Retail E-Mail Up in March, April Fool’s and Easter Will Keep Things Going
According to recent data from The Retail Email Blog, top online retailers have boosted their promotional e-mail efforts during the past four weeks and over the past year.
For the week ending March 26, 2010, top online retailers sent each of their subscribers an average of 2.7 promotional e-mails, which was up 13 percent from the same time period last year, up 9 percent from a month ago and down 1 percent from the previous week.
Friday was the most popular day to send retail e-mail last week, with 50 percent of major online retailers sending at least one promotional e-mail that day. Monday was the second most popular day with 45 percent, followed by Tuesday with 44 percent, Thursday with 41 percent, Wednesday with 37 percent, Sunday with 25 percent and Saturday with 19 percent.
While e-mails mentioning graduation and Mother’s Day are creeping onto the radar, Easter e-mails are seeing a big boom, rising from being mentioned in fewer than 2 percent of retail e-mails in the first week of the month to more than 10 percent last week.
E-mails mentioning St. Patrick’s Day have plummeted, to no one’s surprise, while April Fool’s e-mails will likely see a small spike this week.
According to the National Retail Federation and BIGresearch, the average consumer celebrating Easter will spend about $118.60 this year, up 1.7 percent from $116.59 last year, with total spending expected to reach $13.03 billion.
The average consumer is expected to spend $17.29 on candy this Easter, up 4.5 percent from $16.55 last year, and $18.16 on gifts, up 5.0 percent from $17.30 last Easter.
Consumers will also spend $19.03 on clothing, $37.45 on food, $7.84 on flowers, $6.34 on decorations and $6.30 on greeting cards.
Meanwhile, 64.8 percent of U.S. consumers will do their Easter shopping at discount stores, while 33.2 percent will shop at department stores. Florists or gift/greeting card stores will be visited by 22.0 percent of consumers, followed by the Internet, where 13.1 percent of consumers will do their shopping this Easter. Specialty clothing stores will receive 7.0 percent of consumers while catalogs will be the shopping venue of choice for 3.7 percent of consumers.
Those between 25 to 34 years old will spend $136.79, the most of any age group. However, the NRF notes that more 18-24 year-olds will buy gifts this Easter season.
Sources:
http://www.retailemailblog.com/2010/03/week-end-trends-easter-messaging-to.html
http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/retail-email-volume-jumps-9-in-march-12421/
http://www.nrf.com/modules.php?name=News&op=viewlive&sp_id=903
