While I didn’t get to do the amount of holiday spending I would have liked to this year, I was definitely tempted by some pretty awesome personalized targeted email campaigns over the weekend. While I received upwards of 50 emails from retailers throughout the big holiday shopping weekend, two emails, both from Amazon, really stuck out to me and impressed me. Surprisingly enough, they weren’t emails offering special door-buster deals or coupons, but simple targeted persoanliozed product emails.

Over the last 1-2 weeks I’ve been searching the web for a new pair of upscale headphones as well as a new Leatherman multi-tool.  I hit up Amazon a few times to check prices on the items I decided I wanted, but nothing more. I have an Amazon account (which keeps me logged in), so they were able to analyze my behavior and make a note of this. Over the shopping weekend, I received an email on Black Friday titled “Amazon.com: Bestselling Multitools,” showing me the top sellers in that category, then listing out the prices. What was originally just a quick stop at Amazon for a price check turned into a sale because they tracked what I did and then re-engaged me after a few days to remind me, while also showing me that the one I had been looking at was 30% off.  Not bad.

In addition to my multitool email, I also received another the following day titled “Amazon.com: Headphones You May Have Missed.”  While this was the same concept as the multi-tool email, this had a slightly different strategy.  Instead of showing me the headphones I had been looking at, it showed me other top selling headphones with good deals that I hadn’t looked at. While I didn’t bite the bullet and buy any headphones (yet), it did put a few more products into the running for me; and if I decide to buy, I’ll likely buy from Amazon because of it.

This post about Amazons strategies here isn’t meant to highlight how awesome their company is, but to show the strength of personalized product recommendation emails and behavioral tracking.  What started off as a simple price check resulted in at least $65 of sales due to a simple email and up to $500 total when I make the plunge on the new headphones.  Imagine what these types of services could do for your online store.