Europe is calling, and direct mail is the answer

Matt Hancock, Co-Founder UKCousin & Managing Director, BBS

American fashion and home brands built the last decade on the

back of huge digital spend, and gain. But we know that the next

decade will be harder. Customer acquisition costs are rising, returns

on paid social are thinning, and the channels that delivered growth are now

delivering competition. The brands winning the next wave are looking

elsewhere and, increasingly, they’re looking at Europe.

The UK alone represents a market of 62 million online shoppers spending an average of £2,600 per person, per year. Britons spend a greater share of their income online than Americans do. US brands already account for 38% of UK cross-border purchases. And the appetite for American fashion and home goods is established. The question is not if you reach those customers, but how you reach them.

In a market saturated with digital advertising, a well-produced catalogue does something a retargeting ad cannot: it sits on a kitchen or living room table, right in their home. It gets passed between partners and family members. And it gets picked up again and again.

UK direct mail volumes are growing - up 6% year on year, and we are helping many US brands to enter or grow into the market, through mail alone or as part of a broader omnichannel strategy. The returns are substantive: house file response rates of 2.5–5% in fashion, and ROAS of 3.6x to 4.2x on a 100,000-piece mini-catalogue campaign.

There is one further advantage that surprises most US marketers. Unlike email, direct mail does not require opt-in consent under GDPR. That is not a minor detail, it is a serious head start for any brand entering Europe without an established customer database. It is also a regulatory landscape I know well, having shaped the UK’s data legislation during my time in government.

The UK is the natural entry point, but it should not be seen as the ceiling. Germany pioneered the catalogue format and retains the most catalogue-receptive consumers in Europe. France offers comparable scale. A phased approach of UK first, followed by continental expansion is a proven path.

A test programme can be in-home within six to seven weeks. My perspective comes from a background in data analytics, combined with a family business that has operated in the direct mail industry for decades, which means the infrastructure to deliver precisely targeted distribution is already in place. The key question is whether you move before your competitors do.