We're getting complaints about order confirmation emails. Should we make them opt-in?

Question

This is a weird issue. I think it has to do with user experience, but let me know if I should post it on another SE site.

One one hand, we have many customers who tell us they didn't receive their order confirmation e-mail. We ask them to check the Spam folder, and most of the time it's there, of course.

On the other hand, we have customers who specifically complain about our order confirmation emails. I know it because we use Amazon SES which always sends us a copy of complaints it receives.

Here's what the order confirmation looks like:

Of course the information has been edited out, but otherwise this is exactly what they receive: light text, to the point, no upsell, no marketing. It even has an unsubscribe link, although the email is transactional and therefore exempt.

I can't find anyone talking about an issue like this. But still, enough people complain about our emails for our sender reputation to be affected, and for me to be concerned about this

From the user experience standpoint, do you think making the order confirmation emails opt-in is a good idea? This way they will get an e-mail only if they specifically request it on the payment success page.

It sounds like it could work, but I have never heard or seen of anyone do this.

Answer 1

First of all does your brand has a voice? If it does, it is strongly recommended to visualize brand color inside an email to make it easily understandable for user that this is the brand that user has bought items from.

"A brand’s colors and design evoke emotions and a sense of relatability. Some brands, like Nike and Adidas, use templates with very little text in their email campaigns. The heart of effective marketing is color and design. Color accounts for between 62 and 90% of the impression your product creates." (Sauce)

Regarding order confirmation emails I'd suggest you adding a opt-in for user to choose whether to get confirmation email or not. It is worth mentioning the importance of email confirmations, as 64% of consumers believe purchase confirmations are the most valuable messages in their email inbox. This is why I'd recommend you that by default user should get an email confirmation. Just because OP isn't sure why exactly users are disappointed, I'd also recommend you looking into other methods of displaying order confirmation information. Maybe a good idea would be to allow user to download a PDF order confirmation?

EDIT: User @Devin made a good point by explaining the importance of order confirmation email through legal view. For example in Germany it is mandatory to provide client with electronic form of order confirmation. Before you stop sending order confirmation emails, I recommend you to check if you aren't disobeying the law in the country your business is in. Also the order confirmation as a contract binding works both ways. It means that sending an email with order confirmation provides both the client and the business with a written proof that all the things are in order.