Transactional Email Hall of Fame – November 2018

Who:

Williams Sonoma, the kitchen and housewares retailer

What’s Good:

This email, sent to the person who placed the order, is a delivery confirmation for an item that was ordered and shipped as a gift. It’s always nice to receive an email confirming delivery but it’s especially important when the customer orders something that’s to be shipped to someone else. And this email includes everything that matters — item details, including image, when it was delivered and to whom, with a single CTA to track the shipment and confirm it was delivered to the right place.

Granted, it might not make much sense to recommend more grills to someone who has just had one delivered, but this was a gift, so the purchaser may still need one. And kudos to Williams Sonoma for including product recommendations at all — too many retailers completely miss this cross/upsell opportunity in transactional emails.

What’s Exceptional:

The minimalist, almost plain-text look and feel of the email perfectly reflects the Williams Sonoma website, right down to the font. And the extra details, like mentioning the fact the item was gift wrapped and including the full text of the gift message to the recipient, combine to make this email Hall of Fame worthy.

Who:

Grammarly, the grammar checking platform

What’s Good:

This opt-in weekly report from Grammarly is everything a good app notification should be. It shows the user’s productivity, accuracy, and vocabulary stats for the week, comparing them to previous weeks. Stats that demonstrate what the user is doing well improve engagement, encouraging the user to continue using the platform in order to keep improving. Not only that, the user’s stats are also compared to those of other Grammarly users — nothing like a bit of healthy competition to inspire buy-in.

What’s Exceptional:

Grammarly is all about correcting errors, so this email goes a step further to also show the user their Top 3 Mistakes, including how many times each occurred. We don’t know about you but 251 missing commas and 161 missing periods — all of which were fixed — would definitely make us grateful for Grammarly.

And then there’s that upgrade offer. The purpose of every app notification email, especially for free products, is two-fold: to encourage user engagement and to demonstrate the value of the product in order to encourage users to upgrade. Grammarly’s usefulness is made abundantly clear by the stats in this email, and even though the benefits of going premium could be better spelled out, who can argue with 50% off?

Who:

Sephora, the beauty retailer

What’s Good:

This email is an example of a growing trend — an email receipt for an in-store purchase. What an awesome idea. While Sephora is by no means the first retailer to do this, by offering an emailed receipt they’re digitally engaging in-store shoppers and encouraging email sign-ups. And as an added bonus, it’s good for the environment.

What’s Exceptional:

The email is simple and straightforward, including an itemized receipt for the items purchased, with images, payment method, and store details such as address and store number. And it’s 100% on brand, reflecting both the in-store and online Sephora shopping experience.