Retailer Emails Decline in Wake of Holiday
Top online retailers began reducing the volume of promotional email they sent last week. According to Chad White, research director at Responsys and author of the Retail Email Blog, top online retailers sent their subscribers an average of 3.2 promotional emails each during the week ending December 25, 2009.
This represents a 21% drop from the average of 4.1 emails top online retailers sent their subscribers during the week ending December 18, 2009. In addition, during Christmas week promotional email volume slid 9% from an average of 3.6 emails sent during the week ending November 27, 2009 and 6% more than the average of three emails during Christmas week 2008.
Monday, December 21 was the most popular day to send emails last week, with 59% of top online retailers sending at least one promotional email. Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24, proved to be the least popular day for sending emails, as only 30% of top online retailers sent a promotional email on that date.
In the weeks leading up to Christmas week, virtually no top online retailers sent any promotional emails mentioning New Year’s. During the week ending December 25, approximately 3% of top online retailers sent at least one New Year’s-themed promotional email. The changeover from 2009 to 2010 is expected to dominate the subject matter of promotional retail emails this week and next week.
2009 Holiday Season May Produce Strong E-commerce Results
Several recent pieces of research suggest e-commerce will turn out to have been a bright spot for holiday sales in 2009. According to the November 2009 American Express Spending and Saving Tracker, the internet will be a popular resource for holiday shoppers this year. Seventy-nine percent of overall respondents plan to use the internet as a tool for holiday shopping, 45% plan to purchase items online, 28% will use the internet to buy hard-to-find items, 27% will use the internet for product research, and 25% will go online for gift ideas.
The 2009 Holiday Forecast from comparison shopping site PriceGrabber.com corroborates these findings. PriceGrabber’s research indicates 70% of consumers plan to save money by performing research and comparison shopping online this year, compared to 38% last year. And according to the Deloitte 24th Annual Holiday Survey, 19% of consumers plan to access the internet via their mobile phones while shopping to find store locations, obtain coupons and sales information, as well as research products and prices. This percentage rose to 39% in the 18 to 29 age group.