July Retail Email Volume Up 13% YOY

August 1, 2011

The top online retailers sent each of their subscribers 3.1 promotional emails on average during the week ending July 29, 2011 (last full week of July), according to Chad White, research director at Responsys and author of the Retail Email Blog. That’s down 2% week-over-week, up 1% from where it was four weeks ago, and up 13% year-over-year.

As previously predicted by the Retail Email Blog, subscribers received roughly 2.8 emails a week during the first two weeks following the July Fourth holiday, but that total approached 3.2 the week of July 22 and then dropped slightly to 3.1 the week of July 29.

July Holiday Email Trends Mirror 2010

In a repeat of promotional retail email patterns from July 2010, major online retailers got off to a slow start with emails mentioning the 2011 Christmas/holiday season in the first two weeks of July 2011, but now 11% of the top online retailers have begun their holiday email campaigns—exactly on par with last year at this time.

Strangely, the last week of the month saw a decrease in the number of retail emails mentioning back-to-school. At this time last year, references were basically flat week-over-week, so the Retail Email Blog advises this decline is probably not significant. This week the Retail Email Blog predicts back-to-school references in more than 20% of retail emails.

Online Retailers Like Monday

Although Monday is typically the least favorite day of the week, major online retailers seemed to have an affinity for Monday during the week ending July 29. Monday, July 25 was the most popular day to send promotional emails, with 54% of major online retailers sending subscribers at least one. The only other day of the week to surpass a 50% promotional email rate was Friday, July 29 (51%).

As usual, Saturday, July 23 (30%) and Sunday, July 24 (31%) had the lowest rates of sending promotional email, but Thursday, July 28 had an unusual dip for a weekday (37%).

Promo Email Continues Strong YOY Pattern

Each month from February to June 2011, average retail email volume was up substantially from where it was a year earlier. The highest average number of emails top online retailers sent their subscribers in any given week during the equivalent period in 2010 was a little more than 2.8 (week ending June 17, 2010), while this year it approached 3.2 (weeks ending June 3 and July 22).