A Practical Guide to Transactional Email for Online Stores
The automated emails a store sends because of something the customer did: order confirmations, shipping updates, receipts, password resets and account notices.
Marcus Adeyemi
Why does it matter?
These are the emails customers open most, and under CAN-SPAM their primary purpose decides whether marketing rules apply to them.
What are the numbers?
- CAN-SPAM and transactional messages exempt from most requirements when their primary purpose is transactional
- Still prohibited false or misleading routing information, even in transactional messages
- Primary purpose test a message mixing promotion and transaction is judged by its main purpose
- Authentication standards SPF, DKIM and DMARC help mail reach the inbox
What should I do?
- Send order confirmations immediately with items, total, address and delivery estimate
- Send shipping updates with tracking links
- Keep any promotional content clearly secondary
- Send from a monitored address customers can reply to
- Authenticate the sending domain and monitor delivery rates
What should I avoid?
Avoid:
- Order confirmations that read mainly as sales emails
- No-reply addresses that bounce customer questions
- Sending transactional and marketing mail from one unmonitored stream
- Delays long enough that customers think the order failed
When should I get help?
Short answer Bring in help when order emails land in spam, when customers report missing confirmations, or when transactional templates need a rebuild.
Where this comes from
- Federal Trade Commission — CAN-SPAM Act: A compliance guide for business
- RFC Editor — RFC 7489 Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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