Why does double opt-in matter in e-Commerce?

Let’s be honest, there’s Gold Standard behaviour, and there’s what most of us actually do. Under pressure to hit deadlines and KPIs, we look for the efficient way to get results, telling ourselves we’ll do it properly “when things calm down a bit”.

Double opt-in is a great example of this. Single opt-in does the job and covers your GDPR obligations, but double opt-in offers clear advantages.

Hold on, remind me what double opt-in is?

Put simply, double opt-in means that a person must take 2 steps to be added to your email list. For example, if they enter their email in your “subscribe to our newsletter” form, they would then be sent an email to confirm their action.

You might also hear “confirmation opt-in” as an alternative term for this method.

Now I understand what double opt-in is, what’s so great about it?

A more engaged audience: Adding a second step to the process means that those people who make it onto your list are the ones who actually want to be there, not just auto-filling their email address for a 10% off coupon. You’re also introducing them to how your emails look and sound, so they have a better chance of remembering you

No fakes: spam bots are capable of filling in forms on your website with fake information. This won’t damage your website, but it will skew your results and make it hard for you to see the real customer activity. Setting up a double opt-in keeps this dodgy data out of your email list, making your engagement metrics more accurate.

Better deliverability: double opt-in is a good way to make sure that your audience recognise and trust your email domain from the get-go. Clicking on the confirmation button will also encourage their email client (Outlook, Gmail etc.) to put your future messages into the main view (rather than Other in Outlook’s case).

Iron-clad GDPR compliance: the root of GDPR when it comes to email is clear consent from the recipient. If someone has entered their details into a form and clicked a button in a confirmation, it’s easy for you to prove you have their consent to send further emails.

Great! Are there any downsides?

Smaller lists: You will lose some people by doing this. However, if they feel that clicking on a confirmation email is too much effort, would they actually have made it through to the checkout and completed a purchase anyway?

More work for you: It doesn’t take long to set up a simple double opt-in email, but you will have to do it.

Got any numbers to back this up?

Litmus put the failure rate of double opt-in (those that start but don’t complete the process) at an average of 27%, while single opt-in has a failure rate of 15%. However, research from ShortStack suggests that the average Click Through Rate for double opt-in audiences is 4%, double that of single opt-in. So, your double opt-in audience will be mid-sized with high engagement, while your single opt-in audience will be large but less engaged. It really comes down to which of these suits your goals.

Conclusion

Taking the time to set up a double opt-in process might mean fewer newsletter subscribers, but the one you do have will be more engaged, and better disposed to all your content.

Whichever method you choose, Spotler offers an email platform and a CRM system that make handling your audiences a breeze. See what we could do for you with a live demo.