A Guide to Shipping Flows for eCommerce Brands

Elevate your email marketing during the shipping and delivery process

A Guide to Shipping Flows for eCommerce Brands

A shipping flow for ecommerce email marketing involves a series of emails sent to customers at different stages of the shipping process to keep them informed and engaged. Shipping email flows typically include order emails and all of the shipping messages that are sent between order confirmation and the order delivered notification.

Here's is what it typically included in an eCommerce shipping flow:

Order Confirmation Email:
- Sent immediately after a customer completes a purchase.
- Confirms the details of the order, including items purchased, quantity, and total amount.
- Provides the order number for reference.
- Assures the customer that their order is being processed.
Shipping Notification Email:
- Sent when the order has been processed and is ready to be shipped.
- Notifies the customer that their order is on its way.
- Includes the tracking number and a link to track the shipment.
- Provides an estimated delivery date.
- Thank the customer for their purchase and express excitement about their upcoming delivery.
Delivery Update Email:
- Sent when the order is out for delivery or nearing its destination.
- Provides a status update on the delivery progress.
- Reminds the customer to ensure someone is available to receive the package if required.
- Includes any relevant delivery instructions or contact information for the carrier.
- Encourages the customer to reach out if they encounter any issues with the delivery.
Delivery Confirmation Email:
- Sent once the order has been successfully delivered.
- Confirms that the order has been received at the specified address.
- Asks the customer to inspect the package and ensure everything is as expected.
- Includes instructions for returns or exchanges if necessary.
- Expresses gratitude for the customer's purchase and satisfaction.
Post-Delivery Follow-up Email:
- Sent a few days after the order has been delivered.
- Asks for feedback on the shopping experience, product quality, and delivery process.
- Provides links to leave reviews or contact customer support for assistance.
- Offers a discount or incentive for future purchases as a thank-you gesture.
- Reinforces the brand's commitment to customer satisfaction and invites further engagement.

Another shipping email that should be considered is the "Delivery Exception Email." This is a shipping email that looks at your carrier data for problematic orders and provides an update to your customer that you are aware of the delay. You can't control shipping delays, but you can control how you communicate with your customers. Brands can turn a poor shipping experience into a positive one by sending personalized, timely notifications about delayed or stalled shipments.

Malomo's Problem Orders feature allows you to define problematic situations in your shipping and delivery process. Brands can choose specific rules and timeframe criteria for detecting problem orders such as stalled fulfillments, late deliveries and returned to sender. By triggering messages on these metrics you can save hundreds of support hours by reducing WISMO tickets with thoughtful notifications.

The Basics: Order Emails

A crucial type of eCommerce alert is the order email notification and this is typically the first and most basic update that eCommerce brands send. These notifications inform a customer about their order after making a purchase. Order emails can include essential details such as:

The items ordered
Their quantities
The price paid
Discounts applied (if any)

Some order updates might even feature links to view or directly edit orders within a specific timeframe in case customers want to make any changes before their orders ship. Merchants can improve the overall shopping experience by customizing the order confirmation pages that display immediately after a customer completes a purchase. These pages serve as virtual receipts for customers while providing additional valuable content like personalized product recommendations or cross-selling opportunities based on their purchases. Once tracking information is available, it's typically added here too.

Shipping Messages for Shopify

Shopify shipping notifications are the most popular type of Shopify notification emails sent to customers on the platform. These automated notifications keep customers informed about the progress of their orders. From the moment an order is placed until it reaches the customer's doorstep, shipping notifications provide real-time updates on important details such as shipment tracking numbers, expected delivery dates, and any potential delays in transit. Merchants build trust and strong relationships with their customers by keeping them informed about their purchases.

The downside is there's only so much branding you can do within Shopify so many brands are moving their transactional post-purchase updates that happen during the shipping process to other tools that integrate with Shopify like Klaviyo. One of the biggest missed opportunities is the actual order tracking page itself that a customer lands on when they are checking the delivery status. If you stick with the Shopify default, you'll keep you customer informed but you're missing out on a massive marketing opportunity to drive cross-sells, upsells, education, subscriptions and more if you don't consider branded order tracking.

How to leverage Shopify Order Tracking in your notification strategy

Shopify order tracking is a crucial feature that enhances the overall shopping experience for customers on this e-commerce platform. It enables merchants and customers to know the status of their orders at any given time, reducing anxiety and delivering a transparent process. In this part of the article, learn more about the various aspects of Shopify order tracking, including notification emails, tracking numbers, and out-for-delivery notifications. These automated emails, triggered by specific events such as order confirmation, shipping updates, or delivery progress, help keep the buyer informed throughout the transaction process. They come standard for Shopify brands in the admin portal.

Incorporating a Shopify order tracking number into notifications is expected nowadays. By providing this information to customers, they can monitor their packages' progress in real-time on carrier websites. However, sending customers to a carrier website, is a lost branding opportunity and is why many Shopify brands are moving to branded order tracking.

By incorporating features like order notifications, tracking numbers, out-for-delivery alerts, and well-designed notification emails into their online stores, merchants can significantly enhance customer satisfaction while fostering long-term relationships.

How to Use Klaviyo Order Notifications For Shopify

Klaviyo order notifications for Shopify are a tool for e-commerce businesses looking to improve their customer experience beyond the basic Shopify notifications. They automate the process of sending out timely, personalized order updates to customers and enable businesses to build trust and long-lasting relationships with them. In this part of the article, learn more about Klaviyo's integration with Shopify and explore its post-purchase flow and shipping email templates.

One common issue faced by online retailers is managing the default order confirmation emails sent by Shopify. Many store owners wish to turn off a particular Shopify order confirmation email so that they can use Klaviyo's more advanced features instead. To do this, they need to disable the default email notifications in their Shopify settings, allowing Klaviyo to take over and send customized order confirmations tailored to their brand. You must be using Shopify Plus to turn off some emails such as order confirmation.

The Klaviyo order confirmation flow is an excellent alternative to Shopify's default option. It allows businesses to send beautifully designed emails that align with their branding and create a consistent experience across all customer touchpoints. With Klaviyo's drag-and-drop email builder, creating an engaging Klaviyo order confirmation email becomes incredibly simple, even for those without design expertise.

In addition to providing customizable templates for order confirmations, Klaviyo offers shipping confirmation options. The Klaviyo shipping confirmation template includes relevant information, such as tracking details and estimated delivery times. E-commerce stores can further enhance these shipping confirmation email examples by incorporating branded tracking pages that provide real-time updates on package statuses while keeping customers within the retailer's website environment.

Malomo provides free Klaviyo email flow examples for this purpose and anyone can access our Knowledge Base for Best Practices for Klaviyo Flows which includes all of our recommended flows.

Setting up the Klaviyo integration with Shopify requires minimal technical knowledge, making it accessible to businesses wanting to automate post-purchase communication efforts. Once connected, customer data from Shopify is automatically synced with Klaviyo's platform, enabling store owners to create highly targeted marketing campaigns based on:

* Purchase history
* Browsing behavior
* Customer interests
* Other valuable insights

An essential aspect of Klaviyo's offering lies in its post-purchase flow capabilities. By setting up a Klaviyo flow, retailers can nurture customer relationships beyond the initial sale and increase their chances of generating repeat business. That can be achieved through personalized product recommendations, review requests, or targeted discount codes that incentivize further purchases.

Want to keep learning? Check out these related resources...

Examples of shipping notifications

If you're a visual person, check out our resource library with some examples of email & SMS shipping notifications!

Briogeo tells their customers their order is shipping soon! What's their open rate and CTR on these transactional emails? 59% and 33%. Check out how they get those results

Check out how they get those results

Soylent sends their subscribed customers their segmented Shipment Fulfilled email. Note their highlight of their referral program in their email!

Want to see your brand's custom shipping email & SMS notifications

Our experts have your back, schedule a time today ➡️