Despite the explosive growth of electronic resources for consumers to make pre-purchase decisions, search and buy online, there is little information showing how consumers make purchase decisions within these settings, compared to an in-store experience.
As you can see from Figure 1, the internet is currently being used for many different platforms. Online fashion retailers can play a big part in this, by using multi-channelling to promote themselves or to simply use it to understand exactly what consumers are searching in order to then make a purchase decision, whether this is via Social media, Snapchat, Google or YouTube.
Figure 1. 2016 Internet Activity
Source: (Leboeuf, 2016)
E-mail shares a particularly close relationship with the internet, with most internet sessions involving the use of e-mail (Tezinde, et al., 2002). The Big Data shown in Figure 1 can be utilised by online fashion retailers to determine what their target audience is actively doing on the internet. This can then aid them in producing innovative email campaigns and communication to cut cost and increase revenue, which will lead to customer experience and satisfaction rates improving, to ensure future success. (Leboeuf, 2016)
The relationship between e-mail marketing and online shopping is equally close. Not only does it serve to drive website traffic, it also influences impulse buying on online websites (Kim & Dawson, 2010), an example of an online fashion retailer that do this particularly well is Missguided.
For me, the one aspect of a Missguided email that I find particularly appealing is the fact it is optimised for mobile, rather than desktop. Studies show from Missguided research that 65% of consumers were opening on mobile, and therefore, the strategy focuses on email marketing for mobile, rather than desktop (Moth, 2013), as shown in figure 2.
Figure 2. Snapshot of a Missguided mobile optimised email
Emerging as the fastest growing communications technology in history (Chittenden & Rettie, 2003), e-mail has become an integral part of daily life (Grimes, et al., 2007). However where will it stop for online fashion retailers when it comes to email marketing – can an email be seen as intrusive or too personal?
Missguided, as identified, have a strong personalisation strategy which is portrayed through their emails, with an aim to build a strong relationship with the customer. This is demonstrated by emailing customers on their birthdays, emailing when they have left something in their basket, or even with suggestions, suited to recent purchases from the consumer. This type of personalisation can lead to big wins in email marketing.
Emails with personalised subject lines are 26% more likely to be opened and marketers have found a 76% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns. (Monitor, 2016) ASOS and Missguided both use the subject headlines of their emails to attract the consumer and increase click through rates by using persuasive language, driving the customer to want to visit the website, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. ASOS & Missguided email subject line
However, it can be challenging for online retailers to optimise the consumer information, in providing an effective email marketing campaign. Online retailers can reach consumers with highly targeted messages at a price far below those of traditional media (Hoffman & Novak, 1996) they often strive to acquire and incorporate personalised information of increasing distinctiveness into their communications (Ansari & Mela, 2003). However, the reactance of consumers cannot always be that of expected by retailers, with some believing the emails are in fact too personal.
For email marketing to be seen as effective, marketers should recognise that consumers see their email inbox as their personal domain, and should not abuse this privilege (Chittenden & Rettie, 2003). Whilst there are many positives to email marketing personalisation that lead to purchase intention, there are also features that can be seen as having negative impact on the consumer. An example when a form of email marketing that could be seen as intrusive can be shown in figure 4, where Boohoo are trying to get the consumer to review their service without the consumer’s consent. Although, it should be stated that the language in the email used is friendly and welcoming, using sentences such as ‘Thanks again’ (another form of personalisation).
Figure 4. Boohoo Email
PEM serves as a potential solution to this problem, defined as a promotional e-mail sent to consumers who have given consent to receive such messages from the sender (Marinova, et al., 2002). Missguided do this particularly well, in allowing consumers to sign up for their email newsletter and by giving the ability for the consumer to opt in or out.
References:
Ansari, A. & Mela, C., 2003. E-customization. Journal of marketing research, 40(2).
Chittenden, L. & Rettie, R., 2003. An evaluation of email marketing and factors affecting response. Journal of Targeting, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing, 11(3).
Grimes, G., Hough, M. & Signorella, M., 2007. Email end users and spam: relations of gender and age to group attitudes and actions. Computers in Human Behaviour, 23(1).
Hoffman, D. & Novak, T., 1996. Marketing in hypermedia computer mediated environments: Conceptual Foundations. Journal of Marketing.
Kim, M. & Dawson, S., 2010. Cues on apparel web sites that trigger impulse purchases. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 14(2).
Leboeuf, K., 2016. 2016 UPDATE: WHAT HAPPENS IN ONE INTERNET MINUTE?. [Online]
Available at: http://www.excelacom.com/resources/blog/2016-update-what-happens-in-one-internet-minute
[Accessed April 2016].
Marinova, A., Murphy, J. & Massey, B., 2002. Permission email marketing as a means of targeted promotion: hospitality operators should be able to use email marketing (by permission) to build relationships with their existing customers. The question is how to make it work. Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 43(1).
Monitor, C., 2016. How to use personalisation in your email marketing campaigns. [Online]
Available at: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/email-marketing/2016/02/how-to-use-personalization-in-email-marketing-campaigns/
[Accessed April 2016].
Moth, D., 2013. How fashion site Missguided made the switch to responsive email. [Online]
Available at: https://econsultancy.com/blog/63977-how-fashion-site-missguided-made-the-switch-to-responsive-email/
[Accessed April 2016].
Tezinde, T., Smith, B. & Murphy, J., 2002. Getting permission: exploring factors affecting. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 16(4).
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