Petsmart

How can you get more e-mail sign-ups from your site visitors? E-mail sign-up is simple: a few clicks followed by a handful of keystrokes. But the same process of close comparative scrutiny also can improve complex processes, such as cart and check-out. This article focuses on the e-mail sign-up process at 45 multichannel retailers. For this study, I pulled 45 sites at random, taken from some of the larger merchants in the country. I signed up for e-mail at each using a fresh Gmail account. (For the full methodology and detailed scores and notes for each site, visit www.rimmkaufman.com/e-mail-sign-up-study.) I conducted these tests in

Some ideas to try on your own, with real examples in parentheses: • Use a clean pop-up to collect e-mail information (Williams-Sonoma). • Let visitors sign up for e-mails from your retail stores (Crutchfield). • Tell visitors they’ll receive a discount coupon by e-mail right after signing up — it raises sign-up rates, and ensures the e-mail is valid (REI). • Allow visitors to select the content they want to receive (PetSmart). • After sign-up, tell the user to expect an e-mail confirmation (Vermont Teddy Bear).