Your eCommerce Guide to the Transactional Email

Treating your transactional emails as a boring admin task? Stop! These are some of the most powerful marketing assets in your arsenal. Order confirmations, shipping updates, and receipts quite literally get opened at 4–8x the rate of promotional newsletters and other marketing emails. This means the transactional email is ripe for reinforcing trust, cross-selling, and keeping customers excited about their purchase and your brand.

But, what is a transactional email? And, how can you master them via your eCommerce strategy? The team at KIJO – we’re a web design agency based in London – have put together this guide to perfecting the transactional email. 

Related Read: The Ultimate Guide to eCommerce Content Marketing

What is a Transactional Email?

A transactional email is an automated message triggered by a customer action. Common examples include:

• Order confirmation
• Shipping notifications
• Password resets
• Account creation confirmations

Unlike marketing emails, these are considered “essential” communications; customers expect them and usually open them right away. Data shows transactional emails have an average open rate of around 40%, compared to around 20% for standard campaigns.

Why Should the Transactional Email Matter to Marketers?

Lifecycle and store emails should matter to your marketing team just as much as your campaigns. That’s because the smartest marketers don’t stop at the purchase. They build automated flows that generate predictable revenue and deepen customer relationships:

• Abandoned cart recovery
  Marketing company Fresh Relevance discovered that abandoned cart emails promote a 7% sales uplift for businesses. Make that 10% if you add browse recovery emails too!
• Welcome emails
  Welcome emails that include offers can boost revenue by 30% per email, compared to welcome emails without offers.
• Post-purchase upsell/cross-sell
  Amazon attributes 35% of its revenue to recommendations. Be inspired by this and reap gains via a transactional email that contains complementary, recommended products to a purchase.
• Reviews & feedback requests
  Businesses that collect reviews post purchase see up to 15% lift in conversion rates.
• Discounts & loyalty programmes
  Returning customers spend 67% more per order. Rewarding loyalty is a brilliant thing to do!
• Win-back/reactivation emails
  “We miss you” campaigns often help to drive reactivation rates. Successful rates typically range between 10-30%.

When to Use Transactional Emails?

Transactional emails should be used any time a customer needs confirmation that their action was successful. Examples include:

• Checkout
  Order confirmation, invoice, and/or payment receipt.
• Fulfilment
  Shipping updates and delivery confirmation.
• Account activity
  New account creation, password changes, and security alerts.

However, to boost your marketing efforts, these can be tailored in a complementary way to bolster trust and potentially bag another sale. Look to include personalised touches, upsell opportunities, and next steps in these emails. This will help transform these routine confirmations into mini customer experience moments!

How to Send Transactional Emails

WooCommerce includes basic transactional emails out-of-the-box, but they’re often generic. Here’s how to take control:

• Customise WooCommerce emails
  Use tools like WooCommerce Email Customiser or AutomateWoo.
• Integrate advanced platforms
  Klaviyo and Mailchimp notoriously offer better segmentation, analytics, and personalisation; both platforms can work (and do so well) with WooCommerce.
• Test & optimise
  A/B test subject lines (“Your order has shipped” vs “Good news: your order is on the way”) and Calls to Action (CTAs).
• Track performance
  Aim for 40%+ open rates and 2–4% click-through rates. These are considered pretty standard, healthy, and achievable target numbers across most industries.

KIJO Pro Tip: Keeping an eye on your email activity is key to sustained success. Businesses that actively test and optimise their transactional emails will maximise their repeat purchase rates.

Related Read: The Marketing Manager’s Guide to eCommerce Optimisation Conversion Tactics

Deliverability & Testing Best Practices

As every marketer knows, great content is worthless if it never reaches anyone. Deliverability is where it’s easy to slip up!

Authenticate Your Domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)

Deliverability starts with proper email authentication. Without it, mailbox providers may mark your transactional emails as spam or fail to deliver them at all. Your eCommerce agency or website team should be able to ensure this (and we recommend that they do!), but if not, it is possible to do it yourself.

1. Set Up SPF (Sender Policy Framework)

SPF is a DNS record that specifies which mail servers are authorised to send email on behalf of your domain.

• Log into your DNS host (e.g., Cloudflare, GoDaddy, 123 Reg).
• Create a TXT record: v=spf1 include:mail.yourprovider.com ~all (replace with your provider’s sending domain).
• Use ~all to start (soft fail), move to -all (hard fail) once you’ve tested.
• Test with a tool like MXToolbox SPF Checker.

2. Set Up DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)

DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to your emails to verify they haven’t been altered in transit.

• Generate a DKIM key in your email platform (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Klaviyo, Mailchimp, etc.).
• Add the provided TXT record to your DNS.
• Verify once DNS propagation completes.

3. Set Up DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)

DMARC tells mailbox providers what to do with emails that fail SPF/DKIM checks.

• Create a TXT record at _dmarc.yourdomain.com:
  v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:postmaster@yourdomain.com; ruf=mailto:forensics@yourdomain.com; sp=none; aspf=r;
• Start with p=none (monitor mode), then progress to p=quarantine or p=reject once you’re confident all legitimate email sources are authenticated.
• Review DMARC aggregate reports regularly.

Test & Optimise Subject Lines and Calls to Action (CTAs)

As mentioned above, keeping an eye on your email activity is key to maintaining success as well as improving it. One thing to test and play with is subject lines; these drive your open rates. So, test variations like:

• “Your order has shipped” vs. “Good news: your order is on the way”
• Adding personalisation (first name or product name)

Also experiment with CTAs e.g. “Track your order” vs. “See where your package is now.” Even small wording changes can have a measurable impact on CTRs!

Experiment with Incentives

For marketing-focused transactional flows (like win-back or abandoned cart campaigns), run A/B tests to see whether % discounts, £ discounts, or free shipping perform best. Track:

• Open rates
  Aim for 40%+ for transactional, 20–25% for promotional.
• Click-through rates
  As aforementioned, 2–4% is a good benchmark.
• Conversions
  Obviously, the ultimate measure of success!

Maintain a Healthy Text-to-Image Ratio

Avoid image-only emails. These can trigger spam scanners on inboxes and are often inaccessible. Be sure to balance visuals with copy to avoid being sent to the spam folder and keep emails accessible to every recipient.

Monitor Domain Reputation

Use Google Postmaster Tools or Microsoft SNDS to keep tabs on your sending domain’s reputation. This will help you to spot deliverability issues before they cost you trust or sales!

Quick Wins for Marketers

The quickest path to return on investment (ROI) is often the simplest. As we mentioned at the top of this blog, the first step is to stop sending the same default WooCommerce emails everyone else is sending.

Remember, an order confirmation email is not just a receipt; it’s the first post-purchase impression a customer gets and it’s important to capitalise on this. Use this space to recommend related products, share a helpful how-to guide, or invite them to join your loyalty programme. 

Similarly, shipping updates are a golden opportunity to build excitement. A bland “Your order has shipped” can become “Good news! Your order is on its way – here’s what to expect next.” Use the opportunity to add personality, reinforce your brand voice, and keep customers engaged whilst they wait for their delivery.

When it comes to reactivation, simplicity will always reign. A one-click discount or reminder in a “We miss you” campaign can often be enough to bring a customer back. Pairing this with authentic and truthful urgency – like “Limited stock remaining” – frequently leads to even better results.

Related Read: The Marketing Manager’s Guide to Omnichannel eCommerce Customer Engagement

Tools & Platforms KIJO Recommends

The technology stack you choose has a direct impact on what’s possible with transactional email. WooCommerce’s built-in emails are a starting point, but they are rarely enough for a brand serious about growth. Plugins like AutomateWoo unlock personalisation, whilst Klaviyo and Mailchimp (all of which we mentioned earlier) provide powerful segmentation and automation capabilities.

Mailchimp and Omnisend would be excellent entry points for SMEs who want to dip their toes into more advanced automation without overwhelming their teams. For larger operations, especially those with dedicated marketing teams, HubSpot or Salesforce Marketing Cloud can integrate transactional email into a full CRM and marketing automation ecosystem which may be more suitable.

Be sure to choose a platform that matches your current resources but can scale with your ambitions. If you’re unsure, work with a dedicated eCommerce agency who can objectively look at your needs and advise with experience.

Do Transactional Emails Need an Address?

Yes. You legally need to include a valid business address in all commercial email communications, including transactional emails. This is required under GDPR and UK PECR regulations. The address can be in the footer, but it has to be visible and accurate.

Do Transactional Emails Need to Unsubscribe?

Purely transactional emails – so, those that exist solely to confirm a customer’s action, like receipts or shipping confirmations – do not require an unsubscribe link. These messages are considered necessary for the functioning of your business and are protected under compliance guidelines.

However, if you’re choosing to blend subtle upsell or cross-sell content into these messages, it’s considered best practice to include an unsubscribe link or preferences centre for the marketing portion of the message. This keeps you compliant with GDPR and PECR whilst still allowing you to use transactional emails as a revenue-generating tool.

Final Thoughts: The Transactional Email as a Revenue Driver

Transactional emails are a predictable, scalable revenue engine. And, they’re hiding in plain sight! They protect revenue by reassuring customers their purchase went through, they recover revenue through abandoned cart and win-back flows, and they generate new revenue by introducing relevant products at the perfect moment.

For marketing managers, business owners, and their teams, the challenge is crafting a consistent, brand-authentic experience in the transactional email flow. Remember that each email you send to your user is a micro-interaction that can either strengthen or weaken customer loyalty. Get it right, and you’ll build trust, increase repeat purchases, and transform transactional email from a cost centre into a growth channel! That’s the power of treating these touchpoints as part of a cohesive, branded journey rather than just another piece of necessary admin.

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