Your customers desire and anticipate receiving a certain kind of marketing email in their inboxes at the earliest opportunity. It’s not a back-in-stock or an email about an abandoned shopping cart. It’s an email order confirmation!
Digital newsletters and promotional emails are a few things that marketers spend a great deal of time and effort refining. They put a lot of effort into making these emails flawless since they realize that they can result in leads, sales, and conversions. Recent data trends show that customers are increasingly accustomed to filtering these communications in their inboxes, so marketers must keep looking for new ways to increase sales.
In contrast, the majority of customers agree that purchase confirmation emails are the most significant and are opened much more frequently. These emails are a great way to catch your customers’ attention and nudge them toward frequent brand interaction.
This article will further elaborate on how to make use of this fact to generate purchase confirmation emails that will increase sales.
What is an order confirmation email?
An order confirmation email is a transactional email sent by the ecommerce store to the customer immediately after completing a transaction. Contrary to other promotional emails, confirmation emails are crucial to customer experience. Every confirmation email sent is an opportunity to increase customer loyalty, get repeat business, and (ideally) referrals for your brand.
An effective order confirmation email captures the buyer’s enthusiasm, clears up any confusion, and—most importantly—lays the groundwork for a long-lasting partnership with your customers. A follow-up confirmation email is comforting even if your website may feature an order confirmation page that certifies a transaction was placed successfully.
By failing to send confirmation emails or sending emails that are poorly structured and don’t meet their expectations, you run the risk of unintentionally making customers anxious, and their perception of your company will deteriorate.
Here are a few statistics that demonstrate why order confirmation emails are a goldmine of potential sales:
- They have an open rate of more than 70% compared to bulk emails’ 17% open rate (Conversio)
- Compared to bulk emails, they receive 3x as many clicks (Conversio)
- In general, returning customers spend 67% more than new customers (Marketo)
Let’s analyze a few efficient and cutting-edge ways to send order confirmation emails:
1) Flawless design
Graphical elements, images, picture backgrounds, and a few eye-catching icons can turn an order confirmation email into a meaningful narrative experience.
The structure of order confirmation emails is not standardized. But take note of the important details as follows:
- The company’s reputation must be upheld in its entirety.
- Customers must always have quick access to a brand’s logo.
- Add call-to-action buttons. Use contrasting colors to make them stand out from the text.
The rustic wood plank background in the email from Dollar Shave Club is used to powerful effect. With a translucent header, their logo and welcoming text stand out against the distinctive background.
2) Give Tracking Information
Customers desire information about the status of their orders: Has it yet left the shop? Is it in transit? What’s the current location? By informing your customers of the status of their orders, you can instill confidence and security in them.
The best method to accomplish this is by offering your customers tracked delivery along with a tracking code. Customers will feel more confident after receiving monitored delivery, which will boost future purchases and enhance the likelihood of repeat business.
Also, even if the shipping address matches the billing address, double-check it nonetheless. To guarantee that the shipment is delivered to the correct address—which customers may request—give them a chance to review these facts.
Before their item leaves the warehouse, let them change specifics like the mailing address or delivery method. This is a fantastic method to streamline the experience for your customers and earn fantastic word-of-mouth from them.
3) Include Product Recommendations
There is never a bad time to convert a visitor or first-time customer into a paying customer. Every ecommerce store should occasionally use the approach of product recommendations in their emails and operations.
This strategy works well for generating repeat business from new customers. This tactic can be classified into two categories:
Let’s take an example to comprehend the difference between the two.
Imagine purchasing a laptop.
Any offer that will result in you spending more money on the first product is referred to as an upsell. For example, the merchant might ask you if you want to upgrade your laptop (to a larger screen size, a faster CPU, etc.).
On the other hand, if the retailer gives you the option to buy accessories for your laptop, such as a mouse, keyboard, laptop bag, etc. This is referred to as a cross-sell.
Due to their curiosity about what will happen next, recipients open confirmation emails. Utilize their enquiring nature to your advantage by making similar product recommendations, upselling extras, or cross-selling related products to increase conversion rates.
You can create possibilities for repeat business, upsells, and cross-sells by using your confirmation email as a marketing technique. Just keep in mind that the quantity of marketing content you can include in transactional emails is constrained.
4) Ask for Reviews
You can always ask for feedback or a review to gather information about their most recent purchase or experience to improve your offering in addition to upselling/cross-selling add-ons and complementary products/services. You can also share reviews to facilitate other customers in the decision-making process.
At this point, asking for a review can be very crucial because almost all internet customers read reviews before making a purchase. Ask them to write a brief review while the enjoyable shopping experience is still fresh in their minds. Moreover, give customers a URL so they can easily write that review. People are more likely to act if something is more accessible. Even better, set up a referral program where consumers can earn rewards when their friends and family make purchases, or offer a prize in exchange for a review.
5) Encourage Referrals
An excellent referral program is one of the most prevalent types of marketing. Order confirmation emails are a great method to increase consumer loyalty to your business. In your confirmation email, you could include a bonus or a discount for a future purchase.
For each customer who refers a friend, you could offer a discount of $20 off of one future transaction. The referral source might also receive the same discount, creating a win-win scenario for all parties.
Once more, this generates a sense of urgency and can boost conversion.
Make the referral bonus an opportunity you can’t pass up. For a referral program to be effective for your business, you must be willing to provide something for customers. The foundation of each healthy relationship is the idea of “give and take.”
6) User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) can be one of the best and least expensive ways to market and publicize your business when handled effectively. This does not fall under the same umbrella as social media because the required strategy is quite different and demands a different approach.
This is when a customer publicly distributes material they have developed, most frequently through a social media channel (blog post, video, photograph, etc.). If a buyer shares your product with their network, you will receive free marketing exposure—this is fantastic social proof!
7) Promote Movements
An important message included in an order confirmation email gives your customer the impression that their purchase is supporting a valuable cause. This will improve people’s lives and make your customers feel good about shopping online.
Making your customers delighted with their purchases even before they arrive will encourage them to make bigger, more important purchases.
There isn’t an upsell or another call to action in this situation—just a simple word of gratitude for supporting their cause.
8) Personalization
Personalization When thanking your customers, use their first names and include the name of the item they purchased. Keep it brief and personable, and be sure to add connections to your website for customer support. You’ll appear more credible and like a reliable seller as a result. Additionally, your customers will be aware of your availability to assist with any issues.
The data about your customers can be saved in a custom field and later used to tailor the campaign. You can even change the visuals in your email marketing campaigns to effectively target particular customers. You can tweak the incentives based on your audience’s demographics to make the entire campaign more alluring.
As many people access these emails on their phones, make sure your order confirmation email is mobile-friendly. Furthermore, it’s crucial that you send the confirmation immediately following a purchase. Nobody enjoys the anxious wait between placing a purchase and receiving confirmation, so please be on time!
9) Offer Discounts
You can include a voucher or discount in your purchase confirmation order as an additional method of expressing “thanks for being a regular customer.” People will be more likely to return customers if you make even a tiny gesture like giving them 10% off their subsequent order. Another great selling factor is free shipping on their subsequent order(especially during the holiday seasons which happens to be a fantastic incentive for customers). To determine which deal is most popular with your customers, you might want to test out a few alternative ones. You can restrict when this coupon or discount can be utilized to heighten the sense of urgency (i.e. before the end of the month, in the next 30 days, etc.).
A coupon or discount offer makes your customers feel valued, which also improves the customer experience and boosts customer loyalty.
10) Encourage Customers to Follow You on Social
There is no question that email marketing is one endeavor you should focus on if you want to achieve the highest ROI possible from your marketing efforts. Despite all the attention it receives, email still outranks social media. Never, though, should you “place all your eggs in one basket.” Customers can benefit from social media when they shop online via social media.
A purchase confirmation email should have links to your social media pages, making it the ideal opportunity to request a swift review or share from a customer. Engaging your audience on social media is a great method to spread the word about your brand and generate buzz about your product or business. The truth is that people are swayed by the purchases of their friends and family and believe the advice of their acquaintances. Utilizing social media to leverage social proof, which is important in today’s marketing, can boost your conversion rates. Someone can be motivated to purchase your product if they notice that a peer did.
Customers can also be informed of how to contact you if they have questions or problems with their order. Mention your email address, phone number, social media accounts, and any messaging services where you offer customer assistance. It’s wise to offer this information up front since if a customer is anxious about something, their displeasure may grow if they spend energy figuring out how to get in touch with a customer support representative.
11) Make it Mobile-friendly
Receiving a confirmation email formatted for a desktop screen is the absolute last thing any customer wants. It’s a hassle to scroll through an email! Develop and send emails that are readable across all screen sizes, and are especially mobile-responsive.
Due to the prevalence of mobile email access, make sure your confirmation emails are timely. And it’s crucial that you send the confirmation out immediately after making the purchase. Be timely since nobody enjoys the anxious wait between placing an order and receiving a confirmation.
Epilogue
Never undervalue the significance of an order confirmation email in fostering customer loyalty, encouraging repeat business, and building trust. If used wisely, these emails are a terrific arsenal to employ to your benefit. The goal of an order confirmation email is to boost the customer’s contentment with your brand and product, not only to inform them of their recent purchase. A little flair in your email can make a vast difference and show your consumer that you are dedicated to making their experience delightful.
These new customers can become your staunchest supporters if you continue to provide a consistent, high-quality customer experience. Even though order confirmation emails are a gold mine, very few ecommerce brands are utilizing them. Sending order confirmation emails is the first action you should take after a customer makes a purchase. Be helpful, transparent, and valuable. Assure your subscribers that their opinions will be heard by requesting their input. Encourage pleased customers to tell their friends and family about your business. Make the most of visual content to increase the effect.
By this point, you would have realized that order confirmation emails are all about originality and purpose. The recipients of this email will undoubtedly feel more cherished than they would have with a standard one.
