9 Sep 2011: The UK’s top retailers are increasingly adopting behavioural email in their online marketing efforts with a new report from RedEye International showing that use of abandoned basket email has doubled from 7% in November 2010 to 14%. This significant jump demonstrates more and more brands are realising the huge conversion uplift possible from using abandoned basket email, says the company. 

This new finding is unveiled in RedEye’s third Behavioural Email Benchmark Study which looks at the use of behavioural email by over 200 online companies across e-retail, insurance and gambling sectors including Amazon.co.uk, Play.com, Next.co.uk, Thomas Cook and Halfords. Data was collected June-July 2011, and compares research with results from RedEye’s previous Behavioural Email Benchmark Studies released in November 2010 and March 2011.

A key finding is that there are now more companies than ever using behavioural email. Back in November, on average 35% of all the companies monitored sent some form of behavioural email. Since March, this number has reached over 50%. The retail sector is catching up in their use of behavioural email. Back in November e-retailers were lagging behind with their use of behavioural email; on average only 29% used any type of behavioural email, but this has now increased to 46%.

Matthew Kelleher, Commercial Director at RedEye, comments: “Behavioural email has reached a turning point - finally in 2011 more companies are utilising it than aren’t. However, there are still a huge amount of missed opportunities for marketers, particularly when it comes to using abandoned basket email. A simple, automated abandoned basket trigger is easy to setup and can produce one of the best returns on investment – but 86% of companies are yet to start using it”

Key Findings from the third Behavioural Email Benchmark Study:

• Generally the use of behavioural email is steadily increasing across all sectors (e-retail, insurance, gambling).

• Gambling companies seem to be implementing the majority of triggers, with an average 70% using behavioural email across the triggers monitored. Statistically e-retailers are next in line, with an average 46% of e-retailers using behavioural email. The insurance sector is now lagging behind with an average of just 34% implementing behavioural email.

• The number of behavioural email triggers implemented within the e-retail sector has increased across all emails monitored.

•  The welcome email is the most commonly used email, implemented by 90% of gambling companies and 64% of e-retailers. However, 25% of e-retailers do not even offer pre-purchase registration, meaning a welcome email cannot be sent.

•   Despite a slight increase in use since March 2011, abandoned basket email is still the least used behavioural email. This is unfortunate as, based on conversion, it can be viewed as the most successful email trigger used by retail clients.

•    On average, retailers receive the highest CTR (Click-Through Rate) from using behavioural email.

•    Based on conversion the single most successful behavioural email trigger implemented by RedEye clients is the abandoned basket email, this is followed by the saved quote follow up email used by insurance companies.

Download the full report here: here