The average order value that stems from e-mail marketing messages jumped 14.4% in the first quarter, to $182.92 from $159.93 in Q1 2012, according to a new study from Experian Marketing Services.
The findings are based on all the e-mails sent by Experian CheetahMail clients. Experian would not disclose the number of e-mails sent.
Revenue per e-mail remained at 12 cents, but the total volume of e-mail sent increased 11.6% year over year in the first quarter of 2013. That growth largely came from multichannel retailers and consumer products and goods companies, Experian says.
Experian also says that more than half of all e-mail opens in the first quarter took place on mobile devices. There was no immediate comparative data for those mobile opens.
“With overall email volume increasing nearly 12% this past year, coupled with revenue per e-mail remaining steady, the channel is showing strong growth to date in 2013,” says Peter DeNunzio, general manager for cross-channel marketing at Experian Marketing Services.
The Experian report also says:
• The unique open rate increased to 17.0% across all industries, up from 15.5% for the first quarter of 2012. For multichannel retailers, that rate increased to 16.3% from 14.3%. Experian defines unique opens as “the number of unique subscribers that have opened an HTML-formatted message.”
• The total click rate increased to 3.9% from 3.8%. For multichannel retailers, the rate increased to 3.8% from 3.6%. Experian defines total clicks as “every click on a tracked link, including multiple clicks by a given subscriber.”
Going forward, Experian forecast more e-mails will include “gift ideas” in their subject lines as retailers prepare for Father’s Day, which takes place on June 16. Father’s Day e-mail campaigns that include the subject line have 18% higher unique click rates and 40% higher transaction rates than do other e-mails, Experian says. The transaction rate equals the number of transactions divided by the number of messages sent (minus the number of messages bounced).