Return Path has just released their Third Annual Holiday Email Consumer Survey. For the third year in a row, consumers say that they love the kind of email that helps them shop, gives them new ideas and comes when it was promised (and not more often).

The good news is that nearly all respondents selected at least one response indicating the importance of email to their online shopping this season. In fact, half (49.1%) claimed they took advantage of several email offers this year. But the bad news, at least for some marketers, is that half report receiving high volumes of "junk" email this year (“email from companies I know but that is just not interesting to me.”), and one-third say marketers email them more frequently than promised.

What makes consumers open one email and not another?

For the third year in a row, the top reason was "prior value with
the email program." This was the only influencing element to grow in
importance, up 7% from last year to 51.2%. Brand, subject line and
discounts/free shipping also help, but the influence of these elements
diminished this year. Consumers consistently tell in this study that if
they found value in a previous email, they were more likely to open the
next email from that sender. While marketers have benefited from
consumers’ love affair with email, the bar keeps moving higher. This is
a relationship medium — the relevancy of today’s email counts when consumers consider tomorrow’s.

Consumers are also much savvier than ever when it comes to managing
their inbox during the busy holiday season. They are paying attention
to things like a working unsubscribe, frequency and the “from” line. In
terms of how they specifically deal with extra holiday email, more than
half (54.5%) of respondents tell us they just delete unwanted or
uninteresting messages unread, a quarter of them unsubscribe and
another 26.6% click the "this is spam" button. While fewer
respondents selected those measures this year than last year, many more
(31.3%, up 40% from last year) selected "there was no impact on my
regular habits" category.

Before you celebrate, consider that "regular habits" are not so
favorable to marketers who don’t work hard to create relevant
experiences throughout the year. A quarter (26%) of subscribers
routinely report as spam any message they do not recall requesting.
Half (51.1%) just delete any message they don’t recognize. What Return
Path found this year is that the increase in holiday season email didn’t change consumer habits around deciding which emails to open and read – consumers are already savvy about selecting only those emails that they expect and find relevant.

There is lots of good news around email – it works! The ROI from the
holiday season and all year with Return Path clients is again very high
from this channel. But the spoils of this medium will increasingly go
only to those marketers who consistently create compelling subscriber
experiences.

Check out the full Research Brief now.