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Retailers: Amazon is Beating You to the Inbox

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If you’re a retailer — big or small — you’re most likely competing with Amazon for customers. And that’s probably not news to you. But what may be surprising is how many of your email subscribers are also getting promotional holiday emails from Amazon weeks before the start of the holiday shopping season.

Last week, we co-hosted a webinar with John Landsman from eDataSource, and he shared data on Amazon’s holiday email campaigns for the past three holiday seasons – specifically their Black Friday and Cyber Monday email activity.amazon

According to eDataSource, there are email subscriber overlaps with Amazon for nine big name retailers. Five of those nine have Amazon overlaps at or above 50%. That means at least half of their email subscribers are also getting email from Amazon.

So those retailers’ customers are getting a lot of promotional holiday messaging from Amazon. And most likely, so are yours. “Amazon is competing against you for their inbox attention. You need to know what they’re doing, how, and how well,” John told the audience.

Amazon emails early and often

And what are they doing? Data shows Amazon is sending a steady flow of Black Friday related emails beginning three weeks before Black Friday. But for the same group of retailers studied, very little Black Friday email activity takes place until about a week before the event.

So Amazon is laying the ground work weeks in advance, with very little competition from other retailers for inbox attention.

Start planning campaigns early

The lesson to be learned – start launching your holiday campaigns earlier. We recommend sending your first big Black Friday email in the 1st week in November.

If you’re consistently (but thoughtfully) sending relevant, compelling emails leading up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday events, your brand is more likely to be remembered, considered and converting when the big days come.

Watch the webinar now to learn more about Amazon’s holiday email activity, plus get some great holiday email tips.

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