Big brand retailers are missing out on the opportunity to build profitable, long-term relationships with website visitors by failing to integrate email marketing with their ecommerce operation, according to a study conducted by ecommerce solutions specialists Dotcommerce.

Many online retailers have not put in place simple features to boost data acquisition, the researchers found, with only 30% giving the option to sign up to an email newsletter during the checkout process. In addition, only 40% look to develop ongoing relationships with their customers by sending a marketing email within ten days of a purchase.

The study also found that one in five retailers neglect to have any sort of data capture on their homepage and 55% of those that do fail to place the link towards the top of the page, making it invisible to most visitors. In addition, only 5% of follow-up marketing emails sent to new customers are personalised or targeted towards the individual.

“Too many of the retailers we surveyed are not using email marketing as effectively as they could, to maximise their ecommerce revenue and build stronger, more profitable customer relationships,” says Simon Bird, technical director at Dotcommerce.

“Any online retailer that neglects email marketing does so at their peril,” Bird cautions. “At the very least they should ensure they collect permissioned contact data through the online customer journey and use that information to inform timely, personalised and targeted email communications.”

The findings form part of Hitting The Checkout, a benchmark study which assesses 20 of the UK’s leading retail websites. Readers can download the full report free of charge from the Dotcommerce website.

Related news

• UK retailers are failing to make the most of social media marketing
• 85% of email marketers collect personal data they don’t use
• Online retailers largely ignoring blogs and social bookmarking
• Top UK retailers ignoring email, social and mobile marketing, finds annual study
• Silverpop publishes international email marketing metrics benchmarks
• Email now accounts for 14% of digital marketing spend