Marketers Increase Email Use On Black Friday

Black Friday saw many brick and mortar retailers promoting themselves primarily through email, according to Chad White, research director at Responsys.

“What’s new this year is that a lot of large stores-based retailers [encouraged] shopping online,” he says. “This is the kind of messaging we’ve traditionally seen from pure-play online retailers."

White notes that firms such as JCPenney, Office Depot and Eddie Bauer adopted this strategy. These stores generally advertised such benefits as avoiding crowds, thereby reducing the stress of physical shopping that online would bring, he says.

“Black Friday has always been about driving customers to the store,” says White.

Pure-play online marketers weren't shy about using email to cash in on consumers' post-Thanksgiving shopping urges, either.

"This is the most aggressive we have been with Black Friday," says Barbara Lund, merchandise and marketing director for the Museum Tour Catalog, referring to her company's total email, social media and Twitter efforts.

For all of its aggressiveness, the Museum Tour Catalog held off promoting its Black Friday sales via email until the day before. "There were companies announcing Black Friday deals a week ahead of time," Lund says. "People would just wait for them. We didn’t want to dilute the ongoing sales [leading up to Black Friday]".

The Museum Tour Catalog's email used discounts to lure customers onto its website, which is a rarity for the company. Typically the Museum Tour Catalog offers sale prices only three times a year – on Black Friday, Cyber Monday (the first Monday after Thanksgiving, when workers return to their office and shop using the powerful Internet connections) and in July, when the company's year ends.

At least as far as Black Friday was concerned, the discount strategy worked: Customers did not limit themselves to discounted items, Lund says. While the total sales volume was lower, each individual order amount was higher, she adds.

In some cases, marketers are using email in creative ways beyond promotions. In 2011, Sears implemented a program that sends receipts to customers who have made purchases online. But given that some couples have joint email accounts, the company also allows purchasers to send receipts to addresses other than the main one on file, or not to send receipts at all, holding them instead in a perpetually accessible database.

"A customer may be buying something for a spouse, and doesn't want that spouse to see what was purchased," says Tom Aiello, a spokesperson for Sears and K-Mart.

Receipts that are emailed offer the stores the opportunity to suggest complimentary products, Aiello adds.

For marketers wishing to compare their own use of Black Friday email, Responsys also found that:

* Friday was the most popular day to send retail emails during Thanksgiving week, with a participation rate of 69%, equal to that of Black Friday 2010.

* Thanksgiving Day saw 60% of major retailers sending promotional email last year, up from 45% in 2009 (the most recent year available for comparison).

* Thanksgiving Day email was largely responsible for a 28% jump in online sales to $407 million compared to Thanksgiving Day 2009.