E-commerce email templates

E-commerce is growing at an incredibly fast pace, and right now there’s nothing more important for this industry as the upcoming sales season. In 2019, worldwide sales generated by e-commerce totaled over $3.4 bn, and they are expected to reach $4.9 bn in 2021 (source). So, if you own an e-commerce store, it’s the last chance for you to get ready. If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to review your e-commerce marketing strategy.

Which aspects of your strategy should you focus on? Everything points towards emails being the preferred communication method for e-commerce businesses. In fact, 72% of people (including millennials and teenagers) prefer email as their main source of communication with businesses (source).

Taking all of this into account, we will provide you with all of the necessary resources and tips to boost your e-commerce email marketing strategy – including different types of emails you will need to use to attract your customers’ attention.

Email marketing strategies: the basics

Before you start mass emailing your customers, it is important to define the objectives of your email marketing strategy. Your goals will be the foundation for all of your activities and will help you measure their performance.

If you just start writing emails without a solid strategy, you risk sending messages that won’t bring the desired results. The question you need to ask yourself as an e-commerce business  is: “What do I want to achieve?”

Your goals might include:

• Converting new customers
• Increasing sales
• Gathering reviews and feedback
• Encouraging customer loyalty and improving communications
• Providing information to customers (about special offers, new products, or updates, etc.)
• Presenting your company and your exclusive points of sale

Obviously, you don’t have to choose just one of these goals. However, with all of the possibilities that are offered by email marketing, the aim is to have a few clearly defined objectives. Trying to hit too many targets will result in the underperformance of your campaigns. By focusing on the goals that are most important to you, you can efficiently utilize your resources and avoid wasting time on creating email content that does not add any value to your users. 

Let’s have a look at what you can do to ensure you achieve your clearly defined goals.

Summary of best practices for email marketing for e-commerce

• Be consistent in the number of emails sent –  don’t change the frequency drastically
• Obtain email lists in a legal way – don’t buy contact lists
• Keep lists clean of “spam traps”
• Avoid being flagged as spam
• Personalize your emails
• Be consistent in the design of your emails
• Use creativity when coming up with subject lines
• Perform A/B tests
• Always fill out  the pre-header
• Create a nice balance between copy and images
• Place an unsubscribe button in a visible place
• Avoid shortening links
• Segment your contacts based on their interests and purchase history, etc.
• Adapt, modify, or re-align your objectives over time

As mentioned at the beginning, we’ve prepared a handful of materials so that you can put theory into practice and start communicating with your potential and existing customers via emails.

Pre-sale email subject lines

• Don’t miss out – the sales season starts [next week/on Monday/in X days, etc.

Product sale email template subject lines

• Good news – our prices are dropping
• Price drop alert: up to [X]% off selected items

Order confirmation email subject lines

• Success! We’ve received your order  

Last chance email template subject lines

• There are only a few [items] left from the [name] collection. Shop now 
• [X]% off ends in [Y] hours. It’s your last chance to buy [items]

Abandoned shopping cart email subject lines

• There’s something you’ve left behind in your cart
• Don’t forget to order [name of the item that is in the user’s shopping cart]
• Still thinking it over? Complete your purchase before [item] is gone!

E-commerce email templates

Pre-sale email template 

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Product sale email template 1

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Product sale email template 2

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Product sale email template 3

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Last Chance email template 1

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Last Chance email template 2

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Coupon email template 1  

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Coupon email template 2 – as a thank you for doing something

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Upselling/Cross-selling email template 1 – focused on cross-selling

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Upselling/Cross-selling email template 2 – focused on cross-selling