Order Confirmation Email: Examples & Best Practices

Engage and impress your customers. Drive repeat sales by upping your transactional email game.

Order Confirmation Email Examples Best Practices 2

Even though email fatigue is real, and SMS marketing is on the rise, email still continues to be one of the most effective marketing channels for the ecommerce industry. Traditional email marketing with defined campaigns is still useful and effective, but contemporary marketers need to get a little creative to combat communication fatigue.

While most people are familiar with typical email marketing, many Shopify stores are finding success by using transactional emails to convey both operational information and marketing offers.

The order confirmation email from your ecommerce store may seem like a dull but necessary step in your ecommerce operations, but it's actually the first step to creating a good first impression in your customer's post-purchase experience. Don't mess it up!

What is an Order Confirmation Email?

An order confirmation email is so much more than just a receipt email. When a customer purchases from your ecommerce store, most ecommerce platforms will serve an order confirmation page in the web browser. They will also send an automated order confirmation email notification.

The information in the email body should at minimum communicate all the important order details, including:

  • confirmation the order has been received

  • the order number

  • inclusion of details of the quantity of each item(s) and the cost of each

  • the customer's payment information

  • expectations for the order timeline and the estimated delivery time

  • contact information such as a customer support email or phone number

But these line items are just the basics. Savvy store owners who customize their emails to go beyond these transactional functions see success because they understand the checkout process is only the beginning of a long journey to cultivate customer loyalty and combat buyer's remorse. Make each communication touchpoint count.

Best Practices for Order Confirmation Emails

Order confirmation emails should be treated in the same way as any other way to engage with customers. Here are some best practices to keep in mind when creating all transactional emails for your store:

KEEP BRAND VOICE CONSISTENT

Remember, content is queen. The first thing to get in order in your shipping confirmation email is the copy. Make sure to include all of the pertinent information (like the items listed above), but keep the same brand voice (style and tone) in accordance with the copy style on your website, your social media channels, SMS notifications, and all other customer-facing communications.

For example, if your brand voice is typically light-hearted and playful, don't leave your order confirmation email with the same near-robotic default copy. Make sure your customer experience offers the same tone throughout all of your email notifications.

CUSTOMIZE THE VISUAL STYLE

Much like the brand voice, customizing and coordinating your brand's visual style across all communications will help your emails stand out.

While it's possible to find developers to create custom HTML order confirmation email templates, there are plenty of stock email design templates provided by Shopify and other ecommerce platforms. You'll want to make sure you do your research and look at how to best create an order confirmation email in Klaviyo.

An admin can easily make edits to existing templates to update the header, footer, modify CSS for custom colors, and add a custom logo and graphics.

We've got plenty of examples of custom order confirmation emails in our post-purchase resource library that you can get inspiration from!

TEST EACH EMAIL

Remember: test, test test. While the email preview may look flawless, it's essential to conduct testing with different email clients, as each client can render the HTML differently. There are software tools you can use to simulate the most popular email clients.

Also, remember to format emails for reading on both the desktop and on mobile devices. It's best practice to make plain text email versions available just in case.

EMAIL DELIVERABILITY

When sending any marketing emails, it's a good idea to keep an eye on email deliverability rates to make sure they are ending up in inboxes rather than the spam folder. If you suspect your email sender reputation is affecting your deliverability rates, you can hire an email deliverability expert to warm up your email IP.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT LINE

The subject line is one of the most important elements of your email. An effective subject line will draw the reader in and entice them to open the email. For example, if you are promoting a sale, it might be a good idea to include the discount in the subject line as an incentive for opening the email and learning more.

A subject line that fails to interest the reader may result in deleting the email before it's even opened, especially if the prospect is reading emails through the mobile app. Try A/B (split) testing subject lines with smaller email batches before sending the winning line out to the wider database.

Communicate Regularly and Proactively

Beyond the order confirmation email to confirm the transaction and the shipment tracking email, proactively communicating with customers when delays and exceptions occur directly impacts customer satisfaction. These notification emails help manage customer expectations when the inevitable snafu occurs. Regular communication also helps keep your brand in your customers' focus.

USING TRANSACTIONAL EMAILS FOR CROSS-SELL AND UPSELL OPPORTUNITIES

Because post-purchase transactional emails enjoy significantly higher open rates and click-through rates, they can be an effective marketing channel for cross-selling and upselling other related products or recommended products to your customer base.

Post-purchase emails are also great times to offer customers other valuable content, like educational content, so customers stay engaged with your brand between purchases. Newsletters are also a great way to stay at the forefront of your customers' attention.

PROGRAMS: LOYALTY, REFERRALS, AND REWARDS

Beyond product recommendations, order confirmation emails are also a great time to offer new customers a chance to join a loyalty program, a referral program, or even a points-based reward program.

OVERCOMING CART ABANDONMENT

We'd be remiss if we didn't address cart abandonment, as cart abandonment emails are some of the most critical types of automated emails. Cart abandonment is when shoppers add items to their online shopping cart and then leave the online store before purchasing those items. Sending reminder emails to shoppers when they have left items in their cart has been shown to significantly reduce abandoned purchases and increase sales.

Order Confirmation Email Examples

In terms of design templates, both Shopify and Klayvio have responsive email templates that are simple to fill in to create professional, visually appealing emails. If you are unfamiliar with coding for these platforms, it's a good idea to stick to the native templates or hire someone with experience developing for Shopify and Klayvio (or whatever platforms you are using).

Even if you have less flexibility in terms of design, don't sweat it. Order confirmation emails don't need flashy graphics. Content is more important.

COMPELLING GRAPHICS & VALUE REINFORCEMENT

In this example, Patagonia adds some zest to their order confirmation email by adding an inspiring photo of a rock climber that their customer base will find compelling. They also reinforce their values at the bottom to build trust.

FRIENDLY, ENCOURAGING LANGUAGE

In this next example for a Fitbit order, the content is fairly simple. This email stands out for clearly delivering all the relevant order information, especially the order tracking link. The email also uses simple but effective language, “And we're just as excited as you are.” This line helps build buyer excitement.

CLEAR NEXT STEPS

This example from Postable does a great job of not only confirming the customer’s order but of communicating the next steps in the process, so the customer knows exactly what to expect.

ADDING VALUE THROUGH CROSS-SELLING

In this confirmation email from Airbnb, Airbnb rounds up helpful information and also effectively cross-sells experiences the customer can book for when they arrive at their destination. The cross-links to the Airbnb experiences provide possible value to the customer while also driving more revenue for Airbnb. They also promote a customer referral program by offering credits in exchange for sharing.

JUST THE BASICS

Not every effective confirmation email needs a beautifully designed template. While Amazon's emails can't be called the most attractive, they still function well enough for the retail giant. In addition to the very simple template, they make it easy to make order updates by providing a deep-link to the appropriate account page. You'll notice they also cross-sell by offering related, “Bargain recommendations.”

Order Confirmation FAQs

Here are some other frequently asked questions about confirmation emails.

WHAT ARE THE STEPS TO WRITING A BUSINESS LETTER TO CONFIRM AN ORDER?

The steps to writing a purchase confirmation email are easy. Keeping in mind your brand's tone of voice, you just need to include the pertinent information of an order receipt:

  • product specifications

  • quantities

  • price agreed upon

  • expected delivery date

  • other terms and conditions

  • your name and contact information

WHAT TECHNIQUES CAN I USE TO PREVENT EMAILS SENT FROM MY WEBSITE FROM BEING MARKED AS SPAM AND INCREASE DELIVERABILITY?

There are a whole host of factors that affect email deliverability. The best thing to do if you are unfamiliar with email deliverability is to hire an expert who will be able to look into the health of your sender reputation and help you properly warm up your email IP if needed.

WHAT ARE SOME BENCHMARKS FOR EMAIL PERFORMANCE AFTER E-COMMERCE PURCHASES (EXCLUDING ORDER CONFIRMATION AND SHIPPING EMAILS)?

Email metrics vary greatly across industries and also whether or not your company is B2B or D2C. For a list of some email benchmarks, read this report from Campaign Monitor.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS HAVING USERS ENTER THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS, CONFIRM THEIR EMAIL, AND THEN ENTER A PASSWORD IN ORDER TO REGISTER FOR A SERVICE?

This tactic is great for validating email addresses for quality. However, any extra steps will always harm conversion rates. If you're gating your assets or service, balance the value that asset brings versus the amount of effort it takes to make sure they match.

Elevate post-purchase experiences with Malomo

On average, buyers check tracking emails 4.6 times for each purchase. Applications like Malomo lets you take advantage of these high engagement rates by enriching ecommerce post-purchase emails with engaging content.

BRANDED TRACKING PAGES

Malomo creates sleek, custom-branded shipment tracking pages that fit your brand's aesthetic— all without coding. Branding your order tracking notifications stands as a game-changer in addressing and resolving delivery and decreasing 'Where is my order?' (WISMO) support tickets.

SHIPPING UPDATES

Malomo makes proactive communication with your customers, as discussed above, a breeze by offering shipping updates to notify your customers when delays or exceptions occur.

INTEGRATIONS WITH LEADING ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS

Malomo integrates with Shopify and other third-party applications like Klaviyo so that you can customize your shipment tracking emails directly within the Klaviyo platform. From your order confirmation emails to your delivery emails, we've got you covered.

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