Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:01:00 GMT

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.

'Net Features : email, EEC, email marketing

Retail Email Subscription Benchmark Study