If you run an eCommerce, you can get many benefits from email marketing. The problem is finding the right platform to run your campaigns. If you do things right, as soon as your customer base expands, you’ll need to scale to a proper eCommerce email platform.
These tools go beyond saving time with automation. They provide you with features that enhance your email marketing efforts.
Let’s then explore what options you have and how to make the right choice for your business.
eCommerce email platforms allow online retailers to manage and optimize eCommerce email marketing efforts. Features like automation, personalization, and integration make these tools a favorite among eCommerce businesses.
The truth is, facts and features alone are rarely enough to sell your products. You need targeted email content with personalization that nurtures and educates your audience until they’re ready to buy.
An eCommerce email platform supports this process by helping you create email campaigns that resonate with your audience.
Apart from popular eCommerce websites like Shopify, these tools integrate with other, less popular ones.
Moreover, an eCommerce email tool has sales-focused features. For example, it includes templates for abandoned cart emails, product recommendations, and post-purchase follow-ups. Such emails allow online retailers to increase sales and engagement.
On the same note, these tools provide email workflows specifically for eCommerce customer journeys. Email series like re-engagement or upselling ensure you’re always on your customers’ minds. As a result, you’ll be their first choice whenever they need products like yours.
Providing product catalog integration is another way these tools cater specifically to online retailers. This feature lets you easily add product information to your emails with a clean design. The customer can see things like price, color, and product name without visiting your website. This might sacrifice website visits but enhances customer experience, which is necessary in the long run.
Online retailers also receive detailed metrics like conversion rates, click-through rates, and actionable insights like customer behavior.
Lastly, most eCommerce email tools have A/B testing capabilities. You can test different versions of subject lines, email content, and CTAs, with some even suggesting changes.
Now that you know what an eCommerce email platform is, let’s discuss five reasons for investing in one. It might be tempting to choose a general, free email marketing platform and call it a day.
However, you might not get the above features if you take that route. Exploring the benefits of eCommerce email platforms will motivate you to take these tools seriously. It will also give you an idea of what to look for when choosing such a tool.
So, here are the four benefits of an eCommerce email tool.
1. Saving Time and Money
eCommerce email platforms facilitate automation, which brings a domino effect of good things for your business. Saving time and money is at the start of this domino effect. Here’s how.
Firstly, you don’t have to send manual emails. You can set up workflows with appropriate triggers, and the platform will do the rest. Besides, in-built templates speed up the process.
Such workflows and targeted campaigns increase engagement and discourage people from leaving your business, which saves money.
Moreover, testing emails with these platforms points you in the right direction. As a result, you don’t lose money with ineffective campaigns.
2. Increasing Customer Engagement
People often underestimate email personalizations. However, sending content that aligns with customer behavior, preferences, and history makes them feel valued.
It shows that you understand your customers’ needs and genuinely want to help them. This makes people want to engage with your brand, whether new customers or repeat buyers.
An eCommerce email tool also has automated triggers that send emails immediately after customers take action. These workflows keep you at the forefront of your customers’ minds with consistent communication and timely responses.
You can also add interactive elements to your emails, like surveys and countdown timers. These things work together to increase engagement.
3. Driving More Sales With Personalization
Since the beginning of this discussion, we’ve been praising an email platform’s ability to personalize messages, and with good reason. You already know that personalization increases engagement. But did you know that it also drives more sales?
Think about it. The more people engage, the more likely they are to buy your products. They’ll happily open your emails, read them, and take action.
Moreover, personalized content means you’re recommending things they might need. This relevancy makes your emails more appealing, encouraging more sales.
4. Making Data-Driven Decisions
Every business needs data, whether it’s about its marketing efforts, customers, or sales performance. Without data, you’ll waste precious time in guesswork and lose revenue.
An eCommerce email tool gives you actionable insights into your email marketing efforts with valuable metrics. You can calculate your open rates, delivery rates, unsubscribe rates, etc., to learn how your campaigns perform.
These tools also tell you how customers respond to your emails. With this knowledge, you can make data-driven decisions and improve your marketing efforts. Taking this data further, you can also improve your overall business.
When choosing the best email platform for eCommerce, it might be tempting to select the most popular option.
However, every business has its own needs and goals. A platform that works best for one business might not work for you, even if you’re in the same industry. Therefore, it’s wise to research properly before settling for a tool.
So, start by assessing your needs. Do you want to start with something simple or jump to an advanced platform? Answering this question will depend on your target audience. A basic tool might suffice if you only have a few hundred customers. However, you’ll need to upgrade as your audience increases.
Another factor you need to consider is your budget. Always start researching for a marketing tool with a set budget. This will help narrow down your options and choose a tool that fits your financial constraints and marketing needs.
Once you’ve set your budget and narrowed down the list, review each tool’s features. Look for the ones you need for your email marketing goals. It would also be wise to look for available integrations. It won’t work for you if it doesn’t integrate with your eCommerce platform, no matter how many features it has.
Next, look at the tool’s user experience and customer support. Does it have a simple interface that you and your team can use? You can also read online reviews and recommendations to make your decision.
Alternatively, you can register for the free plans and run mock campaigns to see if the tools work for you.
You’ll rarely find a good eCommerce email tool that is completely free. Even if you choose the most cost-effective tool, you’ll still need to invest some money.
However, your investment will be worthwhile if the tool has these seven features:
- Contact segmentation: Running an eCommerce business means meeting various people, each with their own needs and preferences. Advanced segmentation features help you send relevant emails that target specific groups, increasing conversions and engagement.
- Email automation: The main goal of any email marketing tool is to send automatic emails. You should be able to send emails based on customer actions like placing an order or adding to the cart.
- Email templates: A good email tool won’t force you to create each email from scratch. Instead, it will provide several templates, and you can edit the email contents to fit your needs.
- Online store and CRM integration: The tool won’t be useful unless it integrates with your online store and CRM. You’ll need information from these platforms to send personalized promotional and transactional emails.
- Personalization: The whole reason why email marketing stands out is that it’s more personalizable than other channels. So, choose a tool that lets you add content based on the customer’s preferences or history.
- Sales reporting: An eCommerce business needs to know where most of its sales come from. This way, it can maximize its efforts on that platform and reap better results. A good eCommerce email tool tells you how many sales came from email and which campaigns were the most successful.
- Email deliverability: What’s the point of sending emails that don’t reach recipients or end up in their spam folders? Your chosen tool should have good email deliverability so your efforts don’t go to waste.
You’ll probably search the Internet for tools to create a list before comparing their features and prices. While this can help you start the process, it can also exhaust and confuse some. The abundance of available tools on the market is not easy to navigate.
To help you avoid this, we’ve created a list of six options for the best email marketing platform for eCommerce. This list will discuss various tools with features and benefits. So, let’s start.
1. Omnisend: Gives A Comprehensive Solution
Some platforms always appear in discussions about beginner email marketing, and Omnisend is one of them. With plenty of eCommerce-specific features, it offers a comprehensive solution for online retailers.
You get signup forms, personalization, product blocks, landing pages, automated workflows, and even built-in discount codes for your email campaigns. There’s no need to buy and integrate other eCommerce solutions for these things.
Omnisend even lets you use SMS marketing and web push notifications for consistent marketing across multiple channels.
It also has a free plan with generous features, which might be enough if you own a small business. However, its email deliverability isn’t up to par.
Even though Constant Contact is a digital marketing platform, its eCommerce email features make it worth a mention. Many small businesses prefer it as a comprehensive solution for its social media, email, and SMS marketing features.
Its automation capabilities are impressive, with built-in templates and workflows for various campaigns. Moreover, if you have multiple abandoned cart automations, it prompts you to remove older ones to avoid sending duplicate emails.
While Constant Contact offers better deliverability than Ominsend, it only lets you set one trigger, which might limit your efforts. Its plain forms might be another problem if you want more engaging designs.
3. ActiveCampaign: Provides Advanced Automation Workflows
ActiveCampaign might be a better option if Constant Contact’s limited automation capabilities make it a deal breaker for you. It lets you set many triggers for your automated campaigns, ensuring you have an email for each situation.
Moreover, you can easily convert website visitors into customers with engaging signup forms and landing pages. ActiveCampaign also gives you eCommerce-focused analytics like sales tracking and customer behavior insights.
Another standout feature is its automation split testing. This feature allows you to test different automation strategies to see which works best. Conversely, you’ll have to face a steep learning curve for most of its features.
4. GetResponse: Manages Complete Sales Funnels
An eCommerce business needs sales funnels to guide customers from the moment they show interest to making a purchase. A good sales funnel helps turn casual browsers into loyal buyers and increase overall sales.
GetResponse is an eCommerce email tool that stands out in this regard. It helps you create a comprehensive sales funnel with automated email sequences and targeted marketing strategies.
Apart from appealing templates and designs, it has AI capabilities to help you write emails. It has a free plan but might only be useful for eCommerce businesses if they upgrade.
5. Brevo: A Cost-Effective Alternative
Not all businesses have the resources to invest in an expensive eCommerce email tool. If that’s the case, you might want to check out Brevo.
It might not have the comprehensive features of other expensive tools, but it’s enough for companies with basic needs. Integrating with eCommerce platforms allows you to create automated emails for several scenarios.
Like other tools, Brevo also lets you segment your contact lists for personalization. Moreover, its eCommerce analytics and reporting feature gives you an overview of your customers, best-selling products, and marketing efforts.
However, you can’t add your branding to your emails unless you upgrade. As a result, your customers will see Brevo’s branding when they open your emails.
6. MailerLite: Gives Ease of Use
Business owners usually don’t have the time to learn to use a tool. If the tool is difficult to use, they have to hire professionals and create teams to make their investment worthwhile. That’s where MailerLite comes in.
Marketers love it for its clean interface and ease of use. Everything you need is easily accessible with its intuitive display. This means you don’t have to figure things out on your own. With plenty of automations, triggers, and landing pages, MailerLite can make your life easier.
Apart from automation, you also get valuable insights into your email marketing campaigns. It tells you how many subscribers bought the showcased products and how much revenue they brought in.
The best part is that it’s not even that expensive. Its free plan is quite generous and even includes split testing, which is rare with free plans. However, it doesn’t let you set a trigger for product views.
Let’s take this discussion further by answering some frequently asked questions about email marketing platforms for eCommerce.
An eCommerce email platform is a tool that helps online retailers automate, personalize, and manage their email campaigns.
It integrates with other eCommerce platforms like customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and payment gateways.
The result is more sales, improved customer engagement, and an enhanced shopping experience.
Yes, you can integrate your eCommerce platform with a small business email marketing tool. It’s something every online retailer should consider to seamlessly sync customer data collection, order history, and product information.
As a result, you can send automated and personalized campaigns. Plus, its monitoring capabilities will give you valuable insights into customer behavior and campaign performance.
Email platforms for eCommerce help increase sales with targeted and automated campaigns. For example, you can send emails when a customer abandons their cart.
These emails will make them feel special and encourage them to complete the sale, especially if you include a discount. They might even become repeat buyers, advocating your brand to others.
An e-commerce email platform offers features catering to online retailers to drive sales and increase engagement. E-commerce email tools provide advanced segmentation and automation of emails.
It also integrates with other eCommerce tools to comprehensively view customer behavior. As a result, you can make data-driven decisions that grow your business through email.
If you run a physical business that integrates e-commerce, you can build a contacts database and run campaigns with Beambox.
Beambox is a WiFi marketing platform that helps you collect email contacts from customers, respecting data laws and regulations.
Additionally, it allows you to segment and automate campaigns to increase sales and customer satisfaction.
We utilize a dynamic approach to attract new customers while keeping loyal customers happy. Start your trial today!
