As an online retailer, you would be forgiven for thinking that your marketing efforts are over once the customer has made a purchase. However, there’s so much more you can do at this stage to retain the customer’s attention and try to convert them to a loyal customer who will come back for more. One super effective way to do this is with post-purchase emails.

In this article, we’ll take a look at what post-purchase emails are, whether or not they’re effective in the customer journey, how to create a post-purchase email flow and some examples of how to implement them in your email marketing.

What is a Post Purchase Email?

A post-purchase email is an automated email that an e-commerce business sends to a customer after they have placed an order. The purpose this email serves is to keep the customer informed about their order status and to thank them for their purchase. 

Post-purchase emails can also be used to upsell other products or to promote special offers. By sending timely and relevant post-purchase emails, e-commerce businesses can create returning customers from first-time purchasers. They’re an important part of any digital marketing strategy for e-commerce.

Are Post-Purchase Campaigns Really Worth It?

Let’s consider two metrics to see if post-purchase campaigns are worth it. First, returning customers are more likely to purchase than first-time customers. This study found that there’s a 30% chance a new customer will purchase something. After their first purchase, the chance that a customer purchases a second time jumps to 52%! 

Secondly, it’s as much as five times cheaper to retain a customer than it is to acquire a new one. It’s also common to see businesses focus far more money and effort on acquiring new customers than on retaining existing customers. They’ve got it all backward! 

The open rates of post-purchase emails are around 17% higher than typical email open rates.

Simply put, returning customers have higher conversion rates than first-time ones and it’s cheaper to get them to come back than it was to find them in the first place.

The upshot of all this? You should be doing all you can to retain customers, and a post-purchase email marketing strategy is a super effective way to do that. A retained customer translates to a higher customer lifetime value (LTV)

How to Create a Post-Purchase Flow

The key to a good post-purchase email campaign is to send emails in a logical order. Earlier emails should pertain to the purchase the customer has just made, with order details and shipping information. Later emails lean more towards reminding the customer that you exist, notifying them of something being in stock again, and other emails to try to upsell or cross-sell them other products. 

Remember, the name of the game here is customer retention. Let's take a look at the types of content in a great post-purchase email sequence.

Order Confirmation Emails

The first step in a post-purchase email sequence should be an order confirmation email. In this first follow-up email, you would thank the customer for buying your product and provide them with all the order details, including

• Order number.
• Confirmation of payment.
• Contact information.

Keep this email short and straightforward, and that customer is likely to become a repeat customer. Additionally, we know that returning customers have higher conversion rates!

Shipping Confirmation Emails

Once a customer’s order has shipped, it's your responsibility to keep them updated. Shipping confirmation emails must include:

• Tracking number.
• Estimated date of delivery. 
• A link to track their shipment. 

The more information you provide the customer, the more secure they feel in dealing with you.

Review Request Emails

Requesting a product review is an effective way to get more exposure for your brand. Not only will other potential customers read reviews, but you can also use this customer feedback to learn about any problems with your product. That’s especially useful for a new product with no reviews!

This is a win-win: you get a free product review and the customer gets to feel like they're helping the next person with their purchase decision!

Restocking Emails

Restocking or replenishment emails help to remind customers that you exist and can provide them with more of what they need. But it’s your job to send notifications to remind them! A restocking email might look like this:

"Hey! Just wanted to let you know that we’ve restocked the item you bought from us last month. We thought you might like to know so you can get more of what you need!" 

Or, you could inform them that a wishlist item, or some other item they once viewed, has been restocked. You might even want to include a discount code for use with their next order.

Cross-Selling and Upselling Emails

Cross-selling and upselling emails can be used to suggest to customers products they might like based on what they've bought before.

Imagine someone has just bought a smartphone from your store. You might then send a follow-up email with a link to a special offer for a protective case, screen protector, or charger.

You could also include product recommendations based on customer behavior that you've noticed. If customers who buy smartphones are also likely to buy wireless headphones, then suggest it in this post-purchase email sequence.

Emails With Helpful Content

Helpful content is something that you're sure is useful to the customer but doesn't necessarily try to sell them anything. This type of email helps keep existing customers engaged with your brand, so they're more likely to come back when they need something else. It also serves as an opportunity to build trust with them by providing valuable information. 

For example, if someone just bought a laptop from you, you could offer up a free guide on how to get the most out of it, or how to care for their new device.

You can also use these emails to promote any membership or loyalty programs you have. That way, customers are incentivized to keep coming back and you can increase both customer loyalty and customer lifetime value (LTV).

Post-Purchase Email Writing Best Practices

We’ve looked at six different types of post-purchase emails that you should have in your marketing strategy. They’re used for everything from transactional emails to ideas for the next purchase. While the content in each of them varies, there are a few hard and fast best practices to keep in mind when writing emails or setting up email templates.

Subject Lines

Subject lines are important. They’re what customers see first, followed by the opening sentence or two in the email. Make those words count! Keep subject lines relevant, short, and to the point. Walker Sands reports that you could see open rates up to 12% higher for your emails if you keep subject lines shorter than 50 characters.

You could also personalize the subject line with the customer’s name and other relevant details, like the order number. It makes the customer feel like you’re talking to them and not just sending out generic messages. 

Ideally, the subject line should also show a value or benefit to the customer, such as "Your order is on its way! How to get the most from it". 

Timing

It's important to time your post-purchase emails correctly so that they're relevant and helpful to the customer, and especially so they’re not annoying. Order confirmations and shipping notifications should go out as soon as possible. The customer is literally waiting with bated breath to hear that their order has been received!

Follow-up emails like thank you messages, product reviews, or loyalty program offers should be sent a few days after the initial post-purchase emails. 

Upsell and cross-sell emails should be sent a week or two after the initial purchase. This gives the customer time to receive and use their purchase so they're more likely to engage with your other offers.

Restocking emails pertain more to the event of stock replenishment than to the original purchase, so these can be sent whenever the product in question comes back into stock.

Contents

While the intention of each post-purchase email is different, they should all be helpful and provide value. Make sure that what you’re offering is something they actually want or need and avoid a hard sell approach. They also need to stay on brand. This means using the same voice and tone in all your communications.

Make sure every message has a clear call-to-action (CTA). Do you want them to leave a review, subscribe to your newsletter, or join your loyalty program? Make sure the CTA is front and center so customers know what their next step should be. Even better if it's a clickable button.

When customers make a purchase, they're likely to be interested in similar or complementary products. Cross-selling is the process of recommending those products to them. The best time to cross-sell is immediately after the purchase has been made. That's when customers are still excited about their new purchase and are more likely to take your recommendations seriously. You can include cross-sells in confirmation emails, shipping notifications, and follow-up emails.

Other good content to include in these emails is social proof – basically evidence that other people have bought and enjoyed your product. A persuasive form of social proof is user-generated content (UGC). This could be videos or reviews from your existing customers that have a natural feel and help to make a new customer feel comfortable that others have had a good customer experience with you.

3 Examples of Post-Purchase Emails

We've looked at the different types of post-purchase emails and what they should include. Let's take a look at some examples to give you a better idea of how to craft your own messages.

Nordstrom: Post-Purchase Survey

Nordstrom's post-purchase survey email is a great email template example of how to get customer feedback. The subject line "We want to hear from you" pulls customers in. The body of the email is clean and simple: "So, what do you think?" in bold text and two calls to action to encourage a product review.

Zappos: Shipping Confirmation

This email from Zappos is a well-executed shipping confirmation. It provides the relevant info – tracking number and related info – right at the top. It combines a variety of content from other types of post-purchase emails. It's got contact information and a summary of the original order being shipped. There are calls to action for sneakers and outdoor wear too (so this serves as a cross-sell email, helping to create repeat purchases).

Casper: So, How Did You Sleep?

Here's another combination of post-purchase emails doing a lot of things right. Firstly, the headline is pointed and relevant to the product (Casper sells mattresses). There's a clean and simple call-to-action to add a review. Below that, another clean and simple section containing a compelling discount code or loyalty program offers a referral system to unlock rewards. Lastly, the footer contains clear contact information and links to Casper's social media accounts. Relevant, clean, and effective.

Keep Your Customers Coming Back With Conversion Bear

In this article, we’ve learned that emails can be your secret weapon in both increasing conversions and improving the post-purchase experience. We know now that it’s far more cost-effective to focus on retaining customers than acquiring new ones. And in doing the former, customer lifetime value (LTV) tends to improve. We considered the various content types your post-purchase email campaigns should contain: order and shipping confirmations, review requests, restocking notifications, product recommendations, and helpful content.

That's a lot of content, and it doesn't have to be a chore. With Conversion Bear, you can configure post-purchase campaigns and email automation with ease. The user-friendly platform makes it easy for you to create effective post-purchase upsells that will keep your customers returning and reordering. Learn more about Conversion Bear here.