Staring at a blank newsletter template is one of the most common reasons email campaigns get delayed. Looking at real newsletters that already work is usually faster than trying to design one from scratch. This guide breaks down some of the best email newsletter examples out there, including several ecommerce newsletter examples, grouped by the job each one is doing, so you can borrow the parts that fit your own list.
Quick answer: The best email newsletter examples do three things well: one clear goal per email, a subject line that matches the content, and a single obvious call to action. Most of the 14 examples below are real Shopify- or WooCommerce-style stores, not tech giants, so the tactics are things you can copy directly.
Welcome Newsletters That Turn New Subscribers Into Customers
A welcome email usually gets the highest open rate of any message you’ll ever send a subscriber. That makes it the wrong place to lead with a generic “thanks for signing up” line, and it’s why a strong welcome newsletter example is worth studying closely before you write your own.
1. Glossier keeps its welcome email short and visual. Instead of listing product categories, it introduces the brand’s voice first: friendly, casual, a little bit like a text from a friend. The call to action is a single button, not five competing links.
2. Away uses its welcome email to tell a short brand story about why the company exists, then follows with one clear offer. The email reads more like a note than a sales pitch, which is part of why it works.
Both of these are direct-to-consumer stores, the same kind of business running on Shopify or WooCommerce, not enterprise brands with a design team of fifty. What to borrow for your own list:
- Lead with one idea, not a full product catalog
- Use a single primary call to action button
- Match the tone of your website, not a generic template voice
- Send it within minutes of signup, not hours later
Promotional Newsletters That Sell Without Feeling Pushy
Promotional emails are necessary, but the ones that perform best rarely look like a plain discount announcement.
3. Old Navy is a good newsletter example for humor done right. Its promotional emails use playful subject lines and casual copy, but the product photography and CTA are still clear and easy to find. The humor pulls readers in without burying the offer.
4. The North Face curates its promotional emails around a theme, like a gear guide or a seasonal edit, instead of just listing discounted items. This makes the email feel like editorial content that happens to be shoppable, not an ad.
Both are ecommerce stores you can study directly. A theme-based promo like this is easy to build in Shopify or WooCommerce by grouping a handful of existing products around one idea, no new inventory required. If you want a deeper walkthrough on writing lines that actually get opened, see our guide on how to write the best subject lines for email marketing. A few patterns worth copying:
- Frame the offer around a theme or use case, not just a percentage off
- Keep one dominant CTA above the fold
- Use real product photos instead of stock imagery
- Write subject lines that describe a benefit, not just “SALE”
Curated Content Newsletters That Keep Readers Opening Every Week
Not every newsletter needs to sell something in every send. Some of the best newsletter examples build long-term trust by being genuinely useful first.
5. Morning Brew built its entire audience around a conversational tone and tight scannable format. Each story is short, uses bullet points, and gets straight to the point. Readers open it because it respects their time, not because of any single promotion.
6. TheSkimm follows a similar structure: bolded headlines, short summaries, and a consistent daily format readers can recognize instantly. Consistency in structure is doing a lot of the work here, not flashy design.
Neither of these is a store, but the format is the part worth copying. If your Shopify or WooCommerce store sends a regular tips or content newsletter, the lesson is the same: pick a format and stick to it so subscribers know what to expect every time it lands.
Product Launch Newsletters That Build Real Anticipation
Launch emails need to do two things at once: create excitement and make the next step obvious.
7. Warby Parker is a strong newsletter example for restraint. Its launch emails use large product imagery, minimal copy, and one clear link to shop the new frames. There’s no clutter competing for attention, and the whole thing is built with the same kind of layout most Shopify stores already use.
8. Crocs takes a slightly different approach, pairing new product launches (its famous limited-edition collaborations) with a strong sense of anticipation and scarcity. This gives the reader a reason to act fast, not just admire the product.
For a Shopify or WooCommerce store, a simple version of this works too: one hero image of the new product, one sentence on why it exists, and one button to shop it. This is one of the easiest ecommerce newsletter examples to recreate because it needs a product photo and a launch date, not a full campaign. If you’re specifically on Shopify, our Shopify email marketing guide covers platform-specific setup in more depth.
Win-Back Newsletters That Re-Engage Quiet Subscribers
Every list has subscribers who stopped opening emails months ago. A good win-back newsletter earns attention back instead of demanding it.
9. Dollar Shave Club is one of the more recognizable newsletter examples for re-engagement because of its playful, slightly self-aware tone. The brand leans into humor about being ignored, which gets a reaction where a plain “we miss you” line would not, and it’s still a subscription ecommerce store doing this at real scale.
10. Chewy takes a warmer approach, often referencing the subscriber’s own pet or past purchase to make the re-engagement email feel personal rather than automated.
Both are ecommerce stores, not apps or media brands, so the lesson translates directly: a win-back email works better when it feels specific to the reader, not copy-pasted to the whole inactive segment. For more on keeping subscribers engaged long after the first purchase, see our guide to customer retention email strategies.
Brand Storytelling Newsletters That Build Loyalty
Some newsletters aren’t trying to sell anything in the moment. They’re building a relationship that pays off over months, not one email.
11. Patagonia regularly sends newsletters centered on environmental causes and company values rather than products. This consistency is part of why its audience stays loyal even when an email isn’t selling anything.
12. The Body Shop built its brand on ethical sourcing and cruelty-free values, and its newsletters lead with that mission and the impact behind it before ever mentioning a product. The ask comes later in the email, not at the top.
Both are ecommerce stores selling physical products, so this style isn’t right for every brand, but for a Shopify or WooCommerce store with a strong mission or point of view, a newsletter built around story instead of product can be one of the best email newsletter examples to model.
Personalized Newsletters That Use Data the Right Way
Personalization done well feels helpful. Done poorly, it feels like a mail merge with someone’s first name inserted.
13. Stitch Fix builds its emails entirely around the individual subscriber’s past picks and style preferences, so no two customers see the same email. There’s no generic messaging competing with the personal data.
14. Sephora uses its Beauty Insider program to send personalized recommendations and point balances built from each shopper’s real purchase history, which keeps open rates high because every email is genuinely different for every recipient.
For a Shopify or WooCommerce store, a simpler version might be a monthly recap of a customer’s past purchases, loyalty points, or recommended restocks, built from real account data instead of guesswork. This kind of personalization starts with good email list segmentation, not a bigger budget.
What the Best Email Newsletter Examples Have in Common
Looking across these good newsletter examples, a few patterns repeat no matter the industry.
| Element | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| One clear goal per email | Readers scan fast; competing goals reduce clicks on all of them |
| Subject line matches content | Mismatched subject lines increase unsubscribes and spam complaints |
| Single primary CTA | One obvious next step outperforms several smaller ones |
| Mobile-first layout | Most opens happen on a phone, so design should start there |
| Consistent sending cadence | Readers open familiar formats more reliably than one-off designs |
None of these require a large design team. They require a clear decision about what each newsletter is supposed to do before you start writing it.
This isn’t just a design preference either. Triggered, personalized emails like welcome series, win-back sends, and purchase-based recommendations consistently outperform one-off generic blasts, because they arrive at a moment the reader actually cares about. The structural habits above aren’t just cleaner, they hold up in practice. Once you’ve picked a pattern to copy, our guide on creating custom email templates for your campaigns walks through building it step by step.
How to Turn a Blog Post Into a Newsletter Without Starting From Scratch
Most of the curated content newsletter examples above, like Morning Brew and TheSkimm, work because they run on a consistent format sent out on a consistent schedule. The hard part for a smaller ecommerce store is keeping that pace up when every newsletter has to be written from a blank page.
There’s usually a shortcut sitting right on your own site. If your store already publishes blog posts on WordPress or Shopify, that content doesn’t need to be rewritten to become a newsletter. Adflipr’s email builder can pull those existing posts in directly, so a blog post you already published can be dropped into an email template and sent, instead of starting a new draft every time.
This matters most for two of the newsletter types covered earlier:
- Curated content newsletters: if you already write buying guides, how-tos, or product roundups for your blog, that’s newsletter content you’ve already paid for once, not new work.
- Product launch newsletters: a launch announcement blog post can become the launch email itself, so the story and the images only have to be created a single time.
The practical benefit is consistency. A store that can turn existing posts into newsletters in a few minutes is far more likely to actually hit a weekly or biweekly send schedule than one where every newsletter is written from zero.
Key Takeaways
- Welcome newsletters perform best when they lead with brand voice and one clear action, not a full catalog
- Promotional newsletters work better when framed around a theme instead of a discount alone
- Curated content newsletters build trust through a consistent, scannable format readers recognize
- Product launch newsletters should pair strong imagery with a single, obvious next step
- Win-back newsletters get better results when they feel personal to the subscriber, not generic
- Storytelling newsletters build long-term loyalty by leading with values instead of a sales ask
- Personalized newsletters perform best when the content is built from real subscriber data
- The best email newsletter examples across every category share one goal, one CTA, and a mobile-first layout
- Existing WordPress or Shopify blog posts can be pulled directly into a newsletter template instead of written from scratch
Final Thoughts
You don’t need to copy any of these newsletter examples exactly. Pick the two or three patterns that fit your brand and your list, and apply them consistently instead of redesigning your newsletter every month. If you’re building or rebuilding your own templates, Adflipr’s drag-and-drop email builder makes it easy to test different layouts without touching code, pull in your existing blog posts, and reuse a working structure from the template library instead of starting from a blank page.
FAQs
A good newsletter example has one clear goal, a subject line that matches the content, a single call to action, and a layout that works well on mobile.
Most ecommerce stores send weekly or biweekly newsletters. Consistency matters more than frequency, so pick a cadence you can maintain long term.
No. Many good newsletter examples build loyalty through content or storytelling and only send discounts occasionally, which keeps offers feeling special.
Most effective newsletters stay short, often under 300 words of body copy, with clear headings and one main call to action.
Start simple: use the subscriber’s name, past purchase history, or loyalty status. Even basic segmentation improves relevance compared to a single email sent to everyone.
Humor helps a brand stand out in a crowded inbox and can re-engage inactive subscribers without relying on price cuts, which protects margins over time.
A promotional email usually focuses on a single offer. A newsletter often mixes content, updates, and occasional promotions in one recurring, recognizable format.
Yes. Adflipr’s email builder can pull blog posts from WordPress or Shopify into a template, so you can send published content as an email without rewriting it.
