The Email Experience Council (EEC) announced the release of its third annual “Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study.” 

The report examined the opt-in practices of 120 of the top online retailers and found there is a clear trend toward richer subscription processes. The study also found that retailers are putting more focus on list hygiene.  Thirty-eight percent of retailers ask subscribers to confirm their email address by re-entering it, up from 27% last year.  Also, 5% of retailers now use a confirmed (double) opt-in process, up from 3% last year, which improves list quality. Other findings from the Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study include:

• After falling from 27% in 2006 to 8% last year, the percentage of retailers using sign-up incentives rebounded to 13% this year, despite growing concerns about the quality of subscribers that are attracted by sweepstakes and other incentives.
• With recent evidence suggesting that putting privacy policies front and center during the subscription process actually reduces sign-ups, only 36% of retailers mentioned their privacy policy this year, down from 45% last year.
• Despite quicker subscription fulfillments overall, 29% of retailers took 15 days or longer to honor opt-ins or failed to honor them all together.  That figure was the same as last year.