Did you know that the order confirmation email is an insanely powerful message that generates the biggest open and click-through rates in the ecommerce industry?
Even sending these messages immediately after purchases doesn’t stop them from generating more orders! They bring in four times more charges than a promotional email newsletter.
Why are these messages so powerful, and how can you make them so mighty? These and other questions we’ll explore in this article.
So let’s look at how you can use the order confirmation email to drive email conversions and boost your online sales.
What is Order Confirmation Email?
The definition
An order confirmation email is a message that a merchant sends immediately after the customer completes a purchase. Although these emails don’t have a strictly defined structure, they usually cover the information about the last order: acquired products, the amount spent, estimated delivery time, and address.
Often, this kind of email contains additional components that increase performance.
Order confirmation emails belong to transactional emails, which are triggered by completed purchases and automatically sent to customers.
Most ecommerce platforms have this functionality in-house. However, most of the time, it’s a relatively limited, basic solution. Merchants that want to send more sophisticated order confirmation emails usually use marketing automation features their email service providers (ESPs) provide. This gives them more flexibility and enables a more advanced approach.
The Main Components of Order Confirmation Emails
As mentioned above, the main components of order confirmation emails are the following:
- confirmation of successfully acquired products,
- the amount of money spent on those products,
- the estimated delivery time,
- customer’s address to ship the parcel.
However, these elements are only the backbone. The devil (or, in our case, the power) is in the detail.
Those details can be different. For example:
- A powerful Thank-you message at the top of the email
- A limited-time offer for the next purchase
- Product listing for up-selling and cross-selling
- Different kinds of promotions: partner program, loyalty program, mobile app,
- Invitation to social media
- Asking to leave a review, etc.
Usually, marketers use these components for promotional emails. But success will be yours if you find the golden spot between necessary and captivating information.
The Order Confirmation Email Template
Using a third-party order confirmation email such as Omnisend’s allows you greater flexibility in your order confirmation email’s look, feel, and timing.
But what is the best layout for such an email?
Well, it’s usually best to be simple.
Further below, I’ll show you some great things you can do with your order confirmation emails.
But let’s look at a beautiful, simple order confirmation email template:
As you can see, the message starts with a thank-you note.
Further, it provides the customer immediately with an image of what was bought, plus all the specifics, including pricing, details, payment, and billing and shipping addresses.
A “view order” button also links back to the store.
As an example, the email would look like this:
The best time to send order confirmation emails
People expect to receive an order confirmation immediately after they make a purchase. Be it an email or a text message, it should be delivered to the customer instantly. That’s why ecommerce businesses automate this process – it’s the only way to do that properly.
How does the order confirmation automation work at Omnisend? The order confirmation workflow has three steps.
An Order Confirmation email workflow. Click to enlarge
1. Firstly, as with all workflow automation, there is what’s known as the trigger.
This is the event or action that causes the workflow to start. Here, the trigger is for when a customer completes an order.
2. Secondly, the delay kicks in.
This determines how long the order confirmation email will be sent after the trigger. By default, it’s set to ‘Immediately’ in Omnisend’s workflow. For this kind of email, it’s the best practice.
3. Lastly, there’s the actual email that will be sent.
There is a default template, but you can and should edit it to fit your brand. You can add your logo, change the colors and fonts, and add relevant images. This way, you can give your customers a seamless shopping experience.
That email contains details about the product(s), relevant taxes, payment, etc.
However, besides being a glorified receipt (which is essential for your customer to have), the order confirmation is a ripe opportunity to help you get even more sales from your customers.
After all, order confirmation emails have an open rate of around 60%, much better than the standard 18% for regular promotional emails.
The best order confirmation email subject lines
Although they’re essential, confirmation email subject lines tend to be overlooked.
While sending a confirmation email is pretty standard practice for marketers and is expected by buyers, you can still do many creative things to improve your open rates.
After all, better open rates mean you can use the three order confirmation best practices mentioned below.
When discussing great results, we’re talking about confirmation email subject lines leading to great open rates.
So let’s look at five top-performing confirmation email subject lines.
1. Thank you for your order
This is a simple, straightforward subject line for your confirmation email, but it’s still among the highest-performing (based on our research).
2. Your {Brand Name} Order Confirmation [#98765]
This particular subject line is detailed, giving buyers pretty much everything they need to know right in the subject line.
This works because, primarily, it is functional.
The buyer knows what the brand is and what the confirmation number is. That way, if there are any questions, they can reference the subject line without going into the email.
3. Order Received – {Brand Name} Order #12192
This confirmation email is focused on shipping confirmation, which is excellent news for the customer.
The customer can see all the essential information in the subject line. This leads to high open rates but also repeat views.
4. Great news! We’ve got your order #12345
This confirmation email subject line adds a bit of positivity to the email. This will most likely match the customer’s mood when they receive the email.
After all, an order confirmation is the email customers most look forward to.
5. Your {Brand Name} order has been received (#12345)
This order confirmation email subject line gets straight to the point but includes the order number at the end.
It’s similar to our No.4 confirmation email subject line listed above, except that it’s in the passive, not active form. This works well for more formality, as it also removes the personality from above.
Nonetheless, it’s an excellent option for a professional, high-converting confirmation subject line.
5 Order Confirmation Email Examples
These examples show how creative you can be with your order confirmation email.
1. Up-sell/cross-sell: The Dollar Shave Club
Many ecommerce stores choose to promote their top sellers and recommended products right before their customers purchase their goods. While that has some good results, many customers are not yet ready to commit.
That’s why the order confirmation email is perfect for that. Below the order confirmation details, you should include some of your store’s best-selling products.
There’s a reason these items are your best-sellers, and you should work to promote those items in your order confirmation email. Ensure to include no more than five items not to overload the customer with too many options.
The Dollar Shave Club does this well with their item offerings (they even show the option to add new items before the purchased items are shipped):
The Dollar Shave Club has a great example of upselling/cross-selling in its order confirmation email
2. Multiple benefits: Asos
A very similar example comes from Asos. This brand also includes a variety of information in the order confirmation email. But they use different elements, so this example finds its place here.
3. Reward program: Iherb
IHerb also includes more recommended products. On top of this, this ecommerce store shortly reminds us about its reward program, loyalty points, and other benefits, which is why it’s an excellent decision to buy from IHerb.
4. Order Timeline: SportsDirect
Another example of order confirmation has a visual order timeline at the top of the message. It explains to customers what to expect next.
Also, SportsDirect.com makes an exciting move by placing the thank-you message at the very end of the email. Although nobody expects a personal order confirmation email from you, it looks too automated, and you can barely hear the brand voice. For some brands, this can work well.
5. Multiple benefits: Zalando
Zalando’s transactional order confirmation email has notable upgrades:
- A short important thank-you note.
- They added a link to upsell inside the receipt -> “Complete the look.”
- The possibility to quickly cancel your order. This function helps when you want to add something more to your cart.
- More similar products with images
- A content block with essential information regarding order placement, returns, and modifications.
- And finally, short and sweet return information, other benefits, links to social media, and app stores.
This giant ecommerce retailer seems to put everything with the best into one email. However, it might have a reason for this. A vast open rate and active engagement within this email might be one of them.
The Order Confirmation Page
The order confirmation page is where customers land when they complete the purchase.
Its purpose is to confirm the success that the transaction went through correctly, and the order was placed. That’s why it is something that every ecommerce store must have polished and shiny.
What elements must this page have?
Typically, this page contains all the order-related information, and don’t forget the success message.
The main elements of the order confirmation page:
- Success message
- Order number
- Purchased products/services
- Order summary (total costs, delivery costs, taxes, etc.)
- Payment method
- Billing and delivery address
- Estimated delivery time
- Shipping method
- Return policy (it’s not a must, but recommended)
See an example below:
Additionally, you may include all those elements that apply to the order confirmation email.
Remember that an order confirmation page has to speak to your customers with the same brand voice as your entire communication. It has to be well-optimized and provide support and a smooth shopping experience.
Order confirmation workflow significantly affects the overall shopping experience and customer retention. This is a place for experiments and modifications. You can get stunning results by adding, changing, or removing promotional elements.
