Channels Driving Holiday Purchases Don't Include Online or Social

Multichannel

February 2013 -- Marketing solutions provider StrongMail has published findings from its inaugural Holiday Retail Marketing Survey, the purpose of which is to help understand how retailers' marketing efforts directly affected the purchasing habits of U.S. online consumers.

The survey of over 2,100 online adults, conducted online nationwide by Harris Interactive found that:

NO SURPRISE ... CONSUMERS HOT FOR SALES
 

• Nearly seven of 10 U.S. online consumers (67%) made a purchase from a retailer during the 2012 holiday season as a result of a sale or promotion.

SOCIAL CHANNELS LAG IN DRIVING PURCHASES, DESPITE MARKETERS' INVESTMENT IN THEM
 

• Of those who made a holiday-related purchase from a retailer, channels that promoted sales and resulted in purchases:

 

• Email marketing promotions - 51%
• TV ads – 45%
• Print ads (newspaper/magazine) – 42%
• Online advertising – 33%
• Social media ads – 17%

 

• Note: Despite retailers' emphasis on social channels, such as Facebook and Twitter, social media only influenced 17% of U.S. consumer purchase decisions.

PROMOTIONAL EMAIL BLASTS: HIGH SIGN-UP RATES ... AND UNSUBSCRIBE RATES

• This past holiday season, 74% of respondents signed up for email notifications from retailers to get coupons, while 66% signed up for sales announcements.

 

• Among those U.S. online adults who unsubscribed from retailer email notifications this past holiday season, 65% say they unsubscribed from two to five emails. Key reasons:

 

• 67% said they just received too many emails
• 45% were no longer interested in that retailer and their goods/services
• 37% said content of the emails were no longer relevant
• 18% say they never signed up for the email blasts.

 
About: This online U.S. survey was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of StrongMail from Jan. 7-9, 2013 among 2,166 adults ages 18+, of whom 1,482 were identified as having made a purchase from a retailer as a result of a sale and or promotion this season. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.

Source:  StrongMail, What Emailers Can Learn From the Holidays Infographic and news release, StrongMail Study Reveals Email is Still the Leading Driver of Holiday Purchase Decisions, Feb 20, 2013.