In this article, we will explain how you can customize your emails with transactional parameters (product name, price, etc.) to engage your email recipients and improve metrics, such as open rates and response rates, using Brevo.
How to use transactional parameter in emails?
Your transactional parameters contain information about the events tracked on your website. For example, the events can be order_completed or cart_updated, each containing specific data about your client and the products in their order/cart (product name, price, total cart amount, etc). You can customize your emails using transactional parameters by inserting placeholders (or merge tags) in your email templates.
Transactional parameters placeholders are tags that pull event-specific information (name of a product that was left in a shopper's cart, total price of a shopper's cart, etc.) into your emails. Transactional parameters placeholders are automatically replaced by the personalized information for each recipient at the time your email is sent via an API call or an Automation workflow triggered by a workflow.
Email template
Results in the recipient's inbox
How are transactional parameters placeholders structured?
Transactional parameter placeholders are structured as {{ variable.parameterNAME }}, e.g. {{ item.price }} or {{ params.total }}.
You should replace variable and parameterNAME by your own variable and parameter names, formatted and cased exactly as you pass it via the API or as it appears in your event logs. We will explain how to retrieve your variable and parameterNAME in the section just below.
If you connected your website to Brevo using one of our plugins, transactional parameter placeholders are standardized:
| Product data | Corresponding placeholder |
| Item name | {{ item.name }} |
| Short description | {{ item.description_short }} |
| Item price | {{ item.price }} |
| Item price, tax included | {{ item.price_taxinc }} |
| Item currency | {{ item.currency }} |
| Item quantity | {{ item.quantity }} |
| Item image | {{ item.image }} |
| Item size | {{ item.size }} |
| Item availability | {{ item.available_now }} |
| Item URL | {{ item.url }} |
| Item ID | {{ item.id }} |
| Item category | {{ item.category }} |
| Item variant ID | {{ item.variant_id }} |
| Item variant name | {{ item.variant_name }} |
| Item SKU | {{ item.sku }} |
| Cart data | Corresponding placeholder |
| URL to view cart | {{ params.url }} |
| Subtotal | {{ params.subtotal }} |
| Subtotal, including tax, including discounts, excluding shipping | {{ params.subtotal_taxinc }} |
| Discount | {{ params.discount }} |
| Discount, including tax | {{ params.discount_taxinc }} |
| Shipping | {{ params.shipping }} |
| Shipping, including tax | {{ params.shipping_taxinc }} |
| Total before tax | {{ params.total_before_tax }} |
| Tax | {{ params.tax }} |
| Total | {{ params.total }} |
| Currency | {{ params.currency }} |
| Date | {{ params.date }} |
| Affiliation | {{ params.affiliation }} |
If you are not using a Brevo plugin or if you have passed other transactional parameters via API, you can retrieve your variable and parameter names by checking your event logs or API call:
Placeholders for cart data
Placeholders for cart data should always structured as {{ variable.parameterNAME }} where:
- variable should ALWAYS be replaced by params
- parameterNAME should be replaced by your transactional parameter name as it is passed via the API or as it appears in your event logs.
In our above example, the placeholders for our cart data would then be:
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Placeholders for product data
Placeholders for product data are always structured as {{ variable.parameterNAME }} where:
- variable should be replaced by your variable name as it is passed via the API or as it appears in your event logs BUT in singular form, and
- parameterNAME should be replaced by your transactional parameter name as it is passed via the API or as it appears in your event logs.
In our above example, the placeholders for our product data would then be:
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Insert transactional parameters placeholders in your emails
Simple personalization
To insert a transactional parameter placeholder in your emails, type it directly in your email template:
In the recipent's inbox, the placeholder will be replaced by event-specific information, e.g. the name of a product they wanted to be reminded about.
Dynamic personalization
In most cases, such as in an abandoned cart or receipt email, you will want to generate a list of products purchased by a customer.
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