Online pharmacy Drugstore.com relies on e-mail marketing to help reach its customers, finding this method of direct marketing requires less cash while allowing them to reach its audience. Reuters reports the company once spent more than $100 a pop to acquire a single customer, and now spends a small percentage of the amount on its e-mail marketing campaigns. The company contacts its customers twice a month, alerting them to bargains and deals on its site, and once a month sends out specials from General Nutrition Center. The system also allows customers to personalize their e-mailed newsletters, setting the frequency for which they receive and including information on past purchases and refill reminders. Another company, Bluefly.com, similarly finds success with e-mail direct marketing. The online designer clothing store says its e-mails to its customers generates some 20 percent of its revenue, according to a news story from Reuters.

“It reflects the single biggest return on investment in our business,” Seiff told the news agency, adding that the company at first proceeded tentatively into e-mail marketing, for fear of alienating its customers. “What we initially viewed as a potential intrusion to our customers has turned out to be viewed by many of them as a service.”