UK consumers are clicking less, but buying more. New research from esbconnect, drawn from nearly 70 million email marketing messages, shows that browsing is giving way to intent. People are engaging with far fewer messages, but converting at a much higher rate when they do, and nowhere is that clearer than in home improvement and finance.
esbconnect analysed close to 70 million email sends, tracking them through to 200,000 clicks and 17,584 qualified leads. Across that dataset, one trend stood out: conversion rates in finance and utilities have doubled in the space of a year, with some categories moving even faster.
| Messages analysed | Nearly 70 million email marketing messages |
| Clicks generated | 200,000 |
| Qualified leads converted | 17,584 |
| Finance and utilities conversion | Doubled in the last 12 months |
| Fastest-moving categories | Remortgage, life insurance, car finance, boiler switches and broadband, up 2 to 5x |
Two categories stand out in the data: home improvement and anything that touches a household bill. Both point to the same underlying behaviour. Consumers aren’t spending less out of caution alone, they are being deliberate about where the money goes.
“Consumers may be cutting back on smaller purchases, but when it comes to improving their homes, the intent is extremely strong,” said Suzanna Chaplin, CEO of esbconnect.
“Click-to-conversion rates for a lead have doubled in the last 12 months. Consumers are actively trying to reduce monthly household bills,” Chaplin added.
esbconnect’s read on the data is that this isn’t a temporary dip in engagement, it’s a change in how people use the inbox. Cost-of-living pressure and wider economic uncertainty are pushing consumers toward what Chaplin describes as “cocooning”, investing in the home rather than spending outward, and cutting monthly costs wherever they can.
“Consumers are becoming more selective about what they engage with, but far more likely to convert when they do,” said Chaplin.
“The internet is moving from a discovery economy to an intent economy. Clicks are becoming rarer, but far more valuable.”
For ecommerce brands outside of home and finance, the picture looks different. The data points to a longer consideration period rather than an outright drop in demand, which means nurturing a lead over time matters more than chasing an immediate click.
Fewer, higher-value interactions change the calculus for anyone running acquisition or retargeting campaigns. A lower click volume is not a red flag if the leads coming through are converting at two to five times the rate they were a year ago. The brands set up to win are the ones that can tell the difference between a quiet campaign and a genuinely low-intent one, and target their messaging accordingly.
Get in touch and we will walk you through what the intent economy means for your category, and where the highest-value leads are showing up right now.
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