An examination of the e-mail and electronic relationship marketing practices of the USA's top 500 online retailers. (2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Heiens, Richard A.; Narayanaswamy, Ravi
• Is Part Of: International journal of electronic customer relationship management. Volume 10:Number 2/4(2016)
• Page Start: 125
• Page End: 137
• Publication Date: 2016
• Subjects: email marketing -- incentive offers -- online retailing -- opt-in -- social network links -- welcome emails -- electronic relationship marketing -- USA -- United States -- etailing -- electronic retailing -- social networks; Customer relations -- Management -- Data processing -- Periodicals; Electronic commerce -- Periodicals; 658.8120285
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-0664

Abstract

The present study analyses the relationship between the relative size of an internet retailer in terms of annual sales and their use of e-mail marketing and electronically mediated relationship marketing strategies. The results reveal that the majority of the USA's top 500 online retailers do in fact rely on e-mail marketing programs and that higher-ranked companies actually send more e-mails per customer per year than their lower-ranked counterparts. Also, higher-ranked online retailers are not as likely to permanently include an 'opt-in' choice on their websites, although they are more likely to send a series of welcome e-mails. Moreover, there is partial support that higher-ranked online retailers are more likely to utilise incentive offers. Finally, higher-ranked online retailers are more likely to include links to social networks on their websites.