Commentary

Relationship Doesn't End With The Sale

According to a recent survey conducted by Silverpop, low volume but high ROI emails often comprise less than 5% of a company's total email volume, while delivering 25 to 40% or more of email revenue for retailers. The survey showed that 83% of respondents will be sending cart abandonment emails by the end of 2011.

Although most industry studies have shown that between 15% and 20% of retailers currently use cart abandonment campaigns, 83% of Silverpop survey respondents plan to take advantage of this tactic by the end of 2011.

According to shopping cart recovery services provider SeeWhy, a company doing $200 million in annual revenue loses $1.2 million a day from cart abandonment.

Cart Recovery Email Plans (% of Retailers Surveyed)

Intent

% of Respondents

Yes, intend to

40%

No, but plan to in 2010

29

No, but plan to in 2011

14

No, no plans

17

Resource: Silverpop, January 2011

Timely, relevant emails tied directly to consumer behavior deliver much higher metrics than broadcast emails, notes the report. 80% of survey respondents reported an open rate of 21% or higher for cart abandonment reminders while only 31% experienced similarly impressive results from their general broadcast emails.

Cart recovery emails can deliver a much higher open rate than the average broadcast email, with 80% of survey respondents reporting an open rate of 21% or higher for these messages compared to 31% for general broadcast emails. The numbers at higher%ages are even more dramatic, with 53% tallying a 30% or better open rate for cart recovery emails, versus 14% for broadcast.

Average Email Open Rates (% of Respondents) 

Email Type

When Cart Recovery Open Rate Group Is:

 

10% or less

11-20%

21-30%

31-40%

>40% 

Broadcast Email

33%

36

17

8

Cart recovery email 1

7%

13

27

20

33 

Resource: Silverpop, January 2011  

Even more impressive is the impact these programs have on conversion and revenue, with 45% of survey responders reporting that their cart recovery emails yielded a conversion rate of 11% or higher, nearly four times that of their corresponding broadcast emails.

Loren McDonald, Silverpop's vice president of industry relations, says "Inboxes are crowded, the ‘noise' is louder than ever, and generic batch-and-blast emails are becoming less effective... Retailers that have employed... cart abandonment campaigns have seen excellent results... generating incremental boosts in revenue and customer loyalty... "

According to research conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says the report, 90% of ecommerce leads go cold within one hour. Despite the effectiveness of cart-abandonment campaigns, the Silverpop study survey found room for improvement in frequency and timing given the following findings:

83% of survey responders waited five or more hours to send the first recovery email

61% wait more than 24 hours to send the first cart recovery email

67% only send a single cart recovery email

The survey also indicated a high level of interest in other transaction-based messaging. Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents send a notification after a sale is completed. 50% with service satisfaction surveys, and 43% with product review requests. However, only 2% are sending notifications that the review has posted, missing an additional opportunity to engage with the consumer.

Despite delivering higher conversion rates than standard broadcast promotional messages, "happy birthday" and "purchase anniversary" emails were used by less than one in five respondents. These messages provide another means of contacting customers outside of the regular promotional calendar. And since they are usually paired with a friendly incentive to return and purchase again, they are a savvy way to increase engagement and loyalty-and boost revenue at the same time. 

Type of Post-Purchase Email Used

Type

% of Respondents

Service satisfaction survey

50%

Product review request

43

Recommendation

29

Do not send

26

Bounceback

21

Cross-sell/Upsell

19

Happy birthday

17

Reorder

17

Anniversary

12

Resource: Silverpop, January 2011

McDonald concludes that "... relationships should never end after a purchase... the brand should do everything in its power to show loyalty to its customer... by acknowledging recent actions, or offering ‘happy birthday' and ‘purchase anniversary' emails... "

To obtain the full survey, please visit Silverpop here.

 

  

  

 

 

2 comments about "Relationship Doesn't End With The Sale".
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  1. Andrew Koven from Steve Madden, February 10, 2011 at 11:14 a.m.

    Solid article - key to success resides both within the actions of sending the emails - and developing better content to strengthen the chance of purchase and relationship builds - not to over simplify the point - it takes a lot of ongoing work to make this work - retargeting also falls into this approach - AK

  2. Jeff Weitzman from Go Factory, February 10, 2011 at 12:07 p.m.

    Good info. As Andrew Koven notes in his comment, retargeting is another good tactic, and this line: "According to research conducted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says the report, 90% of ecommerce leads go cold within one hour" shows how important it is that these kinds of remarketing efforts act on shopper behavior in real-time. Tomorrow may be too late!

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