Most small stores think of email as the newsletter they never get round to sending. The emails that actually make money are automated: set up once, triggered by what a customer does, and quietly working every day. If you only do three, do these.
1. The welcome series
Someone who has just signed up is as interested in you as they'll ever be. A short series — two or three emails over a week — should say thank you, deliver anything you promised for signing up, tell your story and point to your best sellers. Keep the first one short and send it straight away.
2. Abandoned checkout
People start checkouts and get distracted all the time. A friendly reminder, sent within a few hours, recovers a meaningful share of them. Shopify can send this for you out of the box — make sure it's switched on, written in your own voice and showing the products they left behind.
The best-performing emails are the ones that go out automatically while you're busy running the business.
3. Post-purchase
The order confirmation isn't the end of the conversation. A follow-up a little while after delivery can check everything arrived, share care or usage tips, ask for a review and suggest what to buy next. It's the easiest way to turn a first order into a second.
Make sure they actually arrive
Great emails are no use in a spam folder. Send from your own domain (not a free email address), set up the domain authentication records your email platform asks for, and keep your list clean by removing people who never open.
Then build from there
Once these three are working, add a win-back email for customers who haven't ordered in a while, and start sending regular campaigns. But get the automated basics right first — they'll keep paying back long after you've forgotten setting them up.
Email and retention are part of our growth plans, and our audits check whether yours are working.
