Keeping your customers informed at each stage of the delivery process is a good way to keep them happy. An online shopper expects to get notifications from ecommerce vendors when their order is confirmed and shipped. The majority of ecommerce merchants send order confirmation and order shipping emails to their customers. But if you are a mid-sized or a large ecommerce business, then adding structured data markup will improve such emails for your customers. Read on to find out how you can start using Google’s email markup for your ecommerce emails.

First, you need to understand what “email markup” is. It is a structured data format which can enhance how certain types of emails are displayed in user’s inboxes and on their mobile devices. Email messages that use this format show additional details when viewed in your customer’s Google applications such as Inbox and Calendar. When it comes to ecommerce emails, your order confirmation, as well as shipping notices, might get special treatment in your customer’s email inbox. Doing this will go a long way in improving your customer’s overall experience.

How to use Google’s email markup for order confirmation:

Your developer can add email markup to HTML email messages in a similar way to adding structured data to your website. Your developer will know that he needs to use either microdata or JSON for Linking Data (JSON-LD) for short. Email markup uses similar formats as well. Your developer just needs to add the email markup to the head part of an HTML email message.

Email markup also supports optional properties which can be inserted in order confirmation emails. For instance, it is possible to include detailed billing information and highlight important dates. A customer’s shopping experience can be improved using these optional properties. As an example, a customer with an Android phone can ask “Google Now” to list all purchases from a particular retailer. He can then get an order confirmation list in a way similar to search engine results.

Email markup in the case of shipping notifications:

You can get your developer to include email markup in shipping notifications too. He just has to add microdata for JSON-LD to the HTML email. It is possible to include the carrier company’s tracking number and tracking URL link in the shipping notification email. This then will create a “track package” link in your customer’s Google inbox or Gmail.

Will all your customers see these improved messages?

Not all customers will be able to enjoy the benefit of email markup. It works best with Google’s own devices and applications. Some example apps include Gmail, Google Now and Google Answers. However, the customers using Google Inbox benefit most from you including email markup in emails sent to them.

Get started with using Google’s email markup for ecommerce emails. Even if not all your customers will benefit, the ones who do will get a better overall experience of buying from you.