Commentary

Email Burn: Holiday Shoppers Are Annoyed By Excessive Frequency

Irritation is growing among consumers as Black Friday weekend approaches. And their main gripe is email, judging by a study released Wednesday by Pollfish, sponsored by mobile app company Airship. 

Of the shoppers polled, 53% said incessant and irrelevant emails are the most annoying part of holiday shopping. 

Of course, 48% also dislike Christmas music that begins too early in the season (like in October). And 47% are frustrated by broken or hard-to-use app and website features. 

It pays to heed these findings because ecommerce brands will be competing for a limited number of consumers this year. For some, it may be too late to start.   

Only 20% of consumers surveyed plan to increase their spending. And 44% will hold to the same amount as last year. But 34% will reduce their spend, and 2% will eliminate it entirely. 

This is more or less in line with other surveys. For example, Smartly.io and Dynata report that 45% are budgeting less or spend more cautiously on holiday gifts this year. Another 36% will hold to last year’s levels, and 20% are not sure.

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As for email, 19% of consumers prefer it as a channel, versus 21% for social media, according to a recent study by Oracle.  

How are consumers proceeding? Most people are likely to complete their holiday shopping on a brand app, website or in-store, versus indirect channels like search engines, social networks and third-party marketplaces, Pollfish says.  

But 1% more shoppers said they are starting their holiday shopping on indirect versus direct channels. The exception is Gen Zers, 56% of whom favor direct channels. Direct channels are more likely to produce valuable first-party data — and higher margins.  

When shopping in-store, consumers are most likely to use their smartphones to visit the retailer’s website (89%), compare prices (88%) and use the retailer’s app (82%).  

Pollfish surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers.

 

 

 

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