Retail Email Unsubscribe Practices Need Improvement

Thirty-nine percent of major online retailers require three or more clicks to opt out, up from 7 percent in 2008. Likewise, 30 percent of retailers send one or more emails following an unsubscribe request, up from 26 percent in 2008.

These findings come from Responsys' recently released Retail Email Unsubscribe Benchmark Study, which tracks the current state of retailers’ opt-out processes by drawing on data collected while unsubscribing from the email marketing programs of 100 top online retailers tracked via the Retail Email Blog.

Other key findings from the study include the following:

• To keep subscribers, marketers are giving them more control over email frequency, with 35 percent of retailers allowing subscribers to reduce the number of emails they receive, up from 16 percent in 2008.
• Marketers remain indifferent toward subscribers who opt out, evidenced by the fact that only 16 percent of retailers say “Good-bye” or “Thank you” to departing subscribers, down from 18 percent in 2008.
• Marketers have been slow to present alternative channels like RSS and Facebook pages to departing subscribers. Only 7 percent of retailers do this currently, despite the fact that more than 30 percent of them include community links in their emails.
• Due to failures to honor opt-outs, 4 percent of retailers aren't in compliance with the CAN-SPAM Act. That’s on par with 2008 levels.

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