Transactional email
Transactional email
Email Marketing
A transactional email is an email triggered by a customer's own action or account, like an order confirmation, shipping update or password reset.
What is Transactional email?
Transactional emails carry information the customer expects about something they did. Because their main purpose isn't promotion, they don't need marketing consent, and they still go to people who unsubscribed from marketing.
Keep them clean. A small, relevant product recommendation is common, but if an email's main purpose becomes promotion, it is treated as marketing under the FTC's CAN-SPAM guidance and needs an unsubscribe link.
In SmartyTap, order flow emails (thank-you, shipped, refunded) are transactional and still reach customers who unsubscribed from marketing.
Example
A customer orders, gets a confirmation email within a minute, and gets a "your order shipped" email with tracking two days later.
Why Transactional email Matters
Transactional emails are the most opened emails a store sends, and they build trust for every marketing email after them.
Transactional email FAQ
Do transactional emails need an unsubscribe link?
No, as long as their main purpose is the transaction. Once they become mainly promotional, treat them as marketing.
Do unsubscribed customers still get order emails?
Yes. Unsubscribing stops marketing email, not receipts and shipping updates.
Explore More Terms
Browse our complete glossary of e-commerce and subscription terms.
