Here at Blend Commerce, we sometimes tend to focus on parts of Shopify that often get overlooked elsewhere. One such area is Shopify store email notifications.
As you’re probably be aware, the standard notifications from Shopify tend to be a little bland—both in terms of their content and in terms of their design. Given that Shopify Store email notifications include order confirmation, shipping, and abandoned cart, it's safe to say that these notifications WILL be seen by your potential and paying customers. For this reason, we feel they’re a key component of both converting and retaining customers, all with the help of the Orderly Emails app.
To help Shopify merchants understand which notifications are available and how to optimise them, we’ve put together a handy guide to help you through making your notifications far more effective. Happy notifying!
Order Notification
Order Notification will automatically send your customers a notification once an order is placed. Here's some tips for use cases:
- Build excitement in the copy, rather than just ‘notifying’ the customer that the order is placed.
- Ensure that there is clear company branding—this email is a key trust indicator for customers who have just purchased.
- Provide clear steps as to what the customer can expect next—this will both reduce unnecessary communication with the client and build trust.
Order Cancelled
Order cancelled automatically sends a notification to a customer if an order is cancelled. This notification is optional. Here are some tips for use cases:
- Copy should feel personalised and from a ‘person’ rather than a ‘team’.
- Clear steps should be shown on the next stages of the cancellation and details of the refund, including expected time for refund.
- Where possible, include a low-value discount code for their next order to ensure that the customer has positive perception of the brand.
Order Refunded
Order Refunded will automatically send customers a notification if an order is refunded. This notification is optional. Here are some tips for use cases:
- Ensure that clear timeframes are specified in accordance with your refund policy, which should also be linked in the email.
- No product or sales focused material should be included in this email.
Draft Order Invoice
This can be edited before sending an invoice, but it is essentially a draft of the order to be invoice. Here are some tips for use cases:
- Whilst unlikely that most Shopify store owners will use this notification, clients selling high value or bulk sales may wish to use this to clearly specify the order details.
- Links to testimonials should be included where possible to improve social proof if the draft order invoice is being used as part of a wider sales process for your Shopify store.
Abandoned Checkout
An Abandoned Checkout notification will send an email to a customer if an item is added to cart, but not purchased. Here are some tips for use cases:
- The key to abandoned carts are urgency and scarcity. These two factors need to be used in line with your brand and the price or your product.
- It’s important to note that the abandoned cart notification is manual, so this process needs to be worked into the management process of your Shopify store.
POS and Mobile Receipt
These are sent to the customer if they buy in-person and need an emailed receipt for their records. Here are some tips for use cases:
- For those Shopify merchants selling in a brick-and-mortar environment or at events/markets, the POS and mobile receipt can be used as a great way to build longer-term relationships with customers.
- Ensuring that the email is well-branded with clear CTA’s to ‘sign up’ for updates or visit the Shopify store can be a great way to promote further sales via the online store and the physical store.
Fulfilment Request
These are sent to a third party fulfilment service if being used by the Shopify merchant. Here are some tips for use cases:
- Consulting with your fulfilment service on this is a great first step, as different services operate slightly differently.
- By designing this email to make the process as smooth as possible for your fulfilment service, this will help your orders to be fulfilled as easily as possible.
Shipping Confirmation
Shipping Confirmations automatically send a notification to a customer if an order is fulfilled. This is optional and here are some tips for use cases:
- Similarly to your Order Confirmation notification, the copy in this email should build excitement for the customer.
- Referring back to the steps in the Order Confirmation and notifying of next steps is important to keep trust in the customer, especially if your delivery time is longer due to dropshipping.
- Including a customer questionnaire on their experience so far is a great way to get feedback on your process, and build a better relationship with your customer.
Shipping Update
Your Shipping Updates will automatically send a notification to a customer if an orders tracking number is updated. This can be sent optionally to customers and here are some tips for use cases:
- You’ll need to ensure your shipping provider is connected properly to your Shopify store initially.
- Shipping updates need to be clear and need to have a contact email address within the email, in case the customer needs to get in contact.
Shipment Out for Delivery
This will automatically sends a notification to a customer if an orders tracking status is changes to ‘out for delivery’. Here are some tips for use cases:
- Following the theme of the order and shipping notification, the shipment out for delivery email should aim to build excitement and anticipation for the customer.
- A re-iteration of the expected delivery terms should also be included.
Shipment Delivered
Shipment Delivered says what it does. It automatically sends a notification to a customer if an orders tracking status is changes to ‘delivered’. Here are some tips for use cases:
- A ‘celebratory’ tone should be used for this email, the create a conclusion to the previous shipment related emails.
- An opportunity to ask to the customer for a review of the ‘service’ they have received can also be included in this email, with a follow-up to be sent for a product review in 7 days time.
Customer Account Invite
A Customer Account Invite is sent to customers with instructions on how to activate their account. This can be edited before sending. Here are some tips for use cases:
- If you’re selling subscriptions on site or looking to sell multiple products frequently, customer accounts are a great way to boost trust and sales on your store.
- The account invite should be a short email with a clear Call to Action (CTA) that encourages the client to login immediately.
- Resist the temptation to thank the customer too much - get them shopping on your Shopify store!
Customer Account Welcome
A Customer Account Welcome will automatically send a customer a notification when they complete the activation of their account. Here are some tips for use cases:
- If you’re using a loyalty program, its a great idea to provide customers with points in this email.
- Now the customer has created the account, it’s time to focus on selling by driving the customer to different Shopify store collections, which then can enable you to implement retargeting ads dependent on their clicks.
Customer Account Password Reset
This is automatically sent when a customer asks for their password to be reset on their account. Here are some tips for use cases:
- Keep this email very simple—a maximum 1 line of text and a big CTA button to allow password reset.
- It’s likely your customer may be feeling frustrated at this stage, so keeping it simple will reduce the chance they’ll go elsewhere.
Contact Customer
Contact Customer is sent to customers when a merchant contacts them from the ‘orders’ or ‘customers’ page. This can be edited before sending and here are some tips for use cases:
- This needs to appear both personal and professional, so keep your core branding in the template, but resist the temptation to include any banners or reference to products.
So now you’ve seen the examples and read the tips, we’re sure the next question is how? If you’re comfortable with html, editing the standard notifications should be fairly easy going. What’s that? You want a drag and drop option? No problem...
Whilst we are in no way affiliated, we’re huge fans of Orderly Emails, the notification editing app from Forsberg Plus 2. Not only does the app take care of any code, it also provides basic copy for each of the emails listed above. As an agency, we often use the app as the basis for email creation and work on the copy and creative elements of emails for our clients.
We hope this guide proves useful and that you make the most of the great opportunities that this less obvious asset of your Shopify store provides.
Published: September 12, 2018
Last updated: November 29, 2023
