Post-purchase email marketing may be the most underutilized yet powerful email marketing tactic. A strategic, well-thought-out series can help increase customer retention and help build brand loyalty and advocacy. The best part of all is that these messages are automated, generating revenue while you sleep.

Creating a series of messages designed to enhance the purchase experience is something every retailer should implement. With each message and series sent, taking into consideration the individual's purchase history is important. After all, a loyal customer may not need the same nurturing or messaging as a first-time purchaser.

Post-Purchase Email Metrics

Post-purchase email metrics (2024):

Open rate: 49.8%
Click rate: 4.4%
Conversion rate: 1.01%
Click-to-conversion: 22.6%

Scheduled campaign email metrics (2024):

Open rate: 26.6%
Click rate: 1.2%
Conversion rate: 0.07%
Click-to-conversion: 5.9%

Types of Post-Purchase Email Messages

As you can see, post-purchase messages well outperform regular email campaigns, and there are no limits to the types of messages you could send in a post-purchase series, including:

“Thank you” message (w/ or w/o an incentive).
Product care/tips and tricks.
How-to resources.
Customer service info/guarantees.
Product recommendations or cross-selling opportunities.
Social invites or crowdsourcing (Share a photo with us!).
Manage preference request.
Product reviews.
Reorder reminders.
Gift-giving or date reminder requests.
Refer-a-friend invitations.

When building your automated post-purchase marketing program, have fun, be creative, and, most importantly, make your customers’ purchase experience better.