E-mail to house files is the No. 1 marketing tactic used by online retailers with 92% saying they use it and 93% saying they plan to give it higher priority in 2008, according to Shop.org’s State of Retailing Online 2008: Marketing Report.

And it’s no wonder. The metrics speak for themselves.

According to the study of online retailers with average house files of 2.8 million names, an average of 50% of address holders on these lists have made at least one purchase from the retailers’ Web sites.

Also, retailers in the study said an average of 52% of their customers have opted to receive marketing e-mail from them, just 6% opt out annually, their average click-through rate is 11%, and their average conversion rate defined as percentage of total click throughs is 4%, the study conducted by Forrester Research on behalf of Shop.org said.

Not surprisingly, e-mail to house files is also one of the least expensive tactics in terms of cost per order, with an average CPO of $6.85 at an average dollar value of $120.27 per order.

The only online marketing tactic driving lower costs per order was “new portal deals,” with an average cost per order of $5.41 and an average order value of $42.50, the study said.

Comparatively, paid search delivered sales at an average $19.33 cost per order with an average dollar value of $109.17 per order, the study said. Also, affiliate programs average cost per order was $12.24 and average order size was $122.51, according to Shop.org.

Meanwhile, the most popular e-mails retailers use are transactional, with 95% of online retailers saying they send e-mail to confirm product shipments and 94% saying they send purchase confirmations via e-mail.

Meanwhile, though marketers have long given targeted e-mail high marks, relatively few have yet to do it.

Though 73% of those who said they use the tactic rated sending customized e-mails based on customer behavior or purchase data as “very effective,” just 42% said they do it, according to Shop.org.

A somewhat higher 58% said they segment e-mail files based on stated preferences and purchase data. Of those, 67% rated the tactic as very effective.

In the same report, Shop.org predicted online sales excluding travel will hit $204 billion in 2008, an increase of 17% over last year.

The top three categories will be apparel at $26.6 billion, computers at $23.9 billion and autos at $19.3 billion, according to The State of Retailing 2008 Marketing Report.

Online commerce is expected to account for 7% of all retail sales in 2008, and will top $300 billion in five years, the report said.

The survey was conducted in February and March by Forrester Research. The effort resulted in 125 complete and partial responses across a variety of industries, according to Shop.org. Thirty seven of the respondents had been operating online for nine or more years, 24 said their online sales were more than $100 million a year, and 50 said the Internet was the primary channel of interaction with customers, Shop.org reported.

        

Interesting study produced by Merkle on the behaviors and opinions of consumers on permission based email.  While I love these types of studies, I caution this as a market view of behaviors with such a small sample size (2,000), so take it with a grain of salt.

You can view a copy by following the link:

http://www.merkleinc.com/user-assets/Documents/WhitePapers/ViewFromThe%20Inbox2008.pdf

        

Nice piece written by Alan Chapell for IMedia. http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/10838.asp<< MORE >>

What's Wrong With Email As A Marketing Tool?
by David Baker , Monday, April 21, 2008

THIS TITLE SPURRED EITHER ONE of two thoughts: "Oh my gosh, there may be some cool tips buried in this column" or "About time someone got on the bandwagon and beat this shameless channel down". Either way, there are some fundamental things wrong with email as a tool today.

I previously used Maslow's hierarchy of needs as a metaphor to illustrate that email is so pervasive in our lives it is used to satisfy some of the most basic needs a human has. No, we won't reach out for email if we are poor and starving on the streets. What stuck with me from last week's comments was that I received such varying responses about where email fits in marketing and its value to people in general. The rest of the arguments about whether email can actually help facilitate a plan to fulfill a primary need are irrelevant.

What makes it so cool to work in email, is the fundamental acceptance of the channel by the masses. It wasn't long ago that I wrote, "We know email has arrived when my mom asks to opt out of my viral jokes." It's become so ingrained in our work culture, personal management and intrudes on even the most personal events in our lives. How many of you are reading this on the way to work? Have you answered email in bed last night, in church, in a restroom -- or have you complained about the small screens and type pads on the smart phone because it's hard to control when you're driving a car.

So, let's not argue about the value of email in simply managing our lives day to day. We can argue about tactics, about how much budget should be spent -- and we can even argue about whether we think email promotes a purchase or is simply a nuisance to your customer. But let's move past this and focus on what's wrong with our channel.

The root cause of our problems evangelizing the values of the email channel is YOU -- yes, YOU, the marketer, the person who makes an excuse for not improving what you do today. I often say this tongue-in-cheek, but it's true. Most people that I meet who ask for help do so apologetically when referencing their own email programs. Email has a disconnect from the mainstream business and can get so buried into a tactical run that it's difficult to make the connection to the rest of the world of marketing that surrounds it. Its voice is small, its impact is sometimes not believable, yet we all embrace it as the No. 1 marketing and communication channel.

Key to gaining share of voice in an organization is spin and attribution. Attribution is hard to sell internally and externally. It's hard to enforce with your partners and marketers, unless you find a common ground to communicate, and have common measurement frameworks that end at a common point. I still have the hardest time getting very analytically driven media strategists to understand email's value to a business, or even its value to front-end acquisition channels. They know attribution, they know ROI, but they don't make the connection between their media channels, search and Web and email. Vice versa, email marketers don't make the connection to the front-end and back-end of how the other online groups work. So spin is critical to gain a platform for building momentum in an organization.

Next is learning to spin what you have to gain in influence and momentum. My greatest challenge in an interactive agency is building momentum, knowing full well that 99% of the people I influence probably won't ever have the desire to understand the email or even eCRM to the extent my team will. Yet that doesn't mean I can't get them to start or include the email discussion earlier in the planning process. Doesn't mean I can't get involved in measurement and program design earlier, and show how results can be amortized cross-channel, cross lifecycle and extend into an infinite number of potential value attributes.

What's wrong with our channel today is not what we write about in these columns week in and week out; instead, it's the lack of movement in one of the most stable, consumer behavioral phenomenons that we will ever see if our lifetimes. To me movement is striving to stretch what we do today, looking for innovation amidst the chaos, trying to make the connection with our other channel brothers and sisters in a collective effort and forming actionable opinions. Life and profession is about hit and miss, and if you aren't taking shots every day, you aren't living.

David Baker is vice president of email solutions at Avenue A/Razorfish. Visit his blog at http://whitenoiseinc.com

        

I wrote this a week or so ago and had many very interesting comments. All had a different spin on this theory the parallel to email marketing. Let me know what you think..<< MORE >>

Loved this article by Elie Ashery! Wish we had more people expounding on the virtues of social media/networks and the shear socialization of messaging and email..<< MORE >>

My column from Media Post this past Monday. Here is the URL for the webcast if you missed it. Good topics I think you'll enjoy http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=105763&s=1&k=1020621563F14E761B725456E8AB01E5 << MORE >>

Loved this quick article I referenced a year or so ago.. just remembered it and thought I'd share.. Worth a couple of chuckles on a Tuesday.<< MORE >>

You should definately try to attend this webinar as we'll discuss the decisions involved with replacing, licensing, installing or building your own email delivery system.. . A couple of solid marketers will give their opinions of their world's today and how they use a multitude of systems to deliver critical email for their business.

        

Another great production by AARF... Download it and see for yourself.

http://www.avenuea-razorfish.com/reports/RegOutlook2008.html