In January, market researchers at Mintel were predicting growth in digital beauty sales, but stipulated that ecommerce likely wouldn’t reach 20% of industry sales by year’s end.
With all the services and digital experiences that brands and larger retailers are offering in-store, it’s little wonder consumers spend so much there. Joe Teplow of Rebelmail believes that interactive email modules could change the equation and help brands educate, entertain, and sell to consumers online in a whole new way.
New and improved
As all things digital advance and consumers move from one app to the next and on to the latest social media, staying in touch with shoppers and keeping them informed, engaged, and buying can be a moving target.
And the one digital channel that many brands and almost every consumer uses is falling behind: “Consumer behavior has changed over 21 years, but email has not,” Teplow tells Cosmetics Design. Interactive email is different, it “brings familiar web functionality to the inbox,” he explains.
“Interactivity allows subscribers to take action and see the results of their action without leaving the body of the email,” he says. “For example, a subscriber can use a dropdown to select her clothing size or color and add to cart. A subscriber can take a quiz in email to find the perfect product for them. A subscriber can submit a review or survey without ever going to the website.”
Dollars and data
Interactive email isn’t just about selling product. It can effectively gather consumer data and learn about any give subscriber’s behavior and preferences. “All emails can be enhanced by some element of interactivity,” says Teplow, who believes that “even something like an in-email search bar or photo gallery will improve user experience.”
The Rebelmail interactive email team builds “photo galleries, hot spots, in-email reviews, quizzes, forms and surveys, add to cart, [and] in-email purchases.” (Hot spots are those info bubbles that appear when a user mouses over or clicks on a specific image or area of the screen.)
Beauty brands are already using this technology to help consumers discover the right products and shades and add these items to wish lists and carts without all the added clicks and screen reloading that visiting a company site can incur.
“All [interactive] Rebelmail modules boost engagement rates,” according to Teplow. And often the “modules boost conversion rates,” too.