What is transactional email?

Transactional emails are system-triggered emails sent to a user by a company’s app or website based on that specific user’s activity. As consumers, we interact with these emails almost on a daily basis: password resets, order confirmations, login details, shipping notifications, flight confirmations, cart abandonment alerts, and more.

Examples of transactional emails include purchase receipts, account verification emails, password reset emails, and shipping confirmation emails. Transactional emails are typically sent to a smaller audience than promotional or marketing emails, and they are often considered to be more important or time-sensitive.

Transactional emails differ from promotional or marketing emails in that they are not primarily intended to promote a product or service, but rather to provide information or facilitate a transaction. As a result, transactional emails are generally less likely to be marked as spam and have a higher deliverability rate.

Due to the critical content inside these emails, transactional emails are the most highly engaged emails that businesses send. Research shows transactional emails have 8x more opens and clicks than any other type of email, and can generate 6x more revenue. This makes sense when you think about the last time you received a flight confirmation, for example: You probably bookmarked the email, re-opened it several times before the flight, and may have even printed it or forwarded it to your family and friends.

Do you know how many types of transactional emails your business/app sends?