By Dianna Dilworth
Source: DMnews.com

Welcome e-mails are one of the most overlooked sales tools out there for retailers, according to a new report from on-demand business services firm Premiere Global Services and the Email Experience Council.

The second annual Retail Welcome Benchmark Study examined the subscription practices of the largest online retailers using welcome e-mails and found that only 72% of major online retailers regularly use welcome e-mails.

In addition, the study found that 62% of welcome e-mails asked the subscriber to whitelist them by adding an e-mail address to their address book, up from 49% last year.

The report also found that 32% of welcome e-mails include a discount, reward or incentive, down from 34 % last year and that 53% of welcome e-mails included links to the retailer’s privacy policy, up from 45% last year.

Seventy-nine percent of retailers who sent out welcome emails, used HTML welcome e-mails, up from 69% last year. The remainder sent text-only welcome e-mails.

In addition, 75% of the welcome e-mails include the retailer’s brand name in their subject lines, the same as last year.