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Transactional emails are just as challenging as they are essential. Without them, your customers would wonder if their purchase has disappeared into thin air. Order confirmations, shipping notifications, and customer service alerts are basic forms of communication—but many brands wonder if they can do more to encourage repeat purchases. The answer depends on where your customers reside.
If the majority of your customers are in Europe, your transactional emails must comply with GDPR, meaning they should remain purely transactional without additional marketing messages. This is because customers cannot unsubscribe from transactional emails, as they are deemed necessary, but marketing emails must provide an easy opt-out option.
For customers in the United States, the CAN-SPAM Act allows more flexibility with transactional emails. If the "primary purpose" of your email is transactional, your subject line must reflect this, but you have some freedom to promote your brand in other ways.
Transactional emails notoriously generate high engagement rates, so you might be missing out on revenue if you don't find creative ways to add more value to them. That’s exactly what you’ll learn from this article—doing so in a way that complies with CAN-SPAM regulations. From educational content to user-generated content (UGC), what you include in transactional emails offers an opportunity to further nurture customers after a purchase and create lasting connections.
Read more to learn;
- What is a transactional email?
- What is the difference between transactional emails and marketing emails?
- Why should you set up an automated flow for transactional emails?
- Examples of transactional emails from real e-commerce brandsHow to improve the deliverability of your transactional emails
- Frequently asked questions about transactional emails
What is a transactional email?
A transactional email is an automated email triggered by an action, usually a purchase. Transactional emails are sent to an individual to confirm a transaction, communicate important information, or provide a specific notification such as shipping information.
Transactional messages are designed to be clear and concise. They include essential details to enhance the user experience and maintain trust.
What is the difference between transactional emails and marketing emails?
Transactional emails differ from marketing emails in purpose and content. While transactional emails are personalized to communicate essential information, such as order confirmations or password reset notifications, marketing emails are sent to many recipients to promote products and encourage a specific action.
As a rule of thumb :A trigger-based email that communicates essential information to the customer, rather than generating sales, is a transactional email. Common transactional emails include:
- Order confirmations
- Shipping confirmations
- Account created" confirmations
Trigger-based emails that are not transactional emails include:
- Welcome email series
- Abandoned cart
- Product recommendation or cross-sell
- Browse abandonment
- Surveys or quizzes
- Requests for ecommerce reviews
- Replenish or order renewal reminders
- Back-in-stock notifications
- Referral requests
- Birthday or anniversary notifications
The CAN-SPAM Act allows for some overlap between transactional emails and marketing emails, but it’s important to understand the nuances of this gray area before diving in. Here’s what you need to know about the difference:
Consent and compliance differ for transactional emails.
If the primary purpose of an email is transactional, it is largely exempt from the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act, but the email must still not contain "false or misleading routing information." This simply means your domain name and email address must accurately identify your business.
Consent also differs for transactional versus marketing messages. For marketing emails, you need explicit consent via opt-in and an easy way for people to opt out through an unsubscribe link. But for transactional emails, the transaction itself constitutes consent, as these emails are necessary to complete the transaction.
Marketing is promotional, while transactional emails are operational.
Marketing emails are promotional messages encouraging subscribers to take action, such as clicking a link to your website. This encouragement is what makes the content of your marketing emails creative.
Transactional emails don’t need to work as hard as marketing emails.
You’ve already won over your customers—they’re in. So, transactional emails only need to share operational information in a clear and concise way.
But functional doesn’t have to mean boring. You can still write your transactional emails in a style that fits your brand voice, ensuring a cohesive customer experience.
Transactional emails are 1:1.
When someone buys a product, they receive a transactional email confirming their purchase and providing details such as price, shipping times, etc. This is 1:1 email communication.
On the other hand, when someone receives an email through automated marketing or marketing campaigns, they receive the same customized message as various others on your (segmented) email list. For example, you likely customize your abandoned cart email to reflect the specific product someone didn’t purchase, but it’s still an email you send multiple times. Transactional emails, however, are truly only for the person who triggered the send.
Transactional emails have higher open rates
Transactional emails achieve high open rates because they contain essential information. According to the latest email benchmarks from Klaviyo, post-purchase email flows have the highest average open rate of all automated emails, at 61.05%.
"So much of marketing, in general, is about reaching people at a peak moment of interest. This is what transactional emails allow you to do—with tact."
It makes sense—customers receive these emails when they are most excited about their recent purchase. This is also why it’s so important to view your transactional emails as an opportunity to strengthen your customer’s relationship with your brand.
So much of marketing is about reaching people at the right moment of interest, and this is exactly what transactional emails allow you to do—with tact.
Why you should set up an automated transactional email flow
Since transactional emails are 1:1, automating them is simply logical. Can you imagine manually sending a series of transactional emails every time someone makes a purchase? No, because that would be a waste of your time.
An automated transactional email flow includes the following messages—both transactional and promotional emails if the customer has opted in to receive marketing messages:
- Order confirmation: This email confirms the details of the customer's purchase, including the order number, products they bought, billing details, and shipping information.
- Shipping and tracking notification: This email keeps the customer informed about shipping times and includes tracking information to help them monitor their package's progress.
- Delivery confirmation: This email confirms the successful delivery of the package, which is crucial for reporting lost items.
- Review request: This email encourages customers to review the product after some time has passed, helping other potential customers make informed purchasing decisions.
- Basic account: Common examples of these emails include password reset requests, account update notifications, or renewal reminders. Add them to your automated flow to address specific user actions or account-related events.
Here's what you can expect when you automate your transactional email flow:
Successful transactions
At the most basic level, your automated transactional email flow ensures that your business can complete transactions successfully. Transactional emails provide customers with the transparency they need to trust that their order will arrive on time. Order confirmations and shipping notifications give essential details about purchases, including order status and tracking information. Tracking, in particular, helps complete transactions by notifying customers when an item is delivered—if the item can't be found but the customer received a delivery confirmation, it's a sign to investigate what happened.
Minimal confusion
When someone spends money online, they want to be sure their purchase has been processed—otherwise, it can feel like a scam. Without transactional emails, customers might feel scammed. Transactional emails also prevent customers from needing to call your support team to clarify their order details. Confusion often leads to inquiries, which means you'll spend more resources on customer service. Transactional emails save you money by reducing confusion.
Relevant messages
What’s more relevant than a message about a purchase someone just made? Transactional emails are the peak of relevance for brands, as they reach customers when they’re most excited. Can you provide user-generated content (UGC) from other customers showcasing how they’re using that product? Do you have instructions or educational content that helps customers get the most from their purchase? For example, if someone ordered kitchen tools, you could add a link to a recipe that uses those tools.
Add a human touch
As long as you maintain a balance of transactional and promotional content (we recommend 80:20), you can use these emails to offer relevant promotions, discounts, or special offers based on the customer's recent transaction. When done minimally and thoughtfully, these additions help build stronger customer relationships by adding context to their purchase. Take your transactional emails beyond basic consumerism by adding a touch of humanity.
Customer trust
Transactional emails do more than reassure customers that they haven’t fallen victim to a scam. They also communicate that you value their time and money by telling them exactly when they can expect their purchase. When you do this consistently and provide a positive post-purchase experience, you build long-term trust—which often leads to increased revenue.
Higher retention rates
Transactional emails are part of your post-purchase experience and an opportunity to show customers what they can expect if they continue shopping with you.
When setting up your automated transactional email flow:
- You deliver consistent work.
- You make fewer human errors.
- You apply a strategic approach to delivering your brand's content.
Once automated, you hardly need to worry about whether you’re meeting post-purchase expectations.
3 examples of transactional emails from real e-commerce brands
As a consumer, you've likely seen and interacted with transactional emails yourself. If you’ve placed an order recently, you probably have one in your inbox right now.
Here are 3 types of transactional emails you can send to your customers:
- Order confirmation e-mails
Order confirmation emails serve multiple purposes:
- They confirm that the purchase has been made and reassure the customer that it’s legitimate.
- They set expectations for shipping and delivery.
- They create excitement and reinforce the decision to buy.
This example from Wildfang covers all these goals. The email lists each clothing item and informs the customer that everything is ready to ship, while also setting the expectation that items may arrive in separate packages. The customer can also see which items are final sale and where they saved money using a discount code. The total savings is a small detail that makes the customer feel special.
2. Account or subscription activations
Account notification or activation emails serve several purposes:
- They reassure the account owner that their information is secure.
- They set expectations for the website experience.
- They build excitement about the membership.
This example from Verso Books shows account owners that the brand cares about their experience. Verso communicates a transition to Shopify, which requires users to activate a new account, and explains that by doing so, they can expect a more user-friendly browsing experience. The email clearly explains why Verso decided to make the switch, encouraging users to join them in this new experience.
3. Shipping confirmations
Shipping confirmation emails serve several purposes:
- They reassure the customer that their order is on its way.
- They set expectations for when the order is expected to arrive.
- They give the customer the ability to track their shipment with a tracking link.
This example from OSEA covers all three points. The box at the top of the email is also a nice design touch, making it easy for recipients to track their package at a glance.
How to Improve the Deliverability of Your Transactional Emails
Transactional emails are so essential that even regulators agree they are necessary for the basic functioning of your business.
But what happens if such crucial emails end up in the spam folder? Your customers may think their order wasn’t received and that your business might not be reliable.
That’s why improving your deliverability to avoid the dreaded spam folder is crucial for your brand. Here’s how to do it:
Use a unique sender address
Remember how transactional emails are largely exempt from the provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act? That’s true, except your domain name and email address still need to accurately identify your business.
It’s not just regulators who appreciate this clarity—email service providers do as well. You should send all transactional emails from a unique sender address specifically created for sending emails from your brand’s online store. Your unique sender address combines your domain name (@[domainname]) with a prefix of your choosing.
"A unique sender address builds trust and credibility with your customers, making your emails less likely to be marked as spam."
When an email address receives too many spam complaints, it signals to email providers that the address is delivering spam. As a result, the sender’s reputation is damaged in the eyes of the provider, and more of their emails will land in the spam folder in the future.
Avoid this domino effect by using a unique sender address that recipients can trust.
Make subject lines specific to your message
Subject lines for marketing emails often benefit from some (clear) creativity, but transactional email subject lines should be straightforward.
If your subject line is too clever, the primary purpose of the email might be mistaken for marketing—which would make it subject to CAN-SPAM regulations. Think of your subject line as the litmus test for defining the primary goal of your email, and make sure it stays to the point. Here are a few examples:
- Orderconfirmation: "Order#123456 confirmed"
- Shipping confirmations: "A shipment from order #123456 is on its way"
- Account activatie: "Account activatie"
Keep your email copy short and to the point
Just like your subject line, brevity is key for transactional emails. It’s a matter of respect—your customers expect basic information about their order and just want to know when they'll receive it.
"You’ve already won them over. Now it’s time to be helpful, not promotional."
Remember, you’ve already convinced them. Now it’s time to be helpful, not promotional. Save the hard upsells for your expanded post-purchase email or win-back email.
Design for long-term brand loyalty
You may not want to use your transactional emails to sell, but that doesn’t mean your brand should fade into the background. Your transactional emails should look like they come from you, which means using the same brand colors, fonts, and imagery.
As long as brand content doesn’t overshadow the primary purpose of your transactional emails, use the opportunity to strengthen customer relationships. Here are a few ideas:
- Add your social media links in the footer.
- Send a link to a helpful and relevant product guide.
- Include UGC showing how other customers styled or used the product the customer ordered.
- Inform customers about physical store locations near them.
- Add relevant product recommendations to a shipping confirmation email.
Transactional emails are crucial—give them the attention they deserve
Transactional emails form the operational foundation of your business. To ensure your transactional emails land in a highly visible location—the primary inbox of your customer—you may need to assess whether your content meets expectations.
Minimalistic, straightforward, and helpful are winning tactics to ensure that the primary goal of your transactional emails remains transactional. Once you’ve laid the groundwork, you can start experimenting with additional relevant content that’s more helpful than promotional.
Frequently Asked Questions about Transactional Emails
What is the difference between a commercial and a transactional email?
A commercial email promotes products with persuasive content and promotional offers aimed at a specific audience, with the goal of driving sales. A transactional email provides essential information about a transaction, such as an order confirmation or shipping notification.
What are transactional emails used for?
Transactional emails are used to keep customers informed about a transaction. They are triggered by purchases, account registrations, or password resets and deliver personalized, concise messages that focus on the essential details of the transaction.
What is the average open rate for a transactional email?
The average open rate for a transactional email varies by industry, but in general, they have higher open rates than marketing emails. For example, according to the latest Klaviyo email benchmarks, average open rates for all post-purchase emails, including transactional emails, exceed 60%.
Do you have further questions about transactional emails after reading this article?
Contact Polaris Growth for more information.
You can find the original article over here.
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Polaris Growth is a CLV e-commerce agency. We support ambitious online stores with: Klaviyo, conversion optimization, data & analytics and ecommerce strategy.
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