You could soon receive even more emails after shopping on Amazon

By Catherine Thorbecke, CNN Business

If you’ve ever worried you weren’t getting enough emails from businesses trying to sell you things, you’re in luck.

Amazon announced at its annual sellers conference, Amazon Accelerate, that US merchants will soon be able to send free marketing emails to reach some of their existing customers on the platform. This includes repeat customers, recent customers, and high-spend customers, the company said in a statement Wednesday.

For the many merchants who rely on Amazon’s platform, the move offers the possibility of fostering a more direct relationship with their customers and potentially convincing them to shop again and again. Amazon has said it has more than 1.9 million selling partners globally, and more than 300 million active customer accounts.

“Brands are able to quickly acquire new customers in the Amazon store, but they expressed a need for improved tools to increase customer lifetime value,” Benjamin Hartman, vice president of Amazon North America Selling Partner Services, said in a statement.

But for the millions of customers who shop on Amazon, it risks adding to inboxes that may already be overflowing with promotional emails from retailers, hotels, dentists and more.

Amazon said it is currently testing the program, dubbed Tailored Audiences, in beta and has plans to make it available to all US sellers in early 2023. The tool will be available at no cost to sellers, and the company said it has plans to enhance the email designs with new templates.

The company said customers are able to opt out of marketing emails form Amazon and brands, if they wish.

“Customers are always in control of what types of promotional and marketing email they receive, and can always opt-out,” Patrick Graham, an Amazon spokesperson, told CNN Business in a statement Thursday.

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