30% of online Americans did not like merchants' holiday greetings by e-mail

Return Path surveyed consumer attitudes regarding e-mail marketing. It found that while 18% welcomed additional holiday e-mails and 49% were indifferent, 30% said the additional pitches made them distrust permission-based e-mail. And 14% said they were "exhausted" by the deluge. Return Path found about half of consumers unhappy with the volume of permission-based commercial e-mail they get: 50% said they received about what they expected; 40% said it was too much, and 10% said they did not recall signing up to receive any. Almost all (99%) of the 723 respondents said they received extra e-mail during the holidays.