Consumers in the UK are getting fed up with the emails they receive from retailers, with 90 per cent of respondents to a new Engage Hub study confirming that they had chosen to unsubscribe from at least one mailing list in the last year.

Almost half of those questioned said that the main reason for their decision to do away with their connection to a retailer was that they felt they were being sent too many emails, the majority of which were irrelevant to their interests.

A quarter said that they received at least one promotional email a day from individual retailers, while 15 per cent claimed that, in many cases, they were being sent multiple messages, filling their inboxes and leaving them overwhelmed.

Twenty four per cent said that retailers were failing to target their emails to their tastes, meaning they were being sent offers and deals that they would never want to take advantage of for this reason.

When buying items online, it is universally accepted that providing a personal email address is a necessary part of the process. This often leads to follow-up emails calling on consumers to rate the products in question, then subsequent communications which are supposed to entice people to shop with the same retailer again.

There is certainly a balance that retailers need to strike between keeping in touch with existing customers so that they find out about deals that might be of interest, and encumbering them with too many emails that eventually become an annoyance.

The power of email marketing has been proven time and again, but in the age of social media and other digital outlets for advertising, it is easy to see why people who love safe shopping online are more than willing to unsubscribe from retail mailing lists in their droves.