Heavy discounting? Higher frequency? Not so much in ecommerce email marketing this holiday season.
Retail experts predicted marketers would rely on heavy discounting to attract bargain-hunting shoppers and clear out inventories. That might have been the case in stores or on websites. However, MailCharts research didn’t reveal unseasonably large discounting or higher frequency in email campaigns over the last 90 days.
Instead, MailCharts data shows ecommerce email marketers generally followed their 2021 frequency and sending patterns: a spike in campaign frequency and promotions around Black Friday/Cyber Monday surrounded by smaller peaks and valleys.
Our research did reveal one surprising source of heavier discounting and higher frequency. As the click-baiters like to say, you’ll never guess which one!
Here’s what we’re observing as the holiday shopping season winds down.
1. Email campaigns followed 2021 frequency promo rate trends
Over the last 90 days, brands in the bellwether Ecommerce Spectrum 300 group sent seven percent more campaigns with promotions such as percentage or monetary discounts, free shipping, and BOGO. Even with Cyber Five campaigns included, we expected to see a higher promotion rate.
Frequency down slightly over 90 days: Ecommerce Spectrum brands actually pulled back—frequency fell 1.6 percent in the last 90 days compared with the same period in 2021. Check the data in MailCharts; you’ll find frequency actually declined just before Amazon’s fall Prime event. In previous years, marketers sent more campaigns to counteract Prime’s draw.
2. December surged in some—but not all—market categories
The Ecommerce Spectrum brands also reduced frequency as the holidays closed in. The weekly average number of campaigns fell 18.7 percent since the Cyber Five weekend and 4.3 percent compared to the same period in 2021.
December 5th was a busy day: Although marketers generally cut back on promotions in early December, we saw a small spike in promotion rates in the Ecommerce Spectrum brands and individual industrial groups like Apparel, Home, and Tech. That was enough to raise average weekly promotions by 2.7 percent in the first two weeks of December over 2021.
3. Luxury brands break away from apparel trends
Who knew luxury apparel was the bargain-hunters’ paradise this year? Luxury brands like Coach and White + Warren sent promotions 100 percent of their December 1-15th campaigns. For all apparel brands in the MailCharts Index, the promotion rate grew 4.4 percent over 2021 for all apparel brands. Among the 78 luxury brands we track, the promo rate was up by 21.45 percent.
Luxury marketers boost frequency, too: Do these brands know something other ecommerce email marketers don’t? The average weekly campaign frequency for luxury brands grew 14.4 percent over the same period in 2021, again with a small spike around December 5th.
But that might not be an onerous increase for customers, because luxury brands send about half the number of weekly campaigns on average as other apparel brands.
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