Email marketing might not be the flashiest channel in your ecommerce stack – but it’s still one of the most profitable. And with rising paid ad costs and tighter privacy rules, brands in 2025 are doubling down on owned channels like email more than ever.

But when you send that newsletter, abandoned cart flow, or welcome series … what should you expect?

What’s a good open rate? A solid click-through rate? How does your performance compare to other ecommerce brands?

In this post, we’ll share up-to-date email marketing benchmarks for ecommerce, what influences the numbers, and how you can improve them across the funnel.

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TL;DR: Key Ecommerce Email Benchmarks for 2025

Let’s get straight to the numbers.

Metric	Average Benchmark (2025)
Open Rate	35–45%
Click-Through Rate (CTR)	2.5–5%
Click-to-Open Rate (CTOR)	8–12%
Unsubscribe Rate	< 0.2%
Conversion Rate (from click)	1.5–3.5%
Revenue per Email Sent	£0.05 – £0.18+

These stats vary by:

• Email type (campaign vs automation)
• List quality
• Industry
• Platform (Klaviyo, dotdigital, Mailchimp, HubSpot, etc.)

→ Want to benchmark your own email performance? Our Email Marketing service can audit, optimise, and scale your lifecycle strategy.

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Campaigns vs Automations: The Split That Matters

Here’s a key truth in 2025:

Automated flows outperform one-off campaigns – almost every time.

Here’s a performance comparison:

Email Type	Open Rate	Click Rate	Conversion Rate
Promotional Campaign	30–40%	2–3%	1–2%
Welcome Series	40–60%	4–8%	3–5%
Abandoned Cart	45–60%	6–10%	5–10%
Browse Abandonment	40–50%	4–7%	2–5%
Winback Flow	35–45%	2–4%	1–3%
Post-Purchase Flow	50–70%	5–8%	4–6%

→ Need help building flows that drive real retention? Visit our Retention & Customer Loyalty page.

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What Impacts Email Performance?

1. List Quality

If you’ve bought a list or never clean it – expect low engagement and high unsubscribes. Healthy lists are:

• Double opt-in
• Regularly pruned
• Segmented based on behaviour

2. Segmentation & Personalisation

One-size-fits-all blasts are outdated. Instead:

• Segment by purchase history, category interest, or engagement
• Use dynamic product recommendations (e.g. via Klaviyo or dotdigital)

→ Need help with setup? We’ve worked with dotdigital, Klaviyo, HubSpot, and Mailchimp — see our Email & CRM Consultancy service.

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3. Subject Lines & Preheaders

You can’t get opens if your subject lines don’t stand out. A/B test:

• Emojis vs no emojis
• Personalisation (e.g. first name, location)
• Curiosity vs direct value
• Questions vs statements

Tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer or Mailmodo’s subject line tester can help.

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4. Send Timing & Frequency

Sending too often kills engagement. Too little? You get forgotten. Benchmark:

• Campaigns: 1–2x/week
• Automated emails: event-triggered, not time-based

Always monitor fatigue metrics like:

• Unsubscribes
• Spam complaints
• Drop in open/click rates

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5. Deliverability Health

You could have the best email in the world – but if it hits spam, it won’t matter.

Key deliverability factors:

• Use a branded sending domain (e.g. mail.yoursite.com)
• Set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC properly
• Avoid spammy words and image-only emails
• Warm up new domains before scaling sends

→ Need help? Our CRM consultants can audit your infrastructure and fix delivery issues.

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What “Good” Looks Like in 2025

Here are a few real-world examples (aggregated from DTC brands we’ve worked with and 3rd party benchmarks):

Fashion & Apparel

• Open Rate: 32–40%
• CTR: 2.8%
• Revenue per Email: £0.09

Health & Beauty

• Open Rate: 45–55%
• CTR: 4.2%
• Revenue per Email: £0.14

Home & Living

• Open Rate: 37%
• CTR: 3.5%
• Revenue per Email: £0.12

Source: Klaviyo Benchmark Reports, Litmus State of Email 2025, Ecommerce Smart internal data

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How to Improve Ecommerce Email Results

Here’s your priority list for moving the needle:

1. Build Smart Segments

Go beyond gender/location. Segment by:

• Last purchase category
• Time since last purchase
• Highest AOV
• Loyalty program members
• Non-buyers who’ve clicked 3+ times

2. Improve Your Flows

At a minimum, every ecommerce brand should have:

• Welcome Series
• Abandoned Cart
• Browse Abandonment
• Post-Purchase
• Winback/Reactivation
• Loyalty/VIP

→ See our Email Marketing service for flow audits and rebuilds.

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3. Add Product Recommendations

Dynamic recommendations can increase click-through rate by up to 60%. Use:

• “You might also like”
• “Top picks based on your browsing”
• “Others also bought …”

Platforms like Klaviyo, dotdigital and HubSpot make this easy with dynamic blocks.

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4. Test Send Times

The “best time” varies by brand – test:

• Morning vs evening
• Weekday vs weekend
• Localised time zone sends
• Post-purchase follow-ups at key windows (e.g. 5 days later)

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5. Use Split Testing – Always

Test:

• Subject lines
• Button colours
• Email layout (image-heavy vs text-heavy)
• Personalisation
• Offers (percent-off vs £-off)

Just don’t test everything at once – pick one variable per test.

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Benchmarks Are Just That – Benchmarks

They’re useful for context, but not the full story.

A lower open rate on a small, high-converting segment might be better than a huge list that never buys. Focus on Revenue per Email, Conversion Rate, and List Health over vanity metrics.

→ Want help building an email strategy that drives lifetime value? Visit our Retention & Loyalty page.

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TL;DR: Ecommerce Email Benchmarks 2025

Metric	Target Range
Open Rate	35–45%
Click Rate	2.5–5%
Click-to-Open	8–12%
Conversion Rate	1.5–3.5%
Unsubscribes	<0.2%
Revenue/Email	£0.05–£0.18+

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Final Thought for Email Marketing Benchmarks for Ecommerce

Email marketing isn’t dead. It’s more alive – and more valuable – than ever.

But in 2025, it takes:

• Smart segmentation
• Flows that convert
• Content that adds value
• Infrastructure that delivers

We help ecommerce brands go from “just sending emails” to building lifecycle marketing machines.

Book a free discovery call and let’s make your email channel smarter, stronger, and far more profitable.