The scope of crossover that Amazon’s emails has with other retailers is almost difficult to comprehend. That’s why marketers pay such close attention to the ecommerce giant’s messaging; or at least they should. But there’s another digital brand that retailers should also keep a close eye on when it comes to email marketing: Groupon.
“We always talk about Amazon because the overlaps are so large, and so widespread. But it occurred to us in looking at recent analysis that Groupon was also a very considerable presence in a lot of their customers’ inboxes,” says John Landsman, director of strategy and analytics at eDataSource, and author of “Spotlight on Groupon’s Email Marketing,” a recent study conducted by the email marketing consulting firm.
The data suggests that, though Groupon’s emails tend to have lower read rates, the brand offsets this with huge impression figures, reaching almost double the amount of inboxes as Walmart. Groupon mails more than 17 times the number of campaigns than Walmart, Macy’s and Target combined—which proportionally contributes to its lower read rates—and has a considerable overlap with each of those brands’ subscribers.
“Customers of places like Walmart, Macy’s, Target, and a great many other consumer brands are getting a great deal of Groupon Mail because those overlaps are so large,” Landsman says. “If Groupon is in the top five of overlaps for as many brands as it is, you have to watch what they are doing. They set a bar that you need to meet.”
