GDPR has driven European retailers to cut back substantially on marketing emails but has led to a rise in their effectiveness, new research shows.
A study by retail personalisation platform Nosto of its EU-based retailer customers found that the number of automated marketing emails has halved since the introduction of the legislation on 25 May of this year. The company arrived at the figure by comparing the number of emails sent in June 2018 with the number in June 2017.
However, Nosto also found that open rates increased 30 percent between 1 May and 1 August and the value of purchases has roughly doubled.
Nosto CEO Jim Lofgren said: “GDPR means fewer emails landing in consumers’ inboxes overall, with those marketing emails that people do receive, much more likely to come from brands they have consented to hearing from. So you would expect email to be more effective now. And that’s exactly what our data suggests.”
Lofgren added that the “painful exercise” for many retailers had ultimately been positive for both retailers and customers.
“Consumers get fewer irrelevant emails now and are more likely to open and take action based on the emails they do receive.”
The study was based on a sample of approximately 1,600 retailers across the EU and an analysis of approximately 421 million visits to retail websites.
This week also saw EuroCommerce, the trade association for European retailers, meet its American counterpart the National Retail Federation as well as US and EU regulators to discuss the future of transatlantic data transfers.
This came ahead of a vote on Thursday by the European Parliament on a resolution from the Civil Liberties Committee that calls on the European Commission to suspend Privacy Shield, the 2016 legislation which allows the exchange of personal data for commercial purposes.
