Email automation is not something new in the e-commerce space. And it's a pretty simple and straightforward concept.

Email automation is all about sending emails to customers based on events that occur on your website, like abandoned cart emails, order confirmation emails, shipping confirmation emails, and so on.

The result? You save time by not having to do this work manually.

Why Email Automation is Important

Email is still one of the most effective marketing channels. Email marketing has a higher ROI than any other form of digital advertising, and even with all the new tools available to us, it’s still the most cost-effective channel.

Adding automation to your emails can take them even further. Emails are automatically sent based on triggers you set up so that they reach your customers when they’re most likely to convert. Automation also allows you to send messages at scale without any manual work.

Email also provides a direct line of communication with your customers and, if done correctly, can be something people look forward to opening.

It’s a powerful tool, but it’s not just about sending more emails — it’s about sending better ones.

Shopify email automation lets you send personalized emails to each customer as they interact with your business individually and receive follow-up messaging based on their purchase behavior, browsing activity, and even gives them recommendations based on their buying history.

This post will cover different types of email automation, what their purpose is, and how it can benefit the customers and e-commerce stores.

Why is Shopify email automation essential?

There are many reasons for implementing email automation on your Shopify store. Here are just a few:

  • It saves time.
  • It increases engagement.
  • It improves conversion rates.
  • It enhances the customer experience.
  • It saves time.

Saving time

Email automation can save you a lot of time by automating tedious, repetitive tasks that would otherwise need to be done manually and individually to each recipient.

This is especially useful when sending a large number of emails in a short amount of time, such as in an event invitation or email marketing campaign.

Establishing trust

You can use email automation to establish trust with your customers, which will help increase engagement with your brand and business.

You can also use it to build relationships with your subscribers and increase the likelihood that they'll make a purchase or recommend you to their friends and family.

Improving conversion rates

As a business owner, you have to think about how you can improve your conversion rate constantly. This is especially true if you're trying to grow your business.

One of the biggest benefits of using email marketing automation software is that it can improve your conversion rate.

When used correctly, email automation can help you reach more people in less time. It can also help you get them interested enough about what you have to offer so that they actually buy from you instead of just browsing around aimlessly on your website.

Shopify email marketing automation software

Klavyio

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Klavyio is a tool that you can use to set up automated email workflows. It’s a third-party tool (not built by Shopify) that integrates with your store and helps you build stronger relationships with your customers, as well as increase sales.

Using Klavyio, you can create emails that are sent automatically when a customer purchases a product from your store or when they abandon their cart. You can also set up emails to be sent at different points after someone spends time browsing your site, or even if no one has visited for a while.

Not sure how you would use Klavyio in your store? Here are some ideas:

  • Send an abandoned cart recovery email after someone leaves items in their cart but doesn't purchase them. You can use the personalization features in Klavyio to show the specific products they left behind, so they're more likely to come back and buy.
  • Send a newsletter about new products or store promotions to your existing customers. This is a great way to let people know about things happening in your store.
  • Start building a segment of customers who have purchased from you before. Then send them exclusive offers that aren't available to anyone else.

Here's how it works:

  • Klaviyo takes all your customer data and allows you to build experience across email, owned channels and measure the results in revenue.
  • Klaviyo uses machine learning to analyze and group your customers into segments that are most likely to buy.
  • Klaviyo automatically creates personalized emails based on what each segment is most interested in.

That way, you know exactly what to send and when to send it.

If a customer adds a product to their cart but doesn’t check out, the abandoned cart email is triggered after some time. This mail includes a list of products that were left behind in the shopping cart. This is when customers return to their carts and complete the transaction in many cases.

Someone who adds a product to their cart is a qualified lead. You can use the abandoned cart email automation process to bring them back with their cart and complete their transaction.

Abandoned carts are triggered after a set period of time, usually between 60 minutes and 24 hours. The product list in the mail reminds them what they were doing and leads them back to the checkout page.

Zapier

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Zapier is a web-based service that allows you to connect your favorite web apps and automate workflows—without the headache of learning how to code. It’s a great way to extend the functionality of existing apps.

Zapier uses a trigger-action model. A trigger starts a workflow, and an action ends it.

Zapier moves info between your web apps automatically so that you can focus on your most important work.

To use Zapier, you'll first need to select the app(s) you want to create an automation between. You can either search for your app (Shopify, Gmail, and so on) or scroll through the list of popular apps.

Here’s how Zapier can help you:

  1. Add new leads to a drip campaign
  2. Trigger follow-up emails after a purchase
  3. Send predefined email responses
  4. Forward contact form submissions to your inbox
  5. Add new contacts to your email list

The best part? You don’t need any technical skills or a big budget. If you can point, click, and type, Zapier can help you automate your email marketing—and more.

For email marketing services, this means Zapier can listen for events and then trigger actions in other apps.

For example, when someone subscribes to your mailing list or when someone purchases something from your Shopify store, Zapier can be instructed to send the user's information to your CRM.

Or, if a new Google Sheets row is created with customer/user data—names, emails, phone numbers—Zapier can add that person as a subscriber to your mailing list automatically.

Integromat

Integromat is a powerful workflow automation platform with a focus on scalability, reliability, and flexibility. It enables you to connect Shopify triggers and actions to other apps, web services, or API endpoints.

The platform offers a range of capabilities such as complete control over data flow, API creation, and management tools for developers, as well as scenario builder for non-technical users.

Integromat also allows you to automate complex processes that would otherwise require hiring experienced developers.

Here are some of the things you can do using this integration:

  • Send out welcome emails, confirmations, and reviews as soon as your customers sign up to your store or place an order on it
  • Use different templates based on the product bought by each customer
  • Segment your subscribers based on their activity, location, and purchase history.

Takeaways

Shopify email automation can be your sales partner if you implement it wisely.

Email automation will probably become your best friend in the long run, especially when it comes to marketing. And if you're having a hard time deciding which strategy to go for, then think of this: email automation is designed to help you improve your sales experience and, ultimately, increase sales.

And it's not just about marketing. Email automation can be used throughout the customer journey to improve their experience as well.

Now that you know more about Shopify email automation, there's no reason not to research and learn more about it – because there is definitely a lot for you out there.