10 Transactional Email Examples Your Business Can Learn From

When you make email marketing a part of your company’s digital strategy, you’ll end up sending out — surprise, surprise — a whole lot of emails. Those emails will likely span a variety of different categories, with one of those categories being transactional emails.

Transactional emails are emails that, rather than being sent out as part of a mass promotion, are sent to individual users in response to specific actions (or inactions) that they take. These emails are an essential part of any email marketing campaign, so you’ll definitely need to use them.

But what types of transactional emails will you need to send out, and what should they look like? 

The best way to answer that question is to look at some transactional email examples, so that’s just what we’re going to do on this page. The types of transactional emails we’ll look at include:

1. Abandoned cart email (Stetson)
2. Order receipt email (Crocs)
3. Transaction verification email (Truebill)
4. Account confirmation email (Stocksy)
5. Welcome email (Twitch)
6. Password reset email (Verve Wine)
7. Check-in email (Duolingo)
8. Search results email (Petfinder)
9. User message email (Airbnb)
10. Delay/cancellation email (American Airlines)

Keep reading to see each of these examples of transactional emails. Then, subscribe to Revenue Weekly — our email newsletter — to get more helpful digital marketing info delivered straight to your inbox!

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1. Abandoned cart email (Stetson)

One of the most classic examples of transactional emails is the abandoned cart email. This type of email gets sent out to users who add products to their cart on a company’s website, but don’t complete the purchase. The email encourages them to come back and follow through.

Here’s an email from Stetson that reminds the user of a hat they left in their cart and urges them to complete their transaction:

Notice the simplicity — everything is centered around the “Shop now” button. Structure your own abandoned cart emails in a similar way.

2. Order receipt email (Crocs)

Another common transactional email is the order receipt email. This email goes out to people who complete a purchase on your online store. It lets them know that their purchase went through and includes info about what happens next.

In this transactional email example from Crocs, the user is given their purchase details, along with a progress tracker to show them when they can expect their package. That’s a handy feature to add to your own receipt emails.

3. Unusual activity email (Truebill)

If some activity occurs on a user’s account that seems odd, it can be a good idea to send them an email to verify that it was actually them. Google, for example, commonly sends people verification emails when they log in on a new device.

In this example transactional email, Truebill noticed an unusually large transaction and asked if it was made by the user:

If the account got hacked, this email would notify the user and enable them to quickly address the situation. If your website requires users to create accounts, make sure you have a similar system in place for security reasons.

4. Account confirmation email (Stocksy)

When users set up new accounts, it’s common for businesses to get them to verify their email addresses as part of the setup process. These account confirmation emails often look something like the one below:

In this email from Stocksy, the user is given a one-time verification code that they can input on the website to finish setting up their account. Other confirmation emails might simply give users a button to click rather than using a code. 

Whichever route you choose, this is a good depiction of how these emails should look.

5. Welcome email (Twitch)

The welcome email is one of the simplest types of transactional emails, but it’s also one of the best. It’s a quick and easy way to establish a connection with users after they set up an account on your website.

In the above email, Twitch welcomes the new user to their platform and gives them a button to click to help them get started. Keep your own welcome emails equally simple.

6. Password reset email (Verve Wine)

Sometimes people forget their passwords — it’s probably something you’ve done yourself. In those instances, it’s standard practice for websites to let people reset their passwords, and they often do that through email.

In this example transactional email, Verve Wine offers an extremely minimalistic email that prompts the user to click a button:

That button takes them to a page where they can create a new password. This is a good example of what these emails should look like — short, sweet, and to the point.

7. Check-in email (Duolingo)

The check-in email is similar to a cart abandonment email — it follows up with users after a lack of activity. But it’s not as specific as cart abandonment. Usually, these emails will get sent to people whose accounts haven’t been active in a long time, checking in and inviting them to come back.

As you can see from the above example, Duolingo is fond of sending out these emails. They provide a short blurb and a button users can click to “Get back on track” with their language lessons. This is a great way to increase engagement on the platform, so you should do something similar in your own check-in emails.

8. Search results email (Petfinder)

Search results emails are a little bit niche, but many sites have been known to use them. These emails exist to follow up on searches people make on a website. For example, if you search for job postings on Indeed, Indeed may follow up with an email reminding you of your search and showing you some of the results.

In this example, Petfinder sent the user an email letting them know that their search for dogs has a large number of results:

It also shows a few of those results right in the email. So, why emulate this? Because it attracts engagement, drawing people back to the site.

9. User message email (Airbnb)

On some websites, there may be communication between different accounts. That’s not true of every site, so it may not apply to your business. But if it does, you may find it useful to let users know when they receive a message from another account.

Here, Airbnb notifies the user about a message from a host whose property they recently expressed interest in. The message is shown in full, and then the user is offered two options — “Reply” or “Book it.”

Whichever action they take, it leads to engagement with the platform and a higher likelihood of a booking. That’s something to do in your company’s emails as well.

10. Delay/cancellation email (American Airlines)

Last on our list of transactional email examples is the delay or cancellation email. This type of email notifies users when something changes with their purchase, particularly if it gets delayed or if it falls through. For instance, Amazon might email someone if their package is running late.

In the email above, American Airlines informs the user that their flight is being delayed. The email includes details about the flight delay, as well as reassurance that the airline is working to get the flight back on schedule if possible — both things you can emulate in your own delay or cancellation emails.

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Give your email marketing a boost with WebFX

Want help emulating these transactional email examples and building out your email marketing campaigns? There’s no better place to turn than WebFX. As a full-service digital marketing agency, email marketing is one of our specialties, and we can help you harness it to boost your revenue.

If you’re interested in partnering with us for our email marketing services, be sure to give us a call at 888-601-5359 or contact us online today!