4 E-Commerce Email Flows To Increase Your Sales

Email marketing is a powerful tool for e-commerce businesses and can provide a huge return on investment for brands when utilised effectively. According to Litmus, the average return for email is 45:1, meaning that for every £1 spent, £45 is returned. 

By automating key email flows, brands can proactively engage customers while unlocking additional streams of revenue from each stage of the customer journey.  

Whether you’re focusing on awareness, conversion, ascension or retention - there’s likely an email flow that could help your brand get ahead of the competition. 

Among the various email flows you can create, four stand out as essential for boosting revenue and retaining customers: Welcome, Abandoned Cart, Browse Abandonment, and Winback Flows. In this article, we’ll review each and answer the key questions you may have and provide some frameworks so you can start building or improving your own flows today.

1. Welcome Flows

What is a Welcome Flow?

A welcome flow is usually the first touchpoint in the email marketing journey and is hugely important for setting the tone for the relationship with your new subscribers. Many brands use this opportunity to offer an initial new customer discount to incentivise sales - but can more be done? We think so…

Why You Need A Welcome Flow

Let’s face it, modern people are busier than ever. That’s why it’s crucial to reduce friction for users and make it easy to buy from you. One way of doing this is through the welcome flow, by highlighting items of interest, showing off product benefits or signposting customers to useful content - you can begin to build trust and demonstrate you can solve your customers' most pressing needs.

Key Components of a Welcome Flow 

1. Email #1: Welcome: The first email should be sent almost immediately after joining your email list and deliver any promised incentives to join your email list. Focus on making the offer prominent and prioritise selling ‘the click’ to a product or landing page offer you know converts well. It’s likely users at this point are considering making a purchase as they just signed up, so ensuring any discount or offers aren’t buried in the content is crucial. If you’ve collected First party data then make sure to tailor your content accordingly.
   

2. Email #2: Founder’s message: It’s likely that only a small percentage of your signups will immediately convert. These impulse buyers have been dealt with in the first email but what about the rest of your sign-ups? Creating an emotional connection between your brand and audience is a powerful next step to help move people through your customer journey. Messages or videos from the founder can be a powerful tool to tell your brand story and foster the relationship. If you can tailor the story angle to match 1st part data, then you’ll be a step ahead of 90% of your competition.
   

3. Email #3: Credibility and Social Proof: You’ve told your story, but there’s nothing like 3rd party validation to help seal the deal. Taking the opportunity to show users that they’re not the first to use your product can pay dividends in the long run. Showcase your best reviews, feature User-Generated or community content and show off celebrity endorsements to solidify your brand’s credibility early on.
   

4. Email #4: Cross-pollination: No matter how engaged your audience is when they first sign up, it’s common for email engagement to drop after 6-9 months. That’s why it’s a good idea to cross-pollinate your social media channels from your email list. By having your subscribers follow you outside of your email, you create more opportunities to stay top of mind through your organic posting and content while simultaneously creating more social proof through your follower counts.
   

5. Email #5: Objection handler: We all have doubts right? Well don’t shy away from your users' concerns no matter how small they may seem. If you proactively address objections there’s a good chance you’ll see more conversions rolling in. Common themes to investigate for your brand could include product usage queries (will this work for me?) or shipping related concerns. Make sure you include contact information or links to support and encourage your subscribers to get in touch with you. Bonus points if you include a phone number your customers can call on!
   

6. Email #6: Final Reminder: After doing what you can to educate and build trust with your subscribers, it’s time to remind them about the incentive you offered at the beginning. Including some urgency or scarcity can work well to nudge them into action. For example, let them know “10% off expires in 24 hours”. 
   

7. Email #7: Impact-Messaging: If your brand runs any kind of give-back program or partners with non-profits to donate a portion of your sales, then it makes sense to let your users know the causes they will be supporting with their purchase. Doing so can help capture the custom and loyalty of conscious-consumers within your audience. By highlighting your commitment to sustainability, social causes or other issues, you can connect purchasing from your brand to a bigger cause. If a discount reminder didn’t convert, then helping your customers feel good about their purchase is a good next port of call. 

Best Practices For Welcome Flows

1. Reduce Distractions: Don’t force users to visit their email inbox to get a discount code. The inbox is another chance for distraction when they’re so close to converting. By all means include the code in the first welcome email, but make sure it’s visible on the confirmation step after submitting their email.
   

2. Honour Your Incentive: The first email should deliver any promised incentives to join your email list within a few minutes in case they lose the code on-site. Focus on making the offer prominent and prioritise selling ‘the click’ to a product or landing page offer you know converts well. It’s likely users at this point are considering making a purchase as they just signed up, so ensuring any discount or offers aren’t buried in the content is crucial. 
   

3. Utilise First Party Data: Many brands overlook their most valuable data source - your customers. By surveying your users at the point of sign-up, you can better tailor the welcome flow emails to their particular needs, resulting in higher conversion rates.
   
   Action: Come up with 3-4 pain points you think your product can solve and include a step before the email form to collect this information. One client we work with in the Electrolyte space asks their users “What would you like help with?” and offers options such as Fasting / Tiredness / Exercise etc. This data can then be used to send tailored welcome emails addressing the use case selected. 

2. Browse Abandonment Flows

What Are Browse Abandonment Flows?

Browse abandonment flows are triggered when a customer visits your website and views products but doesn’t add them to their cart. Unlike cart abandonment, these users have shown interest without committing to a purchase.

The Difference Between Browse Abandonment and Cart Abandonment

While cart abandonment involves users who have actively added items to their cart but left before completing the transaction, browse abandonment refers to users who viewed products but didn’t go as far as adding them to their cart. While they haven’t yet shown a commitment to buying, they’re still valuable leads.

Why Browse Abandonment Flows Are Critical

Not everyone who browses your site is ready to buy immediately. A well-crafted browse abandonment flow can nudge potential customers back to your store and guide them down the sales funnel. This flow helps you recapture interest from visitors who may have gotten distracted, but are still in the consideration phase.

Key Components of a Browse Abandonment Flow

1. Initial Email: Send a first email highlighting the products the visitor was looking at, ideally within a few hours of their visit to capture engagement while it’s recent.

2. Follow-Up Email: Send a second email within 24-48 hours showcasing the product benefits or social proof. No one likes to be the first - building up desire by showcasing other customers can help persuade your users to take a chance with your product.

3. Catalogue Expansion: Utilise engagement signals from products to recommend collections that would likely interest them. If they haven’t moved through the sales funnel, it could be a result of not finding what they were looking for. This is your opportunity to help guide them towards finding the solution right for them.

Best Practices for Browse Abandonment Email Sequences

• Segment your audience based on their behaviour, such as products viewed or time spent on specific pages.

• Use dynamic content to display products that the customer viewed or related items to keep the email relevant.

• Keep your emails short and to the point — make it easy for the user to click through and purchase.

3. Abandoned Cart Flows

What is an Abandoned Cart Flow?

An abandoned cart flow is a sequence of automated emails that are triggered when a customer adds products to their cart but doesn’t complete the purchase. These emails are designed to encourage the customer to return to their cart and finalise the transaction.

Why You Need an Abandoned Cart Flow

Cart abandonment is a common issue in e-commerce, studies show that nearly 70% of carts are abandoned before checkout. Setting up an abandoned cart flow is a vital strategy to recapture these potential sales. Without them, you’re missing out on significant revenue.

Key Components of an Abandoned Cart Flow

1. Initial Reminder: The first email should be sent within an hour or two after abandonment. It's a gentle reminder, not pushy, asking the customer if they forgot something in their cart. Depending on your brand tone, you can adapt the messaging to be fun and humorous or take more of a scarcity/urgency based approach that comes across as helpful.
   
   Tip: If you’re not sure which approach will work best, try running an A/B test with alternative angles and see which recovers more sales.
   

2. Follow-Up Reminder: A second email, sent 24 hours later, should emphasise the products left behind and provide an easy link back to their cart. Offering additional support and signposting users to helpful resources or your customer service team is a strong approach that shows you care about their potential concerns.
   
   If users get in touch as a result, it’s a hot opportunity for your team to close the sale by overcoming objections whether it’s size, price or return queries. 
   
   It’s also the perfect opportunity to gather feedback on common reasons for abandonment directly from your audience. Whether it’s unexpected shipping costs, a query about product usage or concerns about returns, this feedback can be used to proactively address objections before reaching the checkout stage.
   

3. Incentives: After 48-72 hours, send a final email. It’s a common strategy to offer a discount at this stage to nudge the customer to make the purchase. An alternative we encourage our clients to use is free shipping. Although customer acquisition is vital, we want to be wary not to train our customers to wait for a discount before purchasing and instead focus on converting and nurturing loyal customers. 
   
   Tip: One way to handle this situation is by creating alternate abandon cart flows or conditions depending on whether a user has purchased before. This way you can avoid continually offering discounts to existing customers who may just need a small reminder to purchase.

Best Practices for Abandoned Cart Email Sequences

• Personalise your emails: By including product images from their cart and using customer names in your copy you can build more personalised communications with your audience

• Prioritise the objective: Returning to the cart is the main objective. Reducing clutter and ensuring a call-to-action is visible at the top of the email is a good way to improve click-through-rates.

• Clear and compelling: Make sure it’s clear in your email subject the action you want your user to take such as "You left something behind!" or "Your cart is waiting for you." Simple but effective.

• Offer alternatives: There’s a chance the customer isn’t interested in the particular product - promote catalogue discovery by including a recommended products block in at least 1 of the abandoned cart emails

4. Winback Flows

What is a Winback Flow?

A winback flow is an automated email sequence aimed at re-engaging inactive or lapsed customers—those who haven’t made a purchase in a while. This flow seeks to reignite interest in your products and encourage these customers to return to your store.

Why You Need a Winback Flow

Customers who have already purchased from you are more likely to return. On average it’s 5x cheaper to retain an existing customer then to acquire a new one. A well-designed winback flow allows you to target those customers and bring them back into the fold, re-establishing a connection before they completely forget about your brand.

Key Components of a Winback Flow

1. Initial Email: After a certain period of inactivity (e.g., 30, 60, or 90 days), send a personalised email reminding the customer of their past purchases. This is a perfect opportunity to highlight any new products, collections as a way of catching them up to date on anything they may have missed since their last order. Creating custom landing pages and re-activation offers for winback users is also a strong way to boost the effectiveness of your flow and drive higher conversions.

2. Follow-Up Email: If there’s still no response, send a second email with an enticing offer, like a loyalty discount or exclusive access to new products. Many brands take a semi-humorous approach with subject lines like “We miss you” and “Come back soon” that make the recipient feel like a person and not just another number to the brand.

3. Last Chance Email: A final email that emphasises the limited-time nature of the winback offer and includes a compelling call-to-action is a good call if they still have not yet converted from the previous emails. Think of this as a last ditch attempt to bring the customer back to your store and consider what you’re willing to spend to do so in relation to your average Customer Acquisition Cost.

Best Practices for Winback Email Sequences

• Personalize the subject lines and content of each email to reflect the customer's past interactions with your store.

• Use strong, clear CTAs to guide customers back to your site.

• Offer exclusive deals or content to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity.

• Always include a way for customers to unsubscribe if they are no longer engaged. This helps prevent negative impacts to your email deliverability in the long run.

Why These Flows Are Essential for Your Business

The Power of Automation

Automated email flows allow you to engage customers without manual effort and catch them when their interest peaks. Once set up, these flows run on their own, ensuring you’re always in touch with potential and existing customers at the right time.

Increased Sales and Conversion Rates

These email flows have been proven to significantly boost sales by recovering abandoned carts, engaging browsers, and reactivating dormant customers. You’re not just relying on first-time purchases, but nurturing long-term relationships with customers.

Enhancing Customer Retention and Engagement

Email flows don’t just bring in revenue; they help you build trust and loyalty with your customers. By maintaining regular communication and offering value, you ensure that your brand stays top of mind.

Conclusion

Email flows are a crucial part of any e-commerce strategy. Welcome flows, browse abandonment flows, Abandoned cart flows, and winback flows are four of the most powerful tools you can use to recover lost sales, increase engagement, and keep your customers coming back. By implementing these flows effectively, you can boost conversion rates and maximise the value of every visitor to your site. Need help setting up your flows? Book a call

FAQs

1. What is the best timing for an abandoned cart email?
The best time to send an abandoned cart email is within 1-2 hours of abandonment. This ensures you catch the customer while they’re still thinking about their cart.

2. How can I improve my browse abandonment flow?
Personalise your browse abandonment emails by showcasing the exact products viewed and offering related product recommendations.

3. How often should I send winback emails?
Send winback emails 30, 60, or 90 days after a customer’s last purchase. Adjust the frequency based on the customer's behaviour and engagement taking into account factors like your average buying cycle. For consumables the period is likely to be shorter. However if you sell items like beds or furnitures which do not require frequent replacement then you may want to extend the timeframe significantly.

4. Should I use discounts in these flows?
Yes, offering discounts can help incentivise customers to complete their purchase or re-engage with your brand. However, use them strategically to avoid devaluing your products or training your customers to only purchase with a discount. If possible, think of ways you can add additional value to the purchase instead of reducing the price. This helps maintain the perceived value of your products at full price

5. Can email flows help reduce cart abandonment?
Absolutely! Abandoned cart email flows are one of the most effective ways to recover lost sales from customers who leave without completing their purchase. You can expect to recover 10-20% of lost revenue when implemented effectively.