According to MailChimp, the average e-commerce email open rate is 16.75% and the average e-commerce email click rate is 2.32% as of February 2017.

According to Campaign Monitor, email marketing generates 174% more conversions than social media does.

Unsurprisingly, email use on mobile is growing rapidly. According to the Campaign Monitor report, 21% opened emails on mobile in 2012. In 2016, just four years later, that number grew to 68%.

And email marketing is profitable. Campaign Monitor claims email marketing generated $44 ROI for every dollar spent in 2016, compared to $38 in 2015.

On top of that, 320% more revenue is generated with automated emails vs. non-automated emails. 39% more automated journeys created in 2016 than in 2015.

Email marketing is thriving. Especially in the e-commerce industry.

There are endless campaign ideas out there, but over contacting your prospects or customers will only get your mail relegated to spam. Over contacting customers with constant offers is most probably the reason for e-commerce’s low average open and average click rates. To keep customers opening your mail and get maximum return from your campaigns, you should change things up and send a variety of informative and engaging mails. At a minimum, you should have one email campaign per stage of the life cycle:

New Customers

Something to encourage or welcome new, first time customers.

• • Browse abandonment
  • New subscriber
  • Cart abandonment
  • First purchase welcome

This cart abandonment email from Emma Bridgewater is particularly strong, with an engaging image and clear call to action in the header. It offers a customer support number, which could save any sales which were lost because the customer did not want to email their questions. It also offers a free delivery code, and includes easy links to products that the customer browsed.

Existing

Something to encourage or reward repeat buyers.

• • Feedback request
  • Cross sell

This feedback request from Boden is short and sweet, written in their brand voice, and uses pictures to encourage engagement. This email works hard to show customers that leaving feedback is easy.

Again, Boden keeps it short and sweet, but make use of eye catching images to engage, along with the incentive of both money off, free delivery, and free returns.

Lapsed

Something to win back customers who haven’t purchased in a while.

• • Replenishment
  • Loyal customer offer
  • Offer notification win back

This win back email from Boden offers customers simple options, in a fun and engaging way. They tempt with an offer of a sale, but it’s the friendly tone of this email that secures the user engagement.

Keeping in regular contact with customers keeps your store and products in their mind. Be sure to use lots of engaging visuals to maximize this. Clear product photos and bold graphic text in exciting colours. Try to create emails that are visually interesting, and ask very little of the customer’s concentration. Ask too much, or too often, and you lose your customers to the unsubscribe button.

The summer will soon be over, and the busiest shopping season of the year will be upon us. Good mail campaigns can drastically improve sales during the competitive holiday season, and now is the perfect time to start planning your campaigns. To help you get started with planning, we have written a list of ten points to help you prepare your e-commerce for the holidays.