Back in the summer of 2021, I bought some sunglasses online. They arrived in a box with a handwritten note. I even mentioned it in the review that I wrote at the time:
I don’t know whether the company did that out of instinct or following careful testing, but it looks like I wasn’t the only one to feel delighted upon receipt of that note.
Sanghwa Kim, Jeonghye Choi and Seung Hyun Kim have examined the impact of handwritten notes on customer loyalty towards online retailers. Through a series of experiments, the research team examined the effect of handwritten notes (vs no notes, photocopies of the handwritten note or machine-written ones) on amount spent.
They found that handwritten notes create a sense of warmth towards the brand, which translates into increased sales among loyal customers.
And the news gets even better: The research team also found that when the note was accompanied by a giveaway, the effect would be cancelled.
The study is detailed in the paper “Do Handwritten Notes Benefit Online Retailers? A Field Experiment”, published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing.
I find this result really heartwarming (excuse the pun). First, because it shows the power of human connection. Second, because it is so easy to replicate: no need for fancy technology, elaborate techniques or additional expense. Just put pen to paper and say a good old thank you to whoever came to your website and chose your product among the myriad others they could find online.
That has to be the most cost-effective loyalty strategy, right?
Ana Canhoto 