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Epsilon Interactive’s Research Shows Major Retail Brands Are Missing Opportunities to Grow Sales and Build Customer Loyalty Online
Study Shows Increasing Customer Interest For Online Bill Payment Options For Retail Customers, Traditionally a Rich Platform For Cross-sell/Up-sell Offers
NEW YORK, NY. - April 12, 2006 - Epsilon Interactive, a leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communications solutions and marketing automation technologies, today announced results of consumer research showing leading retailers are missing significant opportunities to grow sales and build customer loyalty online. In particular, the study shows strong interest in online bill payment options for retail credit cards, traditionally a rich platform to capture incremental sales by optimizing transactional and service messaging with relevant cross-sell/up-sell offers. The study also reveals increasing interest in using online transactional services as a result of recent postal increases.

Key findings of the study include:

66 percent of consumers who purchased something in the last three months from a retailer indicated they were not aware the retailer currently offers an online bill payment option or paperless statements.
34 percent of consumers surveyed currently hold at least one store/merchant credit card.
Only 13 percent of consumers surveyed currently pay their store/merchant credit card bills online, but an additional 36 percent expressed an interest in paying their store/merchant credit card bill online if this service was offered.
20 percent of consumers surveyed say the recent postal increase has boosted their likelihood and/or interest in paying store/merchant credit card bills online.

"So much of retailers’ focus goes into acquiring new customers that they often ignore a gold mine of opportunities within their existing customer base," said Al DiGuido, president and CEO of Epsilon Interactive. "Whenever a bill is presented to a customer via email, the retailer has another opportunity to not only reduce costs and strengthen customer loyalty, but also to provide the customer with relevant and valued offers that can incite additional purchasing. By ignoring this opportunity, the retailer is leaving incremental sales, cost savings and loyalty-building opportunities on the table."

A study by JupiterResearch (Optimizing Transactional Email Messages, May 2005) projects transactional messages can generate at least $500,000 in annual revenue, in part by intelligently cross-selling against previous order/purchase data. In addition Forrester Research predicts "twenty million more Americans will pay their bills online over the next five years (Forrester Research: EBPP Forecast: 2005 To 2010)." Forrester’s forecast for online bill pay adoption will reach 50% by 2009.

"Our latest research confirms a major change in consumers’ behavior as it relates to the way they choose to interact with the brands they love and trust," said DiGuido. "For retailers with a credit card offering, this represents an enormous opportunity to craft relevant, timely email communications that not only save costs but generate incremental revenue opportunities and customer satisfaction. The retailers who fail to capitalize on this opportunity will soon find themselves losing market share to those who are more actively offering and promoting this service to their most loyal of customers."

GfK NOP, a worldwide market research organization, conducted the Epsilon Interactive survey among a nationally representative sample of adults 18 years or older to understand purchase behavior and satisfaction with email communications from a group of select retailers. The study focused specifically on shopping and bill paying behaviors related to purchases made at mass merchants, department stores, and specialty retailers. GfK conducted the survey from January 27, 2006 through January 29, 2006 using OmniTel, GfK’s telephone omnibus. GfK interviewed a total of 1008 respondents (526 females; 482 males). The study also includes results for such retail brands as Wal-Mart, Sears, JCPenney, Gap, Eddie Bauer, J. Crew and L.L. Bean.

To request a complete copy of the research, please contact Mary Beth Keelty at mkeelty@epsiloninteractive.com

About Epsilon
Epsilon is a leading provider of multi-channel marketing services, technologies and database solutions. Through its combination of client-centric marketing solutions, Epsilon helps leading companies understand, measure, manage and optimize their customer relationships. The organization's end-to-end suite of integrated services includes marketing strategy, creative, data, technology, analytics and distribution services to produce multi-channel marketing programs that generate measurable results throughout the customer lifecycle.

In September 2005 Epsilon acquired Bigfoot Interactive (now Epsilon Interactive), the leading provider of strategic, ROI-focused email communications solutions and marketing automation technologies. Epsilon Interactive now serves as Epsilon's key offering in the interactive marketing and communications space. Founded in 1969 Epsilon is an Alliance Data company.

For more information see www.epsilon.com.

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