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For the holidays, targeted e-mail all the rage By Anne D’Innocenzio NEW YORK — This holiday, the war among retailers to win consumers’ attention isn’t just being played out on selling floors and Web sites. It’s heating up in shoppers’ e-mail inboxes. Building on e-mail campaign successes, merchants are determined to have even more impact by tailoring targeted messages to individual tastes and buying habits. They believe the e-mails’ low cost and proven effectiveness will help spur sales. “This holiday season, consumers are going to get more messages, and they should appeal better to their interests,” said Jared Blank, an analyst at Jupiter Research. Many merchants say they’ll be sending one or two more e-mails this year compared to last. • Leather goods purveyor Coach Inc. will base its missives on taste, dividing customer recipients into traditional or fashion-forward. • A personalization quiz on Lands’ End’s Web site that lets shoppers define style, color and other preferences sets the tone for its customized e-mails. • Got irregular feet? Nine West’s targeted e-mail will offer you discounts and information on only those shoes and sizes relevant to your tastes and needs. Although these are “opt-in” e-mails for which permission was sought, there are drawbacks: many consumers already feel overwhelmed by electronic offers. An April survey by Forrester Research found nearly half of online consumers in North America saying they’re now less likely to read e-mail promotions. “There’s more pressure for merchants to deliver a meaningful piece of mail,” said Kate Delhagen, a Forrester analyst. In fact, though Maureen Robusto, a 25-year-old Bostonian and avid online shopper, has given her e-mail address to stores like J. Crew and Express, most of the messages end up in her virtual trash bin. “There’s so much that I don’t want, and if it doesn’t exactly look like what I want, I delete it,” said Robusto. She likes coupons from her favorite stores, and wishes merchants where she doesn’t shop regularly wouldn’t bombard her with so many messages. Facing a shorter holiday season than last year and tight budgets, merchants like the economy and speed of e-mail. Sending an e-mail costs half a penny on average, down from a penny last year, according to Jupiter Research. That compares with anywhere from 75 cents to $2 per direct mail piece, according to the Direct Marketing Association. Retailers have seen sales as much as double after an e-mail campaign hits, according to Chris Merritt, principal at Kurt Salmon Associates, a retail consulting firm. Last year, retailers spent a billion dollars on e-mail marketing. This year, that figure is expected to reach $1.7 billion, according to Jupiter Research. Dave Menzel, chief executive of Yesmail Inc., which helps set up e-mail infrastructure for merchants, says retailers on average can reach about 10 percent of their customers with e-mail. Gap, hoping to rapidly build its e-mail files in time for the holidays, recently offered an additional 10 percent discount at the cash register at its namesake division if shoppers give sales associates their e-mail address. The company is offering a different incentive for Banana Republic customers. Those who provide e-mail addresses at stores by Saturday get a 10 percent discount on merchandise purchased Nov. 10-24. Michael Tucci, executive vice president of the company’s online divisions, would not say how many customers have accepted the offer. Merchants insist that consumers are comfortable receiving messages — if done properly. Lands’ End says more than 90 percent of its customers have indicated they wish to be e-mailed with specific messages weekly rather than being e-mailed monthly or every other week, according to Bill Bass, senior vice president of e-commerce. Companies like Yesmail and DoubleClick earn revenue by setting up retailers’ e-mail systems and running them as services. Software companies like E.piphany, meanwhile, sell customer relations management software that costs $250,000 and up depending on the scale of the implementation of the project. John Miller, director of marketing applications for E.piphany, said its software creates predictive models that show how likely certain groups will behave. It then advises retailers on what kind of incentives or products will work best for those consumers. Some retailers are now testing software from E.piphany that offers dynamic, real-time pricing. Such software could base offers on a consumer’s up-to-the-minute purchasing history. Miller declined to name the retailers. Miller expects that as merchants learn more about individual shoppers they will do even better at delivering what consumers want — from varying the look of the e-mail to the level of discounts. “The more campaigns, the more you will learn,” he said. |
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