Macy's Direct, a unit of Federated Department Stores Inc., is offering its customers who use America Online's Internet service the ability to receive marketing e-mail in HTML format.
In conjunction with e-mail services provider CheetahMail, Macys.com customers who choose to receive e-mail from the retailer and are using the 6.0 version of AOL's online service can receive messages in HTML format. Previously AOL customers could only receive e-mail in rich text format.
“Macys.com considers its e-mail promotional messaging to be a part of a larger integrated marketing effort, and the ability to present a consistent marketing approach to all of our customers, including our important AOL members, is critical,” said Kent Anderson, president of Macy's Direct.
Since AOL users previously could only receive e-mail in either plain or rich text formats, the addition of HTML mail is expected to lead to a greater response to Macys.com's marketing efforts, according to Irene Pedraza, CEO of CheetahMail, New York.
“When [the] richer experience is combined with our ability to track purchase behavior and segment based on their behavior, we believe that our clients, especially sophisticated users of customer intelligence marketing such as Macys.com, will see dramatic increases in measurable results, without expensive time required from their IT department or an outside Web site manager,” Pedraza said.
