Dive Brief:

• More retailers are using email to communicate with customers without resorting to offering so many discounts, according to email marketing company Listrak.

• Among 1,000 top North American retailers in the study, 22.2% more sent personalized email last year than the year before. Among 500 top retailers, 22.2% used product recommendations, including to customers that abandoned their shopping carts, an increase of 85% over the year before.

• Among the top 500 retailers, 66.7% sent an email out within 24 hours of a customer leaving their sites without buying what was in their cart, a 1.4% increase from last year, and 76.9% did so within 48 hours, up 4.3% from last year.

Dive Insight:

Listrak’s study shows that retailers are getting more nimble about their email marketing, but the firm points out that many lack an important aspect of interaction with their customers: responsive design of their websites, especially on mobile. Retailers are also failing to reach customers by email on their phones. 

These findings come despite the fact that using responsive design for e-mail boosts open rates 9% and click-through rates 113%, according to Listrak.