Email marketing automation is the best way to win all the benefits of personalized campaigns without incurring the expenses of running these campaigns manually at scale. Check this out.
Forrester conducted a Total Economic Impact study on GetResponse Max customers. GetResponse Max provides an automation platform that allows businesses to conduct advanced audience segmentation for personalized marketing campaigns.
The report showed users of the automation platform saw a return on investment of 305% and net present value of $302,000. Campaign assembly effort was also reduced by 73% while the payback period was just under 3 months.
That’s the potential impact of deploying an effective email marketing automation strategy for your eCommerce business.
But what does an effective automation strategy look like?
This article will share the vital ecommerce email marketing automations every online store needs. We’ll also provide a roundup of the best automation platforms you can use for the job.
Boost your ecommerce ROI with email automation
Discover how email marketing automation can increase ROI and reduce campaign effort by 73%. Learn the essential workflows every online store needs to increase sales and customer lifetime value.
Benefits of ecommerce email marketing automation
Email marketing automation is the process of creating triggers and conditions that ensure your pre-set emails are sent to specific customers when the triggers are activated and the necessary conditions are met.
For example, you can set a trigger for an email with a welcome discount to be sent to a user who signs up for your newsletter for the first time. This email will be deployed automatically every time a new email enters your email list.
Ecommerce email marketing automation is powered by automation platforms. These automations deliver several benefits, including:
1. Increases your ROI
The average email marketing ROI is $36 for every $1 spent. As you can imagine, this ROI can drop or go higher depending on your strategy.
Email automation optimizes your ROI. This is achieved in various ways. One, automation allows you to deliver the most important messages when it matters most. This is critical because timing can be the difference between a user choosing to take advantage of their welcome discount or not.
An effective strategy ensures that the welcome discount is delivered at the right time, when the potential customer is most engaged. Perfect timing is achieved with all email automation workflows, not just welcome discounts.
Email marketing automation also optimizes your ROI by reducing the effort you put into campaigns. As the Forrester study above pointed out, users of the GetResponse Max automation platform saw their campaign assembly efforts drop by 73%. This means less time and salaries invested in running email campaigns.
You can also expect a high ROI for your email marketing efforts because campaigns will be personalized to resonate with each recipient. Automation platforms can track the product pages users interact with and use that data to send personalized product recommendations, for example.
They can also track a user’s purchase history and use the data to cross-sell and upsell relevant products.
2. Saves time
Email automation eliminates repetitive tasks like segmenting audiences, sending follow-ups, optimizing send times, inserting dynamic content, and even monitoring deliverability.
These are incredibly vital marketing tasks, but they’re extremely time-consuming to do manually. Automation allows you to set the segmentation rules, and these will be executed on autopilot until the day you decide to change the rules. It also helps with monitoring when each user opens emails and uses that data to optimize send time.
The best automation platforms also support the insertion of dynamic content. This essentially means that email items like the product recommendations can be changed automatically to align with the preferences or interests of each recipient.
Basically, automation frees up your time, allowing you to focus on more strategic tasks like brainstorming new campaign ideas, coming up with fresh creatives, and ideating A/B tests.
3. Enhances the customer experience and satisfaction
Effective email automation makes your customers feel seen and valued. It also eliminates friction by ensuring that critical communications like order confirmation, as well as shipping and delivery alerts, are delivered on time.
Automation supports personalization, which means your customers will only receive messages they’re interested in. This makes customers feel they’re having a one-to-one interaction with your brand. Not only does it boost customer satisfaction and conversion rates, but it can also increase repeat purchases, which boosts your customer lifetime value.
Speaking of which….
4. Boosts CLV and AOV
Ecommerce automation boosts customer lifetime value and average order value through several strategic automations.
Consider an automation workflow like customer re-engagement. This workflow targets past customers who have been inactive for an extended period. It brings them back to your store where they can rediscover products they loved and explore new items.
Automated upselling and cross-selling email campaigns are also critical for boosting the average order value. Some brands even include these upsells and cross-sells within automated emails, like transactional emails.
9 top ecommerce email automation workflows
Here are nine critical automated email campaigns you must create for your online store.
1. Welcome new subscribers
A welcome email is deployed when a new user submits their email address to join your subscriber list. This workflow can be customized to have either a one-off email or a series of emails.
Welcome emails see extremely high engagement rates. According to the 2024 email marketing benchmarks, these campaigns had an open rate of 83.63% and a click-through rate of 16.60%. For context, the average email open rate is 39.64%
That’s why you must automate welcome emails to ensure they’re delivered when your customers are most engaged and expecting them. You can further enhance the effectiveness of these campaigns by adding a time-limited welcome discount. This encourages the user to become a paid customer immediately.
Here is what a simple welcome automation workflow looks like.
The following template uses a split logic to send different types of welcome emails.
A welcome email is your opportunity to introduce your brand, explain what makes you unique, and set expectations with new subscribers. You can also share key links, such as links to your best-selling products and customer support page.
Check out this welcome email example from Local Revival.
The email includes a decent welcome discount, a brief explanation of what makes the brand unique, and links to best sellers.
2. Abandoned cart recovery
Abandoned cart recovery emails are sent to customers who add items to the cart but leave your site before completing their purchase.
Cart abandonment is a big problem for eCommerce stores. Data shows that up to 70% of online carts are abandoned. An effective cart abandonment email workflow can help you recover a good portion of these sales.
For example, iParts, an online store selling auto parts, used the GetResponse Max automation platform to address the cart abandonment issue. The brand deployed one cart abandonment email campaign, which saw an open rate of 30%. More importantly, 20% of the recipients made a purchase.
Like a welcome email, cart abandonment email campaigns can be either a single email or a series of emails. A series of cart abandonment emails can produce better results because it allows you to follow up with prospects.
Top automation platforms also let you create automation splits where you can target different cart abandoners with different messages to optimize conversions. For example, you can create a split based on the cart value. For instance, users whose cart value is above $150 can receive a cart abandonment email offering an incentive like free shipping or a discount.
Here’s an example of a cart abandonment workflow template.
An effective cart abandonment email includes an image of the product and a link going directly to the cart. This reduces friction and makes it easier for buyers to complete their orders.
You can also include social proof like customer testimonials and product reviews to build trust and help hesitant shoppers feel confident checking out.
Finally, compelling discounts can often work the magic to make hesitant customers feel that the deal is too good to pass up.
Take a look at this abandoned cart email example by Casper.
Casper stays on brand with the comical header that’s bound to grab attention. They’ve also included social proof through a customer testimonial.
Which email automation workflow has been most effective for your ecommerce business – welcome series, cart abandonment, or customer reengagement?
3. Customer reengagement
Customers can lose touch with your business for different reasons. Maybe they made an impulse purchase when they ran into your paid ads on social media and never thought about your brand again. It’s also possible that they got lured away by a competitor’s offer, and they’ve never visited your store again.
Whatever the case may be, customer reengagement campaigns are good at reigniting the interest of inactive customers. Automation platforms offer workflow templates to target customers who have not made a purchase from your store within the last 60 days. You can also customize the template to include a custom number of days.
Here’s what a winback automation template looks like.
Use personalization to make your customer win-back email campaigns more compelling. You can reference the last thing the customer ordered. Tell them how your store now has the same item in different colors, for example. You can also mention related products, what’s new about your brand, and include a welcome-back discount.
Here’s one of our favorite customer winback emails to inspire you.
4. Transactional emails
Transactional emails are sent in response to specific customer actions on your website. For example, the email can be deployed when a customer creates an account in your store.
These emails are extremely important because they confirm critical actions and build trust with the customers.
Transactional emails can also be considered as post-purchase emails since most of them are sent after a customer has placed their order. Here are some examples of these emails.
- Order confirmation emails – This email is sent immediately after a purchase is placed in your store. The email provides an order summary and shares additional delivery details like the estimated date of delivery.
- Shipping confirmation emails – A Shipping confirmation email is sent as a follow-up to the order confirmation email. The email provides additional details about the shipping of the order. Most stores will send at least two shipping and delivery emails, including the “out for delivery” email and the “order delivered” alert.
- Order delivery alert – This alert is usually the last of the shipping confirmation emails. It confirms that the order has been delivered to the customer.
You will need different workflows for each of these emails. Automation software integrates with your eCommerce platform to track when a customer makes a purchase to complete their order. This action triggers the order confirmation email.
Once your systems show that the order has been fulfilled, the email platform deploys the order delivery confirmation email.
Take a look at this example of a GDPR-compliant confirmation email workflow. Customers who have consented to receive marketing emails can get an order confirmation email with upsells and cross-sells using this workflow. Meanwhile, those who have shared their consent will only get a standard confirmation email.
Check out this order confirmation email.
Crate & Barrel confirms the order briefly and then takes advantage of the high engagement rates of confirmation emails to cross-sell other products.
5. Back in stock notifications
Sometimes, prospective customers arrive at your store and discover the products they were interested in are out of stock. One way to make sure that you don’t lose these prospects forever is to ask them to submit their email address, so you can notify them when the items are back in stock.
Therefore, back-in-stock email notifications are sent to customers when the items they showed interest in have been restocked. These emails can help you recover some of the lost sales.
Effective back-in-stock emails can have high conversion rates since you’re targeting leads that have already shown interest and buying intent.
Here’s an example of a back-in-stock email.
6. Product replenishment reminders
Product replenishment reminders are one of the most effective ways to increase repeat customers and boost the customer lifetime value. These emails are designed to be sent after a specific duration to remind customers that they need to restock their consumable goods.
Skincare products, vitamins, supplements, shaving razors, baby diapers, and pet foods are all examples of consumable products that could be the subject of product replenishment reminders.
Timing and cadence are critical for the success of these automated email campaigns. You don’t want to send the reminders too soon, and you also don’t want to wait too long. Analyze your customer purchase data to determine the average time it takes for your customers to reorder their supplies.
You’ll also need to use dynamic triggers here. Some customers may buy supplies to last them a week. Others shop on a monthly basis. That means a one-size-fits-all automation workflow won’t work. You’ll need to track the purchase behavior and history of each customer to determine when each reminder should be deployed.
Personalization is essential for the success of these campaigns. Reference the customer’s past orders in your email subject line and body. Use a one-click reorder CTA that automatically adds all the items. This saves the customer time, meaning they won’t need to look for and add the items to the cart from scratch.
Here’s an example of a replenishment reminder.
You can also offer incentives, such as loyalty bonuses, to customers who choose to reorder their items.
Product replenishment reminders also present opportunities for upselling. You can upsell the customer to an auto-ship program, for example. This generates predictable cash flow for you while keeping your customers engaged. It can also boost revenue by encouraging repeat purchases.
Plus, it ensures your loyal customers never run out of their favorite essentials.
Build powerful automation workflows with GetResponse
Create sophisticated email automation workflows that drive sales and increase customer lifetime value. Our drag-and-drop editor and pre-built templates make it easy to set up professional campaigns in minutes.
7. Browse abandonment emails
Browse abandonment emails target customers who went through one or several product pages in your online store but left without making a purchase. These automated emails work just like cart abandonment emails but with a different trigger. The condition used for these workflows is “visited page,” as shown below. You must also create a filter to exclude folks who may have visited and exited that page but bought something else from another page.
These automated emails would typically share images of the products that potential customers had viewed and might include incentives such as discounts and free shipping to encourage conversions.
The best browse abandonment emails also highlight related products. This section can help bring customers back to your site in case they didn’t make a purchase because they didn’t like the products they were viewing. It informs the customer of other options they might find more appealing. It can be items in different styles or the same item they looked at, but in a different color or price point.
The email copy does a great job creating a sense of urgency and FOMO.
8. Birthday and anniversary emails
Celebrating your customers with heartwarming messages and exclusive discounts during their key milestones is an effective way to strengthen customer relationships and build loyalty. Birthday and anniversary emails do precisely that by tracking your customer’s key dates and sending celebratory messages.
Here’s the workflow for these emails.
Anniversary and birthday emails can include exclusive discounts to help your customers celebrate their special day in style. You can also use dynamic content to highlight the customer’s favorite products based on their purchase history.
The email has a playful tone and includes a bold CTA going directly to the featured product in the hero section.
9. Feedback request emails
You can automate customer feedback collection in various ways. One is to include the feedback collection link in a transactional email. You can add the link in the order delivery email, for example.
Another way to collect customer feedback is by creating a dedicated email workflow for feedback requests. The best part about this workflow is that you can use a time delay to ensure the email is sent a few days after the customer has received their order. This allows them to provide objective product reviews and overall customer experience feedback based on their experience using the product and buying from your store.
Customer feedback, like product reviews, gives you social proof you can use to promote your products. The feedback also helps you improve the customer experience by highlighting friction points you need to address. Therefore, you do want to create a compelling copy that encourages customers to share their feedback.
J.Crew sends a separate feedback request email to collect product reviews from its customers. The email is straightforward and makes the process painless for customers by including links to where customers can leave a review for each product.
What’s your biggest challenge with ecommerce email automation – setting up workflows, personalizing content, or measuring ROI?
Best ecommerce email marketing automation platforms
Here are seven of the best marketing automation software solutions you can use to automate various aspects of your email marketing strategy.
| Key features | Pricing | |
| GetResponse | Personalized automation workflows with pre‑built templates Visual drag‑and‑drop workflow editorAdvanced customer segmentation with unlimited tags & engagement scoringDeep ecommerce integrations for behavior‑triggered emails | Marketer plan at $48.38/mo (unlimited templates & workflows) |
| Klaviyo | Built‑in Customer Data Platform Real‑time, behavior‑based email automationSplit‑logic branching for tailored customer journeysMulti‑channel automation (email, SMS, mobile push) | Email plan at $45/mo (up to 15,000 emails) |
| Omnisend | Pre‑built and fully customizable workflows via a visual editorA/B testing within automation flowsDynamic email content by segmentIntegrations with 160+ apps for data-driven personalization | Pro plan from $41.30/mo (1,001–1,500 contacts) |
| Mailchimp | Intuitive drag‑and‑drop automation builderPredictive analytics estimating future buying behaviorOmnichannel automations (email, SMS, social) | Essentials $26.50/mo (1,500 contacts, 4 flow steps) |
| Brevo | Prebuilt workflows + custom workflow builderAdvanced audience segmentation by activity & purchase historyMulti‑channel automation (SMS, WhatsApp, web & push)Transactional emails via SMTP/API | Business plan $16.17/mo |
| Mailerlite | 15 pre‑built automation templatesMulti‑trigger workflows (up to 3 triggers)A/B split testing for up to 3 workflow variations | $27/mo for 1,000 contacts |
| ActiveCampaign | Conversational AI assistant for workflow creationSite & event tracking for personalized recommendationsConditional & split logic for branching journeys | $49/mo for unlimited actions per automation |
1. GetResponse
GetResponse offers advanced email marketing automation tools to help you reach your audience at the right time with the right message. Our platform lets you build personalized automation workflows so each customer can feel seen and valued.
These workflows have helped brands like Poko Lorente and Eveline Cosmetics drive incredible online sales. Poko Lorente witnessed a $49,000 monthly value of AI product recommendations added to cart, while Eveline Cosmetics saw $13,000 in monthly sales from a single campaign, $ 7,000 of which came from product recommendations.
The GetResponse automation platform is also user-friendly. For starters, we provide plenty of pre-built templates to simplify and speed up the workflow creation process. We have templates for workflows like cart abandonment, customer re-engagement, and birthday and anniversary emails.
These templates are also customizable, so you can adjust the conditions and split the workflows to create more targeted automation campaigns.
For marketers who prefer to build their workflows from scratch, we provide a visual drag-and-drop editor to help with just that.
The platform integrates with popular eCommerce solutions, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, and WooCommerce. This integration allows you to track user behavior on your site. It can track the URL or product pages they visit, for example. This triggers personalized product recommendations.
Our platform also supports advanced customer segmentation. You can create customer profiles with an unlimited number of tags. Data, like the emails your customers open, can also be used to generate engagement scores. These insights allow you to create precise customer segments for personalized automated email campaigns.
Key features
- Supports user behavioral targeting
- Extensive integration with popular ecommerce tools
- Comes with a drag-and-drop interface, which makes creating complex workflows easier
- Dedicated IP and transactional email services are also available for enterprise eCommerce stores
- Also supports web push notification and SMS marketing automation
Pricing
GetResponse’s automation features are available from the Marketer plan, which costs $48.38/mo. This plan supports contact tagging, contact scoring, visited URL automation, event-based automation, ecommerce tracking, and purchase automation. You’ll also have access to unlimited automation templates and can build unlimited workflows from scratch.
For enterprises, the GetResponse Max plan provides the best tools to help you meet the needs and expectations of your vast customer base while staying compliant. The plan includes assisted IP warmup, dedicated sending domain, single sign-on, SMTP connection, and API access.
G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5
2. Klaviyo
Klaviyo comes with an in-built customer data platform (CDP). This platform can host all the rich data from the different tools and platforms your eCommerce store uses. It pulls data from your eCommerce platform and payment processing systems, for example. The data is then used to power marketing automation workflows.
You can use this data to create precise customer segments and send super personalized email campaigns. However, access to the Advanced Klaviyo Data Platform is available as a separate add-on that costs $500 per month.
Klaviyo also supports behavior-based automation. The platform can track and use real-time behavior and customer data to send personalized email messages instantly.
Split logic is another capability available on Klaviyo automations. This feature puts customers through different paths based on specific conditions and triggers.
For example, you can split the type of “Thank you” message a customer receives after responding to a feedback request email. You can set it up so that customers who provide detailed feedback with visuals can receive a special discount code for their next order in the Thank-you email.
Key features
- Offers automated reputation repair to help you maintain high email deliverability
- Supports automation across multiple channels, including SMS and mobile push notifications
- Provides over 80 prebuilt workflows and more than 100 customizable email templates
- Offers an AI assistant that helps with workflow creation and segmentation assistance
Pricing
Klaviyo email is available for $45 per month, with a limit of 15,000 monthly emails. This plan includes the drag-and-drop automation builder, workflow templates, and product recommendations.
Unfortunately, both the data platform ($500/mo) and SMS automation ($60/mo for email + SMS) are available as separate add-ons. Additionally, the automated product review request tool is sold separately, starting at $25 per month. This makes Klaviyo one of the more expensive eCommerce email marketing automation solutions.
Check our guide to the top Klaviyo alternatives if you want to see how other tools compare.
G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5
3. Omnisend
Omnisend automates critical steps within the customer journey across several marketing channels, including email and SMS. The platform provides prebuilt automation workflows, complete with prebuilt email subject lines and messages, to help you set up and deploy your automated campaigns in no time.
These workflows are fully customizable, so you can edit them to include custom triggers and conditions and even split the workflows. This is done through a visual automation editor.
Omnisend’s automation platform supports A/B testing. You can test the messages and incentives used within your workflows to see what resonates the most with your audience.
Key features
- Pulls third-party data through integrations to support personalized campaigns
- Integrates with 160+ apps, including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce
- Offers advanced automation reporting, showing the performance of your workflows
- Supports dynamic email content where different content is shown to different audience segments
Pricing
Omnisend offers a decent free plan that includes several automation features, such as pre-built e-commerce workflows, conditional content blocks, automation splits, and custom workflows. However, the free plan only accommodates 500 email sends per month. That’s very little, so most stores will need to upgrade to the paid plans.
The recommended Pro plan starts at $41.30 for a contact list size of 1,001 to 1,500. This plan offers unlimited monthly email sends, personalized product recommendations, and advanced reporting.
G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5
4. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is one of the most well-known email marketing tools. The platform provides email automation solutions, like the intuitive drag-and-drop automation builder. You also get ready-made templates for popular eCommerce workflows, such as a welcome series, cart recovery, and winback email campaigns.
Mailchimp integrates with over 300 apps to help you track customer behavior and deploy automated email marketing campaigns based on real-time actions.
Key features
- Supports behavior-triggered campaigns
- Offers a predictive analytics tool that estimates the future buying behavior of customers
- Supports omnichannel marketing automations across email, SMS, and social
Pricing
You can build automations and create up to 4 flow steps using Mailchimp’s Essentials plan, which costs $26.50/mo for 1,500 contacts. You’ll need at least the Standard plan, which goes for $45/mo for 1,500 contacts, to unlock more automation workflow steps (up to 200).
The Standard plan also supports dynamic content, send time optimization, multivariate testing, predictive segmentation, and behavioral targeting.
G2 rating: 4.3 out of 5
5. Brevo
Brevo’s automation tools help you personalize the customer journey to boost engagement and increase sales. The platform can track customer behavior, like the messages they open and click.
It also provides prebuilt workflows for recovering abandoned carts, welcoming new subscribers, and celebrating customer birthdays and anniversaries.
Plus, you can create your own workflows from scratch with their workflow builder.
Brevo supports advanced audience segmentation. You can group your email list subscribers based on their activities in your store, the actions they take, and their purchase history.
Key features
- Automates lead scoring
- Supports transactional emails through SMTP and API
- Also supports SMS, WhatsApp, Web, and mobile push notification automation
- Offers a customer data platform as a separate add-on to sync data from various tools
Pricing
Brevo’s automation features are available across all plans, including the free package. The difference lies in the number of emails you can send. The free plan limits you to just 300 emails per day and automations for up to 2,000 contacts.
The Starter plan supports unlimited automated email sends at $8.08/mo. Marketing automations are still capped at 2,000 contacts. Also, you’ll need to pay an extra $10.80 for a total of $18.88/mo to remove Brevo branding from your emails.
The Business plan costs $16.17 per month and includes additional features like send time optimization, A/B testing, and unlimited marketing automation.
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5
6. Mailerlite
Mailerlite integrates with various e-commerce tools, including Stripe, Make, Shopify, WordPress, and WooCommerce. These deep integrations help you track sales and customer behavior on your site to create personalized, automated email campaigns.
Mailerlite automates various stages of the customer journey, starting with welcome emails to post-purchase emails like customer survey campaigns. It gives you access to both prebuilt workflow templates and a workflow editor.
Mailerlite’s workflow editor allows you to add up to three triggers for a single workflow. This adds efficiency to your processes. Instead of building and maintaining three separate workflows, you can create one with three different triggers.
Key features
- Comes with 15 automation templates
- A/B split testing for up to 3 workflow variations lets you test content, send time, and subject lines to optimize your automations
Pricing
Email automation is available on both the free and Growing Business($13.50/mo for 1,000 contacts) plans. However, these plans have limited capabilities. For example, you don’t get multiple automation triggers, and the automation templates are also limited.
You’ll need the Advanced plan ($27/mo for 1,000 contacts) to access multiple automation triggers and unlimited automation templates.
G2 rating: 4.6 out of 5
7. ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign helps you build more responsive customer experiences through automations powered by customer data and real-time behaviors. Setting up these automations is fairly straightforward. In addition to prebuilt workflows, the platform provides a conversational AI assistant that works with you to bring your automation ideas to life.
ActiveCampaign integrates with over 900 platforms. This helps with tracking customer behavior across your online store, for example. Site and event tracking is then used to send personalized product recommendation emails.
The email automation tools also support conditional and split logics. That allows you to build branching paths so you can deliver tailored experiences to each customer. You can also split-test your automations to optimize your campaigns and make sure you’re not leaving any money on the table.
Key features
- Predictive sending makes sure your automated emails are sent when customers are most receptive.
- Tracks email opens and reads to send automated follow-up emails.
- Monitors customer movement from one segment to another and sends relevant emails for the new segment automatically
- 900+ integrations
Pricing
Marketing automation is available on the $15/mo Starter plan. You’re limited to up to five actions per automation on this plan. Segmentation is also limited in that plan.
The Plus package costs $49/mo and supports unlimited actions per automation. More powerful features, like predictive sending, conditional content, advanced segmentation, and attribution and conversion tracking, are available on the Pro plan, which starts at $79/month.
G2 rating: 4.5 out of 5
Transform your ecommerce success with GetResponse
Ready to achieve 305% ROI and reduce campaign effort by 73%? Start with our proven automation platform that includes all the workflows, integrations, and tools you need to scale your ecommerce business.
Automate your ecommerce email marketing campaigns with GetResponse
Ecommerce email automation is a powerful way to increase customer engagement and boost customer lifetime and average order values. An effective strategy also enhances customer satisfaction and the overall customer experience because your brand will always be responsive to their unique actions and needs.
GetResponse offers powerful automation tools for both small and enterprise eCommerce stores. We offer a vast selection of customizable workflow templates for you to choose from. You can also build custom flows from scratch or import them.
Plus, we provide other marketing tools like a landing page builder, signup forms, a popup creator, conversion funnels, SMS marketing, paid ads, and web push notifications. That means you can run your marketing campaigns from one platform.
