Email marketing example: cross-selling in confirmation emails (+111% conversion)
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 9:33 am
The retailer “ Isabella ” transitioned three years ago from relying on catalog sales to online sales in its e-commerce. For a year, they implemented a cross-selling strategyThe team developed a new strategy that consisted of product recommendations in some strategic areas of the website and in the weekly newsletter. In the last period of this year of initial implementation, the team reported an increase in conversion from 5.6 (before the cross-selling strategy) to 6.2%. In addition, they found that 7.8% of users who clicked on the weekly email ended up purchasing a product.
Based on these results, Isabella’s team decided to further analyze the process and extend the positive effect of cross-selling to other areas to optimize its potential. One of the tactics on which the next strategy was based was to include product recommendations in the order confirmation emails . This would help encourage the user to repeat the purchase and also to obtain information on which recommendations would get the most response. The steps they followed were the following:
Step 1: Establish a recommendation system
The team created a system with recommendations based on
– Browsing history
– Purchase history
– Products added to their carts
– Products similar to those in which the user has shown interest.
The system also analyzed which cio and cto email lists recommendations were getting the most sales and used the information for future suggestions. It wasn’t a fully automated system, but the human team was modifying preferences based on their analysis.
Step 2: Start with the safe stuff
After creating the recommendation system, those that were known to get results were added to the key sections of the e-commerce and the weekly email. This is a good way to start a cross-selling strategy. Use it first in the areas that have proven to work in other cases (product pages or shopping cart, for example) and once we start getting results, test other areas to observe user behavior and apply the information obtained to improve the strategy.
cross-selling-1
Source: Marketing Sherpa
Product page with recommendations
cross-selling-2
Source: Marketing Sherpa
Shopping cart with recommendations
Step 3: Redesign the order confirmation email
Until now, the company had only used text-based emails for these confirmations, so the first step was to convert it into an HTML email that included images of the recommended products. An example:
Suggestions were displayed based on the email recipient’s previous behavior through the recommendation system created in the first phase.
Results:
At the end of the strategy implementation, Isabella’s director, Stephen Fuller-Rowell, equated the recommendations to his SEM strategy in obtaining results, being the strategy that had the greatest impact on the increase in turnover .
– 19% of users who click on a recommendation end up making the purchase.
– Recommendations in transactional emails (purchase confirmation) obtain a 111% higher conversion rate than recommendations included in the weekly newsletter.
– The information obtained from the products with the best conversion results is routinely used to refine the strategy.
Based on these results, Isabella’s team decided to further analyze the process and extend the positive effect of cross-selling to other areas to optimize its potential. One of the tactics on which the next strategy was based was to include product recommendations in the order confirmation emails . This would help encourage the user to repeat the purchase and also to obtain information on which recommendations would get the most response. The steps they followed were the following:
Step 1: Establish a recommendation system
The team created a system with recommendations based on
– Browsing history
– Purchase history
– Products added to their carts
– Products similar to those in which the user has shown interest.
The system also analyzed which cio and cto email lists recommendations were getting the most sales and used the information for future suggestions. It wasn’t a fully automated system, but the human team was modifying preferences based on their analysis.
Step 2: Start with the safe stuff
After creating the recommendation system, those that were known to get results were added to the key sections of the e-commerce and the weekly email. This is a good way to start a cross-selling strategy. Use it first in the areas that have proven to work in other cases (product pages or shopping cart, for example) and once we start getting results, test other areas to observe user behavior and apply the information obtained to improve the strategy.
cross-selling-1
Source: Marketing Sherpa
Product page with recommendations
cross-selling-2
Source: Marketing Sherpa
Shopping cart with recommendations
Step 3: Redesign the order confirmation email
Until now, the company had only used text-based emails for these confirmations, so the first step was to convert it into an HTML email that included images of the recommended products. An example:
Suggestions were displayed based on the email recipient’s previous behavior through the recommendation system created in the first phase.
Results:
At the end of the strategy implementation, Isabella’s director, Stephen Fuller-Rowell, equated the recommendations to his SEM strategy in obtaining results, being the strategy that had the greatest impact on the increase in turnover .
– 19% of users who click on a recommendation end up making the purchase.
– Recommendations in transactional emails (purchase confirmation) obtain a 111% higher conversion rate than recommendations included in the weekly newsletter.
– The information obtained from the products with the best conversion results is routinely used to refine the strategy.