In this digital era of booming E-commerce it is important for companies to keep the interest of potential consumers. There is then a need for the consumer to be kept in the loop when a product which is desired sells out and becomes unattainable. In situations such as this a consumer loses interest and would be directed elsewhere in the search for an alternative.
A method of customer retention is email marketing, which is a highly effective digital marketing strategy of sending emails to prospects and customers. (OptinMonster, 2019)
In terms of online fashion retailers an example of email marketing is a back in stock email alert. This is an email addressing the consumer that the product they requested is back in stock. With an email alert system in place, a customer attempts to purchase an out of stock item but instead is greeted with a popup informing them of the unavailability. A layover form is then presented with fields for the consumer to enter their email address and the option to be notified when the product is back in stock. This turns a negative experience into a method of retaining a potential customer.
To gain a better understanding of the customer’s experience, below are two scenarios which show customer touch points and two differing possible outcomes.
The scenarios represent two very different customer journeys the main difference is scenario two ends with the customer making a purchase in the near future.
The way in which companies may present the layover forms or popups will differ and there are many ways in which this can be done. Below are two examples
The first example shows how the pop up may look if the consumer is already a member and has previously purchased from the company. The second image gives representation of how the pop up may look for a new customer, who will need to enter their email address to become known to the company.
A detail to consider before implementing email stock alerts for an E-commerce store is that inventory management and stock control systems should already be in place. An inventory management system is a method by which a company manages stock in terms of stock checks and reordering (Widmer, 2019). A common inventory management system is minimum stock levels, the minimum stock level is the level at which consumer demand is met, if stock reaches below this level then it is time to replenish stock to ensure fulfilment of customer orders.
Although email marketing is very effective and useful for a business there are many points to consider before implementing this initiative. To ensure the email is effective one aspect to consider would be the email subject. The email subject should be targeted and not generic, the subject should get straight to the point and shouldn’t be something that could be sent to any customer (Hong, 2015). Another point to consider is frequency of emails, how often will emails be sent? If the user is bombarded with constant irrelevant emails they may be put off and regard it as spam (Reimers, 2016). The last point to consider is does the email add value for the consumer, value in this sense refers to relationship value, the relationship between company and consumer where the consumer gains beneficial information on product and market knowledge (Skarmeas, 2016).
The video below explains basic principles to implement when composing marketing emails and ways in which to make them efficient and gain a higher open rates.
(Google business, 2019)
References
Google business (2019). Do’s & Don’ts of Email Marketing. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=p9FPrwTwIXU [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].
Hong, H. (2015). Effective topic modeling for email. 2015 International Conference on High Performance Computing & Simulation (HPCS). [online] Available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7237060/references#references [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].
OptinMonster (2019). Email Marketing Made Simple: A Step by Step Guide [+ Examples]. [online] OptinMonster. Available at: https://optinmonster.com/beginners-guide-to-email-marketing/ [Accessed 28 Feb. 2019].
Reimers, V. (2016). Permission email marketing and its influence on online shopping. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 28(2), pp.309-310.
Skarmeas, D. (2016). Relationship Value: Drivers and Outcomes in Marketing. Journal of International Marketing., 24(1).
Widmer, B. (2019). Inventory Management 101: For Ecommerce Businesses. [online] A Better Lemonade Stand. Available at: https://www.abetterlemonadestand.com/inventory-management/ [Accessed 25 Feb. 2019].
