With more people than ever working from home, email open rates have increased by 25% week-on-week, according to new research.
The data comes from the Covid-19 Retail Pulse from BounceX soon to be Wunderkind. a new fortnightly data-backed report, based on insight from tens of thousands of customer data points.
This rise is because usually users are mobile, which leads to more transient, distracted browsing as part of the shopping journey. As more shoppers become static at home, more time is being spent on digesting longer form content via email, meaning there has been a shift from a heavy transactional and promotional email strategy to content-driven messages.
Performance has been very volatile week-on-week, with the hardest hit verticals seeing an average 30% decrease in conversions and 15% decrease in revenue. However, despite the week-on-week drop in overall ecommerce revenue, email revenue has remained mostly flat over the same time period, with a 1.45% lift in conversion and 0.40% lift in revenue.
The shift in online behaviour to desktop has helped email revenue remain steady despite overall business declines—indeed, daily email open rates have seen a 5-10% daily increase week-on-week. This, BounceX suggests indicates an opportunity for increased email send frequency and cadence as more shoppers browse from home.
Email performance will rise as we see more consumers viewing emails on desktop devices. This is because users are mobile, on smartphone devices—leading to more transient, distracted browsing as part of the shopping journey. As more shoppers are static at home, more time is being spent on digesting longer form content via email, meaning there has been a shift from a heavy transactional and promotional email strategy to content-driven messages.
Original research of over 1,000 UK shoppers from BounceX found that knowing when not to communicate with a customer can be just as important as knowing when to communicate with them**. A third (32%) of consumers will unsubscribe to an email list if they feel a retailer is exclusively trying to sell them something, suggesting that brands shouldn’t just sell, but inform, educate and entertain consumers through brand storytelling. And these messages have to be relevant, timely and sent to the right consumer based on their intent triggers.
Rob Massa, General Manager for BounceX EMEA, commented: “Optimising the marketing communications content mix is the key to improving customer engagement and driving conversions. A diverse email programme that balances transactional and content driven messaging will reduce email list fatigue. Retailers should adapt email capture strategies, leveraging an incentive to encourage email sign ups from shoppers.”
“Without the visits retailers are used to from PPC channels, email will be more important to keep traffic levels steady in the short term. For brands sharing things like tips, guides, and videos that provide customers short-term value, will ensure they continue to build a healthy email list. Scale back any messaging on scarcity and urgency that would add unneeded stress in a period where both brands and consumers are dealing with the impact of inventory shorttges,” he concluded.
For further insight, fortnightly trends and for advice on how retailers can regain lost revenues, visit: Bouncex.com/covid-19-retail-pulse
