How To Create Effective Shipping Confirmation Emails? 10 Best Tips + 5 Examples

Transaction emails rather than promotional emails are one of the most highly valued and most-read emails. People get excited when they receive their shipping confirmation emails.

It’s great fun to get a confirmation that their order is on its way. This makes it more likely that those are opened and read, making them a wonderful opportunity for building brand loyalty. 

We’ve written this resourceful blog for brands and businesses to create impressive shipping confirmation emails.

What is a shipping confirmation email?

Shipping confirmation emails are those emails sent by e-commerce businesses to notify their customers of the proceedings with their orders placed at their platform.

It keeps customers updated regarding their orders. An order confirmation email precedes it. 

Sending a shipping confirmation email as soon as possible increases your customer’s chances of liking your service and hence sticks to you.

Thus, employing effective strategies for creating and sending this transactional email can act as one of your best customer retention strategies.

Here are some of the expert tips to draft and send great shipping confirmation emails. 

10 Best Tips to Create Effective Shipping Confirmation Emails

Here are some useful ideas to provide value to your customers via shipping confirmation emails.

1. Have a subject line

The foremost thing that the email recipient would see is the subject line. Just by looking at it, he or she should be able to know what the email message is about.

So, mention the purpose of the email in the email subject line. For instance, it can be something like Your Brand Name# Order Shipping Confirmation. This way, your customer wouldn’t miss reading it.

2. Get personal

Though your email is automated, there is a lot of room for personalizing it for the customer. Ensure that it addresses the recipient by his or her name.

Also, create a conversational tone by incorporating “you” and “we”. Ensure that you showcase your brand’s personality by maintaining your brand voice throughout the email. 

3. Provide details about shipped contents

This is specifically vital for those brands shipping perishable items such as foods, snacks, groceries, meats, etc. You can also add info about your packaging and more.

For instance, if you’re a snack item seller, send out shipping confirmation emails with details of the snack items being shipped. Craft the message with an image of each of the items on the order. Also, ensure that it is easily understandable.

4. Link tracking information

After placing an order at an e-commerce platform, a customer would be eagerly and excitedly wondering where their stuff shipped currently is. So, link the tracking number to the shipping confirmation email.

You can use an attractive CTA button to direct customers to the package tracking. This would also help keep them happy and avoid many customer inquiries. 

5. Expected time of delivery

Another important thing that you shouldn’t miss out on mentioning is the expected time of shipping and day of delivery of the order.

You can also mention your mode of delivering it- your delivery team or a delivery service provider. This will help them know when exactly they should anticipate the parcel. 

6. Recipient’s address

When crafting your shipping confirmation email, the next thing to include is the recipient’s address. Always have a field for this even if you’ve delivered items to a customer multiple times before.

This will help the customer know and revert if there is a typo or if he/she has forgotten to inform you about his/her recent change in address. 

7. Product recommendations

Including product recommendations in your shipping confirmation emails will help drive future purchases.

So, at the bottom part of your email, include a list of the relevant products that they may be interested in based on the customer behavior.

Link each recommendation to its product page on your site. This will make it easy for them to check and purchase those. 

8. Offer a discount on the next purchase

Sending a discount for the customer’s next purchase from your brand is yet another way to encourage repeat purchases through shipping confirmation emails. Present the offer tastefully. You may place a QR code which when scanned gives the customer a discount on the next purchase. By using QR code generators, you can create personalized QR codes.

There are several ways to offer effective deals. You may choose to give a buy-one, get-one offer, a discount on a minimum order value, a specific amount off, free shipping, or site-wide discounts. 

9. Plug your social accounts

By incorporating your social media accounts into your shipping confirmation email, you can take the connection beyond that interaction. So, encourage them to follow you on social media.

This way, you’ll gain more touchpoints to converse with your customers. This will help spread your brand to more consumers. 

10. Get upfront about potential delays

Be honest with your customers, particularly when you anticipate shipping delays.

For, delivery delays may occur due to different reasons such as floods, roadblocks, holiday season, pandemic safety restrictions, unprecedented shipping volumes, etc.

This will help customers expect lagged delivery. This way they won’t be disappointed.

5 Examples of Effective Shipping Confirmation Emails

1. Nike

Nike, the renowned American apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment designer and manufacturer, sends one of the comprehensive shipping confirmation emails.

It includes vital details about the shipment, the amount paid for the products purchased, and how the customer can track the package. And at the bottom of the email, the brand provides product recommendations with links to its relevant product pages. 

2. Tarte

Tarte Cosmetics, an American cosmetics company, sends impressive shipping confirmation emails. It provides info regarding how customers can contact them to get answers to their queries related to the shipping and delivery process.

You can see its phone number, email address, and customer service working hours. It also mentions the shipping mode employed and a link to track the shipment.

3. Gilt

Gilt, an American online shopping and lifestyle website’s shipping confirmation emails grab the opportunity to encourage repeat purchases. So, along with the shipping confirmation details, they send info about their ongoing promotions.

This can be one of their best marketing strategies as these emails arent missed by customers. For instance, in the below-given image, you’d see how they’re motivating a quick second purchase by offering free shipping for the next hour. 

4. Zuliliy

Zuliliy, an American e-commerce company, makes the most out of its shipping confirmation emails. Besides providing the necessary shipping details, it notifies “Refer a friend, earn $15” at the topmost right corner.

This catches the immediate attention of the recipient and incentivizes them to refer. Additionally, it encourages more purchases through offers. In the below-given instance, the deal is free shipping till midnight. 

5. Parabo Press

Parabo Press, an online photo printing service takes the opportunity to motivate social media sharing. At the bottom of its shipping confirmation emails, it writes a postscript that reads “It would mean so much to us if you give us a peek when it arrives. Post a pic using #parabopress.”

Wrapping up

Effective shipping confirmation emails are those that impart value to their recipients. They needn’t simply convey the customer’s order shipping details alone. You can get a lot more through those.

You can notify them of ongoing promotions, get them to refer their friends, encourage them to make repeated purchases, and more with a little innovative thinking.

This blog has given you useful tips to come up with effective shipping confirmation emails. We’ve also discussed some of the best examples from different brands that nailed it. 

If you also want to harness the power of email marketing, consider using NotifyVisitors email marketing tools. To know more about it schedule a free demo

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