5 Secret Email Automations for Ecommerce You Probably Aren’t Running Right Now
I’m reading the book Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell.
His methods of auditing your time and investing more in what you’re great at are revolutionary.
And this is why I encourage all brands to invest deeper into automation.
One of my Youtube Shorts is “How to Triple Your Cart Abandon Revenues” because automation is everything.
👉🏻 Watch the Cart Abandon hack here 👈🏻
It’s part of my BIGGER SMS Bootcamp webinar I just hosted. (skip to minute 35)
Automations help you convert more customers in half the time.
So if you’re not automating your email, SMS & retention like the top 1%, you’re missing an opportunity.
It’s eye opening to how far ahead the top brands are from the small guy.
On that video, I share how the top brands use email, SMS, phone calls and Facebook to convert 3x as many carts.
This is just ONE hack the top brands use.
👉🏻 Want More Hacks? Get My Masterclass 👈🏻
I’m going to share a few more below.
Yes, you probably know about cart abandon, browse abandon, welcome and all the other “basic email & SMS automations” that Klaviyo and Omnisend share.
These basic “out-of-the-box”email automations are a start… but are in no way the end of the journey.
Everyone runs them. But I’m going to help you elevate them.
So here are my top 5 email automations that you never heard about
They’ll elevate your automations, triple your revenue and save you more time than ever.
Let’s go!
Email Automation #1 – Cart Catchup
Here’s why it’s awesome. Most brands forget the customer after their cart abandon automation runs and simply punt them down to the same old campaigns over and over.
By doing ONE last checkup on their cart after a few days, you remind the customer that you’re thinking of them and trying to help.
At this point, you can try anything: discounts, offers, free shipping, etc. because it’s one last shot to purchase. And remember, a personalized email – like cart catchup – is more valuable than any batch mailing you send.
Important: check to see when your store’s carts expire; Shopify generally has a 14 day window until their cart history expires.
The worst experience is if you send cart catchup and there’s literally nothing in the cart anymore.
Email Automation #2: Category Browse
Why it’s awesome: think of you in a store. You’re browsing a pair of red running shoes and you haven’t made a decision yet.
Most brands send a couple browse abandon emails inviting you to “take another look”. But if you didn’t buy, brands go back to hawking their goods from all over the site, this promo and that promo.
Why not keep them browsing the running shoes category and explore more? That’s make more sense than trying to get the customer to buy hats or belts or dress shoes! This customer is interested in running shoes and needs to EXPAND the selection or EXPLORE running shoes they never saw before.
Category Browse does just that. After Browse Abandon runs, send a series of emails related to red running shoes such as:
- Running Shoes Under $100
- New Arrivals in Running Shoes
- Top-Rated Running Shoes
- Best-Selling Running Shoes
- Running Shoes with Free Shipping
- Running Shoes on SALE
- And on and on…
By keeping this customer in the aisle of running shoes, you’ll be HELPFUL to this customer, help them discover more selection and increase the likelihood they’ll buy something related to what they were browse.
So why don’t more brands do this?
#1 – it can be difficult to run out. There’s a lot of logic to take into account.
But really… #2 – brands don’t know about it. You won’t find it anywhere on a Google search because I kind of invented it after a lot of trial and error.
And it works ridiculously well; you can get my book and read all about it.
Email Automation #3 – Post-Purchase Survey
Why this is incredible: at the moment of purchase, a customer is ready to share.
They’re excited about their purchase and want to tell the world. Most brands use this opportunity to promote “refer-a-friend” but this underperforms.
Let’s face it: no referral is being made until the customer receives, unpacks, uses and is blown away by their purchase. So why waste the opportunity?
Instead focus on collecting what the customer wants to share: their shopping experience.
Customers like to feel involved the minute they invest in something. The investment isn’t just an exchange of dollars for services; it’s a thought exchange as well.
Sending a quick two to three question survey invites the customer to share their wisdom with you, it’s very low friction and the data is actionable.
Don’t focus on upsells or referrals right now; focus on the data that will help you convert more customers more often.
A great example of this is in your conversion rate. Traffic, site visits and clicks are great but even a half percentage increase in conversion rate will change your business. So this post-purchase survey gives you the data you need to make true business impact.
Email Automation #4 – Cart Abandon 2.0
Watch the TikTok video for more detail.
You can also see it on YouTube Shorts.
Watch the video and then follow these basic instructions:
- Set up your Cart Abandon series
- Layer in SMS to send when an email is unopened
- Add in an action to check if SMS or email was engaged
- If not, send data to Facebook for retargeting
- Send data to your CRM / customer service for a call follow up
Too nervous about calling people? Use ringless voicemail to leave a message and call back number. If the prospect is really serious about buying, they’ll call you.
This is the broad strokes. You can can do even more.
The point is: the top brands use all channels at their disposal and so should you.
Email Automation #5 – Risk of Churn
Prevent people from churning by making an offer, sharing personalized picks or letter-based email.
Most brands know what a “winback” campaign is. Send an email that wins a lost customer back to your brand and incentivize them to buy again.
Here’s the part most don’t know about: it’s 6x harder to win back a LOST customer than it is to PREVENT them from churning.
In a way, winback is like acquiring this person all over again. Which is expensive.
So focus on preventing them from churning. Start by looking at how often a customer places an order with you. Let’s assume they buy your product every 90 days.
Winback campaigns run after 180 days or something so that customer is LONG gone.
Risk-of-Churn automation sends a personalized, picked for you, or offer at day 45, again at day 65 and then again at day 75 that will – hopefully! – get this person to buy or engage with you again before they hit that churn window.
And it works well. Depending on the product or their previous purchase, this customer will be prevented from churning and maintain a relationship with you.
Of course, you’ll need to dive into WHY customers are churning in the first place but Risk-of-Churn automation keeps the repeat purchase window open.
There you go!
These are just five automations off the top of my head.
Our clients get these implemented for them.
And I have dozens more pre-built and ready to fly!
Brands never knew that email, SMS and retention could be so powerful.
As Debbe from Bicycle Warehouse said “you’ve taken to a depth I never knew about and that’s awesome!”
👉🏻 See These 8-Figure Case Studies 👈🏻
I hope these help you start thinking beyond the basic automations that Klaviyo, Omnisend or Mailchimp give you.
Because your brand is UNIQUE and you deserve a unique approach.
Of course, if you’re not up and running on the basic automations, we should talk.
And if you are on basic mode and want to level up even more, now’s the time.
Shoot me an email back and glad to share!
Isaac @ HiFlyer Digital
—
Click here if you want to implement more 10-figure 2025 email & SMS marketing strategies of the top brands in minutes, not month.
Loved the blog post? Take one of these next steps: