As Pier 1 turned to a different strategy to build its email list, the retailer encountered perhaps an unexpected hurdle.
Pier 1 began asking its employees to collect email addresses from
customers when they were making a purchase. The employees were given an incentive to do it. Part of their bonuses were tied to entering email addresses in a database.
And Pier 1's list did get
larger, with a 380% lift in its email capture rate, said Jefferson Haddox, direct marketing analyst at Pier 1, during a panel discussion.
But Haddox said "our associates are smarter than we
think" and a problem emerged. They began to create invalid email addresses.
Pier 1 has since put in a system that cracks down, where email addresses are checked before messages are sent. The
system also allows the retailer to determine which stores are providing addresses that bring the highest bounce-back rates -- and can then evaluate why.
Before Pier 1 incentivized employees to
gather addresses, it had a different approach. Instead, consumers were incentivized to provide their addresses via offers for maybe up to a 20% discount.
Under that system, employees would
enter the addresses in a Web portal, but Pier 1 had no idea what customers purchased. The new program provides for that, which it helps it then send out follow-up targeted emails.