Anytime you sell a product to a customer from your website, you should immediately send out an order confirmation email. This basically confirms that you as a brand have accounted for the transaction and that you are proceeding with fulfilling the order.
Transactional emails are like a receipt for the customer. A confirmation email contains important transaction details, such as delivery address, items purchased, amount paid etc.
But here’s the thing, these type of emails can be more than just a confirmation receipt for your customers. Used creatively, they can be used to engage your customers to purchase repeatedly.
A great order confirmation email captures the buyer’s excitement after they have purchased from your brand, reduces any confusion the customer may have (especially true for first time buyers) and builds the foundations of a prosperous relationship with your customers.
In today’s post, I want to talk about the ways in which you can create an effective order confirmation email that delivers more value for both your customers and you as the brand.
Let’s get cracking…
Settle Any Customer Anxiety
There are a couple of emotions that occur after a customer has bought from your brand online. They are either feeling:
- Excited with their decision to purchase from you
- A little on edge and want to feel assured that you’ll deliver on their desired outcome
Even if you have a great sales process that converts your website into customers with great reviews, trust badges, secure checks and a great offer… online shopping always carries a level of uncertainty. Some customers will experience post-purchase excitement, whereas others will feel uneasy.
So how do we settle this?
By addressing the uncertainty and anxiety in your confirmation email. You can communicate both emotions mentioned above in your confirmation emails and turn them to your advantage.
After your customer purchases your product, you send them a confirmation email explaining the following –
- What they purchased
- Where the item is currently
- When it’s going to arrive at your doorstep.
“What, Where & When” is what your brand needs to address in order to settle any post buyer anxiety.
This helps to reassure the customer about their purchase and explains everything they need to know. From the customers delivery address to the expected arrival date. Be sure to show a short order summary with the product’s description, size, quantity, and price information, as well as the chosen payment method.
Customers like to understand a brands return policy before they commit to purchasing. It’s good practice to clearly have your return policy on the likes of your product pages. It also important to reinforce this information on the likes of your confirmation email as it helps to reduce buyer anxiety.
Convey The Next Steps
Order confirmation emails get some of the highest open rates when compared to other email campaigns. The reason for this is because customers want to know that their order has been acknowledged by the brand they are dealing with and what they can expect after their transaction has taken place.
However…
Order confirmation emails can do more than just act like a receipt.
They can also inform customers about what to expect after the order has been confirmed. You can outline the next steps that take place, helping to set expectations for your customers.
How to set expectations?
One way of doing this is through the use of a progress bar within the email. The progress bar outlines the steps that are taken to fulfill your order. From packing the order, to shipping it and tracking the order itself as it makes its way to the customers address
This content can be worded as such…
Eg – “What Happens Next?”
“Once we pack your order, we’ll send you a tracking number to your email address.”
When the order has been delivered to the customers address, you can send another email confirming the delivery of the customers order. This email would show that the progress bar has been completed.
Using this type of progress bar illustration will also help to reduce buyer remorse and build excitement for the customer.
Educate & Indoctrinate
Another thing an order confirmation email can do is help to educate and indoctrinate your customers about your brand. After verifying the order and setting expectations on when the customers package will arrive, you can use this opportunity to show more value that your brand offers.
How?
You can use links and images to draw the customers eye into clicking other content such as –
- Educational content – How to’s, top tips, things to avoid etc
- Offer a survey (people love to give their opinions) to better understand your customers wants and needs. Incentivize to build better response rate.
- Show what’s new and trending on your website.
If you can educate your prospects and customers through quality content, you’re going to build more trust, rapport, respect & authority. Developing these attributes from your audience can only help you to convert more of them.
Whether it’s a survey you offer, or show what’s new and trending on your site etc, the whole idea is to develop further engagement with your customer. The order confirmation email is a great time to brand yourself more as these emails get high open rates and engagement already, so guide them further towards your brand and show more of the value you have to offer.
This can open up more opportunities for your buyers to repeat purchase if they like what’s trending, or check out some content along with a solution that can help them solve a problem.
Congratulate Your Customers Buying Decision
A great way of reducing buyer remorse is to reaffirm that your customers made the best decision by buying those products from your store and not your competitors. When we buy something new, we like getting compliments from people about our new purchase.
Whether it’s the new coat or the new kitchen appliance we bought, we feel good about our purchasing decisions when people notice them. This is something you can also incorporate into your order confirmation emails.
Congratulate your customers on their new purchasing decision and show how life is about to get better because of the decision they made. You can convey this message at the top of the email, just before the contents of the order itself.
The key here is simple…
Find the rational or emotional benefits of your products and give your customers a pat on the back for making a good buying decision.
Don’t Forget To Promote Your Loyalty Program
I’m a big fan of loyalty programs because they engage your audience on a deeper level. They offer more value and help to build a stronger bond with your customers, encouraging repeat purchasing and developing higher lifetime values of your customers.
So what better way to brand your loyalty program by showing your customers via your highly engaged order confirmation email. (Your thank you pages are a great place to promote your loyalty program)
Don’t make the mistake of taking the focus away from the transaction in your order confirmation emails, there’s a smarter way to promote your loyalty program without being intrusive.
Position the promotion of the loyalty program after the order contents in the email. By mentioning the points your customer earns with their order in a non-distracting way, your brand can confirm your decision about the recent purchase and can also influence your customers about their next order.
Oh…. Don’t Forget Your Referral Program Too!
Last up on the list…
When you’ve reassured your customers about their order and built further confidence within this order confirmation email, it’s not a bad time to let your customers know about your exciting referral program.
If a customer feels excited about their new order and you’ve done a good job of explaining the next steps that will be taken in order to receive their product, why wouldn’t they feel motivated to invite some like minded people to your brand?
You can of course incentivize your customers by giving them a kickback when the person they refer makes a purchase. Make it a two way thing where both you the person referring and the other person being referred both get credited in some way. Motivating both parties to make a purchase with your brand.
This can work out very attractive with the right offer, making it easier to draw new business your way by good old fashioned word of mouth.
Conclusion
Hopefully now you can see the benefits of an effective order confirmation email. How it can dampen buyer remorse, get your customer excited for their order, how it can indoctrinate your customers and even help to drive more business to your brand with good old fashioned word of mouth.
With little improvements here and there, you can optimize your order confirmation emails for higher engagement and increase your revenue. All of this done on autopilot!
