5 Essential eCommerce Email Sequences

Graphic of the 5 essential ecommerce email sequences every online retailer needs. They're called the lifecycle emails and include: Ecommerce welcome email sequence, Post-purchase and delivery sequence, Upsell/add-on email sequence, ecommerce Abandoned Cart sequence, and the Discount offer/Flash Sale sequence.

There are 5 ecommerce email sequences every online retailer needs.

Together, these essential email sequences take your customers on a journey from interested, to customer, to repeat customer. 

That’s why they’re called the Lifecycle Emails.

The 5 essential ecommerce email sequences every online retailer needs. They're called the lifecycle emails and include: Ecommerce welcome email sequence, Post-purchase and delivery sequence, Upsell/add-on email sequence, ecommerce Abandoned Cart sequence, and the Discount offer/Flash Sale sequence.

 

ECOMMERCE WELCOME SEQUENCE

 

AKA your chance to make a great first impression. The Welcome Sequence introduces your ecommerce brand, tells your story, and helps your customers to love what you’re about.

The number 1 essential. If you have an online store and you DON’T have this ecommerce email sequence in place, you’re majorly missing out. Even if you do nothing else, get your welcome sequence right.

This sequence can be LONG: usually 5-10 emails over 1-3 weeks. It builds the know, like and trust factor between you and your customers.

 

 

UPSELL/ADD-ON EMAIL SEQUENCE

 

What’s the next logical product for your customer to buy? You can get specific using clever segmentation here.

If your customer bought a couch, you can send upsell offers for couch-adjacent products like coffee tables, rugs, cushions and lamps.

 

 

ECOMMERCE ABANDONED CART SEQUENCE

 

Not just one email, but a series of 2-3 that remind your customers how great your product is, and why they should come back to buy it.

If the customer is on the fence, it can help to include testimonials from other happy customers.

 

 

DISCOUNT OFFER OR FLASH SALE SEQUENCE

 

Not just your regular standalone sales promo emails. This offer is a short automated sequence (usually following the welcome sequence) of about 3 emails to entice the customer into buying.

There’s a deadline to create some urgency, and either a discount %, $ off, or free shipping offer to entice them to take action.

The discount offer email sequence is essential to generating revenue FAST, but discounting all the time can cut into your margins. Using discounts and flash sales too often runs the risk of “training” your customers to wait for specials, so you want to use them carefully.

 

 

POST-PURCHASE EMAIL SEQUENCE

 

They clicked the BUY button, so they’re immediately thinking “When is it coming? I want it NOW”.

Your post-purchase ecommerce email sequence confirms the order and gives shipping updates. There’s a small potential for “buyer’s remorse” during the time between ordering and receiving a product. 

That’s why a post purchase email sequence can also offer value, like providing care instructions and “how to use” guides for the product. It builds anticipation and reassures the customer that they made a great choice (which in turn, can reduce refund requests).

You can also use a post-purchase sequence to ask for testimonials and reviews.

 

 

What if you don’t sell products?

 

If you’re a service provider, rather than an ecommerce product-based business, the same theory applies. We simply tweak the email strategy to suit the sale of a service, course or coaching program.

 

Over to you

Do you have these 5 hardworking email sequences in place?

And how are they converting for you?

If you want to get some of these hardworking emails into your email strategy, or optimise the performance of the ecommerce emails you’ve already got, let’s make it happen. 

Shoot me an email to zoe@getheard.com.au we’ll find a time to chat.