Silverpop retail benchmark Study

STUDY

SILVERPOP SURVEY:
How Retail Marketers Are (and Aren’t
Quite Yet) Using Triggered Emails
T
oday, more and more marketers are looking for creative ways to engage customers and drive
revenue. But are they using the right tools? Are they tapping into the power of behavior-driven,
triggered messages?
To answer these questions, Silverpop conducted a detailed benchmark survey of 43 retailers and e-commerce
companies and asked them to report on their use of tactics such as cart abandonment campaigns, browse
abandonment programs and post-purchase emails—and the related results.
With this report, we present a series of broad benchmarks marketers can
use to help answer some of their own burning questions about
triggered messaging best practices. When should you distribute
cart abandonment emails, and how many should you send?
What sort of conversion rates can you expect? And what
kinds of post-purchase messages should you consider?

Key Findings / Summary
A few notable trends emerged from the survey results.
Here are some key takeaways:
• Many retailers are leaving cart abandonment
opportunities untapped. Less than half
of retailers surveyed are implementing cart
abandonment campaigns despite their well-
documented remarketing benefits.
• Of the retailers that use cart recovery emails,
most send too late—and not often enough.
The majority of retailers surveyed wait too
long to send the first abandonment recovery
email, and then fail to follow up with a series of
communications, denying themselves the best
chance to win back these sales.
• Abandonment recovery efforts are well worth
the time. These emails typically yield much better
open, click-through and conversion rates than
general broadcast emails.
• Post-purchase opportunities abound. While the
majority of retailers surveyed send at least one type
of post-purchase email, there are several types of
highly relevant, behavior-driven messages going
largely unused.
• Browse abandonment initiatives are poised to take
off. Though few retailers are currently employing these
campaigns, nearly three-fourths of respondents said they
planned to by the end of 2011.

www.silverpop.com © 2010 Copyright Silverpop. All rights reserved. The Silverpop logo is a registered trademark of Silverpop Systems Inc. 1

STUDY

STUDY FINDINGS: How Retailers Are Using Triggered Emails
1 Use of Cart Abandonment Emails
Although most industry studies have shown that between 15 percent and 20 percent
of retailers currently use cart abandonment campaigns, that number should ascend quickly:
83 percent of Silverpop survey respondents plan to take advantage of this tactic by the
end of 2011.
Retailers still on the fence would be wise to embrace the practice sooner rather than later,
as these checkout-reminder emails can give you a competitive advantage and boost the
bottom line. According to shopping cart recovery services provider SeeWhy, a company
doing $200 million in annual revenue loses $1.2 million a day from cart abandonment.
To maximize the effectiveness of cart abandonment emails, companies should avoid
emulating the overly aggressive salesperson who follows the consumer around the store
and out the door, instead adopting a service tone. Offer to complete the transaction in
other channels, such as through live chat or a call center, and ask if the shopper had a
problem at checkout.

2 Use of Incentives
When sending abandonment messages, retailers must decide whether to offer an
incentive to lure customers back to complete a purchase. Survey respondents were split in
their approach, with two-thirds not offering an incentive in the first recovery email, while
one-third offered free shipping, a percentage off, or some other combination of incentives.
With the right tone and approach, incentives are less important in cart recovery emails,
especially in the first email of a series. An emerging best practice approach is to not
offer an incentive in the first of a multipart series, but then offer a modest incentive in
the second email and your most aggressive offer in the final email.
There’s also a need to consider the risk of training customers. Repeat buyers might
consider abandoning to get a promotional offer. Making promotions less predictable can
reduce this risk. For example, you could only make free shipping offers to visitors who
abandon their shopping carts when the cart value exceeds $75.
To find the perfect balance between conversions and margins, test a variety of incentive
offers until you’ve found the recipe for generating the most revenue.


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3 Number of Emails in Cart Recovery Program
Rather than crafting a multistage cart abandonment series to recover lost revenue, two-thirds of
survey responders only send one cart recovery email.
To boost results, consider a multistage series, such as a three-part campaign in which the first reminder is
sent within an hour of abandonment, the second approximately 24 hours after abandonment, and the third
about a week later.
Consider how you’ll stop each of the stages in the campaign when a customer comes back and buys.
There’s nothing guaranteed to infuriate customers more than a promotion for an item they’ve just purchased.
Keep in mind that optimal timing will vary based on the site and the time sensitivity of the transaction.
To determine what cadence works best for your company, test a few different timing and frequency
options along with use and level of incentives.

4 Timing of First Abandonment Message
According to research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 90 percent of
ecommerce leads go cold within one hour. Yet despite the risk of losing the customer
by waiting too long to follow up, 83 percent of survey responders waited five or more
hours to send the first recovery email—and 61 percent waited more than 24 hours.
To maximize the effectiveness of your cart abandonment initiatives, act fast. Real-time
responses help ensure message relevance. In general, the faster you connect with
the customer, the better your chances of success—but remember to monitor click-
throughs, conversions and unsubscribes to ensure you’ve nailed the optimum timing.

5 Open Rates
Although it’s important not to overestimate the importance of open rates as a
measure of subscriber engagement, they do give you a feel for how your “From” name,
subject line, and overall brand and value proposition rate with recipients.
Providing further evidence of their high relevance, cart recovery emails can deliver
a much higher open rate than the average broadcast email, with a whopping
80 percent of survey respondents reporting an open rate of 21 percent or higher for
these messages compared to 31 percent for general broadcast emails. The numbers
at higher percentages are even more dramatic, with 53 percent tallying a 30 percent
or better open rate for cart recovery emails, versus 14 percent for broadcast.
To maximize open rates on cart abandonment messages, use a branded “From”
line and a subject line that reflects the actions your recipient took on your site.
(average email open rate)
By doing so, you’ll help ensure that your email stands out in a crowded inbox.

6 Click-through Rates
For the majority of survey respondents, click-through rates—which measure how
strongly an email’s content and call-to-action(s) resonated with recipients—averaged
below 10 percent for broadcast emails. Because of their highly personalized nature, cart
abandonment messages can achieve click-through rates many times that rate.
According to Silverpop’s survey, 87 percent achieved click-through rates of better
than 10 percent, and nearly two out of five marketers using cart recovery messages
achieved a click-through rate greater than 20 percent—double the percentage of their
broadcast emails.
To maximize click-throughs in cart recovery messages, test various message elements
such as different layout approaches, mix of images versus text, CTA buttons and whether
to specifically include pictures of the actual products your customer left in the cart or just
(average email click-through rate)
use a generic reminder to come back and complete their purchase. Either way, always
link directly to the cart.

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7 Conversion Rates
Although open and click-through rates are important indicators of recipient engagement, conversion rates
are the most important of the three since conversions mean revenue. And according to survey responders,
cart abandonment emails deliver significantly higher conversion rates than do broadcast emails.
In fact, the vast majority of respondents’ broadcast emails—86 percent—yielded
conversion rates of 10 percent or less, with only 14 percent notching conversion
rates of 11 percent or higher. In contrast, 45 percent of survey responders reported
that their cart recovery emails yielded a conversion rate of 11 percent of higher—
nearly four times that of broadcast emails.
To boost conversions, test the impact of various message elements, such as:
• Reminding shoppers how long they have to complete the purchase to
create a sense of urgency
• Inclusion of photos of and/or information on abandoned products
• Addition of customer reviews and testimonials
• Inclusion of phone number and email address
• Incorporation of related recommended products and top sellers in the last of
a sequence of remarketing emails (average email conversion rate)

• Layout to ensure it renders reasonably well across multiple devices and
with images blocked
And one final note: In your zeal to recapture sales, don’t forget to place customer service first and foremost so your
email doesn’t come across as too pushy. Include customer-support contact information that enables shoppers to
report technical problems with the site or issues they had with the product or your checkout process.

8 Use of Browse Abandonment Emails
The practice of sending browse abandonment emails, which
are messages that indicate a shopper looked at certain products or
categories but then left the site, is a relatively new addition to the email
marketing equation. The survey found that only a small percentage of
respondents are currently employing the tactic.
But with the success many marketers have experienced with cart
abandonment campaigns, the concept is catching on quickly, with
71 percent of survey responders reporting that they plan to try browse
abandonment initiatives by the end of 2011.
To boost the relevancy of these messages, personalize them with
images and details of a website category, page or product the
shopper viewed but didn’t result in a purchase. And as with cart
abandonment, marketers should avoid a hard sell and test the
number of messages and timing to find the optimum mix.
In addition, you should also test message elements such as the
inclusion of photos, customer reviews, recommended products, etc.
to see what resonates most strongly with your readership.


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9 Post-Purchase Emails
Sending triggered messages after a purchase can help you
learn whether your customers are happy with their purchases,
encourage future transactions, and invite customers to become
brand ambassadors and help you extend the reach of your
marketing messages.
Nearly three-quarters of survey respondents send at least
one type of post-purchase email, with service satisfaction
surveys the most popular example (50 percent). In addition to
alerting you to potential problems in the transaction process
and minimizing customer defection, these messages can
also be used to identify content for possible testimonials.
And they can deliver higher revenues than standard
broadcast messages.
With customers increasingly using reviews when
evaluating purchases, many marketers are employing
post-purchase messages to encourage customers to contribute this key
source of content. But although nearly half (43 percent) of survey
responders are sending product review requests, only 2 percent are
sending notifications that the review has posted. Not only do these
messages provide another touch point with the customer and boost
your trustworthiness, they often generate incremental revenue. One
Silverpop client, S&S Worldwide, is seeing a 12 percent purchase rate
from customers that clicked on a review notification email.
Despite delivering higher conversion rates than standard broadcast
promotional messages, “happy birthday” and “purchase anniversary”
emails were used by less than one in five respondents. These messages
provide another means of contacting customers outside of the regular
promotional calendar. And since they are usually paired with a friendly
incentive to return and purchase again, they are a savvy way to increase
engagement and loyalty—and boost revenue at the same time.


STUDY

10 Triggered Messages as a Part
of Email Programs
Individual messages that are triggered by customer actions are an immensely
powerful way to connect with customers. Packed with highly relevant content that’s
personally tailored for the recipient, triggered messages typically deliver several
times the open, click-through and conversion rates of standard broadcast emails.
According to our survey, triggered emails make up less than 10 percent of the
total email volume for the majority (63 percent) of respondents, but despite the low
volume, these messages typically deliver high ROI. Triggered messages make up
only 4 percent of S&S Worldwide’s total email volume, for example, but account
for 40 percent of its email sales.
To remain visible and wanted in the inbox, marketers should make sure emails
triggered by customer behavior and targeted to preferences are part of their
messaging mix, and that they’re not relying too heavily on less relevant,
one-size-fits-all broadcast campaigns.
Although triggered messages take more time to set up and sometimes require
complex business rules and integrations with internal or third-party technologies
and data, you ultimately need fewer people to execute a triggered message
program. That’s because once set up, these automated messages virtually run
by themselves, requiring just oversight, testing and occasional tweaking. And
when deployed as part of a comprehensive series of pre- to post-purchase
emails ranging from cart abandonment reminders to transaction confirmations
to happy birthday discounts, these messages are well worth the initial effort,
since they can generate tremendous revenue.

Conclusion Additional Resources
Inboxes are crowded, and the “noise” is louder than ever. As a result, 1) Gaylord case study: Online retailer regains 50 percent of “lost” sales
generic batch-and-blast emails are becoming less effective. Yet many from cart abandoners through SeeWhy/Silverpop integration
retailers have not yet taken advantage of the inherent relevancy of behavior- 2) Silverpop Webinar: “The 5 Best Techniques for Recovering Abandoned
based, triggered emails to help them stand out from the masses. Shopping Carts with Email and Social Media”
Those companies that have employed recipient-driven messaging such 3) Silverpop blog article: “Post-Purchase Emails That Drive Higher
as cart abandonment campaigns have seen excellent results. By following Revenue, Engagement
best practices, you can help build your email business before and after
the sale, generating incremental boosts in revenue and customer loyalty 4) S&S Worldwide case study: Online retailer recovers 25 percent of lost
with only a modest time investment. sales from abandoned carts using Silverpop Engage
5) Silverpop white paper: “Uncovering Revenue Opportunities: 10 Ways
to Give Your Retail Program a Boost”
Survey Methodology
To compile broad benchmark data that would help marketers learn
from each other, Silverpop conducted a detailed survey of 43 retailers
and e-commerce companies in Sept. 2010 regarding the use
of pre- and post-purchase triggered emails.


Silverpop retail benchmark Study

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