Global benchmark report analyzing email marketing strategies of 400+ major ecommerce brands. Discover emerging trends and see how you stack up against KPIs.
As email users rise worldwide, the email marketing software market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.9% through 2032, reaching USD 3.7 billion (Fortune Business Insights). Because of its wide reach and low cost, email offers businesses impressive ROI. However, businesses often struggle to find the right strategy for tapping into this potential.
We subscribed to over 500 email newsletters from top ecommerce brands to give you an inside look at how they approach email marketing. Learn what your competitors are doing, from how often they send emails down to the email service provider they’re using to land their campaigns right in front of customers.
With our comprehensive benchmark, you’ll get actionable insights to improve your campaigns today.
How many emails is too many?
As part of our benchmark, we sought to answer one of the biggest questions for email marketers: How many emails should we be sending to improve engagement but avoid fatigue?

The short answer: less is more. 26.2% of Businesses send an average of 1-10 emails over 30 days. However, this varies by industry, with media and entertainment reaching up to 20 monthly emails.
When is the best time to send an email (day and time)?
Perhaps an even bigger question than the first is when exactly you should send a campaign to get the best engagement.
For US brands, Tuesday remains the most popular day to send an email. However, our findings show that businesses focus on other days of the week as well.
Interestingly, popular send days and times vary by region and email language.

Send time distribution for emails written in English
Knowing your audience will help you plan your campaigns around peak opening times. While using a benchmark is a great place to start, leading CRMs like Brevo use AI-driven analytics to find the optimal send time for each individual contact, giving your campaigns a powerful edge.
What are the best practices for making click-worthy subject lines?
Improving open rates is crucial for making campaigns successful. Subject lines make that first impression on your readers and are a powerful component of any email campaign.
To understand how brands are crafting their subject lines, we looked at character length and the use of emojis. Given that inbox providers have a maximum preview length, it was unsurprising that the average character length was close across languages (40-43 characters).
We also found that while only 21% of all email subject lines contained emojis, there were strong preferences for certain ones.
But engagement isn’t just about subject lines. In this section of our study, we also recorded findings about visuals and display. Discover how many emails are responsive and how many images businesses use across industries to capture reader attention.
Deliverability - how many companies are using SPF and DKIM?
Almost 100% of all companies that we tracked are SPF and DKIM authenticated, and we’re happy to hear it!
Is AI useful for email marketing?
There’s a lot of buzz around AI, but just how important is it for email campaigns?
A remarkable 95% of marketers who utilize generative AI for email creation consider it effective, with 54% rating it as very effective. And by effective we mean higher CTR and increased ROI.
How do you compare to industry-specific KPIs?
To help you understand your performance against global averages, we conducted a benchmark of KPIs from leading sources. These figures will give you something to aim for and help you see where you’re already doing well.
Example insights:
- Most marketers report an average email open rate of 46-50%.
- Technology and transportation services lead with a 2.6% click-through rate.
Inspired to put these ideas to work for your next marketing campaign? Download the full report (it’s free)!
Methodology
Our email strategy benchmark report is derived from an in-depth analysis of email marketing practices from over 500 leading brands across various industries. We strategically selected top ecommerce brands primarily in the American, German, and French markets, ensuring a comprehensive subscription to their newsletters. We subscribed to 547 newsletters to allow for limitations in gathering data due to blocking or proprietary sending tools and successfully collected emails from 500 brands starting in late August 2024, analyzing a significant sample over a month-long period.
The emails were meticulously categorized by type and analyzed for key elements such as subject lines, calls to action, and personalization techniques. We focused on identifying trends through metrics like frequency, design, and optimal send days. Our findings were further refined through the expertise of email marketing professionals, providing a robust, data-driven perspective on how top brands engage their audiences through email.