As we’ve discussed on this site before, welcome campaigns are a critical tool in jump starting profitable customer relationships. This week, Experian CheetahMail has a new case study that illustrates how incentivized welcome emails can earn higher order values, click rates and revenue per email.

In the case study, we see that Sundance Catalog was able to increase average order sizes by 2x just by adding a basic incentive to multiple types of welcome emails. Even better, Sundance was able to prove the value of incentives by testing two types of welcome emails — those sent to new subscribers who opted-in by completing an email sign-up form on the website, and those who opted-in as part of their eCommerce checkout process. In both instances, the welcome emails with the special offer outperformed the standard, control message with no offer.

Of course, incentives are not a perfect strategy for every brand. Sundance was wise in their methodology, performing a thorough test before they committed to making any final changes to their welcome email program. As a best practice, we typically recommend that most brands do the same before they begin offering discounts.

To read more about Sundance and welcome email incentives, read the full case study now.

We have all been guilty at one time or another of abandoning our shopping carts. Maybe we couldn’t find our credit card, or the shipping costs shocked us, or we simply lost interest in our purchase.

Whatever the reason for the abandonment, the simple fact is that the vendor has let untapped revenue slip between their fingers.

Experian CheetahMail’s new white paper, The remarketing report: Benchmark data and analysis for connecting web behavior to email marketing explains the value in marketing to abandoners, reporting that sending reminder emails to abandoners who do not convert after the first abandoned cart email can boost campaign revenue by up to 33 percent.

But why do website visitors abandon their carts in the first place? A study by PayPal and comScore found that 45% of US online shoppers had abandoned shopping carts multiple times in just three weeks. The average cost of abandoned goods in those shopping carts was $109. In the same study, 46% of online shoppers said high shipping charges was a “very important reason” for ditching their carts.

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