During the holidays, email is your best friend. From customized onboarding and “most popular” recommendations to post-purchase streams and promoting your loyalty program, it’s a great way to engage new shoppers and turn them into repeat customers. And best of all, they welcome holiday emails. Earlier this year, iVend Retail found that 63% of consumers prefer to receive retailers’ communications in their inboxes.
The problem with email is that it’s also every other brand’s best friend. With so much money at stake — holiday spending is perpetually on the rise — retailers naturally ratchet up their communications. Inboxes are more cluttered than any other time of year. As a result, retailers see their open rates decrease by 25 to 30%.
Dynamic content and real-time personalization are two surefire ways to help your holiday emails cut through the clutter. Our friends at Liveclicker have created a guide to nine of retailers’ biggest holiday email headaches and their real-time solutions.
Here are three takeaways:
1. Keep Your Holiday Emails “In Stock”
Inventory moves fast during the holidays. Make sure you’re not using email to promote products that are sold out or unavailable. This creates a poor experience for customers and may even drive them to Amazon, which accounted for about 40% of last year’s holiday sales. Automatically updating inventory in emails, BCBG was able to keep its recommendations red hot and current.
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2. Engage Inactive Loyalty Members
Loyal shoppers spend almost 50% more than first-time buyers during the holidays. Re-engaging lapsed members is a great way to convert members who are close to a reward. Ulta did that well, reminding Danielle that she had 450 points, the equivalent of $14, to redeem. With $14 of free money, Danielle was far more likely to get on the website… and spend more.
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3. Drive In-Store Traffic
Try adding a dynamic map to see how well your holiday emails can drive store traffic. Pier 1 does this, incentivizing shoppers to show up by reminding them just how close they are. This is particularly powerful during the end of the season sprint when shipping deadlines are past. Pier 1 also includes relevant information about store hours, which is particularly important during the holidays, since many stores have different hours.
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These are just three takeaways on taking your holiday emails to the next level. For six more, download Liveclicker’s Real-Time Solutions to 9 of Retail Marketers’ Biggest Holiday Email Headaches for more real-time solutions here.