Guide To Acing Your Post Purchase Experience Using the Email Automation Strategy

Awareness – Search – Consideration – Purchase

That’s how most marketers define online shopping user journeys. And this might have been a hundred percent accurate a few years ago, but not anymore. Today, the post purchase experience you deliver says far more about your brand than the purchase journey itself. Therefore, to stage an overall delightful shopping experience, optimizing your post purchase checkout becomes indispensable – no matter what stage your Shopify store is at.

Now, it isn’t possible to manually follow up and keep in touch with each and every customer to ensure they aren’t facing any issues after buying from your store. And that’s where email automation comes to the rescue.

Leveraging email automation to streamline your post purchase customer experience is an inexpensive and efficient way to stay connected with your buyers even after they’ve made a purchase on your store.

In this post, we shall break down some important types of email automation that you absolutely must deploy in order to ace your post purchase game.

Oh, and have your customers coming back for more!

Don’t get overwhelmed with this list of email automations because if you’re on Shopify, you can tackle it all with Shopify Email.

Must have post purchase email automations for your Shopify store
1. Transactional emails
Transactional emails are emails that share details such as order summary, payment information, shipping and delivery confirmation, and all other updates related to communication that customers expect to receive after placing an order on any online store. These aren’t meant to be long, descriptive, or flashy. Instead, transactional emails must be as short and crisp as possible, highlighting the important details that should catch the attention of the reader.

Make sure these are triggered as soon as the order is placed or as and when the update needs to be shared as transactional emails are time sensitive and should reach shoppers’ inboxes before they have to ask for updates.

Here’s an example of an automated transactional email from Heads Up For Tails, a pet supplies store on Shopify:

transactional email
2. Order status/ shipping notification emails
Much like transactional emails, these are meant to be sent out periodically to customers to keep them updated with the progress status of their order. Such emails help keep shoppers’ post purchase anxiety at bay and ensure that they are regularly notified of where their order has reached and how long it will take to be delivered. Try to automate emails for every little movement in the delivery process.

For example, trigger an email once the order has been shipped, another one once the order has reached the arrival city, and a final email once the order is out for delivery. You can even send out the delivery agent’s contact information for buyers to connect with them for hassle-free delivery.

With each email, a good practice is to also include the products in the shipment like a reminder.

Here’s an example of an automated order notification email from iHerb:

iherb order status notification
Similarly, order delays are inevitable. However, keeping your customers in the dark is not.

Under any unforeseen circumstances that the order is delayed and cannot be delivered on the promised delivery date, make it a point to trigger automated emails that apologize for the same, share the reasoning for the delay, mention the new estimated delivery date, and also offer a provision for shoppers to cancel their orders and avail refunds. Never leave any room for confusion or ambiguity.

Here’s a simple example of the same:

order status emails – order delayed
3. Feedback request emails
The post purchase journey is entirely incomplete without a feedback email that invites your customers to share their honest opinion on what their shopping experience with your online store was like.

Such emails work remarkably well in giving you unmatchable insights on how you can improve your store’s shopping experience. Since they have just completed the process, their feedback is going to be utterly fresh and useful – something you can rely on to create an improvement plan for your store.

Make sure such feedback emails are triggered within one week of order delivery so that shoppers still have high intent and interest in sharing their views. You can also incentivize them to do so by offering free store credits or a discount on their next purchase if they share their feedback.

Take a look at a simple, clear, and to the point feedback email below:

order feedback emails
4. Product education emails
Some products require very specific instructions on how to set them up or get them working, especially in the case of electronics, furniture, or home decor items.

If you operate in any of those categories, make sure you create and automate a series of emails that feature how-to product videos or articles on getting things in motion. This will ensure shoppers don’t have to go looking for an instruction manual or video that takes them through the entire process.

You can even send a follow up email wherein you ask if any additional help is needed and how customers can reach out to your support team if need be. Your customers will highly appreciate you going the extra mile to ensure their product experience is a delightful one.

Let’s take a look at an example of the same by Fitbit:

product education email

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