E-mail

This time of year can be very hectic. We (and our customers!) are running around in a rush to prepare for back to school (BTS). From the flurry of deals filling inboxes to the competition of price matching to the stream of commercials on TV and radio, we're in the throes of this prime retail…

Macy’s announced a major strategy shift last week that will affect a significant number of its brick-and-mortar stores. The department store chain will be closing 100 of its 728 locations next year — approximately 14 percent of its stores. These closures signify Macy’s acceptance of the modern retail landscape laid out by e-commerce giant Amazon.com,…

I recently read that 205 billion emails are sent every day, but my initial thought was that the number seemed too low. I got that many just yesterday! Though it didn’t always used to be this way, many of us continue to be bombarded by retailers sending three emails every morning and nine or 10…

Do I create a welcome series? Further segment my email sends? Plan loyalty campaigns? Commerce marketers have lots of options to try and generate more revenue. Sometimes, the hardest part is choosing which strategies to go after. In our recent benchmark report, “We Asked, They Answered: Top Commerce Marketing Tactics Shared,” 300 of our customers…

Email is one of the most prolific and effective forms of marketing. However, a successful email program is more than just compelling copy and beautiful creative. It also requires a high-quality list of engaged subscribers. Keeping a clean list — one that’s free of invalid email addresses, spam traps and purchased addresses — not only…

Around the world, the view of the “typical” consumer is being turned upside down as the first wave of millennials begin to reach their peak buying power. Millennials are a significant demographic cohort in almost every global market, and in the United States they already account for an estimated $1.3 trillion in annual spending. This…

Email remains a very valuable channel for retailers. In a survey conducted by eTail, retail executives report that email accounts for 17 percent of their total digital budgets, while generating 24 percent of their total revenue. Email serves many purposes for retailers, including being a central part of the unified brand experience. It can be…

Every day and in nearly every retail business across the country, marketers make assumptions about who their customers are. They assume they know where their customers live, what they earn and what their gender is. They make these assumptions based on observations of who has walked in their stores, and maybe even who they wish would…

Microsoft and Starbucks are joining forces to boost your inbox with a caffeine jolt. According to a Microsoft blog post, both companies released a plugin that allows Microsoft Outlook users to email Starbucks’ electronic gift cards and set up meetings at nearby Starbucks locations. Users have to install the add-in, then connect to a Starbucks…

There’s a new generation on the horizon, one that has the potential to completely change the way retailers do business. It’s not the ever-vilified, oft-studied millennials; they’re (finally) becoming old news. This next generation, called centennials, was born after 1995 and currently accounts for roughly 25 percent of the population. Contrary to what many retailers…