IPC: “E-commerce sales boosted by direct mail”
Research from the International Post Corporation (IPC) has given extra weight to the claim that direct mail can boost e-commerce business – as a recent survey indicated that half of regular cross-border online consumers have received direct mail from an e-retailer, and 44% of these consumers made an online purchase as a result.
This is another nugget of information from the IPC’s recently-published third edition Cross-border E-commerce Shopper Survey – which Post&Parcel reported on back in January.
In a statement issued today (15 January), IPC said: “In the survey, almost 29,000 respondents were asked whether they received direct mail (i.e. paper advertisements and catalogues) from e-retailers in the past year. On average 51% answered this question affirmatively.
“Direct mail was most used by e-retailers in India (71%), China (67%), Switzerland (65%), Finland (64%) and Germany (63%) and least used by e-retailers from Cyprus, Iceland, Denmark and Australia. The responses showed that direct mail is still a very effective method for creating business for e-retailers. Results also found that a significant amount of consumers (44%) made an online purchase following the direct mail from the e-retailer. Furthermore, 19% shared the advertising mail with someone and 14% engaged with the e-retailer via social media after receiving it.
“The survey also shows that consumers aged 55+ were most likely to go to the e-retailer’s website, while those aged 16-34 are most likely to engage via social media or share the advertising mail with others. Making an online purchase as a result of an advertising mail was the highest in China (68%), India (67%), the UK (51%) and Spain (50%).
“These results show that direct mail remains a very powerful advertising tool and certainly an effective complement within the marketing mix. These findings support both the letter mail and packets segments of posts, in line with the IPC 2025 strategy, and show how direct mail can generate new business.”
This is incredibly positive news for the direct mail community and it is great to see international statistics. This study reinforces the fact that the mail is still an incredibly effective marketing channel – both for online and offline businesses. Moreover, this is reinforced by our research which shows that perception of direct mail by the public is on the rise. Almost half of consumers (48 per cent) now think that direct mail is a good way for a business to connect with them – up by seven per cent on last year.