Shipping Update Emails Capitalize on Anticipation

For those who might not know, shipping update emails are a great way for businesses to communicate with customers regarding the location, condition, and estimated delivery time of their shipment.

The main benefits in my opinion are:

• Proactive alerts

• Data at each step in the funnel

• Status of each customers order

• Know when to trigger product review requests

Below are a list of the main triggers you can use to send a shipping update email:

• Shipment Confirmed

• Carrier Picked Up

• In Transit

• *Out for Delivery*

• Ready for Pickup

• *Shipment Delivered*

• Attempted Delivery

• Return to Sender

• Delivery Error

• Shipment Stalled

For this article, I want to share an email example for Out for Delivery and Shipment Delivered.

Out for Delivery

Sent when the carrier confirms the package has been handed off for delivery.

Shipment Delivered

Sent when the delivery scan has occurred for a package.

All in all, these shipping update emails are great because they allow you to provide additional opportunities to stay top of mind, offer customer support, and even market other potential products that customers may be interested in.

These emails are some of the highest opened emails. Take advantage of the opportunity to cross-sell/upsell like the email below.

However, it’s important that you remain compliant. Don’t be overly sales-y or promotional in these emails. The more subtle (and secondary) the cross-sell is, the better.

P.S. I cover a bunch of other flows, campaigns, best practices, and more in my Ecommerce Email Marketing Course.