Stores Face E-mail Learning Curve

RETAILERS ARE BOTH BEHIND and ahead of the curve when it comes to e-mail.

That's the conclusion of a new report from e-mail marketing services firm Silverpop. Only 68% of the companies studied, for example, have “apparent” e-mail programs, according to CEO Bill Nussey. But those that do are responsible about it.

“We didn't see any disrespectful, customer-ignoring practices,” said Nussey in an interview during the 2005 Annual Catalog Conference in Orlando, FL in May. “We also didn't see much sophistication beyond batch and blast.”

To glean these findings, Silverpop studied the Web sites of 175 companies that participated in last year's conference, including multichannel players like Crate & Barrel, Neiman Marcus, J.C. Penney and CompUSA.

But that wasn't an easy job because 23% didn't include e-mail registrations on their home page.

Except for discount buy-out promotions that a company may not want to publicize up front, a company should “never bury the call action by placing it off page,” argued Elaine O'Gorman, vice president of marketing for Atlanta-based Silverpop.

In addition, 25% failed to offer even a simple explanation of benefits in an effort to persuade visitors to register.

And what information is provided? Of the firms with e-mail programs, 45% offered notices of sales and promotions. Only 14% offered e-mail newsletters, and just a small number of those may be newsletters in the strictest sense of the word.

“Anecdotally, many of them are probably full of ads,” says Nussey.

What accounts for this lag? Nussey suspects that some firms — those more heavily focused on catalogs — are so steeped in tradition that they don't see the need.

“A lot of them have been doing what they do for decades,” he said. “Customers have been comfortable with them. The urgency to change is not particularly high.”

Meanwhile, almost 80% offered only one category of information even though consumers want tailored products.

Also limited was the amount of information requested by retailers. Of those studied, 37% asked solely for an e-mail address, and 39% requested more detailed information, including postal address. Just 25% asked for phone numbers and demographic data.

When customers did register, less than half the firms sent a confirmation message. Worse yet, a mere quarter of those messages were personalized.

“Marketers should think about how they respond when they meet someone for the first time,” O'Gorman said. “You score points when you use the person's name.”

On the positive side, 80% said those who send confirmations said they do so on the same day. And 76% include product or brand names in the messages.

But the sophistication seems to end there. Barely 12% asked recipients to add them to the recipients' address book or white list.