E-mail a Top Sales, Loyalty Driver: Study

Not only is e-mail a top sales driver for the 40 largest online retailers, respondents driven by promotional e-mails tend to be more satisfied with their experience and more loyal to the merchant who sent them, according to a recent study by ForeSee Results.

With the exception of “familiarity with the brand and its products,” promotional e-mail drove the greatest percentage of shoppers to the top 40 retail Web sites this holiday season, according to ForeSee Results.

Twenty five percent of shoppers surveyed said promotional e-mails drove them to visit a top 40 retail Web site, according to ForeSee Results. The next largest driver cited was search engines, at 8%, the customer satisfaction measurement and management firm reported.

Moreover, the nation’s top retailers apparently used e-mail significantly more effectively during the 2006 holiday season than they did in 2005. Twenty percent of shoppers surveyed—5% fewer than 2006—said promotional e-mails drove them to visit a top 40 retail Web site during the 2005 holiday season, according to ForeSee Results.

Also, customers who were driven to a top retailer by a promotional e-mail tended to give the retailer higher marks in terms of satisfaction than those who arrived by other means, according to ForeSee Results.

According to ForeSee Results’ Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index, the satisfaction of customers who were driven to retailers’ Web sites by e-mail was rated at 71 on an index of zero to 100, compared to 64 for those driven by search engines. Moreover, their likelihood to purchase from the same merchant next time was 66 for those driven by promotional e-mail versus 57 for search engines.

So what does all this mean? Probably a combination of things, according to Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results.

However, he said, one of the more important conclusions to draw from the survey is that e-mail is a significant weapon in retailers’ ongoing battle to stop search engines and other online properties from stealing the power of their brand.

“I believe on the Internet today that there is a huge conflict between some major players,” he said. “The search engines are trying to erode brand loyalty. They don’t want Target customers going to Target. They want them going to Shopzilla, Google or Shopping.com first. But Target wants them coming to Target first.”

As a result, he said, promotional e-mail is one of the most effective ways for retailers to “keep top of mind with customers in a space where many forces are trying to make them a commodity.”