Browse To Buy: How Fashion Brands Tackle Email Retargeting
Email retargeting when done poorly is a painful, labor intensive process that has to be constantly updated and monitored. When done correctly, it is one-time implementation that becomes a highly anticipated form of communication that customers value.
A common jumping off point in either scenario is the cart abandonment triggered email. Designed to target customers based on their behavior on a website, these emails often take the form of Cart Abandonment emails meant to bring customers back to complete purchases.
According to the Trends in Digital Retail: Engaging & Converting Through Personalization & Omnichannel Excellence report, Cart Abandonment results in an average loss of 13% of all revenue during the holiday season for retailers. The same report showed 40% of marketers found that retargeting emails sent within hours of a website visit are somewhat or very successful at generating revenue.
Two-thirds of retailers also reported that email retargeting has increased online sales by at least 10%.
But why limit yourself and your company to this singular form of email retargeting? With the correct infrastructure, customers can be retargeted based not only on their browsing behaviors (as noted below), but also based on product catalog changes.
Take a look at the example of a Browse Abandonment email below sent by Express via the Bluecore triggered email platform.
Express sends emails like these to individuals that browse or search for specific categories of apparel, jeans in this case. Several key aspects of this email and others like it help lead customers back to the site to make purchases. Bluecore has found that emails like this one sent by companies in the apparel category have seen an average of $1.54 in Revenue-Per-Email (RPE).
Let’s examine how results like these can be achieved with Browse Abandonment Emails catered to each individual user.
Timing is Key
This triggered email by Express was delivered a few days after the initial site visit. Utilizing Bluecore’s recipe rules, this personalized email was designed to help bring back customers by showing products related to a past browsing experience and best-selling products related to that specific category.
A key takeaway – no marketers, merchandisers or designers lifted a finger following that specific customer abandonment to generate this email. Browse Abandonment Emails sent after website visits see an average Open Rate of 48% in the apparel industry, showing these emails keep brands top-of-mind with customers.
Ensure Content is Engaging & Related to Customer Behavior
Understanding the contents of categories customers browse is key for customizing messaging. Express’ automated trigger emails include images of best-selling items in the jeans category as well as ones related to the browsed product. The images included in the email are dynamically generated based on the content browsed, eliminating time consuming back and forth between marketers and designers when trying to land the proper branding for an email.
Using dynamic content along with enticing copy that engages customers, Bluecore apparel partners like Express have seen average Click Rates of 12% with Browse Abandonment emails like these.
Don’t Waste Time; Automate Your Process
Browse Abandonment Emails and other triggered emails have been historically difficult to integrate because they required completely separate work streams between marketers, merchandisers and design teams.
Automating triggered emails with Bluecore’s platform ensures marketers design templates once, then allowing content for retargeting emails to be generated based on what the customer is most likely to engage with, not what a Sr. Merchandiser wants to sell the most of.
