Business report

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Friendlier E-Newsletter Subscription Practices From Retailers by Jack

Loechner, Wednesday, Aug 8, 2007 7:15 AM ET

 

*Friendlier E-Newsletter Subscription Practices From Retailers*

 

The EMail Experience Council and the Direct Marketing Association, in

announcing the release of its second annual Retail Email Subscription

Benchmark Study, found that more than 43 percent of major online retailers

allow customers to sign up for email with one click from their homepage,

making the subscription process as simple as possible. While down from 50

percent last year, retailers made process changes that simplified things,

including fewer retailers who required registration to sign up for emails,

fewer asking for optional information during sign up, and more using

JavaScript sign-up forms, which allow customers to complete more complex

subscription forms without navigating away from the retailer's homepage.

 

Ramesh Lakshmi-Ratan, DMA's executive vice president, said " Email is rapidly

emerging as one of marketers' most powerful marketing channels... according

to DMA research, commercial email in 2007 is forecast to generate $21.9

billion in US sales... each dollar spent on commercial email is projected to

generate more than $48 in sales. "

 

The study reports that addressing privacy concerns is a best practice that's

seeing adoption approach the 50 percent mark. Also, it found that providing

sample newsletters is an emerging best practice that should help reduce

opt-outs, with the support of nearly 12 percent of major online retailers.

The report concludes that the additional transparency provided by these two

practices should increase r satisfaction.

 

Chad White, the EEC's director of retail insights and the study's author,

said " What we found was that there's a clear trend toward subscription

processes that are quick and easy, and increasingly transparent. " And, Gold

Lasso, the sponsor of the EEC study, noted that " The opt-in process sets

the tone of how a future email relationship between a company and customer

will unfold. "

 

Some other findings from EEC's Retail Email Subscription Study include:

 

- 92 percent of retailers have an email sign-up form or link on their

homepage

- 28 percent of retailers offer more than one content selection,

ranging from two all the way up to the 50 content options offered by

Amazon.com.

- Only 3 percent of major online retailers use a double opt-in

subscription process

- The r's name (31 percent) and ZIP Code (18 percent) were

the two most often required pieces of information.

- Nearly 12 percent of retailers offer plain-text versions of their

newsletters during the sign-up process

 

More information about the availability of the

study<http://www.emailexperience.org/servlet/com.gcm.servlet.shop.QuickOrderShop\

pingCart?version=2 & command=cp & supplierID=665 & categoryID=3473>may

be found here.

*Center for Media Research*

 

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Cheers!

Kathleen Petrides

The Woobey Queen

Http://www.woobeyworld.com