2023 was another record-setting year for e-commerce sales and the growth is expected to continue in 2024. How companies achieve their growth will depend on how effective they are with engaging their audience via different channels and subsequently maximizing the return on investment of those channels.
In all of this, one thing remains consistent year after year: opt-in channels continue to punch beyond their weight in terms of engagement and ROI. The trends from the past several years continued throughout 2023 and shed light on what we should expect to see from brands in 2024. Those trends include the following:
1. Email will continue its staying power.
While news headlines focus on the challenges of increasing e-commerce sales on social media sites, with their fluctuations in daily users, email keeps quietly engaging customers and generating sales. According to a recently released report, e-commerce brands sent 33 percent more promotional email campaigns and generated 17 percent more orders in 2023 than the year before.
The performance of marketing emails continues to be positive for retailers. Open and click rates for campaign emails increased year-over-year (YoY), meaning more people see and engage with the emails in their inbox.
Expect brands to double down on this proven channel. In particular, by increasing their focus on improving their day-to-day email campaigns to maximize sales and finding ways to refine their email program strategy even further in 2024.