From: Williams-Sonoma
Subject Line: Order Confirmation #092857855452
Date: Monday, October 12, 2009

If you're looking for the right way to do transactional messaging, this Williams-Sonoma Order Confirmation message is a bastion of best practices:
(1) The smarts start with the subject line, including the order number for folks who quickly need to reference it, perhaps while on the phone with a customer service rep.
(2) The ease of use continues just beneath the navigation area, with a order number stacked above the customer service telephone number.
(3) I love that the "You May Also Consider:" items (and what classy language!) are actually related to the item I purchased, which isn't always the case on these "enhanced transactional" message types. A bread box buyer might just like a Classic Bread Knife. Wüsthof knives really are awesome, although I'm now partial to Global knives, since those are the kind the contestants draw on "Top Chef" ;).
(4) The WS team observes the 80/20 rule of thumb: no more than 20% promotion in a transactional message. They also adhere to the guideline that promotional items be kept to the right and to the bottom of the primary transactional message.
(5) It just plain looks good. Neat and sleek. Not designed by a database system output script or something. You can have beauty and brains after all.