Ecommerce Marketing Automation in 2025: Email, SMS & Retargeting

In the early days of ecommerce, online marketing typically meant sending mass emails with generic content to large lists. But today’s shoppers expect more personalized and relevant messaging from their favorite online brands.

Ecommerce marketing automation enables tailored content that speaks to shoppers’ needs and interests for personalized shopping experiences. 

With insights like website visits, email interactions, social media activity, and more, you can engage leads more effectively, delivering the right message at the right moment. Here’s how to implement ecommerce marketing automation strategies to boost sales. 

What is ecommerce marketing automation?

Ecommerce marketing automation is the use of software to run repeatable marketing tasks and workflows in an online retail environment. These could be anything from welcome emails to abandoned cart reminders, to managing winback campaigns and back-in-stock notifications.

The goal is to enhance the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and increase customer engagement through personalized communication, ultimately driving sales. It leverages data—such as customer demographics, purchase history, and behavioral data—to optimize interactions and make marketing efforts more relevant, timely, and effective.

How ecommerce marketing automation works

Three components create an automated workflow.

1. Trigger (when it starts): The event that kicks off an automation, like a customer adding an item to their cart or an order being delivered.
2. Condition (who/if logic): These are the rules that narrow down the audience and sequence. For example, a total cart value of less than $50 or a user who hasn’t purchased in 60 days. 
3. Action (what happens): The outcome that the automated system executes. In ecommerce, this can include sending an abandoned cart email or SMS, displaying an onsite message, updating a customer segment, or moving individuals to a retargeting audience. 

With Shopify as your ecommerce platform, these workflows are built and managed using Shopify Flow, a visual builder with templates that can be launched quickly. 

Here’s an example of a template you can use to send an email 10 hours after a customer reaches checkout but doesn’t place an order, encouraging them to complete their purchase.

In this case, the three components are:

1. Trigger: "Checkout created" AND "Order not placed after 10 hours"
2. Condition: "Has email consent"
3. Action: Send "Abandoned Checkout" email to encourage purchase completion

Benefits of ecommerce marketing automation

Here’s how retailers are benefiting from automating various parts of their businesses. 

Reclaim team time and speed up operations

Automation frees up your marketing teams so they don’t need to manually handle repetitive tasks. It’s flexible, and you can automate most workflows like handling high-risk orders, providing refunds, autopublishing stock changes, and more. 

Beauty retailer Doe Lashes saves over $30,000 per month with Shopify Flow. Around 80% of the brand’s tasks are automated, giving the six-person team more time to focus on creative and strategic areas of the business. 

Lift conversion and order value

Since automated interactions are based on first-party data, each touchpoint is tailored to the customer, anywhere they are in the lifecycle. They find shoppers at just the right moment for a conversion and keep the revenue coming. 

Premium pet supply retailer FUNNYFUZZY used Flow to automate engagement based on browsing behavior, retargeting shoppers to prevent cart abandonment. The brand saw an overall 40% increase in conversions and a 30% lift in average order value (AOV). 

Protect revenue and reduce risk

Another benefit of automation is that it can flag risky orders and protect your margins. For example, Western-wear brand W. Titley & Co used Shopify Flow to hide out-of-stock products and flag high-risk orders, which helped increase revenue by 190%. 

Ecommerce marketing automation strategies

• Email automation
• Display ads retargeting
• SMS marketing
• Customer segmentation and personalization
• Chatbot and AI integration

There are a variety of marketing automation strategies ecommerce businesses can use to reach and engage customers. Here are a few popular tactics for ecommerce marketing personalization:

Email automation

Email marketing automation involves creating automated email campaigns triggered by specific customer actions or behaviors. The goal is to deliver timely and relevant messages to keep your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds. 

To implement email automation, businesses use email marketing software to set up triggers based on customer interactions with their online store, such as browsing specific products or abandoning a shopping cart. 

Two popular options are:

1. Shopify Email lets you build branded templates in the Shopify admin and trigger workflows for abandoned checkout, welcome series, and thank you emails. It’s a good option for small to midsize lists.
2. Klaviyo is greatfor deeper personalization and A/B testing. Klaviyo syncs with your Shopify customer data to run multi-step flows, offer advanced segmentation, and multichannel messaging.

For example, imagine that Apex Apparel is an ecommerce business specializing in outdoor clothing for wilderness exploration. They might use email automation to send personalized gear recommendations and weather-specific outfitting tips to customers who recently viewed jackets or boots on their site.

Display ads retargeting

Display ads retargeting works by tracking customers who have visited your website and displaying your ads on other platforms they visit later, such as Instagram Stories, YouTube, TikTok, and Google.

Display ads retargeting keeps your brand visible to potential customers who’ve shown interest in your products, increasing the likelihood they’ll return to complete a purchase. Implementation requires integrating a marketing automation platform with your website to track visitors and manage retargeting ads. 

Apex Apparel might retarget customers who viewed their winter jackets with ads showing related products, like thermal layers or waterproof boots, on other websites they visit. If they use Shopify Audiences, they could even see retargeting conversions double on average. 

For example, Apex Apparel can keep their standard pixel retargeting in place, then add Shopify Audiences’ Retargeting Boost into the same retargeting ad sets to expand reach, and add “Existing Customers” as an exclusion to avoid showing remarketing ads to recent purchasers. 

Retailers like Mac Duggal have seen incredible results from Shopify Audiences, like 3.6 times lower cost per purchase and a 200% return on advertising spend (ROAS).  

SMS marketing

SMS marketing involves sending text messages directly to your customers’ mobile phones. 

To implement SMS marketing, you need an ecommerce marketing automation software (like Klaviyo) capable of managing and sending bulk SMS messages. The key is to get customers to opt in to receive texts and then send them relevant and timely messages (while adhering to relevant anti-spam legislation and best practices). 

Apex Apparel could use SMS marketing to alert customers about flash sales on rain gear during the rainy season, or send tips for maintaining outdoor gear after a purchase.

Customer segmentation and personalization

This marketing strategy employs detailed customer data analysis to divide your audience into specific segments based on factors like purchasing behavior, preferences, and historical interactions. 

A robust marketing automation tool can sift through data to identify unique customer profiles and patterns. Through customer segmentation, you can tailor marketing campaigns to address each group’s distinct needs and interests, heightening the impact of your marketing efforts.

Shopify’s native segmentation tools make this easy. Simply build dynamic, rule-based segments based on anything from order count to last purchase date and location radius. Shopify provides default filters and supports metafield-based filters for custom attributes, like fit preferences or activity type.

Apex Apparel could build a “Hikers, last 90 days” segment using product/category interactions and purchase history. Using that information, they can send targeted content like layering guides or trail-ready checklists via Shopify Email and trigger a replenishment flow for accessories after qualifying purchases. 

Chatbot and AI integration

Integrating chatbots and AI into your customer service processes can improve the customer experience by providing quick, automated responses to inquiries. These tools can assist with various customer queries and sales support, from giving product recommendations to tracking orders.

Businesses can execute this strategy by embedding AI-powered chatbots on critical pages of their website. Shopify Inbox adds live chat to the online store and centralizes messages from web chat, social, and email. Staff can send product links, discount codes, and images directly in the chat, making it easy to recommend items or resolve issues without switching tools.

With Inbox, you can also:

• Configure Shopify Magic-suggested replies in Inbox settings so agents get AI-drafted responses for FAQs; review and tailor the drafts before sending
• Create quick-reply shortcuts for queries about returns, shipping times, and sizing.

Say Apex Apparel adds Shopify Inbox to the product pages for outerwear. When shoppers ask about waterproof ratings, an agent uses a Shopify Magic suggested reply as a starting point, inserts a product link to the shell jacket, and drops a discount code for first-time buyers, then tags the conversation “outerwear interest,” which feeds a follow-up automation.

Popular ecommerce marketing automation tools

• Shopify Automations
• Klaviyo
• HubSpot
• Gorgias
• Campaign Monitor
• ActiveCampaign
• Drip

Marketing automation tools can impact how effectively an ecommerce business connects with its customers and drives sales. Here are some of the most popular ecommerce marketing automation tools, each with unique features and capabilities to streamline marketing efforts:

Shopify Automations

Shopify Automations empowers users to automate various operational tasks within their ecommerce store. By leveraging a user-friendly visual workflow builder, you can create custom automated workflows to handle previously manual tasks such as processing orders, managing inventory, and scheduling marketing campaigns and product launches. 

Key features:

• Easy-to-use templates: Customers can experiment with user-friendly templates and create their own automated workflows.
• Campaign customization: Shopify allows users to initiate marketing campaigns based on specific product tags like preorders or high-spend customer categories.
• Checkout personalization: Shopify users can customize the checkout experience on their ecommerce stores, including options like gifts with purchase, buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deals, and specialized shipping rates.

Cost: Features depend on your Shopify plan and pricing. 

Klaviyo

Klaviyo is a comprehensive marketing automation platform designed for data-driven growth for ecommerce businesses.

Users can send personalized, targeted messages by centralizing data from multiple sources to create a complete customer view. Klaviyo automates workflows across multiple digital marketing channels, including social media platforms and emails, allowing businesses to target customers based on their behavior and preferences.

Key features:

• Data-driven personalization: Users can leverage customer data from various sources, including reviews, customer loyalty points, and in-store visits, to trigger, split, and personalize automations.
• AI-enhanced automation: Klaviyo’s platform offers artificial intelligence capabilities to predict customer behavior and create relevant messaging.
• Performance measurement: You can get data about how different customer segments are performing and on multi-touch attribution (which weighs how different touchpoints along the customer journey impacted conversion) across email and SMS marketing channels.

Cost: A free plan is for up to 250 contacts. Pricing varies based on your business’s email and SMS contacts. 

HubSpot

HubSpot’s marketing automation software is designed to set marketing campaigns on autopilot by leveraging customer relationship management (CRM) software data to enhance marketing campaigns. 

Key features:

• Automated campaign creation: Customers can use workflows and bot builders to create automated marketing campaigns.
• Form automation: You can also automate routine tasks like form submissions, ensuring leads are nurtured and moved down the sales funnel.
• Productivity enhancement. HubSpot’s automation software can automate tasks such as lead scoring, sending leads to sales, and managing data in bulk.

Cost: HubSpot’s marketing automation software is packaged with its Marketing Hub product offering. Pricing varies based on the size of your team. 

Gorgias

Gorgias AI Agent for ecommerce support teams helps improve customer service and raise agent productivity. It leverages artificial intelligence to provide accurate and instant answers, improving customer interaction, support quality, and speed. 

With its focus on automating routine inquiries and streamlining customer communication, Gorgias Automate helps ecommerce businesses improve the customer support experience and drive sales.

Key features:

• Flows: Users can scale their support strategy with customizable and personalized automations, including interactive conversation scenarios, tailored guides, and recommendations. 
• Article recommendations: Gorgias software uses AI to deliver instant answers from your help centers and articles in response to customer questions. 
• Order management: You can streamline order-related inquiries by offering customer portals for real-time order status, refunds, cancellations, and issue reporting.

Cost: Gorgias AI Agent is a monthly add-on to its Basic, Pro, and Advanced plans. Pricing varies based on the monthly automated interactions your business creates. 

Campaign Monitor

Campaign Monitor is an email marketing automation platform that engages audiences to drive revenue growth.

It’s designed for businesses seeking to improve customer relationships and marketing efficiency through automated email communications. Campaign Monitor allows businesses to run targeted email marketing campaigns, streamlining the process of reaching customers with tailored messaging.

Key features:

• Targeted campaigns: Businesses using Campaign Monitor can send personalized offers like VIP specials and birthday greetings to cater to individual customer preferences and milestones.
• Automated customer engagement: Users can boost customer engagement by creating automations to welcome new customers with tailored offers or send timely reminders for special offers.
• Personalized recommendations: Campaign Monitor allows businesses to create offers based on past purchases to deliver a more personalized shopping experience.

Cost: Campaign Monitor has a Lite plan starting at $12 per month, an Essentials plan starting at $29 per month, and a Premier plan starting at $149 per month. Pricing rises with the number of contacts your business has. 

ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation software automates various marketing activities, from email sequences to contact engagement tracking. The platform integrates different aspects of a business’s digital presence, including email marketing, social media, and digital advertising, for customer experience management.

Key features:

• Comprehensive automation: Businesses can automate various tasks, including welcome email series, contact engagement tracking, and pulling information from various channels like social media and live chat.
• Data-driven segmentation: Segment contacts and personalize messages across marketing campaigns.
• Performance analytics: Users can analyze the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns using performance and custom reports to identify growth opportunities.

Cost: Active Campaign offers a 14-day free trial. The Starter plan starts at $15 per month, the Plus plan starts at $49 per month, and the Pro plan starts at $79 per month, all billed annually. Talk to sales about the Enterprise plan pricing. 

Drip

Drip offers an ecommerce marketing automation platform so you can run omnichannel marketing strategies on autopilot to streamline daily marketing tasks and free up time for strategic brand development. 

The platform’s visual workflow builder is designed for ease of use, allowing automation of marketing campaigns across email, onsite popups, and social media channels. Drip’s focus on user-friendly automation tools and integration capabilities makes it an efficient solution for businesses looking to enhance their marketing strategies with minimal manual intervention.

Key features:

• Workflow templates: Drip offers more than 20 workflow templates, simplifying the setup process and allowing for the migration of existing workflows, segments, and lists.
• Ecommerce integrations: Businesses can integrate with ecommerce data sources like Shopify, WooCommerce, and LoyaltyLion.
• Social retargeting: Users can also sync Facebook audiences with Drip segments, crafting channel-aligned marketing campaigns.

Cost: Drip offers a 14-day free trial. Pricing starts at $39 per month for up to 2,500 contacts. Contact a sales rep for pricing for more than 2,500 users. 

Marketing automation compliance in 2025

The United States

Marketing compliance changed a bit in 2025. The FCC originally postponed the one-to-one consent rule in January 2025, pending litigation. 

After the 11th Circuit vacated it, the FCC removed the rule on July 14, 2025. The rule would have stopped companies from using “blanket consent” and spamming consumers. You would have needed to provide your permission to each company individually before they could contact you. However, you still must honor opt-outs fast. The FCC requires requests to be met “as soon as practicable” and no later than 10 business days. 

Europe

Not much has changed in Europe. Under the EDPB’s GDPR consent guidelines, consent must be freely given (no coercion or bundling), specific (purpose-tied), informed (clear disclosures), and unambiguous (affirmative action, no pre-ticked boxes). Companies must be able to demonstrate consent, and make withdrawing that consent as easy as giving it.