Play.com was one of the UK’s biggest online retailers, with a large share of the UK market. In 2011, it was taken over by Rakuten, the largest online retailer in Japan and one of the top ten online businesses in the world. In 2014, play.com was rebranded as Rakuten.co.uk.
Play.com had an email database of over 20 million people, around a third of the UK population, and an active segment of 3.5 million people. The challenge was to increase this active segment while keeping churn to a minimum.
Churn was kept low by setting up a highly segmented email marketing campaign based on previous user behaviour. Reactivation campaigns sent to inactive users increased the active segment, increasing engagement and sales across the platform.
