In response to the economic crisis, retailers are accelerating their Christmas email marketing campaigns to try to capture sales before consumer wallets close any tighter. So far this year, 26% of the major online retailers tracked by the Retail Email Blog have sent at least one email referencing Christmas or the holidays. Last year only 15% of major online retailers had made at least one reference to Christmas or the holidays by Oct. 7. We didn’t reach the 25% mark last year until Oct. 18 last year, so retailers are more than a week and a half ahead of last year’s pace.
Last year, on average, retailers began their holiday campaigns 58 days before Christmas—on Oct. 28. It’s a safe assumption at this point that this year’s average start date will be considerably closer to Oct. 15 based on the current trend line.
Along with starting their holiday campaigns earlier, retailers are also sending more holiday emails. For instance, over the past 14 days, 6.3% of the total retail email volume has included references to the holidays. That compares to only 5.4% last year during the same period.
For marketers, the question here is whether they believe that consumers will be responsive to these earlier campaign starts or whether they should wait until their usual start date when Christmas is closer on the horizon. There are certainly risks either way.
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