An order confirmation is a transactional notification that informs customers that their order has been confirmed and is in the stage of being processed. Order confirmations usually contain essential transaction details, such as a delivery address, items purchased, the amount paid, and more.
Many businesses and marketers put a lot of effort into improving their click and conversion rates. While optimizing their marketing strategies, many individuals tend to miss out on an essential notification feature.
Yes, we are talking about order confirmations.
Through order confirmations, you get the perfect opportunity to convey essential information about the order, without sounding promotional or sales-y. It can be regarded as the first step in turning one-time buyers into repeat customers, and repeat customers into brand advocates.
In this article, we will be talking about order confirmations, their relevance, and the strategies that you can implement to have the perfect order confirmation template for your current and future customers.
What is an order confirmation email?
Similar to any order confirmation notification, an order confirmation email is an informative email that conveys to customers that you received and/or processed their order.
If implemented properly, an excellent order confirmation email captures the buyer’s excitement, eliminates misinformation, and, more importantly, builds the foundation of a long and fruitful relationship with your customers.
But, as a seller, you are confirming the details to provide the agreed service at fixed terms. Hence, it’s very important that order confirmations are adequately designed, and contains all information relevant to the order.
When should you send order confirmations?
While it is recommended that you always send an order confirmation for online orders, there are certain cases when you surely should send one notification of the same.
These include:
- The times when a non-binding agreement was made in relation to the time of delivery. Order confirmations can assist in outlining the terms of the agreement/offer
- In instances where the supplier has made different offers to the buyer, an order confirmation notification helps in specifying the details of the order placed
- If there is a change in the details of what was previously ordered (the price, quantity, etc)
- The occasions where the customer responded to an offer a little too late or they haven’t noticed that the offer has expired or is invalid
Additionally, order confirmations also show the buyer that they are buying a product or service from a professional organization and they can be trusted upon.
Why do you need order confirmations?
The primary objective of any order confirmation message is to keep potential buyers informed about their purchase, and as mentioned above, it makes sure that the buyer knows exactly what product or service they are purchasing.
If there happens to be a misunderstanding between the buyer and seller, this document can easily clarify which party has failed to follow through on their side of the deal.
Moreover, confirmations can help the buyer and the seller to agree on the terms of the sale or the supply of a service. This gives the buyers more confidence in you and makes them see your business in a more professional manner.
What are the best order confirmation email strategies?
Since order confirmation can be regarded as the initial step of the purchase of a product, here are the strategies that you should keep in mind and follow while framing an order confirmation email for your customers.
-
Give a set blueprint about the next steps
Aside from providing order credentials, the customer also needs to be aware of what will happen next. For instance, you can include details about when they can expect the product to arrive and how they can track the delivery.
Providing the next steps improves the customer experience because it shows honesty and transparency. You can make use of simple instructions to ensure that the steps are easy to understand. If possible, include a call to action (CTA) button so they can track their order straight from the email.
-
Usher your customers
Once the customer receives an order confirmation email, you can either end the conversation with them by sending a simple email, or you can also keep them engaged with your brand by offering discounts, offers, new arrivals, and other similar products to grasp their attention and potentially get repeat purchases.
This method is an effective way of sending order confirmation emails because all customers are not the same, and every individual has different engagement levels with regards to purchases. So, this plays a critical role in converting buyers into repeat customers.
-
Verify the purchase decision
All of us have been in a situation where we have made impulse purchases and have lived on to regret it later on. Order confirmation emails are the perfect way to reaffirm that your customers made the right decision by buying the desired products from your store.
All you need to do is primarily find the rational benefits of your products and give your customers assurances that they made a good buying decision through the purchase of your product/service.
-
Invite customers to interact on social media
This is a simple strategy where you can add clickable icons before your contact info that guides the viewer to the brand’s social media channels, or you can also try writing a short copy (about how they can follow you on social media) at the bottom of your order confirmation email.
When customers give a follow on social media channels, you’re not just growing your fan base, you’re also adding one more channel where you can satisfy your new customer base.
Furthermore, when customers post their positive brand experience on their social media feed, they can tag your brand which can lead to an effective way of showing social proof as well.
-
Make use of discounts and other offers
As we all know, promos and discounts are shoppers’ kryptonite. You can entice your customers to purchase more products by giving them exclusive discounts, freebies, and special deals on the next purchase.
You have to ensure to highlight the value of your offer in your order confirmation email so that your new customer will first understand the benefits of it, before taking any actions on the same.
-
Get interactive and engaging
You can make your brand stand out by adding elements of surprise to your next order confirmation email. But, you have to make sure they’re relevant and not just a content filler. The last thing you want to do is to make the email look cluttered or distract the customer from the email’s original intent.
Animated content about how to use the product provides useful information and adds aesthetic appeal to it. You can also try entertaining quizzes and funny videos that can make your brand more relatable and informative to your customers.
Primary requirements for order confirmations
Though the format for order confirmations might vary from brand to brand, there are certain primary parameters that are followed by almost all entities out there. When creating an order confirmation, you need to ensure that it is created professionally and includes at least some of the following pointers.
- The name of the company
- The location of the company
- The date of order placed and the order number
- Reference number related to the order
- Order description
- Preferred mode of payment
- ETA of the desired order
- Delivery options/summary
- An acknowledgement to your buyer for placing the order
- Rights of usage and the delivery address
- Additional costs or charges
A confirmation email is also your opportunity to upsell or cross-sell. At the bottom of your email, you can present a more expensive version of the desired product with a description of why they would want it. You can also cross-sell items that would perfectly complement the products they desire to purchase.
Introducing order confirmations on Thirdwatch!
To address the problem of flagging orders and sending confirmation messages to your customers, we are over the moon to launch and present our latest addition to the Thirdwatch suite- Order Confirmations!
While a message to the customer to confirm a purchase is a normal procedure for the customer, it can be so much more for the seller. You can enable Order Confirmations on the Thirdwatch Dashboard to send automated or manual confirmation notifications to your customers to confirm their orders!
With regards to cash on delivery orders, it is very hard to identify orders that are deemed incomplete due to last-minute complications from the customer’s end. However, with Razorpay Thirdwatch’s increased accuracy, we help sellers in identifying orders that need not be shipped out due to the customer’s misinformation while placing an order.
Through order confirmations, online store owners can send confirmations or address correction messages for the orders that are deemed risky or have incomplete information in them.
Customers can then accept/reject orders or update the shipping addresses based on various data points gathered by the software. Did you know that return to origin (RTO) and fraud orders may contribute up to 50% of your e-commerce orders?!
Also read: How To Reduce RTO in E-commerce
Furthermore, through Razorpay Thirdwatch’s Address Correction feature, you can identify risky shipping addresses for your business, reduce return rates, increase your deliverability and success rates throughout your business and so much more!
Thirdwatch’s AI gets better with time and provides you with detailed insights about non-deliverable addresses to give you a deeper understanding of your order tracking and delivery.
