• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 3, 2017

It’s a given that email drives ecommerce. But how does that happen? To find out, Iterable studied three types of ecommerce email, from welcome to blast. And it found that best practices are sometimes observed in the breach.

For example, “50 percent don’t have shopping cart abandonment campaigns, 43 percent didn’t send a single blast email after one week of signup,” Iterable determined after studying the emails sent by 100 top ecommerce companies, ranging from Amazon to Petco.

This is a timely exercise because a separate study by Digimark and Planet Retail shows that retailers of all types want to improve the customer experience. Of the firms surveyed in that one, 63% said that improving service, both online and in-store, would have the greatest impact on their profitability.

Assuming that communications would be part of such an upgrade, here are the three types of emails identified by Iterable, and how ecommerce companies used them late last year:

Welcome — This is the basic on-boarding message that you send when someone registers or takes some other action. It’s a key moment — the start of the relationship — and 87% of the firms acknowledge it with emails. But the greatest number — 44% — sent only one.

Another 34% sent a second email, and 17% sent three messages. Only 5% percent bothered to send four or more. And the companies did not provide much in the way of incentives to purchase. Only 26 out of 100 offered a discount in the welcome email. Of these, most preferred a percentage discount — 15% is the most popular — as opposed to a dollar amount. And 8% offered a gift.

Mistakes? Don’t demand that consumers fill out a user profile. You can collect demographic information later. And watch out for an "unnecessary disjointedness between emails," Iterable writes. Some firms send text-based emails to thank someone for registering, followed by a more vibrant one. Branding should be consistent, and you could just as well sent one good email in this instance.  

Cart Recovery — The person has been on your site, scoping out products. But they have abandoned their cart. Of the firms studied, half sent cart recovery emails, usually within 24 to 48 hours, but with varying frequency. Thirty percent sent one, 46% sent two and 14% sent three. Only one retailer, Williams-Sonoma, sent five.

Best practices? Include a photo of the abandoned product — 88% of the senders did, Iterable says. And be engaging, not hectoring. “Although most e-retailers pointed out that an item had been abandoned in the email subject lines and copy, companies like Nordstrom stood out for their friendly tone,” the report continues. “Rather than put the onus of responsibility on the user for forgetting an item, the department store used this opportunity to build rapport by complimenting their selections.”

Blast — The person is now on your list. You can now target them for blasts — “general-purpose communications that e-retailers use to inform customers of sales and other promotions,” iterable writes. Only 57% send these within a week of a person signing up. And of those that do, 26% sent one, 42% generated between two and five and 25% between six and ten. Only 7% distributed 11 or more.

The danger? Seven retailers — Neiman Marcus, 1-800-Flowers, Avon Products, Build.com, Blue Nile, Hayneedle and Edible Arrangements — were caught by spam filters, Iterable reveals. The more emails they sent, the greater their likelihood of ending up in a filter. Avon faced the highest risk — 73% of its emails landed in filters.  

Here’s one more piece of intelligence, for what it’s worth: “Of the two email clients used, Outlook sent more emails automatically to spam than Gmail.” Be advised.