Email Marketing
Email marketing is the practice of sending targeted messages to a list of subscribers to drive sales, retention, and loyalty. For ecommerce brands it is consistently the highest-ROI owned marketing channel.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing encompasses promotional campaigns (sale announcements, product launches, seasonal pushes), automated flows (welcome series, abandoned cart, post-purchase, win-back), and transactional emails (order confirmation, shipping updates). For DTC ecommerce brands, the email list is one of the most valuable business assets — owned, algorithm-proof, and directly correlated with revenue.
The economics of email marketing are exceptional. Average ecommerce email ROI is $36–42 for every $1 spent, according to Litmus and Campaign Monitor benchmarks. This is because email reaches a warm audience (people who have already bought or opted in) at near-zero variable cost — the incremental cost of sending to 10,000 subscribers versus 1,000 is minimal.
For Amazon-only sellers, direct email to customers is prohibited by Amazon's terms. Email marketing therefore represents the single biggest channel available exclusively to DTC sellers — a structural advantage that incentivises building an owned website and customer list alongside any marketplace presence.
Why it matters for sellers
Email is the only high-ROI channel that doesn't charge per impression. Once someone is on your list, you can market to them indefinitely for a fixed platform cost. This fundamentally changes unit economics — a customer acquired at $45 CAC who purchases three more times via email costs nothing to reacquire each time.
Abandoned cart emails recover 5–15% of abandoned checkouts on average. For a Shopify store with 200 abandoned carts per month and an AOV of $55, a 10% recovery rate is $1,100/month in revenue generated automatically, at zero ad spend.
How to use Email Marketing
Start with three essential Klaviyo flows before any campaigns: (1) Welcome series (3 emails over 7 days for new subscribers), (2) Abandoned cart (3 emails: 1 hour, 24 hours, 72 hours after abandonment), (3) Post-purchase (thank you, usage tips, review request, cross-sell at 7/14/30 days). These three automations alone typically generate 15–25% of total email revenue.
For list growth, use a pop-up with a strong lead magnet (10% off first order, a quiz result, a free guide) that triggers after 8–15 seconds on site or at exit intent. Aim for 2–3% email capture rate on site traffic.
Real-world example
A candle brand with 8,000 email subscribers generates $14,200/month in email revenue: $6,800 from automated flows (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase) and $7,400 from bi-weekly campaigns. Their email platform costs $150/month. Email is their second-highest revenue channel after Meta ads — but with 94× better ROI than paid social.
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Frequently asked questions about Email Marketing
Can Amazon sellers do email marketing?
Not directly to Amazon customers — Amazon's terms prohibit extracting customer email addresses or using them for marketing. Amazon sellers can use email marketing to their DTC customer list (from their own website) and can send customers to their Amazon listing via external traffic campaigns.
What email platform is best for ecommerce?
Klaviyo is the industry standard for DTC ecommerce brands on Shopify. It integrates deeply with Shopify data, enabling behavioural triggers (viewed but didn't buy, purchased X but not Y) that generic ESPs can't match. At scale, Attentive and Postscript add SMS alongside email.
How often should I send marketing emails?
For most ecommerce brands: 2–4 campaigns per month is sustainable without significant unsubscribe rate increases. During Q4 (October–December), 6–8 campaigns per month is normal industry practice. Monitor your unsubscribe rate — above 0.5% per send indicates you're emailing too frequently or with irrelevant content.