Welcome Email Sequence for Online Stores: Day 0, 2 and 5

A first-time buyer arrives from an ad, pays, gets the parcel, and disappears. Nobody talks to them after the receipt, and six months later the owner wonders why ad costs keep climbing. We see this at almost every small online store that comes to us.

Today, September 27, is Hari Bakti Postel, Indonesia’s post and telecoms day. The post office used to carry a shop’s thank-you note to its customers; that job now belongs to the inbox, and most stores only send the invoice.

Below is a three-email welcome email sequence that goes out automatically to every new buyer on day 0, day 2 and day 5. Copy the templates, set them up in one afternoon, and leave them running.

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Quick Summary

• Three emails, one job each. Day 0 reassures, day 2 helps them use the product, day 5 invites a second order.
• Total setup is about 3–3.5 hours (closer to 4 if you still need a domain), once. After that, upkeep is about 3 minutes a day to import new buyers, or zero if your store connects straight to the email tool.
• A free tool is enough. MailerLite and Brevo both include sequential automations on their free plans.
• You need your own domain for the sender address. MailerLite won’t accept an @gmail.com sender,¹ and on Brevo, an @gmail.com sender can’t be authenticated and gets rewritten to an @brevosend.com address, which looks less trustworthy to buyers.²
• Ask for permission at checkout. One unticked checkbox, with a line explaining what they’ll get, gives you explicit consent, the clearest lawful basis under Article 20(2)(a) of the PDP Law, and a list of people who actually want to hear from you.³

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Why a 3-Email Welcome Sequence Beats One Big Email

One welcome email that tries to do everything (thanks, how-to, discount, follow us on Instagram) almost always fails. The buyer spots the word “discount” and files it as another promo.

Splitting it into three gives each email its own reason to be opened. The order follows what the buyer is actually thinking:

Day	What’s on the buyer’s mind	The email’s job
0 (minutes after paying)	“Is this a real shop? Is my order safe?”	Reassure, introduce the person behind the store
2 (around delivery)	“How do I use this so it turns out right?”	Help, and prevent disappointment from misuse
5 (product in use)	“Not bad. What else do they have?”	Ask for feedback, then open the door to a second order

The day 2 timing assumes 1–3 day delivery, which is normal within Java. If half your buyers are in Sumatra, Kalimantan or eastern Indonesia on regular shipping, the how-to email will arrive before the parcel does, so use day 0, 4 and 8 (the reasoning behind message spacing is in our piece on follow-up timing).

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3 Welcome Email Templates to Copy

Template 1: Day 0, Sent Right After the Order

This email doesn’t replace the order confirmation or invoice your store system sends. It goes out separately, 10–30 minutes later, and reads like a person wrote it.

Subject line options:

1. Who's packing your order, [Name]?
2. Thanks for choosing [Store Name]
3. A note from [Owner Name], owner of [Store Name]

Option three usually feels the most personal. Only use it if you’re comfortable with your name on it and you’ll actually answer replies.

Hi [Name],

I'm [Owner Name], and I run [Store Name]. Thanks for ordering
[Product Name]. Your order's in and will be packed
within one working day.

Packing your order: [staff/owner name], who [small detail,
e.g. "weighs every bag twice"].

So you don't have to guess:

- We ship with [courier]. We'll send your tracking number by
  [email / WhatsApp] by [time/day].
- Expected delivery: [2–3 working days in Java, 4–7 days elsewhere].
- Something wrong with the order? Reply to this email or message us
  on WhatsApp at [number]. You'll get me or [staff name], not a bot.

One small thing: [a short tip before the product arrives, e.g.
"have an airtight jar ready for the beans"].

Best,
[Owner Name]
[Store Name]

Time to adapt this template: about 20 minutes.

What’s deliberately missing: discounts, other products, “follow us” links. This email only needs to confirm the order is in safe hands.

Template 2: Day 2, Timed for Delivery

This is the email owners skip most, even though it’s the cheapest to write. Most of the complaints and three-star reviews we read trace back to misuse. Coffee brewed with boiling water, serum applied after moisturizer, leather shoes scrubbed with dish soap.

Subject line options:

1. Before you open the box, read this
2. 3 things to know before you use your [Product Name]
3. The mistake we see most with [product category]

Hi [Name],

If the courier's on schedule, your parcel lands in the next day or
two, if it hasn't already. Before you use it, here are three things we've learned
from [number] customers before you:

1. [The most important tip, one concrete sentence]
2. [The most common mistake and how to avoid it]
3. [How to store or care for it so it lasts]

If you'd rather watch, there's a short video here:
[link to video or guide page]

If the result isn't what you expected, don't write it off yet.
Reply with a photo or a quick description and we'll help figure
out what happened.

Best,
[Owner Name]

Time to write: 30–45 minutes. Your WhatsApp chats are the best source of tips: scroll back through the last week, find the questions that keep coming up, and turn those into this email.

Only fill in [number] with a true figure. If your store is new, delete that part.

Template 3: Day 5, Ask First, Then Offer

The third email is where you’re allowed to sell, in this order: ask first, offer second.

Subject line options:

1. How's the [Product Name], [Name]?
2. One quick question from [Store Name]
3. For your next order (valid 7 days)

Option three is more direct. Use it for short-cycle consumables (coffee, food, skincare). For durable products like bags or furniture, the first two fit better.

Hi [Name],

You've probably been using your [Product Name] for a few days now.
I'm curious: how's it going?

Just hit reply with one sentence. I read every reply myself.
[Delete the next sentence if it isn't true yet:] A few of our
current products exist because a customer asked.

If you're enjoying it, here's something for next time:
code [CODE] for [Rp... off / free shipping],
[pick one: "valid for 7 days from this email" /
"valid until the end of this month"].

Order again here: [store/product link]

Thanks for giving [Store Name] a try.
[Owner Name]

P.S. Prefer to order by chat? WhatsApp [number].

[MailerLite/Brevo's automatic unsubscribe footer appears here]

Time to write: about 20 minutes. Decide the incentive before you write, and check your margin still holds after the discount.

An automation sends the same text to everyone, so the code is the same for everyone too, unless your store integration can generate unique codes. Pick the validity line to match the code. Unique per-buyer codes (possible on Shopify or WooCommerce if your integration supports them): keep “valid for 7 days”. One shared code rotated monthly: use “valid until the end of this month”, and drop “(valid 7 days)” from subject option three. For WhatsApp orders on a 7-day code, check the date of the customer’s email when they redeem. A “valid 7 days” code that still works next month teaches customers to ignore your deadlines. The fuller playbook is in our repeat order strategy guide.

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The Send Times We Start With

There’s no magic send time that works for every store. These are the starting times we use with clients, adjusted after a month of open data.

Email	When	Time (WIB, Jakarta)	Note
Day 0	10–30 minutes after the order	Any time	Don’t hold it until the next morning
Day 2	2 days after the order	09:00	People check their phones before work
Day 5	5 days after the order	19:00	Relaxed evening, more likely to reply and browse

Orders placed before about 8:45 a.m. get emails two and three a day early; that’s fine. MailerLite automations use your account time zone, so set it to (GMT+07:00) Jakarta under Account settings, then check the send time on your first test email.

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How to Set Up the Welcome Email Sequence in a Free Tool (Once, Then It Runs Every Week)

We’ll use MailerLite as the example because its interface is the friendliest for first-timers. Brevo has equivalent features (see the end of Step 3).

Step 1: Set up a sender address on your own domain (30–45 minutes)

Create an address like hello@yourstore.com. In MailerLite, verify the domain under Account settings → Domains, then add the DNS records they give you (SPF and DKIM) in your domain panel.¹ A free subdomain like yourstore.myshopify.com won’t work, so buy a .com or .id domain first (about 10 minutes).

You’re only pasting two or three lines of text into a panel. If you’ve never opened yours, ask whoever built your website; it’s a 15-minute job for them.

Why it’s mandatory: MailerLite rejects @gmail.com senders, and Gmail and Yahoo now require domain authentication from every sender.¹⁴⁵

Step 2: Create a “New Buyers” group (5 minutes)

Under Subscribers → Groups, create a group called New Buyers. Anyone added to this group gets the three emails automatically.

Step 3: Build the MailerLite automation (45–60 minutes)

Go to Automation → Create workflow, then:

1. Choose the trigger When subscriber joins a group and select New Buyers.
2. Add a Delay step: 15 minutes.
3. Add an Email step: paste Template 1.
4. Add a Delay: 1 day.
5. Add another Delay: wait until a specific time of day, 09:00.
6. Add an Email: paste Template 2.
7. Add a Delay: 3 days.
8. Add another Delay: wait until a specific time of day, 19:00.
9. Add an Email: paste Template 3.
10. Send a test to yourself, check how it looks on your phone and the send time, then activate.

The time-of-day delay always waits for the next 09:00 (or 19:00). For email 2 that makes the day delay one shorter than you’d expect: the buyer reaches the wait step on day 1, after 09:00, so it sends at 09:00 on day 2. For email 3 the buyer reaches the wait step at 09:00 on day 5, before 19:00, so it sends the same day at 19:00.¹

In Brevo the flow is similar under Automations → Workflows, using the trigger for a contact being added to a list.⁶ If you use the manual import route in Step 4, test it with one contact first to confirm imported contacts actually enter the automation.

Step 4: Get buyers into the group (15 minutes once, or 3 minutes every evening)

There are two routes, depending on how you sell:

• Shopify or WooCommerce: install MailerLite’s official integration. Buyers who tick the consent box at checkout land in the group automatically, and you do nothing after that.
• Orders come through WhatsApp, Google Forms or a spreadsheet: every evening before you close, import that day’s buyers (only those who agreed to be contacted) into New Buyers, about 3 minutes. Make sure the option to trigger automations is on during import. The daily import matters because Template 2 says the parcel lands in the next day or two. If you’d rather not import by hand, connect Google Sheets to MailerLite through Zapier or Make so buyers go in the same day.

One limitation: Shopee and Tokopedia buyers can’t enter this flow, because marketplaces don’t share buyer emails. The workaround is a small card in the parcel with a QR code to a sign-up form (“scan for the full usage guide”). Keep the card about the usage guide only; no off-platform ordering prompts, WhatsApp numbers or website discount codes, since Shopee and Tokopedia penalize sellers who steer buyers off-platform. In our experience only a small share scan, so treat it as a bonus, not your main channel.

Step 5: Add the consent checkbox (10 minutes)

Add a checkbox at checkout or on your form: “Send me usage guides and product news from [Store Name] by email.” Under Article 20(2)(a) of Indonesia’s PDP Law, explicit consent is the safest lawful basis for marketing email. Don’t pre-tick the box, and keep a record of who agreed and when (Article 22 requires consent to be written or recorded).³ Don’t remove the unsubscribe link MailerLite and Brevo add to every email automatically.

Of the roughly 3–3.5 hours, about 40% goes to writing; the rest is domain verification and building the automation, which you only do once.

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Worked Example: A Coffee Bean Shop in Bandung

These numbers are an illustration of a pattern we see often. Say there’s Kopi Rumah Dago, a small cafe in Bandung that also sells roasted beans through its website. The average order is Rp95,000 (250 grams). Each month about 120 new buyers come through the site, from Instagram ads and Google search.

Say 90 of the 120 tick the consent box. Before the welcome emails, 15 of those 90 (about 17%) order again within 60 days.

The three emails are adapted like this:

• Day 0: an introduction from the owner, the roasting and shipping schedule, the cafe’s WhatsApp number.
• Day 2: brew ratios for V60 and tubruk, water at 90–94°C, storage in an airtight jar.
• Day 5: “How’s the coffee?” plus a free-shipping code for the second order, valid 7 days.

Now say repeat buyers in that group go from 15 to 24. The math:

Item	Figure
Extra orders	9 orders x Rp95,000 = Rp855,000 extra revenue
Gross margin on beans, about 50%	Rp427,500
Shipping subsidy on the 9 extra orders	Rp15,000 x 9 = Rp135,000
Extra gross profit	about Rp290,000 a month

That’s before counting buyers who would have come back anyway and use the code too. If half of those 15 (about 8) do, the subsidy grows by Rp120,000 and the extra gross profit drops to about Rp170,000 a month.

Small, and that’s honestly what month one looks like. The value is in what comes after: a second-time buyer is more likely to become a third-time buyer, with no ad spend to win them back. How to put a number on that is covered in our pillar guide on customer retention and lifetime value.

One bonus that isn’t in the table: the day 5 email draws replies, and some of them ask for products you don’t sell yet.

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When This Pattern Won’t Work

• Almost all your sales go through marketplaces. You don’t have buyer emails. Put your energy into WhatsApp follow-ups first; the setup is in our guide to WhatsApp Business as a CRM.
• Your product is bought once in a lifetime (a wedding ring or a mattress). Swap the day 5 email for a request to leave a review or refer a friend.

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How Eranya Digital Can Help

You can set up these three emails yourself in an afternoon, and we’d suggest trying it yourself first. If what stops you is the technical side (domain verification, connecting your website checkout to the email tool, a consent form that fits the PDP Law), that’s work we routinely tidy up for clients as part of building their website. You keep ownership of the email content and the tool account.

If you want to know whether your checkout page is collecting emails properly, book a 30-minute call with our team. That’s usually enough to see what’s missing.

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References

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Footnotes

1. MailerLite Help Center. How to use automation steps (delay options, including waiting until a specific time of day), Automation triggers (the “joins a group” trigger), Domain authentication (sender domain verification) and The limitations of using a free domain (free email domains can’t be authenticated or used as senders). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Brevo Help Center. Why you need to replace your free email address with a professional one. Free email domains can’t be authenticated, and Brevo replaces an unauthenticated sending domain with @brevosend.com. ↩

3. Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 27 of 2022 on Personal Data Protection. peraturan.bpk.go.id/Details/229798/uu-no-27-tahun-2022. Article 20(2) on lawful bases for processing personal data, point (a): explicit, valid consent, and point (b): performance of a contract. Article 22: consent must be written or recorded and clearly distinguishable. ↩ ↩²

4. Google Workspace Admin Help. Email sender guidelines. support.google.com/a/answer/81126. SPF or DKIM for all senders to Gmail, plus DMARC and one-click unsubscribe for senders of more than 5,000 messages a day. ↩

5. Yahoo Sender Hub. Sender Best Practices. senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices. Domain authentication requirements for senders to Yahoo Mail. ↩

6. Brevo Help Center. Use a trigger to start an automation. The Automations → Workflows menu and the list of triggers, including a contact being added to a list. ↩