U.S. consumers often check their emails — half of them check them 10 times a day. But email marketers are pulling open rates that fall short of their goals. Here are the top six challenges faced by email marketers, starting with the metrics they use. 

Michael Leggett, who was the lead designer of Gmail from 2008 to 2012, has created a free Chrome extension called Simplify for making extraneous folders and functions in Gmail melt away. “It’s like Lucky Charms got spewed all over the screen,” he says.

Slack, recognizing that many customers use email, is offering a way for those consumers to participate in Slack discussions. Earlier, it announced the user could preview Microsoft Office files from within Slack.

Amazon, almost a year after acquiring PillPack for nearly $1 billion, is marketing the virtual pharmacy service to Amazon Prime members by email. The email links to a PillPack landing page advertising monthly home delivery services.

Buzzwords like nano-influencers and social commerce are fluff if firms don’t have a data-driven strategy to back them up. Jason Mestritis, senior manager of data science and analytics at Nordstrom, describes the six challenges facing data-driven brands. 

BOK Financial has sued a former executive who it claims sent an email to customers from his personal account alter leaving. Kelly Condon, now with Sunflower Bank, used customer email addresses in an action that amounts to theft of service, BOK Financial alleges.  

A new report shows that ROI is slipping for marketing promotions. Mike Menkes, SVP at Analytic Partners, explains why promotions are losing steam.  

Blueshift, a provider of a cross-channel marketing platform, has pulled $15 million in Series B funding. The round was led by SoftBank Ventures Asia, a fund devoted to AI startups. 

Zillow Group moved away from AB testing so its marketing teams could conduct multiple, simultaneous UX personalization tests. The name of this new phenomenon? Multi-armed bandit testing.

Alliance Data found in a survey that a majority of the consumers want more control over email frequency. But few marketers are providing it.