audience better and refine your overall strategy.

To do email marketing really well, you’ll want a data platform that incorporates as many of these data points as possible. This is why email marketing software such as Klaviyo is superior to others like Mailchimp which is not designed to be ecommerce specific. Shopify Email is a great tools for Shopify stores that are still small and just  starting to market via email.

Mailchimp and most other email marketing platforms may have some of the data points but not the flexibility to create truly segmented experiences. They are not low enough cost compensate for the lack of flexibility but may be a good option for service providers or those with limited diversity in their customer audience.

To ensure your customer data remains useful, regularly update your database, encourage customers to provide accurate information, and integrate data from various touchpoints like purchase history, website interactions, and customer support.

Does SMS/Text marketing replace email marketing?

Contrary to the opinions of some, email is not dead. It still is super lucrative alone and even more valuable combined with text and push notifications to find the customer where they are.

SMS/text marketing does not replace email marketing; instead, it complements it. Each channel serves unique purposes and offers distinct advantages:

• • • Email Marketing: Ideal for detailed messages, long-term engagement, and visually rich content like product catalogs, newsletters, or promotional offers. It allows for in-depth storytelling and is highly effective for nurturing leads and building loyalty over time.
    • SMS/Text Marketing: Perfect for urgent, time-sensitive communication, such as flash sales, order updates, or reminders. Text messages boast high open rates and immediate visibility but are limited in content length and design. Open rates for text messages near 100% so you know they are seeing your messages.

Combining the two can enhance your overall strategy. For example, use email for detailed promotions and SMS for last-minute reminders or confirmations. Each channel can amplify the other, ensuring your message reaches the right audience at the right time.

How to Select Email Marketing Automation Software

Choosing the right email marketing automation software is crucial for implementing an effective strategy. Here are the key factors to consider:

• • 1. Ease of Use: Look for platforms with intuitive interfaces and easy setup processes, especially if you’re new to email marketing. These days most offer a drag-and-drop interface but keep in mind that creating custom audience segments is a key activity to test as this is where less expensive platforms fail.
    2. Features and Customization: Ensure the software offers advanced segmentation, A/B testing, and dynamic content capabilities for personalized campaigns. It should also make it easy to create custom pops and forms to gather emails. Some programs have SMS and push notifications built in. You’ll also want to review their template library and be sure that you can save your own branded email templates as well.
    3. Integration Options: Check if it integrates seamlessly with your ecommerce platform, CRM, and other tools you use. This includes shipping fulfillment, your loyalty program, rewards program, and other unique features of your site that merit regular contact with shoppers.
    4. Automation Capabilities: Look for robust automation features, including workflows for abandoned carts, post-purchase emails, and customer re-engagement. Also see how easy it is to duplicate and edit existing flows.
    5. Analytics and Reporting: Choose software that provides detailed analytics to track performance metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions.
    6. Scalability: Ensure the platform can grow with your business as your email list and needs to expand.
    7. Customer Support: Opt for providers with responsive customer support and resources like tutorials or knowledge bases. 24/7 live support is available from the better platforms.
    8. Pricing: Consider your budget and compare pricing plans to find software that offers the best value for the features you need.

Popular options include ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Drip, and Optimove. Evaluate each option based on your business requirements and goals to make an informed decision.

How to Create an Email Campaign for Ecommerce

Creating a successful email campaign involves several steps:

• • 1. Define Your Goal: Whether it’s promoting a sale, recovering carts, or launching a new product, have a clear objective.
    2. Segment Your Audience: Divide your email list into groups based on behavior, demographics, or purchase history to send targeted messages.
    3. Craft Engaging Content: Write compelling subject lines, include clear calls-to-action (CTAs), and use high-quality visuals to grab attention.
    4. Use Personalization: Address customers by their name and recommend products they’ll love.
    5. Optimize for Mobile: Ensure your emails look great on any device, as most users check emails on their phones.
    6. Test and Refine: A/B test subject lines, CTAs, and designs to see what resonates best with your audience.
    7. Track Performance: Monitor metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions to measure success and make improvements.

Final Thoughts

Ecommerce email marketing is a powerful tool for driving sales, building relationships, and growing your business. By leveraging automation, personalization, and strategic planning, you can create impactful email campaigns that keep your customers engaged and coming back for more.

Ready to elevate your ecommerce game? Build your email list, create engaging campaigns, and watch your online store thrive.