eMail Marketing
analysed in
13 European countries

eCommerce and
holiday shopping
season:
sales expected to increase by 39%
in the fourth quarter of 2001 to $25.3 billion

Revenues from e-mail marketing services are expected to triple in 2001

If consumers are rather fast to subscribe to newsletters, they seem to be just as fast to…unsubscribe!

At least, this is the conclusion reached by a study carried out by Forrester Research, in the second quarter of 2001, by means of consumer mail panels of 29.000 respondents surveyed in a total of 13 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Ireland, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). These data were amended according to each of these countries' population.

This study also indicates that eTravel has the lowest cancellation rates: an average of 5%.

This is mainly due to last minute deals…and, as a result, to the added value a newsletter might or might not have for an Internet user.

According to this study, the main reason that explains cancellations is poor content and/or information that do not meet users' expectations.

Email frequency and advertising intensity constitute the second element that might prompt users to unsubscribe.

And finally, exceedingly long emails that try and address all their subscribers' possible interests can only lead them to cancel their email subscriptions.

The other figures of the study

Consumers who prove more willing to play the "permission email marketing game" have the following profile:

- 55% of the respondents are between 16 and 34 years old

- 44% have a university degree

- 46% have been online for over two years

- 77% are rather optimistic as far as technology is concerned.

They spend an average of 9 hours online every week

- For 95% of them, email is a regular activity

- 90% own a mobile phone

- 29% send SMS messages

- 41% think that email is a very good way to get information on new products.

- 36% read most of the mails they receive.

- 9% consider that the information they receive is interesting enough to be forwarded to friends.

Opt-in versus spamming

And finally, the study indicates, if needs be, that email spamming is falling off and is being replaced by the permission email marketing. Double opt-in (demanding explicit permission by mail) even proves to gain the upper hand, especially when it allows its users to indicate their choices and interests.

Source : Forrester Research

Despite the economic slow-down and the terrorist attacks of September 11, Gartner G2, a research unit of the Gartner group, believes that worldwide eCommerce should see its sales increase by 39% in the fourth quarter of 2001 to reach $25.3 billion.

For his economic forecasting, Gartner G2 surveyed 16.449 U.S. respondents in order to find out how they intended to shop online this holiday season.

Among those who already shopped online last year, 80.5% declared that they were going to shop online just as much as what they did last year.

At the same time, 13.6% of these 2000 online shoppers declared that they intend to shop online in a lesser degree than what they did last year.

And finally, 6% of the 2000 shoppers declared that they are not going to shop online at all this year.

Another element proves interesting in this GartnerG2 survey: the United-States that used to account for 50% of worldwide Internet retailing sales in 2000 will only account for 46.9% this year.

This does not necessarily mean that its sales are decreasing but only that American Internet sales are now rising at a slower rate than what can be seen on some other continents.

According to GartnerG2, U.S. Internet revenue is expected to reach $11.86 billion for Fourth quarter 2001 to be compared to $9.13 billion for fourth quarter 2000.

Europe should see its Internet retailing sales rise to $8.58 billion in 2001 compared to $6.15 billion in the last quarter of 2000 and see its market share go from 33.7% to 33.9%.

The main beneficiaries of this eCommerce growth will be Asia/Pacific whose market share should go from 8.8% to 9.7% with sales that should amount to $2.46 billion in the fourth quarter of 2001, not to mention Japan with sales that should reach $1.4 billion and a 5.5% market share for this country alone.

Source : GartnerG2

Revenues from e-mail marketing services are expected to triple in 2001 according to Forrester Research that considers the market worth $1.1 billion. A figure that should be compared to the $400 million registered in 2000.

And yet, still according to Forrester Research, usual online advertising should see a 18% drop, to reach $6 billion in 2001 from $7.6 billion last year.

As for the Gartner group, it believes that overall ad sales should reach $7.9 billion this year (e-mail included) from $8 billion last year according to the IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau).

Forrester divides the e-mail market into two categories:

- Sales in customer communications whose sales are expected to reach $1.1 billion in 2001 and $1.8 billion in 2002.

- Sales for list and newsletter advertising that are expected to reach $220 million in 2001 and $223 in 2002.

Source : Msnbc