How to Get Customers to Give You Their Email Address at Checkout

Email Marketing for Retailers: A Guide to Collecting Email Addresses at Checkout

Say what you want about email, it’s still one of the most effective tools in a retailer’s marketing arsenal. Email helps you keep in touch with shoppers, generate repeat business, and get to know your customers better. Plus when it comes to conversions, a recent study found that users who click on emails are three times more likely to complete a purchase compared to those who click through social media.

For all these reasons and more, collecting email addresses should be on the to-do list of every retailer. Here are a few tips to help you do it more effectively:

1. Start by getting customers to like you

You may be collecting email addresses when customers check out, but the work you need to do should start BEFORE you actually ask shoppers to join your mailing list. While tactics like offering freebies and discounts can improve your chances of securing a customer’s email address, it’s important to remember that people share their information with brands that they know, like, and trust.

As Christy Caldwell, a general manager at a popular retail chain, put it, “At the end of the day it is about making a connection with your customer, so they are comfortable giving you the information and they know that you have their best interest in mind.”

Before getting into tactics like offering incentives for people’s email addresses, first focus on giving them a great shopping experience. Strive to make a good impression on your customers. Be helpful when they need you, don’t keep them waiting, and ensure that your store is presentable.

Always put your best foot forward so that when it’s time to collect their email addresses, the shoppers are happy to share them.

2. Find the best email collection method for your store

Now that you’ve set the groundwork, let’s move on to actually collecting those addresses. There are plenty of methods to get people’s email addresses into your system, so you should explore your options to see which one is right for you.

Here are a few things you can do:

Handwritten form – This method is pretty straightforward. Instruct your associates to ask people if they want to join your mailing list and give them a form if they agree.

It’s basic and easy to implement, but there are a few disadvantages. One of the biggest is that you’ll have to re-enter the information yourself. This takes time away from your store and it also opens up room for error.

For instance, Brian Drescher, a former retail operations and category manager in the retail grocery and specialty industries, wrote in a group discussion that some people may not have the best penmanship and this leads to the staff being unable to make out what they wrote.

Use an app – Want to eliminate the manual labor of entering email addresses? There’s an app for that.

Check with your email marketing provider and see if they have an accompanying mobile app to help you gather those addresses. MailChimp for instance has an app called Chimpadeedoo, while GetResponse also has an accompanying mobile app of its own.

If your provider doesn’t have its own application, use a service like SignUpAnywhere, an HTML5 app for capturing addresses using an iPad. It also integrates with other email marketing programs, like Campaign Monitor and MailChimp, so transferring those emails is a breeze.

Enter it using your POS system – Alternatively, you can check if your point-of-sale vendor has a solution. Most mobile POS systems either have built-in capabilities or integrations that let retailers collect customer information.

Use your loyalty program – If you have an existing loyalty program, you can collect email addresses when you ask people to sign up. Drescher, who has twenty-two years of professional service in various companies including Smith's Food & Drug, Super K-Mart, Von's Markets, HomeGrocer.com and Beverages & More, said that this is what they did at BevMo.

“We would ask the customers as they filled out the Corporate Club Card if they would like to be placed on our personal in-store newsletter correspondence; 90-95% said yes. I had my cashiers advise them that they would not be spammed but would receive a weekly informational that we did in store for our own store location.”

3. Improving your chances of getting customers’ email addresses

Now let’s talk about how you can improve your chances of getting customers to agree to join your list. On top of giving people an excellent shopping experience, here are some additional tips and best practices you can put into action:

Be genuine – Caldwell advises merchants to avoid being robotic about the process. Be genuine when asking people for their information and also be honest about why you’re getting their email addresses and what they can expect.

Offer discounts – Always a popular incentive, discounts could be a great way to collect email addresses while generating repeat business at the same time. And according to Don Uselmann of Saks Fifth Avenue, “Offering future discounts has demonstrated to deliver a higher rate and that works if a big part of your business model is promotional pricing.”

Give away prizes – Uselmann added that he has seen raffles work as well, though they do pose the challenge of customers unsubscribing as soon as the raffle is over. “You may end up with a high capture rate but in the end a slow build of actual repeat customers.”

Hold managers and associates accountable – Improve your capture rates by holding your staff accountable. Caldwell mentioned that they actually track the number of email addresses their staff collects, and if employees don’t meet the required amounts, she’ll talk to them and discuss how they can improve.

Weigh in

Do you have other tips on how to collect customer email addresses? Share them in the comments below.

Want more retail advice? Check out Vend University, a one-stop shop for advice, tips, trends, and other cool things that can help retailers increase sales, serve customers better, and be more awesome overall.

Image: "e-mail symbol" by Micky Aldridge on Flickr