Email Template Design for E-Commerce: Mobile-First, Product-First, Revenue-First

Over 70% of your subscribers open emails on their phone. They're scrolling with their thumb, glancing at your email for a few seconds between messages and social feeds. If your email template isn't built for that reality, you're losing clicks and revenue on every single send.

This isn't about making emails "look nice on mobile." It's about designing for the way people actually interact with email in 2025 — and structuring templates so they convert instead of just get opened.

The Mobile-First Mandate

Mobile-first doesn't mean "desktop template that shrinks." It means you design for the small screen first, then let it expand gracefully on desktop.

The practical implications:

Single-column layout. Multi-column designs break on mobile or require horizontal scrolling. One column, full width, stacked sections. This is the only layout that works reliably across every email client.

Minimum 44px tap targets. Buttons and links need to be large enough for a thumb to tap accurately. Apple's Human Interface Guidelines recommend 44x44 points as the minimum touch target. If your CTA button is smaller than this, mobile users will miss it or hit the wrong element.

Font size: 16px minimum for body text. Anything smaller forces mobile users to pinch-to-zoom, which breaks the reading experience. Subject lines and headlines can be larger, but body text should never go below 16px.

Image width: 600px max. This is the standard email width that renders properly across clients. Larger images force loading times that mobile networks struggle with. Compress images to under 200KB per email.

The Product-First Design Principle

We learned this from one specific campaign failure. A beautifully designed email with a lifestyle hero image — a couple in bed, ambient lighting, mood-driven — sent to 20,000 subscribers. Open rate: 50%. Orders: zero.

The problem wasn't the audience. It was that they couldn't see the product.

When we redesigned with the product above the fold, large and clear, the same audience generated revenue within a week.

The rule is now non-negotiable in every template we build: the product is the hero. Not the logo. Not the lifestyle photo. Not the brand story. The product.

This means:

Above the fold: Product image should be visible without scrolling on mobile. This is roughly the first 400-500 pixels of the email.

Clear product photography: White or simple background, well-lit, showing the product as it actually looks. Lifestyle imagery works as a secondary element further down the email, but the hero should remove any ambiguity about what you're selling.

Price visible near the product. If the subscriber has to scroll to find the price, you've introduced unnecessary friction. Product name, price, and CTA should all be visible in the same viewport.

The CTA Architecture

Call-to-action buttons are where revenue happens. Every click that doesn't happen is a potential sale that didn't happen.

Primary CTA: above the fold. The first CTA should be visible without scrolling on mobile. Use a button (not a text link) with high contrast against the email background. We use bold, brand-colored buttons that are impossible to miss.

Button text: action-oriented and specific. "Shop Now" works but it's generic. "Get Yours Before They're Gone" adds urgency. "See the Collection" creates curiosity. Test different CTA text — it's one of the highest-impact variables after subject line.

Repeat the CTA. For longer emails, include a second CTA button after the next content section. Mobile scrollers who make it past the fold need another opportunity to click without scrolling back up.

Button size: Minimum 48px height, full-width or near full-width on mobile. The bigger and more prominent, the better. This isn't the place for subtlety.

The Modular Template System

Building every email from scratch is unsustainable. The solution is a modular template system — a library of pre-built sections that you mix and match for each send.

The core modules every Shopify brand needs:

Hero Module: Product image + headline + CTA. This leads every promotional email.

Product Grid Module: 2-3 products in a row (stacked on mobile) with images, names, prices, and individual CTAs. Used for collection features, cross-sells, and new arrivals.

Social Proof Module: Star ratings, review count, customer quote. Drops in below the hero or product grid to build confidence.

Content Module: Text-heavy section for storytelling, brand narrative, or educational content. Used in the relationship-building 15% of campaigns.

Urgency Module: Countdown timer, limited stock indicator, or deadline text. Plugs into any email when time-sensitivity applies.

Footer Module: Unsubscribe link, physical address, social links. Compliance-required, consistent across all sends.

With these 6 modules, you can build any email by arranging them in different orders. A product launch email: Hero > Social Proof > Product Grid > Urgency > Footer. A content email: Content > Product Grid > Social Proof > Footer.

The consistency also helps brand recognition. When subscribers see a familiar layout, they know immediately who it's from and how to navigate it.

Dark Mode Compatibility

Approximately 30-40% of email users have dark mode enabled. If your template doesn't account for this, your emails can look broken — black text on dark backgrounds, invisible images with white backgrounds, buttons that disappear.

The fixes:

• Use transparent PNG images for logos and icons, or add padding so they don't blend into dark backgrounds
• Don't use images with important text embedded — use live text instead
• Test every template in dark mode before sending (Klaviyo's preview tool supports this, or use Litmus/Email on Acid)
• Avoid pure white (#FFFFFF) backgrounds in sections — use off-white (#F5F5F5 or similar) which handles dark mode inversion better

Email Client Testing

Your email will render differently in Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, Yahoo, and every other client. What looks perfect in your browser preview might be broken in Outlook (which infamously uses Microsoft Word's rendering engine).

Minimum testing checklist before any send:

• Gmail (web and mobile app)
• Apple Mail (iPhone and Mac)
• Outlook (desktop and web)
• Yahoo Mail

Klaviyo's built-in preview tool catches most issues, but send a real test email to yourself and open it on your phone. That 30-second check prevents embarrassing rendering issues.

The Revenue-First Mindset

Beautiful design is a means, not an end. Every design decision should serve one question: does this help the subscriber take the action we want?

A gorgeous template that buries the CTA below the fold loses to a simple template that puts the product and button front and center. An on-brand color palette that makes the CTA blend in loses to a high-contrast button that stands out.

Design for the thumb-scrolling subscriber who has 5 seconds to decide if your email is worth their attention. Show them the product. Make the button obvious. Get out of the way.

That's mobile-first, product-first, revenue-first email design.