Yesterday at 9am our time was the US Presidential Inauguration, a pretty big deal in the US.
(Don't worry, there's no politics here).
At 9:47am I received an email from Hulu letting me know I can watch the event live.
The event started at 9am...
45 minutes ago...
Hulu sent the email at 9:14am (already late) but it took 30 minutes to make its way from their email server to mine.
They never accounted for sending delays.
Email is a powerful channel but you have to remember that it can get delayed and held up. Email is quite a complex machine underneath it all but very few people know how it all works.
(I ran half the IT at a small software company and was in charge of the web and email servers so I've had my share of scars)
My advice is if you have a live event, don't count on sending only one email. It might not get there in time, it might be eaten by the email monster, or it could arrive late and stuck between older emails.
So send multiple emails. Add details to your store's website. Post to social networks. Even send text messages.
Get the word out about your event.
Especially if there's a chance of a customer getting upset about missing it.
Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) and Actually Missing Out (AMO?) can cause a lot of damage to your credibility and the trust a customer has in your store. It can even cause customers to defect and go elsewhere.
If you're having problems with customers not coming back or defecting to competitors, Repeat Customer Insights might help uncover why that's happening. Using its analyses you might be able to figure out when customers stopped buying and try to find ways to repair their trust and bring them back.
Eric Davis
Check how your holiday customers performed
Check how holiday customers performed in prior years with Repeat Customer Insights Cohort Report.