Email marketing for eCommerce

While there’s been plenty of talk about the decline of email marketing, the truth is, it’s still one of the most effective ways for eCommerce businesses to connect with customers. Unlike social media ads, which depend on algorithms and changing rules, email gives you direct access to your audience. This lets you send personalized messages that are timely and relevant. And because you’re reaching people who have already shown interest in your products, email marketing can help you build stronger relationships and drive more sales.

Whether you’re just getting started with email marketing or you’re looking for new ways to level up your campaigns, this guide will help you get the most out of your email marketing efforts. We’ll cover the basics, share practical strategies, and show you how to create emails that get results.

What is email marketing, and why is it important for eCommerce?

Email marketing is the practice of sending targeted messages to a list of subscribers. For eCommerce businesses, it’s essential for scaling operations, engaging existing customers, and converting potential customers into loyal buyers.

One of the advantages of email marketing is that it’s an ownedchannel. This means you have full control over your contact list and the messages you send.

Apart from that, email marketing offers you other benefits:

  • Personalization. Segmentation and dynamic content create tailored messages that resonate with individual customers. It gives a more personalized approach to recommending products or offering discounts.
  • Scalability. Email marketing grows with your business, whether sending a one-off email or setting up automated emails for thousands.

How is email marketing used in eCommerce?

Email marketing offers endless possibilities for connecting with customers and driving results for your eCommerce store. Beyond its cost-effectiveness and scalability, its true power lies in its versatility—it allows you to craft highly targeted campaigns for every stage of the customer lifecycle.

Here are some of the most impactful ways eCommerce brands can use email marketing:

Welcome email series

When a customer subscribes to your email list, a welcome email series is the perfect opportunity to make a strong first impression. Use this sequence to introduce your eCommerce brand, share your values, and provide a promo code to encourage their first purchase. For instance, “Welcome to our store! Here’s 10% off your first order.”

Abandoned cart recovery

Every eCommerce business faces the challenge of cart abandonment—when potential customers add items to their online shopping carts but leave without completing their purchase. Email marketing software produces abandoned cart recovery emails to re-engage these shoppers and bring them back to complete their transactions.

Re-engagement campaigns

Sometimes, email subscribers or one-time buyers become inactive. Re-engagement emails, like win-back campaigns or special offers, help rekindle interest in your products. For example, send personalized messages to inactive subscribers with headlines like, “We Miss You! Here’s 20% Off Your Favorites.”

Product launch announcements

Email marketing is a great way to introduce new products to your loyal customers. Share sneak peeks or early access to create excitement around your latest offerings.

To get the most out of email marketing, you need a solid email platform. Domain.com’s Google Workspace integration is an excellent email marketing tool for eCommerce businesses looking to streamline email communications. With its professional email hosting, seamless integrations, and robust tools, Google Workspace enables you to manage campaigns effectively and collaborate efficiently with your team.

Types of emails for eCommerce

Email marketing for eCommerce is most effective when it leverages different types of emails to meet specific customer needs. Businesses can create high-converting email marketing campaigns by understanding why different kinds of emails matter.

Transactional emails

Transactional emails are automated messages triggered by specific customer actions, such as placing an order or requesting a password reset. Since these actions trigger the email delivery, transactional emails have much higher open rates than other types. They help build trust and keep customers informed while also offering a great chance to suggest related products or upgrades.

Promotional emails

Promotional emails share special offers, limited-time deals, and new product launches. Their goal is to encourage customers to take action and keep them engaged with your store. By sending regular promotions, you keep your brand fresh in customers’ minds and remind them about new arrivals, exclusive deals, and upcoming sales.

Lifecycle emails

Lifecycle emails are a series of targeted email campaigns designed to engage customers at different stages of their journey. Unlike generic promotional emails, you tailor lifecycle emails to specific actions or timeframes. Customers trigger the emails by events such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or becoming inactive. Because they’re personalized, they make customers feel valued and understood. Instead of being generic, they show that your brand recognizes their interests and needs.

How to build an eCommerce email marketing strategy

A well-thought-out email marketing strategy ensures that every email is relevant, engaging, and designed to deliver results. Here’s how to build a strategy that resonates with your audience and drives sales.

Group your customers (Email segmentation)

Email segmentation is the practice of dividing your email subscriber list into smaller, more specific groups based on shared characteristics, behaviors, or preferences. Instead of sending the same generic email to everyone, segmentation allows you to target each group with tailored messages that are relevant to your customers’ interests and needs. These segments can be based on factors such as purchase history, customer behavior, demographics, and engagement levels.

The following are ways on how to segment your customers effectively:

Segment by customer behavior

Analyze how customers interact with your website, products, and emails to group them by behavior. This type of segmentation ensures your messages align with their actions and interests. Here are three behaviors to look out for:

  • Browsing history. Identify the categories or products customers explore most frequently. For instance, customers who browse “sports equipment” can receive emails showcasing related items or seasonal promotions.
  • Cart abandonment. Target customers who added items to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase with abandonment emails.
  • Email engagement. Segment by how often customers open, click, or ignore your emails.

Segment by purchase history

Segmenting customers based on their purchase history allows you to tailor eCommerce email marketing campaigns to match their buying behavior. This approach helps you deliver targeted and relevant marketing messages encouraging repeat purchases. You can differentiate them as:

  • Frequent buyers. These are your most loyal customers who purchase from your store regularly. They are already highly engaged, so the goal is to maintain their loyalty and encourage them to continue shopping with you. You can email them exclusive perks, such as early access to sales or VIP-only discounts. You can also highlight loyalty programs or reward points to incentivize further purchases. 
  • One-time buyers. These customers have made a single purchase but haven’t returned. Your goal is to re-engage them and encourage a second purchase, turning them into repeat customers. You can send follow-up emails with product recommendations based on their initial purchase. You can also offer special discounts or incentives for their next order.
  • High-value customers. This segment includes customers who spend significantly more than the average buyer or frequently purchase higher-ticket items. They represent a substantial portion of your revenue, so nurturing their loyalty can bring immense value to your business. When sending emails to this segment, you can highlight premium products or exclusive bundles. Another good way is to send invites to special events such as VIP-only sales or product launches.
  • Infrequent or dormant customers. These customers have purchased before but haven’t returned for a long time. They may need an extra push to re-engage with your store. Send these clients a win-back campaign with a special incentive to reignite their interest. You can also use time-sensitive offers to create urgency, such as a discount that expires in 48 hours.
  • Customers who only buy during sales. These customers are price-sensitive and primarily purchase when items are on sale. Understanding this behavior can help you tailor campaigns to align with their shopping habits. You can target these customers by notifying them about upcoming sales or limited-time discounts.

Segment by demographics

Segmenting customers by demographics involves grouping them based on shared characteristics such as age, gender, location, income level, or other personal attributes.

  • Age. Identifying customer groups based on age helps you key into their different preferences, shopping habits, and communication styles. Adjusting your campaigns to these preferences can make your messages more appealing.
  • Gender. Recognizing how your different customers interact with your brand based on their genders can help you refine your messaging and recommendations.
  • Location. Creating a segment based on customer location can help you tweak your emails to better relate to their regional needs, seasons, or events.
  • Occupation or lifestyle. Identifying how your customers’ behaviors change based on their current profession and routine can help produce better targeted emails.

Personalize your emails

Personalization takes segmentation a step further by tailoring the content of each email to the individual recipient. With advancements in email marketing software, you can adjust elements of your eCommerce email campaigns to make them feel uniquely relevant. You can apply these three techniques to tailor emails for different recipients:

  • Dynamic content. Use placeholders to automatically insert personalized details like the customer’s name, recent purchases, or browsing behavior.

Example: “Hi Alex, your favorite sneakers are back in stock!”

  • Tailored recommendations. Include product suggestions based on purchase history or browsing patterns.

Example: “You might love these accessories to go with your new jacket.”

  • Product-specific emails. Send updates about items customers have shown interest in, such as price drops or restocks.

Example: “The camera lens you viewed last week is now 20% off!”

Personalized emails foster connections and make customers feel valued. When brands take the time to understand their preferences and cater to them, it shows genuine care. A personalized email feels less like marketing and more like a thoughtful suggestion from a brand that “gets” them.

Send emails at the right time

The timing and frequency of your emails play a significant role in their success. Sending emails too frequently can overwhelm subscribers, while infrequent messages might cause them to lose interest.

According to MailerLite’s 2025 email survey, emails sent on Mondays and Sundays tend to perform best. However, it is still better if you analyze your own audience data to reveal the ideal times for your own email campaign.

For promotional emails, limit it to one to two times per week to avoid oversaturating your audience. For lifecycle emails, align with customer actions (e.g., abandoned cart emails within one to two hours, then follow-up one to three days later).

You can increase frequency during peak shopping periods, like holidays or special sales, but balance it with value-driven content.

Why timing matters

Sending an email when the recipients are busy or asleep might get your message buried under dozens of others. Well-timed emails are more likely to capture attention and lead to action as they arrive when the recipient is most receptive.

How to measure email marketing performance

Tracking your email marketing performance helps you understand what’s working and what needs improvement. Here are the key metrics to monitor and how to use them to improve your results:

Open and click-through rates

The open rate tells you how many people have opened your email. It’s a great way to see if your subject line and the sender’s name caught their attention. Ideally, you should aim for an open rate between 17-28%.

Click-through rate (CTR) measures how many people clicked on a link or call-to-action (CTA) in your email after opening it. This determines if your email content and CTA buttons are engaging enough to inspire action. For example, if you include a “Shop Now” button for a sale, CTR tells you how many people clicked on that button to visit your store.

While open rate and CTR measure different consumer behaviors, they both judge the quality or legitimacy of your content—whether it engages your customers or not.

You can use a custom domain to brand your emails, so it increases their legitimacy and authority. Emails with custom domains have personalized email name after the ‘@’ (e.g. [email protected]), so it stands out compared to a generic email like ‘[email protected].’ Check out our blog post about professional emails to learn more about custom email domains.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate measures the percentage of email recipients who completed a desired action after interacting with your email. This action could be making a purchase, signing up for an event, downloading a resource, or any other goal tied to the email’s purpose. It’s a critical KPI because it directly ties your email marketing efforts to tangible outcomes.

Bounce rate

Bounce rate is the percentage of emails that weren’t successfully delivered to recipients’ inboxes. They can be hard bounces, which means email delivery fails permanently due to invalid addresses or blocked domains. They can also be soft bounces or temporary delivery issues such as a full inbox.

High bounce rates indicate problems with your email list quality or deliverability. You can minimize or avoid it altogether by:

  • Using a double opt-in process for sign-ups to confirm the subscriber’s email address is accurate.
  • Regularly removing invalid, outdated, or unresponsive email addresses from your list.
  • Using email verification tools like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce to detect and remove invalid addresses.
  • Avoiding overly promotional language, excessive capitalization, and too many exclamation marks on your email messages and subject line.
  • Partnering with a reputable email service provider like Domain.com.

Revenue per email (RPE)

Revenue per email is a metric that calculates the average revenue generated by each email sent during a campaign. It provides a clear picture of how effectively your email marketing efforts contribute to your overall revenue. It’s calculated by dividing the total revenue generated from a campaign by the number of emails sent.

While metrics like open rate and CTR show how well your audience engages with your emails, RPE focuses on the bottom line—how much revenue your emails bring in. Together, these metrics provide a holistic view of your email marketing performance.

Tools for tracking and analyzing email performance

To make data-driven improvements, use robust tools that help you track and analyze your email campaigns effectively. Here are some top options:

  • Omnisend. A popular choice for eCommerce brands, Omnisend offers advanced automation, segmentation, and analytics features to measure open rates, click-throughs, and sales attribution.
  • Klaviyo. A robust tool with deep integrations with eCommerce platforms, Klaviyo provides detailed reports on email performance, customer behavior, and ROI.
  • Shopify Email. A user-friendly tool for Shopify store owners, it provides insights into key email metrics and simplifies campaign tracking directly within the Shopify ecosystem.
  • Google Analytics. Powerful software that gives you a broader view of a campaign’s effectiveness by setting up UTM parameters, to track email-driven traffic and conversions on your website.

These tools offer a mix of real-time analytics, automation, and insights to help you make informed decisions about your email marketing strategy.

Using A/B testing to optimize campaigns

A/B testing, or split testing, compares two versions of an email to determine which one performs better. It’s a powerful way to optimize your campaigns and improve ROI by identifying what resonates most with your audience.

You create two versions of an email—versions A and B—with one difference, such as the subject line, CTA button, or email design. Then, you split your audience into two groups and send version A to one group and version B to the other. You can see which version performs better by comparing the results, such as click-through rates or conversions. This process helps you make data-driven decisions to optimize future campaigns and deliver emails that resonate with your subscribers.

Email marketing is constantly evolving, and staying ahead of trends can help you connect with customers in more effective ways. Here are some of the latest trends shaping eCommerce email marketing:

Leveraging AI to predict customer behavior

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are revolutionizing email marketing by helping businesses understand their customers better and predict their needs. These technologies analyze vast amounts of data to deliver more personalized and timely emails.

Boosting engagement through gamified emails

Gamification is a fun and interactive way to keep your audience engaged with your emails. You turn a static email into an experience that captures attention and drives action by incorporating game-like elements.

A gamified email might include a spinning wheel offering discounts where customers click to reveal their prize or a quick quiz that rewards them with a personalized offer based on their answers.

People love interactive content, and gamification taps into that desire for engagement. It’s a great way to increase click-through rates and keep your audience excited about opening your emails. Plus, it’s a creative method to highlight promotions or collect valuable customer data.

For example, Duolingo, a language learning platform, effectively implements gamification to boost user engagement. Its campaigns include game-like elements like points, levels, and rewards to motivate users to continue learning.

Seamless marketing across channels

Email is no longer a standalone channel. It has become a part of a larger omnichannel strategy that connects customers across multiple touchpoints. Integrating email with other marketing channels like SMS and social media creates a seamless experience that follows the customer throughout their journey.

Imagine a customer adds items to their cart but doesn’t check out. They might receive an email reminder, followed by a gentle SMS nudge, and then see a retargeting ad on social media, all working together to guide them back to purchase.

Consistency is important when building trust and staying at the top of your customers’ minds. Omnichannel strategies ensure your messaging is cohesive and delivered on your customers’ preferred channels.

Get the most out of eCommerce email marketing

Email marketing remains one of the most powerful tools for eCommerce businesses. It gives you direct access to your audience, helps build relationships, and drives sales. By using strategies like segmentation, personalization, and well-timed emails, you can create campaigns that truly connect with your customers. 

To make the most of your efforts, you need a reliable email platform. Domain.com’s Google Workspace provides professional email hosting with your own custom domain, plus access to powerful Google collaboration tools like Google Drive, Google Meet, and Google Calendar. With seamless integration across devices, you can manage your email marketing, coordinate with your team, and stay organized—all in one place.

Set yourself up for success with the right tools and start creating smarter, more effective email campaigns today!

Email Marketing for eCommerce FAQ

How do I create an eCommerce email?

Crafting an eCommerce email the right way can help drive sales, nurture customer relationships, and increase brand awareness. A successful marketing email starts with a clear goal or purpose. Does it aim to announce a new product, offer a discount, or remind customers about their abandoned carts?
Once the goal is set, segment your audience to increase the effectiveness of the emails. Tailor the emails based on customer behavior and preferences. Next, create a subject line that grabs attention and sparks curiosity. It should entice the audience to open the email. Make the subject line personal by including the recipient’s name or create urgency by adding a deadline for a special offer.

What are the 5 Ts of email marketing?

Each effective email marketing strategy is guided by a set of principles. These principles are known as the 5 Ts of email marketing:
Teasing: Tease the content of your emails with subject lines that entice your audience. However, ensure you don’t go as far as misleading them into clicking on a subject that the content of your email cannot support.
Targeting: This involves segmenting your email list to send the right message to the right people. By doing this, each email becomes more relevant to its recipient, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion.
Timing: Time your emails so that they are received when recipients are most likely to open and engage with them.
Testing: Experiment with different elements of your emails (CTAs, subject lines, design, content) to determine which combinations result in the highest engagement and conversions for specific audiences.
Tracking: Track key metrics of your email campaign to make it measurable and actionable. Monitoring metrics such as CTR, open rates, unsubscribes, and conversions allows you to identify areas that are improving and those that need more attention.

Is email marketing still effective?

Yes. In fact, for every dollar you spend, email marketing produces a 4200% ROI. In recent years, even after the emergence of new platforms, email marketing remains to be a vital piece in every company’s marketing campaigns. It has a relatively high ROI because of its reach and cost-effectiveness. A simple $1 email has the potential to create a $100 conversion.


Lyndon Louie Ladanan
Lyndon Louie Ladanan

Lyndon is a Content Writer at Domain.com. He strives to create insightful articles that help businesses move forward in the digital space. When not writing, he's out chasing that endorphin high in the pool or on his bike.

Lyndon Louie Ladanan
Lyndon Louie Ladanan

Lyndon is a Content Writer at Domain.com. He strives to create insightful articles that help businesses move forward in the digital space. When not writing, he's out chasing that endorphin high in the pool or on his bike.