[Via Retail Traffic Court] David at Retail Traffic Court recently blogged about how Bath and Body Works have accumulated 10 million email addresses in less than 2 years. Each email id is worth $18 to B&BW.

To entice customers to give over their electronic addresses, Bath and Body Works offers free tubes of lip gloss. However, they don’t get it on the spot. The company takes a true multi-channel approach.

The gift comes as an offer in customers’ e-mail boxes that they must take back to the store to redeem, Beitler said.

“E-mail is significantly more valuable to us for a store customer than for a Web customer,” he added.

“When they’re in the store the first time, they make a $24 or $25 transaction,” he said. “When they come back to the store, what do they do? They make another $24 or $25 transaction.”

Truly a case of innovative thinking. This coupled with in-depth knowledge of consumer behavior and you have a winner.