Best Email Design Examples for Ecommerce Brands in 2023

Why is Email Design  So Important?

The fact remains that in nowadays fast-paced time, the amount of information we receive daily is enormous. If you combine that we have an 8-second attention span, it becomes evident that people rather skim or scroll than read. That is why it is important to make your email design straightforward, up-to-the-point, and visually compelling. It needs to grab the reader and, at the same time, provide the necessary information. An excellent email design will do just that: turn an ordinary skimming into the “intelligent” one, feeding the reader with the data and info essential for your eCommerce store.

But this isn’t where good email design stops. Some other benefits include:

• Promoting your brand identity

• Connecting your audience with the brand

• Having a wow effect and grabbing attention

• Creating a more profound impact and impression

• Attracting a new audience

Let’s see what the key elements are when we speak about email design.

How do I create a beautifully designed email?

1. Structure Your Email

Properly structuring your email is one of the most crucial things. You can have great content and compelling images, but if it isn’t laid out properly and doesn’t look neat, it will have no purpose. It will confuse the reader more. And you don’t want that, right?

When structuring your email, you should always have a header, central part, and footer in mind. 

Headers usually contain links to the website and menu and display your brand identity.

Footers usually show contact info, other helpful links, and social media icons. Bare in mind that you should also have an unsubscribe option. You don’t want your audience to feel “trapped” and not have an opt-out option.

When it comes to the central part, try to stick to a one-column layout. This layout is more device-friendly and easier to adapt to different screen sizes. It is crucial since the majority of people tend to use their mobile phones more often than laptops. A 600x600 px will do just fine if we talk about the size. 

As a general rule, combine the text and visuals to make it more interesting. You should also pay attention to white space. Your layout shouldn’t look cramped, but it also shouldn’t be too spacious. It greatly affects user experience. Balance is the key.

Although the elements mentioned above are essential, they aren’t enough to make a compelling email design. Let’s go through additional elements you should incorporate to make your emails stand out from the crowd.

2. Use Colors Wisely

Colors aren’t just there for decoration or to make your email more appealing. There is a whole layer of psychology behind each color. Therefore, each color you put in your email will trigger a specific emotional reaction. This makes colors an extremely powerful asset you need to use with caution if you don’t want to have a counter-effect.

Although it would be great if the colors in your email match your brand’s colors because they will enhance your brand identity, it doesn’t mean you can’t steer away from that color palette. 

If you are unsure or need inspiration, you can find many online platforms where you can see tons of different color combinations. You can also browse through subcategories such are Pastel, Neon, Gold, etc. 

However, if you want to create color combos yourself, you can use some online color palette generators  to come up with the best mix of colors. In addition, you can edit your color pick further by changing hue, brightness, saturation, etc.  You can even upload images you like and get the color combo on them.

The colors you’ll use will depend on your audience type, their age, the kind of message you want to get across, and even the season. Around holiday seasons, it is a good idea to have emails in the color of the season. 

Let’s just quickly go through some basic colors to see what meaning or a message hides behind them:

• Green brings tranquility and peacefulness

• Blue radiates trust

• Pink has a  gentle ring to it

• Yellow and orange have cheerfulness, energy, and brightness around them

• Red radiates passion, but be cautious with the red color because it can also come across as aggressive

Colors also play an important part when it comes to emphasizing some parts of your email and CTAs. By using contrast, you can make certain pieces of information more prominent. But as always with colors, just make sure you don’t overdo it and end up with an email that is hard to look at because it’s too colorful or too bright for the eyes. As a rule of thumb, you shouldn’t use more than 3 different colors. 

Here is an example of a good color combo:

You may have noticed that we haven’t mentioned the black color so far. Many eCommerce owners don’t feel comfortable using this color as the main one in their email design. However, the black color could fit perfectly if you think about the Black Friday or Halloween special offers or promotions. 

To highlight ( no pun intended) the story about colors, keep in mind the following:

• Keep it simple. Don’t overdo colors and too many different styles. The color combo you choose can be a deal-breaker

• Contrast colors wisely ( black font with brighter background and vice versa). 

• Grab attention with colors by emphasizing some aspects of your design. Think about those elements in advance so you don’t divert your audience from what really matters.

• Don’t pick your favorite colors. You need to choose the colors that will serve the purpose of your email. It’s great if it matches your personal taste, but don’t push it at any cost.

As you can see, picking and choosing the right color isn’t as easy as you think. Arguably, it might be the trickiest part of the design process. Strange or eye-hurting color combos could affect user experience, but the tips above should set you on the right course.

Moving to another vital element.

3. Balance Content and Images 

We’ve already mentioned how important it is to get the right balance between images and text. These two go hand-in-hand and complement each other.

Regarding content, here are a few practical tips:

• Break longer pieces of text into smaller blocks. It will make your email smoother to read.

• Use consistent alignment. Most commonly, you will center the headings and align the text left

• Use legible fonts instead of the highly decorative ones and avoid using more than two fonts.

• Use the right font size.  A standard norm is that body has a 14-16px size, while headings can have around 20-30px.

• Use the right space between lines (1.5 times bigger than the font size)

• Use an inverted pyramid model which is simple yet effective. If this term is new to you, it means that you should start first with the most relevant details or information and then gradually move to the less important ones.

Images play an equally important part in email design as content does. Whether we talk about images, icons, animations, or even emojis, they are all there to make the user experience flow smoother. In addition, they bring an element of playfulness and fun. As if that isn’t enough, they also provide a break from the text and keep the reading pace more dynamic. 

When choosing the visuals, you should consider the following:

• Create a balance between the text and visuals

• Support your content with visuals. Use them to emphasize your message, offer, special promotion, etc.

• Use high-quality images with high resolution that display well on all devices

• If possible, add a dash of personality by creating customized images

The most important thing to have in mind is that it isn’t only about the text or images but the way you would combine them to enhance your point. 

Now that we’ve covered the most critical elements of a good email design let’s check what trends are currently prevalent.

4. Use Animated Elements

Animated elements aren’t obligatory but will give a layer of playfulness and make your email designs more appealing and interactive. Here are the most common ones:

1. GIFs

Animated elements like GIFs make your email design more dynamic and less passive. They have become trendy in recent years because they make a statement, engage your audience and grab their attention in a very simple way.

2. Timers

The popularity of timers in email design is growing rapidly. This option especially caught on in emails about limited sales or other special offers. They are more powerful than the text due to the countdown mechanism that gives it an almost competitive edge: “ Do it faster than the others.”

3. Scratch and Flip Effects

If we speak of dynamics and playfulness, there is no way we can skip scratch fields. This is excellent for promoting discounts, special gifts or rewards, or hidden information. 

When it comes to flipping effects, they are primarily used for CTA or products. It is best to combine the graphics and text.

4. Hover Effects

If you run an eCommerce store, you know about a hovering feature for sure. But has it ever crossed your mind you can use it in emails when you present a new product in your store? It is a great way for your audience to zoom in on a product and get a better picture.

However, we have to say that apart from GIFs, other animated elements that we mentioned, hovering included, do require coding knowledge, so although they are a great asset, they might not be the best option if you have no coding skills.

Luckily for you, some platforms help you create email designs without any coding skills. They offer you various templates and designs that you can easily customize according to your needs. So not only do you not need any coding skills, but you don’t need to have any prior design knowledge as well. Glorify is one such platform. 

5. Let’s Glorify Your Email Designs

Well thought-through email designs are more than just a visually appealing element. They are a helping hand in advocating your brand and spreading the word about it. They should align with your brand, resonate with your audience, provide them great user experience and help you build and maintain a loyal relationship with your audience.

That is why creating email designs is such a priority. Thanks to Glorify, you don’t need to spend weeks creating them. For example,  our Brand Kit tool helps you centralize all your branding assets and stay consistent.  Using features such as Brand It and Brand Logosyou can create designs that will always have your brand's colors. You won’t need to go through the same process every time.

Our Template Bundles are also there to help you stay consistent across all the platforms, so you can perfectly reflect your style and brand voice by using one bundle per campaign, and customising them with your colors and content. As you can see, when you choose a template bundle, you immediately get images in the perfect ratio and size for each platform you use.

Of course, there is much more to Glorify than this. So why not start your free trial now to see how effortless it is to create email designs that are a game-changer for your eCommerce store? Find your unique voice, keep it simple and clear, and get those creative juices flowing for optimal results.