What Apple’s “Hide My Email” and Gmail’s potential equivalent means for retail marketers

Apple’s “Hide My Email” feature allows users to generate unique, random email addresses that forward to their personal inboxes. This development significantly impacts retail marketers’ traditional email strategies by affecting the accuracy of metrics and making customer identification more complex. Rumours suggest Gmail is developing a similar feature called “Shielded Email,” which could broaden these impacts. Therefore, retail marketers need to proactively adjust their strategies to navigate this privacy-focused environment and maintain effective customer engagement.

What is Apple’s “Hide My Email”?

Apple’s “Hide My Email” is a privacy feature that enables users to keep their personal email addresses private when creating new accounts with apps or websites supporting “Sign in with Apple.” It functions by generating unique, random email addresses, often using the @privaterelay.appleid.com domain, which automatically forwards incoming emails to the user’s primary email inbox. This allows users to interact with online services and receive communications without disclosing their primary email address to the sender. Apple does not access or process the content of these relayed emails, except for standard spam filtering. Once an email is delivered, it is typically deleted from Apple’s relay servers quickly.

Users with an iCloud+ subscription or an Apple One bundle can access and manage their “Hide My Email” addresses across their Apple devices and on iCloud.com. In the device settings, users can see which apps and websites they’ve used “Sign in with Apple” with and whether they chose to hide their email. Besides automatic generation during sign-up, users can manually create new “Hide My Email” addresses, add labels and notes for the organisation, and deactivate addresses to stop receiving messages. Inactive addresses can be reactivated or permanently deleted. The generation of these random email addresses occurs automatically in Safari and Mail when a user clicks in an email address field and selects the “Hide My Email” option. Each created address is unique to the individual user, and the system is linked to the user’s Apple ID for consistent management across devices.

The integration of “Hide My Email” within the Apple ecosystem indicates a strategic focus on enhancing user privacy in online interactions. By incorporating this feature into commonly used applications and core settings, Apple has made it easier for users to adopt privacy-enhancing tools. This ease of access is likely to lead to higher adoption rates compared to third-party solutions. The use of the @privaterelay.appleid.com domain provides a marker for marketers, allowing some segmentation and analysis of user behaviour among those using the feature.

The impact on retail marketers

The increasing use of Apple’s “Hide My Email” and Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) has significantly changed email marketing, creating several challenges for retail marketers.

One major impact is the erosion of traditional email marketing metrics. MPP, often used by those who also use “Hide My Email,” pre-loads email content, including tracking pixels, for emails opened in the Apple Mail app. This registers an “open event” even if the email isn’t viewed, leading to inflated and unreliable open rates for many subscribers. It’s estimated that a large portion of email opens might come from Apple email clients, with many of these users opting for privacy protection. Consequently, using open rates to assess campaign performance or trigger automated workflows has become problematic. While click-through rates (CTR) remain a more dependable measure of actual user engagement, click-to-open rates (CTOR), which are based on open rates, have also become unreliable. Additionally, MPP hides users’ IP addresses, making location and device data inaccessible to marketers, affecting personalisation efforts relying on this information.

“Hide My Email” also presents challenges in customer identification and tracking. By generating unique email addresses for each online interaction, the feature leads to data fragmentation, where a single customer might be represented by multiple different email addresses in a marketer’s database. This complicates building complete customer profiles and accurately tracking customer behaviour and purchase history across various points of contact. Determining if a user is new or returning becomes difficult when relying only on email addresses. This can also cause issues for customer service if customer accounts are linked to these hidden email addresses, as customers might refer to their real email for support. The use of “Hide My Email” can also make it harder to track multi-brand activity for a single individual using second-party data.

These changes significantly affect personalisation and segmentation strategies. Traditional segmentation based on open rates or location is no longer reliable for Apple Mail users with MPP enabled. Real-time personalisation triggered by email opens also becomes ineffective. Marketers need to rethink their segmentation strategies, focusing on engagement metrics that show genuine interest, such as clicks, purchases, and website activity.

Finally, “Hide My Email” raises data quality and deliverability concerns. When users deactivate a “Hide My Email” address, emails sent to it will result in hard bounces, which can negatively impact a sender’s reputation and email deliverability. The potential for a single user to have multiple “Hide My Email” addresses can also lead to an increase in the volume of email addresses in a marketer’s database, some of which may become inactive without a clear unsubscribe indication. This can fill CRM systems with unusable contact data.

Gmail’s rumoured “Shielded Email”: What we know

Reports suggest that Google is developing a feature called “Shielded Email” for Gmail users, which appears to be a response to Apple’s initiative. Similar to Apple’s feature, “Shielded Email” is expected to allow users to generate temporary or single-use email aliases to protect their primary Gmail address when signing up for online services or interacting with websites. The process would involve automatically forwarding emails sent to these aliases to the user’s main Gmail inbox, enabling communication without revealing the user’s actual email address. Users are expected to be able to manage these aliases within their Gmail settings, including disabling forwarding from specific aliases.

The integration of “Shielded Email” is reportedly being considered within Google’s autofill features on Android devices, suggesting a user-friendly implementation similar to Apple’s “Hide My Email.” The main goals are believed to be enhancing user privacy, reducing spam in primary inboxes, and providing a safer online experience by limiting the exposure of personal email addresses. Unlike Apple’s feature, “Shielded Email” is rumoured to be available to all Gmail users without a paid subscription, potentially leading to wider adoption. While the exact release date and full features are not yet officially announced by Google, the development indicates a growing trend among major email providers towards prioritising user privacy through email masking.

Google has previously introduced other privacy-focused features in Gmail, such as confidential mode, which allows senders to set expiration dates on messages and restrict recipients from forwarding, copying, printing, or downloading. Gmail also allows users to send mail as an alias from a different address they own and use email subaddressing (adding a “+word” to the Gmail address) to create variations for filtering. These existing features, along with the development of “Shielded Email,” highlight Google’s increasing focus on giving users more control over their email privacy and security.

Adapting to the new reality: Strategies for retail marketers

To effectively navigate the changing landscape due to privacy features like Apple’s “Hide My Email” and the potential arrival of Gmail’s “Shielded Email,” retail marketers need to be proactive and adaptable in their email marketing strategies.

A key change involves how marketers measure campaign success, focusing on engagement metrics that show genuine interest. Instead of heavily relying on open rates, which are now unreliable for many users, marketers should prioritise tracking clicks, conversions, website visits, form submissions, and the overall revenue generated per campaign. Monitoring bounce rates and unsubscribe rates will provide valuable insights into what content or messaging is not resonating with the audience. For segmentation, marketers should use engagement data like event sign-ups, purchase orders, items added to shopping carts, and customer lifetime value. Metrics such as dwell time on linked target pages and reply rates can also offer deeper insights into user engagement.

The importance of first-party data will continue to increase in this privacy-focused environment. Retailers should focus on actively collecting and using data directly from their own platforms, such as websites and mobile apps. Implementing customer identification methods beyond email, like unique account numbers, loyalty program IDs, or device IDs, will be crucial for maintaining a unified view of the customer. Marketers should actively use surveys, reviews, polls, and customer service interactions to gather valuable first-party insights. Investing in data consolidation and integration solutions will be essential to create a comprehensive understanding of customer interactions across all points of contact. To encourage customers to share their data willingly, retailers can offer incentives such as exclusive discounts or early access to new products.

Encouraging account creation and fostering loyalty programmes can also help address the challenges posed by “Hide My Email.” By motivating customers to create accounts before making purchases, retailers can improve the accuracy of their tracking efforts. Streamlining the account creation process and clearly communicating the benefits of having an account are vital. Implementing or enhancing loyalty programmes can further incentivise repeat purchases and provide a direct channel for gathering customer preferences.

Exploring alternative communication channels beyond email will be increasingly important. Developing a cohesive omnichannel marketing strategy that integrates SMS messaging, push notifications, and other relevant channels can help ensure that brands can still reach their audience effectively. Retailers might also consider using on-site or in-app alerts for time-sensitive or transactional messages. Collaborating with influencers can provide another way to reach potential customers in a manner that aligns with evolving privacy expectations.

Refining segmentation and personalisation techniques is crucial. Instead of relying on open rates, marketers should segment their lists based on user engagement metrics like clicks, purchases, and website activity. Enhancing personalisation efforts by using first-party data to deliver tailored content, product recommendations, and personalised offers will become even more critical. Using behavioural data, purchase history, and interactions across different marketing channels will enable more effective segmentation. The focus should be on creating high-quality, engaging content that naturally encourages clicks and conversions. Promoting preference centre updates will empower users to manage the types and frequency of emails they receive, fostering trust and improving engagement.

Finally, retailers need to adapt their core email marketing practices. During the sign-up process, clearly explain the value proposition of receiving marketing emails. In welcome emails, set clear expectations regarding the type and frequency of communications. Develop campaigns that serialise messaging over time to build stronger customer relationships. When conducting A/B testing, focus on clicks and conversions as the primary success metrics rather than open rates. Review and adjust marketing automation triggers to rely on clicks and other engagement indicators. Continuously monitor email deliverability metrics and promptly address any increases in hard bounces. For B2B marketers, considering accepting only business or corporate email domains might be a relevant strategy. Using device identification analytics can help understand the impact of Apple’s privacy features on open rates within their specific audience. When retargeting non-openers, limit the number of resends and experiment with different subject lines and sender information.

Navigating the privacy-focused future of email marketing:

The introduction of Apple’s “Hide My Email” and the anticipated arrival of Gmail’s “Shielded Email” indicate a significant shift in the digital landscape, reflecting a growing consumer desire for more privacy and control over their personal information. For retail marketers, these developments require a fundamental re-evaluation of traditional email marketing strategies. The reliance on open rates as a primary performance indicator is decreasing, and the ability to consistently identify and track individual customers through email addresses alone is becoming more challenging.

To succeed in this evolving environment, retail marketers must adapt by prioritising engagement metrics like clicks and conversions, investing in the collection and analysis of first-party data, and building direct customer relationships through account creation and loyalty programmes. Embracing omnichannel communication strategies and refining segmentation and personalisation techniques based on genuine engagement will be crucial for maintaining effective customer outreach. Ultimately, the future of email marketing in a privacy-focused world depends on building trust with consumers by providing value and respecting their preferences, necessitating continuous adaptation and innovation in marketing strategies.