Tightening the customer bond with e-mail newsletters

Customers who receive an e-mail newsletter in addition to e-mail catalogs from china, silver and collectibles retailer Replacements Ltd. spend 20% more per order than customers who receive mailed versions of the catalogs, Replacements says.

Replacements sends the newsletter to 1.3 million customers monthly, many of whom also receive a customized e-mail catalog that features products they have expressed interest in or are likely to be interested in. The newsletter includes information of a more general nature, such as histories of china companies, dictionaries of tableware terms and place-setting layouts for various occasions.

“The relationship with the newsletter customers is much better than the relationship with offline customers,” says Jack Whitley, director of sales and marketing, who also writes the newsletter. “We have developed a rapport with them by sending information that was not just a solicitation.”

An e-mail newsletter recipient’s average order is $141 vs. $118 for customers who receive product updates via mail, Whitley says. And the boost that Replacements gets comes at very little additional cost. “It would cost us millions to send the newsletter in hard copy, but with the e-mail newsletter, there’s no increase in variable costs,” Whitley says. “And we get great customer feedback from the newsletter.”