Email boosts Q2 retail e-commerce sales

August 21st, 2007 by Carolyn Gardner

Attention all e-retailers!! The 2007 holiday season is fast upon us and we’ve got consumer data to help you align your marketing efforts wisely…

According to a survey conducted by the American Marketing Association before last year’s holiday season, 14% of respondents (online consumers) cited email including e-newsletters as their best source for information about new products. This puts email in a top 3 position for its ability to drive online sales.

Slightly above email was the Internet at 15%. And on top, by far, were TV ads with 37% of consumers citing TV as their best source for information.

Oh ya, what about traditional media you ask? Well let’s just say it pulls single digits in terms of its ability to boost retail sales online…

So what does this mean to the average e-retailer? Well if you’ve got gobs of budget, go for TV ads, Internet and email!!!

But for the majority of e-retailers, there are budget caps so you really have to think smart which brings us back to the Internet and email…

Here at Sitebrand, one of my favourite past times is doing email ROI calculations. These calculations are very enlightening since they reveal how much money gets left on the table everytime one of our customers or prospects skips sending an email. It’s the same old story over and over again:

“We try to send weekly, but we get busy and we’re lucky if we get our emails out monthly.” Our response — Cha-ching - you just left $x,000 on the table.

“We’ve got a database but we don’t have anyone who can code the emails so we’ve never sent anything.” Our response —- Cha-ching - you just left $x,000 on the table.

If you want me to calculate your email ROI, just ask!

Then there’s the whole Internet thing. I just don’t understand why all e-retailers haven’t embraced web personalization? What part of the need for creating unique, relevant web site experiences that lead to increased conversion is so hard to understand? Again I think there are some misconceptions around web personalization. Some people think it’s really expensive. Others think it’s hard to integrate, etc. But again, this isn’t the case and if anyone wants the scoop, just ask!

To read the full study, go to eMarketer at:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005285&src=article1_newsltr

Posted in Email marketing, Personalization, eCommerce |