In retail, trends come and go — but email remains the channel that converts. Despite the rise of SMS, social commerce, and influencer campaigns, email marketing still delivers the highest ROI in e-commerce.
In retail, trends come and go — but email remains the channel that converts.
Despite the rise of SMS, social commerce, and influencer campaigns, email marketing still delivers the highest ROI in e-commerce.
Why? Because it’s the one channel you truly own—and when done right, it drives sales, retention, and loyalty without the rising costs of paid ads.
But the rules have changed. Batch-and-blast newsletters don’t cut it anymore.
Modern e-commerce email marketing is powered by AI, fueled by first-party data, and personalized across every stage of the customer journey.
Let’s start with why email continues to be the most powerful marketing tool in your e-commerce stack, despite all the new kids on the block.
For all the hype around new marketing channels, email continues to outperform when it comes to both cost-efficiency and impact.
You can’t just continue sending newsletters. You need to create timely, personal touchpoints that guide customers from first click to repeat purchase.
Email marketing for retailers plays three essential roles:
This is why email marketing for e-commerce stores is the foundation of a sustainable growth strategy.
And in 2025, the edge comes from moving beyond basic broadcasts. Brands leading the pack are designing automated, insight-driven email journeys that respond to real behavior, not just assumptions.
So what does that actually look like in practice?
Let’s dive into 12 proven email marketing tactics that e-commerce brands are using to turn browsers into buyers.
For really great email marketing, don’t just send more, send smarter.
In 2025, the best email marketing for e-commerce combines automation, loyalty data, and personalization to create messages that feel relevant, not robotic.
Whether you’re a CRM lead or an email strategist, these 12 tactics are designed to drive higher conversions, better retention, and stronger brand connections.
And with platforms like Voyado, they’re easier to implement than ever.
A welcome email is just the start. The real power lies in turning signups into segmented profiles.
Welcome emails are one of the highest-performing types of email marketing, with open rates regularly above 50%.
In Voyado’s automation template, this journey begins the moment a new contact signs up, followed by a series of personalized touches that drive early engagement and loyalty.
Use interactive elements and progressive profiling to learn about your customers’ interests, frequency preferences, and product needs early on.
💡 With Voyado, welcome flows can automatically enrich CRM data and trigger loyalty nudges, like points for completing a profile or unlocking early access.
Static product blocks are out. AI can now personalize recommendations in real-time based on behavior, purchase history, and even similar profiles.
💡 Voyado enables dynamic email content that pulls directly from live CRM and e-comm data to showcase what customers are most likely to buy next.
Everyone has abandoned a cart, but what about categories?
Don’t just remind people what’s in their cart—also follow up when they spend time browsing specific categories. These mid-funnel nudges are conversion gold.
For more on how to re-engage hesitant shoppers at scale, explore our shopping cart abandonment tool and how it helps recover lost revenue through smart automation.
💡 Voyado supports both cart and category triggers, syncing with your e-comm platform in real time for hyper-relevant retargeting.
The sale isn’t the end—it’s the beginning of the retention journey.
Post-purchase emails can significantly increase the likelihood of a second purchase, especially when they include product care guides, usage tips, or personalized recommendations.
Voyado’s automation handles this with timely affirmations and follow-ups, while automatically excluding items the customer has already bought.
These flows can also adapt based on loyalty tier, satisfaction survey results, or product type, ensuring every message feels personal and timely.
💡 Retailers use Voyado to trigger post-purchase flows tailored to specific product categories, satisfaction scores, and loyalty segments, making every follow-up more relevant and conversion-focused.
Don’t wait until customers are fully inactive. Signals like declining open rates or long gaps between purchases can indicate churn risk, and timely re-engagement is key to keeping them.
In Voyado’s win-back automation, the journey typically starts around the 12-month mark, using personalized messages and multi-channel outreach to reactivate lapsed customers.
Email and SMS reminders are combined with synced Google and Facebook campaigns for broader reach and stronger recall.
💡 Retailers use Voyado’s predictive scoring to identify at-risk customers and trigger automated winback flows, tailored to inactivity patterns, loyalty status, and past purchases.
Even the best message can flop if sent at the wrong time. AI helps optimize email marketing in ecommerce by identifying the best send time per user.
💡 Voyado automatically adjusts send times based on historical open and click behavior—no manual rules needed.
Email shouldn’t live in a silo. Combine it with SMS, push notifications, or in-store triggers for a consistent experience across touchpoints.
💡 With ecommerce marketing automation, you can design flows that link email with other owned channels—boosting engagement at every step.
Not all customers are equal. Segment by Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), geography, gender, or other meaningful criteria—not just clicks.
💡 Voyado pulls from your complete CRM profile so you can build targeted segments that convert.
Email and loyalty go hand in hand. Send reward updates, remind users about expiring points, or surprise VIPs with early access offers.
💡 Retailers use retail marketing automation in Voyado to trigger emails based on tier changes, inactivity, and points balance.
Planning a local pop-up or running a region-only promo? Localize your campaigns at the city or store level for higher engagement.
💡 Voyado allows precision targeting down to the store level, making hyper-local campaigns easy to scale.
Don’t just personalize with a first name. Change imagery, copy, and layout based on user behavior, preferences, or segments.
💡 Voyado’s tag-based system makes it easy to dynamically adapt emails without creating multiple versions.
Collect preferences and feedback directly from users, then use it to guide future sends. Forms, quizzes, and interactive content are key to privacy-first personalization.
💡 With Voyado, you can turn zero-party data into real-time triggers and enrich your customer profiles continuously.
These 12 tactics don’t just boost open rates; they drive real revenue.
But even the smartest email strategy can fall short if you’re making avoidable mistakes. Let’s look at five common pitfalls holding retailers back.
Even experienced marketing teams can fall into familiar traps, especially under pressure to deliver quick results. These common pitfalls often stand in the way of strong performance and long-term retention.
Too many teams rely on tools built for B2B or general marketing. While they offer core features, they often lack the nuance and flexibility needed for retail environments.
It’s easy to overwhelm customers (or miss key opportunities) when segmentation is shallow or overlooked. Sending too often, or to the wrong audiences, can create fatigue and reduce impact.
To strike the right balance, it’s crucial to segment properly and avoid email fatigue by respecting customer preferences and intent.
Loyalty programs generate rich behavioral signals. But, in many organizations, this data sits unused or disconnected from email campaigns.
Email strategies built in isolation from customer profiles tend to default to generic content. Without access to real-time CRM data, personalization is limited or static.
Shoppers don’t only exist online. In-store visits, local events, and regional context influence purchasing decisions; however, these signals are often overlooked in email logic.
So, how do you break out of these patterns without adding complexity or more tools to manage?
The answer lies in a platform designed for retail from the ground up.
If you’re serious about scaling your ecommerce email marketing, the platform you choose matters more than ever.
You need to build a connected system that supports your entire customer lifecycle, from welcome emails to post-purchase re-engagement.
The problem? Many email service providers weren’t built with ecommerce businesses in mind. They’re often missing the tools needed to create personalized messages, trigger automated campaigns, or act on real customer data from both online and offline sources.
When evaluating an email marketing platform for your e-commerce business, look for features that go beyond the basics:
A winning email marketing strategy relies on a platform that helps you send personalized email campaigns to customers interested in your brand, nurture loyal customers, and entice customers back with offers, content, or early access incentives.
So, whether you’re running referral programs, offering discount codes, or simply aiming to improve your transactional emails, choosing the right platform is key to ecommerce success.
Looking for an email marketing tool that does all of this—and is built specifically for retail email campaigns?
Start with Voyado, where powerful features meet retail-ready logic.
Retailers aren’t short on content or ideas. What’s often missing is a platform that connects everything: data, timing, customer context, and loyalty.
That’s where Voyado comes in.
Rather than juggling tools or manually stitching together campaigns, Voyado enables marketing teams to work from a single hub where everything is already connected: your CRM, loyalty program, product catalog, and customer behavior data, both online and offline.
You can:
Your focus should be on removing the friction that slows marketers down.
Whether you’re sending a product launch sequence, a loyalty reactivation, or a localized event invite, Voyado ensures every message is connected to the complete customer picture. That’s what makes email marketing for retailers feel personal, timely, and effortless to scale.
Curious how this works in practice? Learn how to set up a marketing automation workflow that’s built around your goals, not someone else’s templates.
And if you’re still wondering why email deserves this much attention, let’s wrap up with the bigger picture.
Trends will come and go, but email continues to deliver. In a privacy-first world where ad platforms are losing their targeting power, email marketing for e-commerce is more important than ever.
It’s not just a channel. It’s your direct line to customers, built on owned data, genuine relationships, and meaningful moments.
However, making it work in 2025 and beyond means moving beyond batch sends and relying on guesswork. That includes maintaining a clean email list to ensure messages reach real, engaged subscribers, and your efforts don’t go to waste.
That’s where Voyado shines.
From AI-driven email marketing for retail to cross-channel automation and segmentation based on loyalty or lifetime value, Voyado empowers e-commerce marketers to turn strategy into execution, without technical bottlenecks or disconnected systems.
Want to see what smarter email looks like in action?
Book a demo to see how Voyado helps retail brands drive results with email that converts.
E-commerce email marketing refers to the use of targeted email campaigns to engage both potential and existing customers of an ecommerce store. It’s used to build customer relationships, drive conversions, and support the entire customer lifecycle, from first purchase to repeat loyalty.
Email remains one of the most effective marketing channels for e-commerce businesses. It offers direct access to your email subscribers, helps you retain customers, and delivers a measurable ROI, especially when compared to other marketing channels, such as paid ads or social media.
A successful strategy includes personalized messages, smart segmentation, automated campaigns, and content tailored to your customers’ needs and purchase history. Incorporating welcome emails, promotional messages, and post-purchase emails ensures relevance throughout the customer journey.
Strong email deliverability is also essential—your strategy can’t perform if your emails aren’t landing in inboxes.
Personalized email campaigns increase click-through rates, reduce unsubscribes, and improve deliverability by sending relevant messages to the right audience. This could involve adjusting the subject line, product blocks, or call-to-action based on what each customer is likely to engage with.
Retailers can integrate their customer loyalty programs into email marketing efforts by sending automated emails that reward loyal customers, invite VIP customers to exclusive events, or offer early access to new collections. This helps drive retention and repeat purchases without extra manual work.
Many types of email marketing work well for e-commerce, including:
Mixing these ensures your marketing efforts feel relevant and timely, without overwhelming your audience.
Want more insights into building powerful ecommerce email campaigns?
We love all things customer and product data, and would love to chat about your brand’s individual challenges, and how our solutions can help.
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