Transaction-to-click rates for free shipping e-mails in the consumer products and services industry were 60.7% greater on average compared to other marketing e-mail messages, and more multichannel retailers used free shipping promotions in the first quarter of this year compared to Q1 of 2008-up from 47% to 55%.

With free shipping offered as an incentive more often, retailers should carefully plan such promotions and be selective about when they offer the deal, opines the report. To create the most profitable and successful free-shipping e-mail campaign, Experian suggests the following:

• Free shipping on overstocked items tends to perform poorly. Marketers should pair free shipping offers with products consumers are interested in
• Constantly running free shipping offers may dilute their effectiveness, Experian says. Offering free shipping for a shorter period is typically more successful than offering it over a longer period
• Divide the subscriber list into groups of customers based on their product interests, then offer those groups the products with free shipping

Sara Ezrin, senior strategy consultant, strategic services, Experian CheetahMail, says "...  taking account of the fact that we have seen holiday e-mail volume increase at least 20% or more year over year for businesses in all industries, e-mails should be optimized to maintain subscriber engagement... The free shipping report data and analysis is extremely timely... "

Please visit Internet Retailer here for the report summary, or releases from Experian CheetahMail here.