In online shopping, it is common to sign up for an account. Often, an ecommerce Web site will send you an email welcoming you to the site. But it doesn’t always happen. And while it can seem annoying to have an inbox cluttered by welcome emails, I think it’s a good thing to send a “welcome” email. And not just because I had to register on 36 Web sites in order to get the 20 examples I provide here.

A “welcome” email confirms to the customer that s/he has, indeed, signed up. And for the ecommerce Web site, it can be a great marketing tool. After reading all of these registration emails, I can see how an etailer can get added value from sending the right kind of “welcome” email.

Examples of “welcome” emails

One of my favorite examples of a great “welcome” email is this registration email from Ace Hardware:

As you can see above, there are some opportunities for deep, personalized email linking. Here are some of the other good qualities for “welcome” emails:

• Search right from the email.
• Personalized with the customer’s name.
• Attractive picture with logo.
• Special promotion offer for ordering from the etailer.
• Link for another version if the customer can’t see links or images.
• Unsubscribe link, since often when you register you sign up for email newsletters and offers.
• Doesn’t include the password for security reasons.

Blue Nile also offers a special. You can refer a friend, and receive a discount. These kinds of offers in the “welcome” email can encourage wider ecommerce marketing efforts and help you spread your brand through word of mouth.

By far the most image-rich “welcome” email I received was from Altrec. Not only does this ecommerce Web site send a rather colorful registration message, it includes pictures of customer services representatives. This is really taking the customer service email linking to the next level. Indeed, it might even be verging on the superfluous.

One “welcome” email that I wasn’t overly fond of was this, from Abe Books. While email linking does appear (a ton of it!), the email is just too long. I had to give up reading it. And there are no images to help break up the text.

Here are some more examples of “welcome” emails. What do you like about them? Can you see any that could use serious improvement?

AE.com:

American Stationery:

Brooks Brothers:

CafePress:

Drugstore.com:

Home Depot:

J. Crew:

Lancome USA:

Moosejaw:

Netflix:

PacSun:

Shutterfly:

Skechers:

Sony Style:

Vivre:

Wal-Mart: