• Mortgages
    Get the Best Rates
    • Mortgage rates
    • Refinance rates
    • 30-year mortgage rates
    • 15-year mortgage rates
    • 20-year mortgage rates
    • 10-year mortgage rates
    • Mortgage lender reviews
    Use Calculators
    • Mortgage calculator
    • How much house can you afford?
    • Mortgage refinance calculator
    • Mortgage payment calculator
    • Amortization calculator
    • All mortgage calculators
    Get Advice
    • What to know about reverse mortgages
    • Home buying guide
    • Refinance your mortgage
    • First-time homebuyer loans and programs
    • Prepaying your mortgage
    • Your guide to FHA loans
    • Everything to know about VA loans
  • Homes
    Home Buying
    • Determine your budget
    • Find your home
    • Get prequalified
    Get Advice
    • Step-By-Step Homebuying Guide
    • First-Time Homebuyer's Guide
    • How Does Rent-To-Own Work?
    • What To Look For When Buying A Home
    • Homebuyer Mistakes To Avoid
    Learn How To
    • Make An Offer On A House
    • Decide Between Renting vs. Buying
    • Ace the Final Walk-Through
    • Find The Best Real Estate Agent
    • Buying A Second Home
    Use Calculators
    • How Much House Can I Afford?
    • Rent Vs. Buy Calculator
    • Cost of Living Calculator
    • How Much Should I Put Down?
  • Banking
    Compare Accounts
    • CD rates
    • Savings accounts
    • Money market accounts
    • 1-Year CD rates
    • 3-Year CD rates
    • 5-Year CD rates
    • Checking accounts
    • Bank ratings
    Use Calculators
    • Savings calculator
    • CD calculator
    • Compound savings calculator
    • All banking calculators
    Get Advice
    • How to save money
    • Federal Reserve news
    • What is a money market account?
    • Which certificate of deposit account is best?
    • How to open a savings account
    Bank Reviews
    • Capital One Bank
    • Marcus by Goldman Sachs
    • American Express National Bank
    • CIT Bank
    • Synchrony Bank
    • Barclays Bank
    • All Bank Reviews
  • Credit Cards
    Compare by Category
    • Best Credit Cards of 2019
    • Rewards
    • Travel
    • Airline
    • Cash Back
    • No Annual Fee
    • Balance Transfer
    • 0% APR
    • Business
    • Student
    Compare by Credit Needed
    • Excellent Credit
    • Good Credit
    • Fair Credit
    • Bad Credit
    • No Credit History
    • Secured Credit Cards
    Compare by Issuer
    • American Express
    • Bank of America
    • Capital One
    • Chase
    • Citi
    • Discover
    • Wells Fargo
    Get Advice
    • Credit Card Reviews
    • Credit Card Payoff Calculator
    • Balance Transfer Calculator
    • All Credit Card Calculators
  • Loans
    Compare Lenders
    • Personal loan rates
    • Personal loan reviews
    • Auto loan rates
    • Student loan rates
    • Student loan reviews
    Loan Types
    • Personal loans
    • Auto loans
    • Debt consolidation loans
    • Home improvement loans
    • Student loans
    • Medical loans
    • Bad credit loans
    Use Calculators
    • Loan calculator
    • Auto loan calculator
    • Personal loan calculator
    • Auto refinance calculator
    • Loan payment calculator
    • Student loan calculator
    • All calculators
    Get Advice
    • Student loans guide
    • Refinancing student loans
    • Refinancing personal loans
    • Refinancing auto loans
    • How to get a personal loan
    • Personal loan origination fees
  • Investing
    Best of
    • Best Investments
    • Best online brokers for stocks
    • Best online brokers for beginners
    • Best online brokers for mutual funds
    Brokerage Reviews
    • TD Ameritrade Review
    • Merrill Edge Review
    • Ally Invest Review
    • Fidelity Review
    • Charles Schwab Review
    • Vanguard Review
    • Interactive Brokers Review
    • Robinhood Review
    • Tradestation Review
    • E*Trade Review
    • WellsTrade Review
    • All Brokerage Reviews
    Use Calculators
    • Investment Earnings Calculator
    • Annuity Calculator
    • All Investing & CD Calculators
    Get Advice
    • Compare Online Brokerages
    • What is the long-term capital gains tax?
    • Passive income: What it is and 5 ideas for 2019
    • How to buy stocks
  • Home Equity
    Compare Lenders
    • Home equity loan rates
    • Home equity line of credit rates
    • Home equity lender reviews
    Use Calculators
    • Home Equity Calculator
    • Loan vs. Line Of Credit Calculator
    • Debt consolidation calculator
    • HELOC payoff calculator
    • All home equity calculators
    Get Advice
    • What is a home equity loan?
    • HELOC vs. Home equity loan
    • Consolidate your debt using home equity
    • Home equity loans with bad credit
  • Insurance
    Insurance Types
    • Car insurance
    • Homeowner's insurance
    • Health insurance
    • Life insurance
    Best of
    • Best Car Insurance Companies
    • Best Home Insurance Companies
    • Best Cheap Car Insurance
    • Top Car Insurance Comparison
    Company Reviews
    • Geico Insurance
    • State Farm Insurance
    • Progressive Insurance
    • Allstate Insurance
    • Liberty Mutual Insurance
    • Nationwide Insurance
    • The General Insurance
    • Farmers Insurance
    • American Family Insurance
    • Erie Insurance
    • Amica Insurance
    • Travelers Insurance
    Insurance by State
    • Car Insurance California
    • Car Insurance Florida
    • Car Insurance Georgia
    • Car Insurance Michigan
    • Car Insurance New Jersey
    • Car Insurance New York
    • Car Insurance North Carolina
    • Car Insurance Pennsylvania
    • Car Insurance Texas
    • Home Insurance Florida
    • Home Insurance Texas
  • Personal Finance
    Compare
    • Current interest rates
    • Compare rates
    Use Calculators
    • Debt consolidation calculator
    • Net worth calculator
    • Personal finance calculators
    • Cost of living calculator
    • All calculators
    Get Advice
    • Retirement advice
    • Debt management
    • Improve your credit score
    • Career resources
    • Tax advice
    • Insurance basics
    • Real estate tips
    • Personal finance glossary
  • Retirement
    Get Advice
    • Best Roth IRA accounts
    • Best retirement plans
    • How to open a Roth IRA
    • 401(k) rollover guide
    • Roth IRA vs. Roth 401(k)
    Use Calculators
    • 401(k) retirement calculator
    • Retirement savings calculator
    • Roth IRA calculator
    • IRA minimum distribution calculator
    • Social security benefits calculator
    • All retirement calculators
    More Information
    • What is an IRA?
    • What is a Roth 401(k)?
    • 401(k) contribution limits
    • Contributing to IRA during retirement
    • Best age for Social Security retirement benefits
    • Roth IRA 5 year rule
  • Create Account
  • Dashboard
  • Alerts
  • Settings
  • Support
  • Logout
Share

What’s your email address worth?

Marilyn Melia
February 19, 2015  in  Smart Money

1 of 6

What's your email worth? © Aaron Amat/Shutterstock.com
What’s your email worth?

Remember when it seemed like every time you were ready to buy something at the mall, a clerk would offer a discount on it … if you opened a store credit card?

You don’t hear that offer as much, especially if you’re spending less at the mall and more online.

Instead of tempting offers connected to opening a credit card, now boxes pop up before you enter many online shopping sites, offering money off your next purchase if you just submit your email address.

So, why would something you can establish for free — an email account — be valuable to a retailer?

“Because email is the best way to communicate with customers; no other method is as good,” says Kurt Kendall, retail strategist with consulting firm Kurt Salmon.

Here’s how your email address is a hook retailers can use to reel you in, as well as some insight into whether it’s worth it for you to provide the bait.

The Bankrate Daily

2 of 6

Why your email is so valuable © Radu Bercan/Shutterstock.com
Why your email is so valuable

If you pop into a physical store and browse — but don’t purchase — an attentive clerk would ask if he could help you before you reach the door.

Online merchants also don’t want visitors to look and leave.

The discount for email promotions will typically require you to check an agreement with certain terms, one being that you agree to future email messages, says Kendall. “They can reach out again and again with targeted messages on what you may like,” he says.

Armed with an email, retailers can buy more demographic data attached to it, like the age, gender and ZIP code of the holder, building a profile of what the likely tastes and needs of the email holder may be, Kendall says.

It’s also likely that you’re allowing the site to establish “cookies” on your device’s browser, so the “next time you visit the site, they know it is you so they can track you,” says Kendall. By tracking your Web activity — such as other online shopping sites you visit — the site knows more about what you want.

When a retailer knows you’re looking for sweaters, for instance, it will email you with a subject line touting a new sweater promotion. “If you don’t recognize the sender or don’t like the subject line, you’re not going to open the email,” says Tom Sather, senior director of research at Return Path, an email analytics firm.

3 of 6

Who else gets your information? © Tashatuvango/Shutterstock.com
Who else gets your information?

“Any online business must have a privacy policy,” says Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Submitting an email will bring up a box to click, saying that the consumer agrees with that policy — although Stephens acknowledges that few may take the time to read through them.

Online retailers not only buy information related to an email to build a customer profile, they may also sell their customer data to other parties, says Stephens. If sites do share data, that must be disclosed in the privacy policy, he says.

Some consumers have reason to avoid dissemination of their data. Stephens draws this example: “What if you’re obese and you buy extra-large clothes. Could that get to a life insurer?”

Moreover, sites may employ “price discrimination,” Stephens says. That means programs that analyze your purchase history may determine you’re willing to pay a few dollars more for an item than another customer is — and when you log on, the price that you’re expected to pay is posted, Stephens says. Someone else looking at the site with a different history would see a lower price.

Even with the differences, many consumers like the convenience of being alerted to products they want, according to an Oracle survey of consumers in eight countries. “More than 70 percent indicated they wanted a targeted (shopping) experience,” says Andrea Morgan Vandome, vice president of retail strategy at Oracle.

4 of 6

Why your email is the ticket to 'member' sites © Gajus/Shutterstock.com
Why email is the ticket to ‘member’ sites

Some sites won’t even allow visitors to start shopping unless they first “join” by providing an email.

The membership model is important because product manufacturers are comfortable offering limited-time discounts to an exclusive customer base as opposed to widely advertising a special, says Laura Jones, a spokeswoman for Zulily.com. Also, members tend to be interested in certain types and categories of merchandise, giving product providers some assurance that a limited special offer will be quickly bought up.

Flash-sale site HauteLook, owned by Nordstrom, reports that sale “events” offering limited inventory merchandise last between 48 and 72 hours, with popular items selling out within the first hour.

But many flash sites have gone out of business, reports Scott Anderson, director of public relations for Experian Marketing Services. “The surviving sites have continued to increase traffic for the category overall,” Anderson wrote in an email.

Kendall says the discounts on member sites aren’t necessarily rock bottom. However, the people who typically use these sites are the “discriminating shoppers” who track prices and like the selections member sites offer.

5 of 6

When emails lead to overspending © LDprod/Shutterstock.com
When emails lead to overspending

Sara Walker, a mother in suburban Chicago, likes the merchandise that is targeted to her tastes at member sites like Zulily and One Kings Lane.

While she laments about “all the time I spend online looking to get good ideas,” she says she “doesn’t often pull the trigger and actually buy.”

Like Walker, the majority of the population can look and not buy, but about 10 percent do spend compulsively, says Terrence Shulman of The Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending and Hoarding in Franklin, Michigan.

All of us shop, Shulman says, but there’s a line between enthusiastic bargain hunting and uncontrollable urges to buy. The latter is usually characterized by some level of financial distress, like the inability to pay down credit cards. Another telltale signal is secretly storing purchased items and shame after spending, he notes.

Subject lines like “An extra 30 percent off sale items today!” will only “bombard (compulsive shoppers) with opportunities to spend,” he says.

For those without overt signs of addiction, still be wary of how regular doses of email impact your shopping behavior, says Shulman. “The Internet opens a gateway for addictive behaviors,” he says. Clicking through emails to view the offerings can be habit forming, he warns, devouring time and money.

6 of 6

How to control your email © Csehak Szabolcs/Shutterstock.com
How to control your email

It’s less likely that you’ll encounter discounts for email deals at sites you frequently purchase from, Sather says. But sometimes visiting a familiar site with a new device may trigger an offer, he notes.

And if it’s been some time since you’ve shopped, the site may “want you to re-identify yourself” by offering an email for discount, says Morgan Vandome.

Signing up for email and using the discount offer doesn’t bind you to receiving ongoing email messages. “There is always the option to ‘opt out,'” says Morgan Vandome.

Within 10 business days of opting out — which is done by scrolling down to the end of an email and clicking through to the unsubscribe box — law requires emails to stop, says Sather.

Simply establishing a separate email address to be used only for shopping — and that you can check less frequently than your primary mail — can control temptation. “About 25 percent of people use a secondary address for shopping,” Sather says.

Moreover, those who don’t want cookies to follow them around the Internet can block them, Sather says.

Related Links:
  • You can trick yourself into saving
  • How to overcome your ‘poverty mentality’
  • 3 ways to fight the coupon craze
Related Articles:
  • Financial security soars
  • Feeling financially secure?
  • Dollar-store duds

You may also like

  • Will you get better shopping deals online or in-store?

  • What’s on sale in April?

  • Find the deepest discounts on furniture, jewelry and more in January

  • Where to find the deepest discounts in February

  • The best 11 food and retail bargains in May

  • What’s on sale in June?

  • About Us
  • Press Room
  • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Advertise With Us
  • Latest News
  • Popular Topics
  • Glossary
  • Compare Rates
  • Understand Bankrate's Averages
  • Privacy Policy / Your California Privacy Rights
  • Terms of Use
  • GLBA Annual Notice
  • Licenses
  • Sitemap
How we make money

Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. Bankrate is compensated in exchange for featured placement of sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. This compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear. Bankrate.com does not include all companies or all available products.

Maximize Your Money. Get Expert Advice & Tools. Master Life's Financial Journey.

You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for four decades.

Our tools, rates and advice help no matter where you are on life’s financial journey.

Facebook logo Twitter logo
Follow Us

Bankrate, LLC NMLS ID# 1427381 | NMLS Consumer Access
BR Tech Services, Inc NMLS ID# 1743443 | NMLS Consumer Access
© 2019 Bankrate, LLC a Red Ventures Company All Rights Reserved.

United States United Kingdom