Email Service Providers for E-commerce Explained

Email Service Providers for E-commerce are numerous and diverse. Email is still the number one sales tool and conversion driver.

First of all how do you make sense of all the email providers? From email service providers with names ranging from Abeedle to Zrinity, with over a hundred other options in-between, how do you select the “right” one?

Basically, email service providers come in three tiers.

1. The entry-level tier starts for free for the basic offering. And more advanced and high volume services require a subscription fee. Some of the largest email marketing providers fall into this category. The entry-level email marketing providers support tens of thousands of merchants and help deliver hundreds millions of emails every month or every week.

2. The mid-level tier is a more specialized group that starts at around $300-500/month and offers sophisticated tracking, follow up and conversion tools. Popular examples include triggers to send follow up emails for abandoned carts, automated email follow ups to request reviews and ratings, or after purchase follow ups for customer service. The mid-lever tier has specialized engines that allow a layman to click together sophisticated rules and some services include periodic training to allow you make the most out of the tools provided.

3. The top-level tier are full-service providers that take over your entire email marketing effort. Charges are much higher to cover staffing cost and often include performance based incentives where the services takes a share of (additional) revenue.

We hope this overview is helpful to you. If you have specific questions such as what tier your email service provider belongs to or how your needs are being met, please post a comment below.