Free Shipping Day Email Marketing Insights

This holiday season we’ve examined email marketing activity and trends on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Green Monday. Now it’s time to look at Free Shipping Day.

This is a shopping occasion that’s in decline. Unlike last year when email activity on Free Shipping Day exceeded Green Monday and rivaled other important shopping days, this year email activity on Dec. 18 was very average. Of the more than 100 major retailers that we track, 73% sent their subscribers at least one promotional email on Free Shipping Day. That’s down from 77% last year.

Perhaps more importantly, only 9% of the promotional emails sent by retailers on Free Shipping Day mentioned it by name, which is a sign that the “Free Shipping Day” brand is weak. And it’s easy to understand why that would be the case.

Free shipping offers are plentiful throughout the holiday season—indeed, throughout the year. So a day that trumpets a promotion that’s very common on other days is surely confusing to consumers. Some retailers had extra special shipping offers available on Free Shipping Day, such as free shipping with no minimum, but these offers haven’t been able to clarify this shopping occasion with consumers, as evidenced by declining searches for “free shipping day.”

>> Read the entire post of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud blog