Most e-commerce Web sites are missing opportunities in the way they reach customers and these missed opportunities will cost them profits., according to phase two of a Rubric Inc study of the top 50 Web sites.
Rubric sent decoy buyers online to purchase an item for each of the 50 sites, including Amazon.com, brooksbrothers.com, disney.com, etoys, staples.com and walmart.com. Then, they reported on the quality and level of customer contact over a 90-day period post-purchase.
Major missteps these sites make are failing to target and personalize their e-marketing campaigns. The typical e-mail pitch included an average of 4.4 different offers. And, only 5% of the offer e-mails were related to the original purchase.
Nearly 90% of offer e-mails were not targeted to individual customer's needs or buying behaviors. Personalization of e-mails was rare, with only 16% of the offer e-mails personalized to the individual.
Many sites, the study continued, didn't try very hard to win additional sales. Only 38% of them cross-marketed offers to customers within 90 days of the purchase. Indeed, the average site took nearly a month--25.6 days--to send their first offer to the customer.
"The lack of consistent and continuous communication was a major inhibitor to building relationships," a company statement concluded.
The average number of e-mails sent over a 90-day period was 3.4.
The good news is sites are avoiding spamming customers--almost all are sending e-mail only to those who give permission to receive it. Just 5% of the top 50 sites don't provide an opportunity for customers to "opt out" or choose to stop receiving e-mail.
Findings from Phase one of the study, released in July, reported on customer contact for 30 days after a purchase. Phase II continues that post-purchase waiting period for 90 days.
