Catalog Customers Respond to E-mail More
E-mail sent from catalogers reaches recipients more often and is opened and clicked through more frequently this year than it was last year. According to a new study of the second quarter of 2003 by online marketing firm DoubleClick, catalog and retail e-mails lead all other sectors in e-mail effectiveness. Delivery rates increased to 91%, which is up 7% from the second quarter of 2002.
Catalog and retail open rates rose to 37%–up 15% over 2002. And, click rates reached 6.7%, compared with 6.1% in 2002.
Overall, e-mail open rates increased from 37.6% in the second quarter of 2002 to 38.8% for the same period in 2003. Total click-through rates went up from 7.5% to 8.3%. Bounce-back rates declined2.4%.
Conversion rates held steady year over year. The average revenue generated per e-mail delivered in the 2003 was 28 cents. Last year it was 29 cents.
For every thousand pieces of mail sent in 2003, more than 2.65 purchases resulted on average. But, the average order size decreased slightly from 2002 levels from $102 to $98.
The DoubleClick study, performed each quarter, contains aggregate data from over 2 billion permission-based e-mails from hundreds of DoubleClick clients.
