Best Email Flows for e-Commerce Businesses

In any business, the goal is to keep the sales flowing – and there are a variety of different marketing activities you can (and should) be doing to keep that pipeline switched on.

With e-commerce businesses, you have the golden opportunity to use email flows that will help your sales keep coming automatically, even while you sleep!

An email flow is basically a set of instructions given within your email platform (like Klaviyo and Mailchimp) that will automatically fire specific emails to certain customers when they trigger particular events.

If you don't have any, you absolutely should – they take a little time to set-up the email flow (instructions) and create the email template you want it to populate and send, but once they’re in place they can keep on running (and earning), without you having to think about them.

There are lots of different email flows that can be effective, but I’ve highlighted the top four that you should consider your essential email flows if you’re selling online…

👋 Welcome series

If you’ve got any kind of sign-up form on your website (it might be to join a newsletter, create a user account, or sign up for a first-user discount code), you should follow up with a series of welcome emails.

A potential customer giving you their contact details is something you should always be grateful for – let them know, give them the opportunity to get to know your company/products/brand better, and nurture that relationship into a purchase!

Set it up to trigger (send the email) when someone submits the form and use a series something like this…

Email 1 – instant send: Thanks for signing up (and here’s your discount code, if that’s what they signed up for)

Email 2 – after 1 day: A little more about who you are

Email 3 – after 2 days: Give them some social proof (share some reviews or a case study of a happy customer)

Email 4 – after 3 days: Highlight some of your bestselling products and what customers love about them

Email 5 – after 4 days: Remind them to use their discount code (if you sent one)

💳 Abandon checkout

It’s always frustrating when you see from your website data that people have added products to the basket, initiated checkout, but not made it all the way to completing the purchase – that’s what we call an abandoned checkout.

It happens (a lot) – humans aren’t always predictable, and it could be one of many reasons why they didn’t commit to buying (maybe the postage costs put them off, maybe they’re waiting for payday, perhaps they’re looking at other options and waiting to decide).

You should always examine your website and the user journey to look out for barriers that may be putting people off (or technical errors that are preventing them from completing the purchase) but sometimes it’s just human nature at play!

Sending a well-timed email could nudge them to pick up where they left off. For abandoned checkout email flows, you can set up a trigger when someone starts checkout and add a filter so it only send the email(s) when they’ve placed zero orders…

Email 1 – after 30 minutes: Remind them of the items on their checkout page and include an ‘objection buster’ if you can (eg Did you know, you only need a small splash of our bubble baths to create a luxurious bathing experience, so they last for longer)

Email 2 – after 1 day: another reminder, this time giving a sense of urgency to the purchase (eg this product is selling fast – don’t miss out, grab it while it’s still in stock!) You might also want to include a short-term offer – a discount code that’s only valid for a couple of days.

Email 3 – after 2 days: if you sent a discount code in email 2, send them a reminder that it’s about to expire

Email 4 – after 3 days: ask for their feedback so you can learn why they didn’t complete their purchase (and track if there are any trending reasons and what you could do to overcome this in future).

🥰 Thank you

The best kind of email flow – don’t forget to acknowledge each customer’s order and thank them for buying from you.

If they’ve previously bought, it’s also nice to have a variation for these repeat customers that acknowledges their return.

A second email could be sent a week later (depending on your delivery times) asking for them to leave a review.

🏆 Win back

The 'win-back' email is often overlooked, but I’m here to fix that – because it serves a dual purpose!

Its main purpose is to re-engage customers who haven't bought from you in a while. But, if they still don't respond, it's also an opportunity to say a hard goodbye.

As the old saying goes, pruning the bush encourages new growth… In business terms, there's no point chasing business from someone who is no longer in the market.

Win-back emails can generate £££ in repeat business, but they can also help you clean up your database and help you focus your efforts where it's most likely to pay off (and keep paying off).

So, don't be afraid to have a final email in the win-back flow that lets the recipient know you're sad to see them go - and then REMOVE them from your database!!

To set up this email flow, the trigger should be when someone has placed an order, but then you’ll add a filter so it only starts to send the emails when they’ve placed zero orders in the last X number of months (the timeframe is up to you, and may depend on the average buying cycle for each particular product you sell…

Email 1 – instant send: Tell them what they’ve missed / what’s new and invite them back to take a look

Email 2 – after 1 day: Give them some social proof, highlight some trending items, and you might also want to include a short-term discount code to entice them back

Email 3 – after 3 days: Explain that you understand things change, so unless they opt-in by X date to keep hearing news about your products, you’ll remove them from your database. Remind them they’re always welcome to sign-up again on your website in the future.

Other email flows to consider

If you’ve got the resources and the right set-up, you might also want to consider adding some (or all!) of these email flows into the mix too:

👀 Abandon browse – catch them early with an email flow that reminds them of what caught their eye and gives some social proof

🛒 Abandon cart – remind them what they added to their basket, direct them to any FAQs, and let them know if their cart will expire after X number of days unless they return to checkout

🔁 Re-order reminders – if you’re selling products that have a typical usage period, send emails to customers who bought those products when they’re likely to be about to run out

🥳 Birthday – who doesn’t love a company who remembers them on their birthday? Even better if you can give them a little treat (a small credit to spend or discount code to use) as a birthday gift!

Don’t forget!

With most email flows, you probably don’t want to keep sending them emails if they’ve already done their job and prompted them to purchase, so remember to add instructions to your email flow to remove people from the send list once they’ve placed an order.

Need help setting up some email flows and creating some gorgeous email templates? Get in touch!