Retail Email Marketing: All You Need to Know

Keeping customers engaged and improving sales for your retail business is a challenge. Retail email marketing can help you overcome this challenge, as it helps you send personal offers, recover abandoned carts, and promote new products with more ROI. Without it, you miss these opportunities, and business growth becomes impossible. So, for better business growth, retailers need email marketing.

What else do retailers get from this email marketing approach? Well, you can create a direct connection with your users, share updates, offer discounts, and encourage repeat purchases. Even gaining ROI becomes more manageable with this retail email marketing strategy, as your customers will retain. 

In this blog, dive into the fundamentals of email marketing for retail businesses, exploring its vital role, email campaign creation essentials, 12 proven strategies to elevate your outreach, and inspiring examples to guide your success.

So, let’s begin the discussion. 

Table of contents

• What is Retail Email Marketing?
• Types of Retail Email Marketing
• Importance of Using Email Marketing for Retailers
• Steps to Begin Your Retail Email Marketing Campaigns
• What to Avoid in Retail Email Marketing?
• Best Time to Send Retail Email Marketing
• 12 Strategies to Improve Retail Email Marketing
• Success Measuring of Retail Email Marketing
• Examples of Email Marketing Templates for Retail Stores
• End Note

What is Retail Email Marketing? 

Retail email marketing is a strategy that uses emails to promote products and engage customers for retail business. Increasing sales by building strong relationships for the business is the main goal of this marketing.

Here, you will send target and personalized emails to your users through promotional emails, newsletters, welcome emails, abandoned cart emails, etc. This is the direct way retailers connect with users and promote their business by building loyalty. 

In email marketing, retailers mostly do the following: 

• Share updates and new products.
• Send receipts or follow-ups after purchases.
• Remind shoppers about items they didn’t buy.
• Ask for feedback.

Types of Retail Email Marketing

You will find different types of email marketing for retail businesses. Based on the requirements, you should send your user the right type of email. So, what are the types of email marketing here?

Well, I will explain the top 9 types here, and you should familiarize yourself with them. By understanding this, you will be able to send the right email to the users.

So, the types of email marketing in retail are: 

• Welcome Emails: Say hello to new subscribers and introduce your brand through welcome emails. 
• Product Announcements: Let customers know about new products or collections.
• Promotional Emails: Share discounts, deals, or special offers.
• Abandoned Cart Emails: Send a reminder via email to your users about what they have left in their cart. 
• Post-Purchase Emails: After making a purchase, remember to thank your customers and suggest more related products so that they purchase more in the future. 
• Seasonal Campaigns: Send emails promoting your products and mention your sales tied to holidays or seasons.
• Event Promotion Emails: Create emails that mention sales, launches, or special events.
• Birthday/Anniversary Emails: Send personalized emails on your user’s special days with personalized discounts.
• Customer Feedback Emails: Ask your users for reviews or suggestions so that you can improve your services or products. 

Importance of Using Email Marketing for Retailers 

Retail businesses mostly prefer traditional marketing as they don’t understand the role of email marketing for their business. Email marketing is important for retailers as it helps them reach the right audience. They can connect with them via email and promote their business. 

Retail businesses can also offer special deals and discounts through this marketing. Even email marketing has a positive impact on the ROI of a retail business. There are also other important facts you should know.

So, the importance of using email marketing for retailers is:

Gain ROI

As I mentioned, email marketing positively impacts the ROI, which means gaining more ROI. A study shows that spending $1 on email marketing for retail businesses can generate return on investment of over $36. Isn’t it great? You pay a little and earn over 100 times, so yes! You need email marketing for your retail business. 

Improves Sales 

Making sales is one of the major aims of every business, including retail companies. You can directly connect to your users through email marketing, where you can tell them to buy your products. 

In these emails, offer your products’ special deals and discounts so that people get interested in your business and visit your physical and online stores. Sending the right email at the right time also improves sales, which you can do simply.

Retain Your Customers 

With proper communication through emails to the customers, retailers can nurture trust and loyalty. Their customers will come back for their products repeatedly. They can do that by sending personalized dynamic emails that feature relevant content and customized product suggestions. 

Based on customers’ past purchases or preferences, you will send relevant and personalized emails that will work like magic to retain your customers. 

Collect Valuable Feedback 

You can learn what your customer needs by collecting feedback by email. When you send surveys or ask for reviews, you get a clear idea about the areas of improvement. You can use these data to improve your product service and grow your brand. It is the best way to stay connected with your users. 

Build Strong Relationships through Direct Communication 

A retail business can easily reach all its customers through email marketing. When a company sends personalized emails and shares updates, customers feel valued. So, it helps retailers build trust, bring customers back, and grow their business without relying too much on social media or search engines.

Steps to Begin Your Retail Email Marketing Campaigns 

Every email marketing journey runs smoothly when you follow a step-by-step process, and this same applies to retail businesses. With this, any retailer can easily start with email marketing. So, what is the process? 

Well, you will get your answer here, and with my suggested way, you can easily start your email marketing journey for retail.

Let’s learn about the steps to begin the email marketing campaigns for your retail business: 

Step 1: Build Your Email List

Collect email addresses from interested people who will love your products to begin your first step. After collecting all emails, you must build an email list to keep everything organized in one place. 

Step 2: Segment Your Emails

Segment the emails from the list based on age, location, or interest. If you divide it, you can send the right message to the right audience. 

Step 3: Set Up Email Automation

Set up first and send emails automatically with automated email templates. For example, sending welcome emails, thank-you notes, or special offers. Remember to mention our special offers in your automated emails. Different features of automated emails save you time and effort and bring results. 

Step 4:  Make Emails Mobile-Friendly

Users mostly use their mobile phones to check their emails.  So, remember to keep your email design simple and mobile-friendly. Add short subject lines with clear CTA. 

Step 5: Focus on Getting Results

Help your customers shop by sending personalized emails, catchy subject lines, and clear CTAs. Test different styles to see what works best.

What to Avoid in Retail Email Marketing?

Sometimes, for retailers, it becomes difficult to bring success through email marketing. They make mistakes by sending too many emails or don’t focus on personalizing the emails. There are also some reasons for failing an email campaign, and you should learn about them. 

So, let’s learn what you need to avoid to make your marketing successful: 

When You Don’t Have a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

Users will not understand what to do next if your emails don’t have a clear CTA. If they ignore the email, your campaign will fail. 

Pro Tip: You need a clear and strong CTA to increase the conversions. 

Poor Formatting 

Sometimes, marketers don’t focus on the format of emails, which is a major mistake. Bad color choices or unappealing images can make emails hard to read and understand. 

Pro Tip: A clean, visually attractive design improves engagement.

Overloading Emails with Too Much Text

If you send too much text, users won’t read it entirely, as people prefer skimming emails. If the text is too long, readers might lose interest. 

Pro Tip: Keep your emails short, easy to read, and just to the point. 

Ignoring Email Deliverability Best Practices

If you ignore email deliverability best practices, your emails will land in the spam folder frequently. Your emails won’t reach the right people. So, running an entire email campaign will not bring any results. 

Pro Tip: Avoid spammy words, use a verified email domain, and follow best practices for deliverability.

If You Fail to Track and Analyze Performance

If you don’t check your email performance, you won’t know whether your retail email marketing strategy is working. Email performance means tracking metrics like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. 

Pro Tip: You must do regular analysis to improve future campaigns. 

Best Time to Send Retail Email Marketing

You will get the best result from your email campaign when you send the email to your users at the right time. I have mentioned it before as well. Now, you may wonder what is the right time. Retail stores must follow some tips to send emails at the right time. 

First, you can send emails on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which are considered the best days for email marketing for retail businesses. Then fix the time, which should be 9 AM to 2 PM, as the highest open rates happen then. People mainly check their emails during office hours. The click-through rate gets its highest clicking rate at 5 PM. 

Different emails work better at different times, as promotional emails usually get more attention in the morning, while abandoned cart emails, with an opening rate of 50.5%, are more effective in the evening. The best way to find what works is through A/B testing. 

Also, consider your customers’ time zones and shopping habits. This helps ensure your emails reach them at the right time for better engagement. Don’t send any emails on the weekends. 

12 Strategies to Improve Retail Email Marketing 

Want to improve your email marketing for retail business? Well, you should follow some strategies to do that. What are these strategies? 

MailBluster suggests that there are 12 strategies that you can implement. These strategies are different from traditional strategies, and you get your expected result by applying them. 

So, the best strategies for retail email marketing are: 

1. Send a Warm Welcome Email

Send an immediate welcome email when someone signs up. It would be very impactful if you could send them the email immediately. So, thank them for joining you through email. Then, send them another email about your brand, and then you can carry on, such as sending emails about deals or discounts. 

2. Create Interesting Subject Lines

The subject line is the first thing that users see in an email. So, you must make your subject line interesting so users find it more relevant and open the email. To make it effective, you can add offered deals and discounts in the subject line. 

3. Personalize Your Emails

Add your user’s name in the email to make it relatable. Design your emails for individual users based on their purchase and browsing history. When users see that your emails are personalized, they feel valued, increasing conversions. 

4. Add Customer Reviews

Add your previous customers’ positive reviews to your emails when you send emails to potential buyers. These positive reviews build a brand identity and make the brand authentic. 

5. Promote Special Offers

Offer exclusive deals and discounts in your emails to grab your users’ attention and make them curious. Highlight the deals or discounts so that users first see them. And decide to purchase one. Remember that through this, you can make your users curious so they act fast. 

6. Use High-Quality Images

People prefer images to understand everything, including marketing emails. So, you should add good photos to your emails so your users can understand your message. Mention the deals and discounts in your emails using clear font. 

7. Use Clear CTAs

Always add a clear call to action (CTA) in your email. CTA works as a direction to take the users to the next step in availing of your services. Remember to make the CTAs easy to understand, such as “Shop Now” or “Get Your Discount,” so that customers know what to do next.

8. Optimize for Mobile

Design your emails so they fit and look good on the mobile screen. Ensure that your emails load fast and the email’s image looks good on the mobile. Even if you add a button to your emails, the button should also work on the mobile. You must take care of these issues. 

9. Add Interactive Elements

Include different interactive emails to retain your customers, which has a success rate of 80%. Add polls, quizzes, or image carousels so that users interact with this content. These elements increase the chances that people will wait for your next emails to see what you offer next. 

10. Use Urgency and Scarcity Tactics

When customers see that a product offer is about to end, they rush to buy it. So, in your email’s subject lines, mention the deals such as “Only 24 hours left” or “Our stock is about to end,” etc. This makes the users more interested in your products, which increases conversion chances. 

11. Send Re-engagement Emails

Send re-engagement emails to your inactive users to make them active. This is a reminder of what they are missing so far. So, offer them exclusive deals and discounts so that they can come back. You can also ask them what they want to hear from you. 

12. Keep Emails Consistent with Your Brand Voice

Having a proper brand voice and consistency is a must for emails. So, keep your emails’ tone, style, and visuals to match your brand’s identity. Your email types may vary, but they should always feel like they come from the same trusted company your customers know. 

Also Read: Top 20 Best SaaS Email Marketing Strategies 

Success Measuring of Retail Email Marketing 

Email marketing helps retailers grow their businesses. However, how do you know it’s working? To know that, you must track your progress by measuring some terms. 

So, let’s first see what you need to do to measure success in email marketing: 

What to Measure

1. Open Rate: The percentage of people who open your email. A good subject line helps this number go up.
2. Click-Through Rate (CTR): How many people click on a link in your email? This shows if your content is interesting.
3. Conversion Rate: How many people take action (like making a purchase) after clicking.
4. Unsubscribe Rate: You might need to adjust your emails if many people unsubscribe based on the unsubscribe rate. 
5. Bounce Rate: Check email soft bounce and hard bounce to figure out which don’t reach inboxes. Remove invalid emails to improve this.
6. Sales and ROI: Track if your emails bring in money compared to what you spent.

How to Track Success

1. Set Goals: Know what you want from your email campaigns (sales, sign-ups, etc.).
2. Use Tools: Email platforms and tools like Google Analytics can help you see your results.
3. Compare Campaigns: Look at what worked before and build on it.

Examples of Email Marketing Templates for Retail Stores

Now, you should learn some examples of retail email marketing for stores. Here, I will share an email marketing platform offering the best email marketing ideas for retail businesses. 

If you want to use a platform to send emails, you can choose it. Then, I will share the top 4 companies that are retail stores that send the best emails to their users. 

So, have a look at the email marketing retail examples here:

Welcome Email Template 

Many retailers send welcome emails to their subscribers when they purchase something. For retailers, Mailbluster, as the best email marketing platform, offers ready-made welcome email templates that they can customize the way they want. Headspace sends emails to its users so that they get a warm welcome with proper customization. 

Personalized Email Template 

Many retailers prefer to send personalized emails using templates to customize the name and other information to their users so they can connect with the emails. Airtable uses this method by customizing emails according to user’s preferences and locations.

Automated Email Template 

Retailers send a series of emails using automated email templates to save their time. This also requires less human effort and does not require making any errors.  So, Grammarly prefers an automated email template to send emails about good deals and discounts. First, they highlight the benefits of the free account, and then they offer discounts on their emails. 

End Note 

Finally, retail email marketing is the best way for retailers to connect with customers, share updates, improve sales, and promote business. 

You should start by sending personalized, helpful emails; you can build strong customer relationships. Start with simple steps, follow the tips, and keep improving based on what works best. 

Do you need any email marketing support for your retail business? Well, reach out to MailBluster, the most affordable email marketing platform, and get the best email marketing support.