Commentary
Relevant Personalized Emails Ups Likely Purchase
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 5, 2014
The survey questioning online shoppers about their attitude towards emails featuring personalized product recommendations. Results reveal that online shoppers:
- Clearly value emails featuring merchandise selected based on shopping habits and preferences
- Are willing to receive more emails if they make shopping easier for them
- Are willing to share information with retailers in order to receive more relevant emails
- And are more likely to purchase items if emails feature products based on their shopping habits and preferences
84% of online shoppers who’ve signed up to receive promotional emails reported that they find it helpful if products featured in emails were relevant based on their shopping habits and preferences. In fact, 69% reported that they are willing to share personal preferences with retailers in order to receive emails more relevant to them.
27% reported that they were extremely or very willing to receive additional promotional emails each week from select retailers if they were personalized based on past shopping habits, with 82% at least somewhat willing to do so.
Why would shoppers want to receive more promotional emails than are already landing in their inboxes each day, asks the study rhetorically. The study shows that online shoppers find emails that present them with recommended products, personalized to their unique preferences and past purchases, helpful. In fact, 90% of online shoppers who’ve signed up to receive promotional emails reported that they find it helpful to be alerted when products they frequently buy go on sale. 72% said that they are willing to receive more emails if they make shopping easier for them, such as weekly sales, top sellers and new products.
The most encouraging news of all for retailers rolling out their 2014 email marketing strategies, says the report, is that 77% of the online shoppers who’ve signed up to receive promotional emails reported that they are more likely to purchase items online or in store if emails feature products based on their shopping habits and preferences. 25% reported that they were extremely or very likely, while 82% were at least somewhat likely, to purchase more items online or in store if they were to receive email featuring recommended products based on personal preferences and/or shopping habits.
Listrak CEO Ross Kramer comments that “… the results of this study… not only definitively shows the effectiveness of email in driving conversions… (and) online shoppers find personalized recommendations helpful enough to make them more likely to purchase more… they are willing to share preferences with retailers…. receive more emails from them… if the merchandise featured is customized to their shopping behaviors and past purchases… “
To find more information from Listrak, please visit here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
Sorry...but this news about the power & effectiveness of leveraging customer profile data to build more engaging email conversations with customers is pretty old news. SEE AMAZON...who has been the case study for the reason to leverage personalization and dynamic offer & content assembly for the last decade. The HUGE news will be the day when MOST retailers do the work that truly leverages all of that profile data that they have on customers so that EVERY communication is hyper relevant across ALL channels. It will be that day...when we can put an end to "batch & blast" as a strategy.