Order Confirmation

What is an Order Confirmation flow?

Congratulations! If you’re looking at this flow, it means you expect to—or already—have customers purchasing from your company.

The order confirmation email is the creme de la creme of transactional emails. It serves a number of key functions and should be in every email marketer’s toolkit. This email is used to:

• Tell the customer you received their order
• Confirm payment was processed (or will be processed upon shipment)
• Restate shipping and billing information
• Keep customers informed of next steps (e.g. when to expect a shipping email or how to get started)
• Highlight other important information, such as: steps to activate their account and/or how to log in and manage their information, how to contact customer service, and quicklinks to your return policy, cancellation policy, or FAQ

Setting up your flow

The order confirmation flow includes just one email, which is triggered by an Order Placed event (or for subscriptions, a Subscription Started event). If you’re running a post purchase sequence, the order confirmation email is typically the first touchpoint in this series.

The order confirmation email is transactional in nature. It should include information about the customer’s purchase details, and should be clear, informative, and useful.

Important information to cover:

• Welcome and thank you for your order
• Shipping and billing information
• Product details (SKU, quantity, specs)
• Price information (subtotal, shipping cost, sales tax, discounts, total)

The order confirmation might also include upcoming notices to look out for. For example, you may want to let the customers know when to expect a shipping email: “All orders ship within 48 hours. Please be on the lookout for an email with tracking information soon.” Or, you may want to let the customer know when you’ll send important information to get started, e.g: “Be on the lookout for an email with important steps to activate your membership.”

The bottom line

An order confirmation flow is a must-have for every ecommerce business. Keep it simple, include vital purchase data, and use it to set the tone for the rest of your post purchase series.