In preparation for the fourth edition of our report on transactional email and confirmation messages (part of our Ecommerce User Experience report series), we conducted two user research studies: in-person usability testing, and a longitudinal diary study. The main types of transactional email received by our study participants were purchase confirmations, shipping notifications, delivery notifications, and registration/account updates.

Since our previous study of transactional email ten years ago, some things have changed. First, fear of spam has decreased, since we ran our first studies. Largely, this is a result of advanced spam-blocking tools. These days, recipients use the word “spam” to describe any marketing email that they consider irrelevant or not personalized to them — even if they had given permission for the contact.

Additionally, text-only transactional emails are no longer the norm. HTML, images, and even emojis are now common, and designers can enrich email messages with a variety of visual elements (which is often a good thing, though not always).

Transactional emails, on average, are getting better.

As part of our diary study on transactional email, we asked participants to rate the emails they forwarded to us on a variety of characteristics, using a 7-point semantic differential scale:

• How well did the subject line communicate what was found inside?
• How informative was the message?
• How easy was it to find the information you wanted in this message?
• How trustworthy is the company that sent the message?
• How relevant or useful was the message?
• How easy or difficult was it to take action on the options provided in the email?

For each of these questions, the value 7 represented the most positive evaluation (very informational, very trustworthy, very easy, etc.)

We were surprised to find quite high average ratings from the diary study — the average rating for the desirable email characteristics was 5.9 out of 7, with the six individual scores ranging from 5.7 to 6.2. Overall, transactional email performs better than it used to. (While we didn’t collect the same scores in the previous rounds of research, we heard plenty of bitter complaints from the study participants back then.)

However, there are still many notable exceptions. When some of these transactional emails failed their users (for example, by not providing critical information or by being difficult to understand quickly), they received scathing comments.

Unfortunately, just as they did ten years ago, some ecommerce companies still fail to make their transactional email messages a priority. They still send out email with subject lines that don’t deliver any information; or fail to organize their message content to match users’ priorities. As a result, they miss out on a big opportunity to strengthen their relationships with their customers.

Even though transactional messages are typically sent after the user has placed an order, these messages have substantial business value in improving customer satisfaction. They can increase the likelihood that the user will place another order in the future. Each email is another touchpoint on the customer journey and expands your opportunity to stay connected with that customer over time.

Transactional email messages are still sometimes treated as an afterthought, and not given much attention by design or copywriting professionals. Or, even worse, they’re seen as an opportunity for aggressive marketing or sales tactics. Participants in our study quickly became annoyed if they felt that a company was harassing them by cramming ads in  shipment notifications, or if they felt they were receiving too many emails.

New Challenges for Transactional Email

A few new problems have risen with the changing landscape of transactional email.

• While there is less “spam” in the traditional sense, users today are overburdened with email. They’re quick to call an email message “spam” if it feels irrelevant, too frequent, or otherwise annoying. This behavior is a major consequence of a pushy, salesy approach to transactional email. Additionally, users are quick to report email as spam through their email client if there isn’t an easy way to unsubscribe.
• Users are likely to check their email on their mobile device. Transactional email must work equally well on small or large devices. Telling users to switch devices to read your email is not a viable solution. Additionally, mobile email reading means users are even more impatient for quick answers than they already were!
• Transactional email must now work alongside mobile push notifications. In many cases, participants in our studies complained about receiving duplicate information from both their mobile email app and the company’s push notifications.
• Most modern email clients now show preheader text: short summary text that follows the subject line when an email is viewed in the inbox. The preheader is a useful way to give users valuable information right in the inbox. Unfortunately, many organizations squander this opportunity by using subject lines that are too long, or by placing uninformative text at the top of the message (for example, “Having trouble viewing this email? Click h”).

Transactional Emails Need to Do Their Job

There’s one important theme that hasn’t changed in ten years: transactional email is still a utilitarian entity.

The most successful transactional emails in our study were those that:

• Communicated the information as quickly, easily, and completely as possible
• Answered all the users’ questions
• Didn’t make users do any extra work (like contacting the company, clicking a link, or logging into an account) unless those actions were absolutely necessary

Some companies attempted to make their transactional emails entertaining, cool, or funny. That approach worked well in some cases, but only when the designers were careful that those elements didn’t interfere with the message.

The key to good transactional email is (as it was) being succinct and informative.

Full Report

The new edition of our full research report with detailed design guidelines for transactional email (including confirmation messages, shipment/delivery notifications, abandoned-cart reminders, and more) is now available for download. (This is one of the reports in the new edition of the Ecommerce User Experience series.)