Commentary
Traveling Light: Retailer Sends Less Emails, Makes More Money
- by Ray Schultz , Columnist, August 8, 2018
TUMI, a maker of tags and travel bags, reduced its email volume by 40 million in 2017 — and made more money. How? By replacing its legacy CRM program and ESP with a customer data platform (CDP), according to an article in Retail Touchpoints.
“Our customers are responding to the fact that the stuff they receive is relevant to them as opposed to the traditional batch and blast,” says Charlie Cole, global chief ecommerce officer at parent company Samsonite and chief digital officer at TUMI, Retail Touchpoints reports.
TUMI, acquired by Samsonite in 2016, settled on AgilOne as its CDP vendor after a “thorough search,” the interview continues.
The company sought to place several business functions in one place, including “online analytics, customer service, sales (retail/online/outlet/drop ship), warranty, repair, email send/open/click, social graph data…”, Cole says.
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The initial focus was on messaging. Now the firm is beginning to get “pretty good on using at as a tool to enable on-site personalization.”
Asked whether every type of retailer should employ a CDP, Cole says yes -- but he warns: “Don’t conflate a CDP with customer touchpoints. They are two different things.”
Assuming that Cole is right about the value of a CDP, it’s not clear whether all retailers have one. A recent survey conducted by BRP revealed that 81% of retail firms use personal email, and another 12% expect to do so within three years.
But 45% admit their email marketing needs improvement, and many are failing to deliver a unified cross-channel experience to customers.
TUMI is not the only email ecommerce seller owned by Samsonite: In 2017, it acquired eBags, a seller of tags, bags and other paraphernalia, and with that it inherited an email platform and a team of senior marketers with expertise in personalized email campaigns aimed at driving conversions, the company said at the time.
Talk about vision — eBag’s founders decided that they would sell only online when they started in 1998. So Samsonite has more than two effective brands — it has an email culture, although it’s not clear whether both are using the same platform.
Perhaps Tumi can now focus on their customer service skills. Follow all threads on how they don't back their products despite the fact they charge an arm and a leg for them.