Speak out, Bob!
Chapter four
Consumer communication
Everybody loves a good discount. In 2023, shoppers are navigating for the best deals and saving more than before. Women especially are grabbing great discounts to maximize savings. This chapter covers who's getting the best deals, where they're shopping, and how much they're saving.
How brands engage with consumers influences buying choices. In this chapter, we explore brand prioritization in consumer communications, the generational nuances of brand engagement, and how the brand-consumer relationship delivers positive outcomes for both retailers and shoppers.
Decoding consumer communication
Despite men shopping as frequently as women and spending significantly more per purchase (their average receipt value is 66% higher), they receive fewer emails from brands. Brands send 22% more emails and a staggering 50% more SMS messages to women each year compared to what they do to males.
The gender skew in marketing communications
Average email frequency
Brands send 72 emails/year to men
(a decrease of 6% from the previous year)
Brands send 89 emails/year to women
(an increase of 1% from the previous year)
While the specifics of loyalty vary across retailers and their customers, one thing is sure: engaging in brand communications over the past year has presented advantages on both sides. We identified two major benefits when a brand has communicated to a consumer over the last 12 months.
Customer loyalty:
a win-win situation
Retailers are competing for consumer attention in a very noisy world. Customer experiences are shaped across the touchpoints and channels chosen by the shopper.
Traditional engagement metrics such as click-rate and click-to-open-rate are declining across all age groups, and the most significant drop is with the younger generations, where social media and other channels must be utilized in the communications mix. Yet, for brands, using first-party data-driven channels can be a cost-effective strategy to foster enduring customer loyalty.
The data underlines a clear pattern: older consumers generally show higher click-to-open rates, while younger ones have seen a sharper dip in these metrics.
Generational efficiency in traditional channels
"Creating the perfect channel mix to build consumer engagement is critical. Direct marketing has unique advantages, while platforms like TikTok have emerged as powerful sales channels, especially in driving younger consumers toward purchases.
Retail has always been about how brands and products make consumers feel. Young consumers today want to be a part of a community, being loyal fans of their favorite brands. Building strong relationships across different touchpoints is key — a strong relationship on social media increases the likelihood of emails being opened and acted upon."
Hanaw Rashid
Digital Strategist
