Discovery Commerce in the Inbox

There are tons of tips & tricks on creating intriguing subject lines:

• Personalizing with names
• Incorporating emojis
• Starting with ‘Re:’ or ‘Fw:’
• Creating urgency
  . . .

I recently came across a rather refreshing subject line that didn’t use any of the typical smart tricks. The email is from Wayfair and it’s about cornhole sets. And surprise, surprise, the subject line is ‘Cornhole Sets’.

No need to solve the mystery behind the ‘make your summer days better’ type of subject line. It simply tells you what the email is about, and very directly, per the definition of a subject line.

This could be a very effective way of incorporating ‘discovery commerce’ in email marketing.

Instead of the traditional product recommendations based on what people have already bought or have shown interest in, companies can use these emails to help customers discover products they don’t know they need or want — like an IG feed in their inbox.

With a simple product-name subject line, people can quickly self select them into opening the email if they are interested in the product.