Responsys research reveals top online retailers fall short on email welcome programmes

Responsys research reveals top online retailers fall short on email welcome programmes

Responsys, a global on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions provider, has announced the results of a research project analysing email programmes from the top 50 online retailers in the UK as identified by industry body, IMRG.

The results show more than a third (34%) of ‘e-tailers’ do not ‘welcome’ or ‘thank’ customers when they actively subscribe to email communications, meaning many are not engaging customers when they are most captive, incentivising them to shop.

The majority (67%) of welcome emails did not include a call to action such as ‘start shopping now’ or offer relevant promotions. One in three welcome emails (33%) arrived as plain text without any branding, imagery or inspiring content. More than half (52%) did not use the customer’s name or personalise content, and 42% did not send communications from the brand name but rather arrive from ‘info’, ‘do not reply’, ‘help’ or ‘customer services’.

Walking the walk

Moreover, none of the top 50 UK online retailers included mobile integration and just three retailers embedded social media components into their email programmes. The provider said that, despite the hype in the marketing industry for dynamic content and social and mobile engagement, few are putting it into practice with their email welcome programmes.

Simon Robinson, Responsys marketing and alliances director in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, commented: “The results show that many e-tailers fall short on welcome email programmes, with many failing to engage with customers using dynamic content, cross-channel integration or personalisation.

“Email is still the most popular communication channel for retailers, so I am surprised to see so many not even thanking customers for signing up to email communications. It is clear that many retail marketers lack the tools needed to boost customer engagement and brand loyalty, pointing to a gap between retailers talking about the importance of personalisation and cross-channel integration and acting on it. The reality is the majority have a long way to go if they want to truly capture customer attention over email, and boost sales conversions.”