Skip to content
General

All That You Need To Know About Transactional Emails

By Wei Zhang
4 min read
ecommerce china
ecommerce china
In this article (4)

Customer relationship management is vital for the survival of all businesses. Keeping its importance in mind, companies look for ways to maintain communication with their customers. Transactional emails play an important role in this process.

Companies use transactional emails to help their customers carry out a transaction in a smooth and hassle-free way. It helps businesses build a good relationship with customers.

A transactional email encompasses several aspects. If you aren’t aware of it, keeping in mind the part it plays in creating a confident business relationship, you might want to know about it in detail as a business owner and customer.

Read on to know more about these aspects in detail.

What Are Transactional Emails?

A transactional email is an email that a sender automatically receives from a company after completing an action on its website. It is an automated email that comes into the email inbox of a user shortly after either a transaction or any other activity performed by them on a website.

As a transactional email involves communication through an email, some people associate it with a marketing email. But they are different from each other, despite the same source of origin (a website).

A marketing email helps communicate important business information concerning a company’s offers, discounts, new products or services, and other such aspects. It plays an important role in email marketing. Typically, it has the same kind of message. Thus, companies send them in bulk to different email addresses at once.

Transactional emails, in contrast, consist of specifics related to a recipient’s transaction or activity on a business website. This may range from a monetary transaction to resetting the password or information about an update or abandoned cart. As it is a personalized email that doesn’t come too frequently, a recipient, in most cases, expects it.

Both forms of emails involve email personalization, albeit in different ways.

Types of Transactional Emails

Transactional emails are of different kinds; each varies from the other. The various forms of these emails include the following:

  1. Invoice emails

An invoice email consists of a bill or an invoice related to a purchase made by a recipient. Businesses attach a digital bill to such emails with the necessary details to send the specific information about the product that a customer buys from a company.

  1. Legal update emails

Though a company’s stated policies or terms of service remain more or less, it may change over time. Whenever there is a change in these aspects, business organizations feel obliged to inform their customers about it. For this purpose, a company uses a legal update email.

As it is a personalized email that doesn’t come too frequently, a recipient, in most cases, expects it.
  1. Password reset emails

Most companies necessitate users to create an account and log in to it to access their information. When a customer forgets their password, they consider resetting it by clicking on the option. A password reset email is a resulting email that a recipient receives after performing this action. It consists of a code or information about the steps to conclude the process of resetting a password.

  1. Double opt-in emails

Companies use double opt-in emails to verify if a new subscriber is interested in receiving marketing or promotional emails. Also, it helps a company verify the authenticity of the email address of an account holder. Together, these aspects help a business firm with email hygiene and the prevention of spam for a good email reputation.

  1. Delivery confirmation emails

A delivery confirmation email is an email that confirms the delivery of an ordered or purchased item to a customer. The rationale behind sending it is to communicate their order delivery. Suppose a customer receives such an email without product delivery. In that case, they can use the information to get in touch with the company representatives through the right channel.

  1. Shipping notification emails

When a customer places an order for an item or makes a payment, a company sends a shipping notification email to inform them about product dispatch. This way, customers know that the ordered product is on the way for delivery.

  1. Order confirmation emails

Order confirmation emails feature essential information about the transaction made by a customer to buy a product. Such emails may also have the details of the ordered product and its shipment.

When Is Transactional Email Used?

Depending on its purpose, a transactional email can be used for the following:

  • Explicit requests
  • Confirmations and receipts
  • Triggers linked to customer behavior
  • Alerts related notifications
  • Referrals and invitations
  • Digests and summaries
  • Notifications referring to a specific event
  • Information about feedback and support

 

Conclusion

A transactional email is essential post-purchase automation for the retention of existing customers. It has its importance in winning the trust and confidence of an existing customer so that they make subsequent purchases from a company.

 

Transactional emails serve a wide range of purposes, ranging from explicit requests to feedback and support-related information. By sending the right kind of transactional email that corresponds to the purpose of a customer, you can convey your message to them with a touch of personalization.

 

Questions & Answers

Q.

What distinguishes a transactional email from a marketing email, given they both originate from a website?

A.

Transactional emails contain specifics related to a recipient's activity or transaction on a business website, like a password reset. Marketing emails, however, communicate general business information about offers or products and are sent in bulk to many addresses at once.

Q.

What are some of the different types of transactional emails that businesses might send?

A.

Businesses send various types of transactional emails, including invoice emails, legal update emails, password reset emails, and double opt-in emails. They also include delivery confirmation emails, shipping notification emails, and order confirmation emails.

Q.

Why are double opt-in emails used by companies in their communication strategy?

A.

Companies use double opt-in emails to verify if a new subscriber genuinely wants to receive marketing or promotional emails. This process also helps to confirm the authenticity of the subscriber's email address, contributing to good email hygiene and spam prevention.

Reader pulse

How important are transactional emails for your business?

19,498 votes so far

Tags

Weekly Briefing

Asia's retail intelligence, in your inbox

Tuesday, Thursday and a Saturday Weekly Wrap: the retail stories, numbers and moves that mattered across Asia. Nothing else, and you can unsubscribe in one click.

  • Top industry moves and market shifts
  • Weekly data-driven analysis from across Asia
  • Tuesday, Thursday and the Saturday Weekly Wrap

Read by retail operators, investors and brand teams across Asia.

Protected by a quick human check. No spam, ever. Unsubscribe in one click.

SecureGDPR ready