There’s an easy way to connect with customers you may be overlooking: the email receipt.
 Nearly 50 percent of people make another purchase when spurred by a discount in an email receipt. |
“With an open rate of 70.90%, compared to the average 17.19% for regular email marketing campaigns—email receipts are a potential ecommerce gold mine, and it’s important that you treat it as such,” said ecommerce expert Tucker Schreiber in a recent article for Shopify.
When a customer completes a checkout with your shop, “their trust is at its fullest,” Schreiber said. “They’ve already committed to your product and brand.”
So take advantage of that by adding a little pizzazz to your email receipt.
Here are a few things you can do:
1. Upsell Related Products
Any experienced online shopper is familiar with the phrase, “You might like…” and has probably succumbed to its power of persuasion (editorial confession: over and over again). As far back as 2006, Amazon reported that 35 percent of its revenues were a direct result of upselling through cross sales.
There are several ways you can use this idea in email receipts:
- Add the option for a subscription purchase (bouquet of the month).
- Sell related products or accessories (decorative planters, baby bibs for new mothers, prayer books).
- Offer the option to buy it for a friend as a gift.
You can use Receiptful to create an email receipt template.
2. Incentivize a Future Purchase
If you include a discount code in your receipt, you tempt the customer to make another purchase. According to a 2013 study, that 44% of email recipients made at least one purchase the previous year based on a promotional email that included a coupon code.
Furthermore, you can use coupon codes to track sales for online and offline marketing campaigns, Schreiber said.
3. Promote Your Social Media Accounts to Keep Customers Informed
Including links to your social accounts in either the footer, or in a content card on your email receipt template makes it incredibly easy for customers to connect with you. To nudge them to click “follow,” Schreiber suggests adding a referral incentive, such as:
- “Share with 10 friends and get 10% off your next order.”
- “Every time you refer a friend, you get $1 off your next order.”
- “Every time you refer a friend and they make a purchase, your next order is free.”
Check out Referral Candy to set up a referral campaign. https://apps.shopify.com/referralcandy
4. Have Customers Share Their Purchases on Facebook
A “shopping high” is real. Research shows shopping activates key areas of the brain that boost moods and trigger the release of dopamine.
“Try to encourage customers to share their purchase on Facebook when they’re still feeling excited,” Schreiber said.
Study after study shows referrals from friends to be the most trusted form of marketing. Adding a shareable link to your receipt lets customers do so in mere seconds. Check out Friend Buy to set this up.
