Techniques to Get E-Commerce Clients With Cold Emails

Intro

In the cutthroat worlds of both B2C and B2B e-commerce, potential prospects are invariably inundated with sales emails from brands pushing their products and services. An inherent problem lies with sales teams not defining suitable benchmarks and goals when it comes to reaching out to potential new customers.

E-commerce is a thriving market with a global reach, and recent statistics suggest that 2.71 billion consumers worldwide shopped online in 2024. E-commerce businesses range from boutique, specialty online stores to global powerhouses. As such, competition is astronomically high, with prospects' needs varying significantly.

Cold Emails: The State of Play

Cold emails alone are strategic gambles, which means that businesses trying to engage prospects must stand out from the proverbial noise that many prospects will be accustomed to.

So how do you create a cold email that resonates and converts with your e-commerce prospects?

Cold emailing remains a powerful and successful tool for sales teams looking to earn leads and expand their client bases while hitting initial sales targets. However, simply sending email after email and hoping for the best isn’t the right approach anymore - there needs to be more precision, targeting, and meticulousness in the curation and follow-up. Your cold email isn’t exclusively a pitch - it’s an opportunity to demonstrate tangible and immediate value.

This short guide explores how sales teams can perfect the cold email pitching process, offering some guidance that they may not have previously considered. By understanding some of the common mistakes made and how to personalize cold emails and processes for long-term success - using some valuable AI assets along the way - this process will feel less arduous and daunting.

Crafting Personalized E-Commerce Sales Emails That Convert

1. Research to Find Common Ground

Before typing a single word in your email, invest time and resources in understanding your prospects’ businesses. Study their product or service range and marketing strategies to identify how your solutions can add value and support their goals or values.

Look at their recent achievements, case studies, or news articles that have highlighted successes for your prospects. Use these specific pointers to identify a potential overlap with your products that could add value to your prospects’ companies.

2. Visual Storytelling Matters

E-commerce professionals are inherently visual, so it’s wise to assume they will be attracted to visual examples and products ‘in action’. You want to be able to demonstrate what your products or services are capable of doing.

Ensure that your cold email includes:

• Personalized screenshots demonstrating potential data-driven and statistical improvements
• Short, tailored video pitches showing exactly how you can help
• Professional, high-quality images that showcase your products’ intricate details and mechanisms that could support their goals

E-commerce product imagery is a valuable asset in any marketing strategy, and sales teams should leverage their in-house images where possible. This doesn’t have to be extensive, and using a compact digital camera like the Fujifilm X-T50 to take product images as well as action shots can add context to your sales email text.

3. Addressing Specific Pain Points

E-commerce clients will typically struggle with a range of issues relating to the sale and shipment of their own products, not just from a marketing perspective, but from a logistical one also.

Depending on your product or service, identify pain points such as:

• Omnichannel challenges
• Customer acquisition cost
• Cart abandonment rates
• Managing logistics
• Delivery timescales
• Customer experience and loyalty
• Inventory and stock levels
• Cross-border bottlenecks
• Order processing time
• Data security and verification

These are just some challenges afoot for e-commerce providers, and your cold email needs to speak directly to these obstacles. You need to demonstrate that this isn’t just another generic sales pitch and that you are potentially a strategic partner.

Essential Elements of a Converting Cold Email

Compelling Subject Lines

• Keep it short and sweet (around 20-40 characters)
• Use a conversational tone
• Create curiosity
• Hint at a specific pain point
• Personalize when possible

Email Body Best Practices

• Don’t make it text-heavy
• Keep it to roughly 100-150 words if you can
• Maintain a light-hearted and informal tone
• Focus on prospect benefits
• Include concrete, measurable outcomes

Social Proof Strategy

Include:

• Links that will showcase your services
• Specific client success stories or reviews
• Quantifiable results
• Relevant, industry-specific testimonials and case studies

Common Cold Email Mistakes to Avoid

1. Generic messaging: One-size-fits-all messages don’t resonate and will simply be relegated to junk.
2. Information overload: Prospects want clarity, not complexity - try to keep the email concise and straight to the point.
3. A weak call-to-action (CTA): Make the next steps crystal clear, and don’t convolute it - if it’s too difficult they simply will not bother.
4. Not mobile-friendly: Most emails are first read on mobile devices, so make sure it’s optimized for all screens.

[Image source: pexels.com Torsten Dettlaff]

5. Too self-focused: Instead of presenting yourself and your business, focus on your prospects’ pain points and areas of interest, which demonstrate your proactive research.
6. Lengthy and time-consuming: A prospect with a limited time window to go through their inbox is unlikely to spend extended time focusing on yours - keep it short and valuable.
7. No urgency: Always illustrate a specific action that needs to be taken as soon as possible, highlighting negative outcomes if a step isn’t taken, for example.

A Winning Cold Email Template Example

Consider this e-commerce email template a valuable example worth referring to that applies the essential steps listed above.

Hi {{first_name}},

So I saw your recent company announcement about ‌stock replenishment issues - that sounds really challenging. Are you finding that’s a regular occurrence with your suppliers?

{{Client}} has increased {{case study businesses}}’s delivery completion rates and stock levels by X%, and their acquisition costs, as a result, have also been lowered.

Should we set up a time to have a chat?

{{Signature}}

{{Contact details}}

This email:

• References a specific piece of company news
• Demonstrates that you have observed what has happened
• Shows you have done specific research
• Links a possible solution with a specific pain point and problem
• Is direct and to the point
• Is free of fluff and unnecessary waffle

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Cold Outreach

Sales teams as a whole need to improve their messaging precision, generate personalized content at scale and better understand the psychology of the triggers that drive responses. Cold outreach via email doesn’t have to force sales teams to send as many emails as possible, but rather, be smarter with their overall strategy.

The results lie in the metrics and data behind every email. Assess every response, conversion, CTA click, and any other qualitative or quantitative event data that can add value to your approach. Refine and adjust accordingly to ensure you are getting the most out of this truly valuable marketing channel.

Each email is a chance to demonstrate that you understand a prospect’s unique challenges and can offer a tangible, value-adding solution. Make your first impressions count with cold emails that convert and keep your leads engaged at the primary touchpoint.