Litmus surveyed 1,000 customers about their e mail preferences, with an emphasis on retailer emails. The individuals, aged 18+, have been designed to symbolize the U.S. grownup inhabitants. Try the outcomes:

Desk of contents

E-mail frequency and timing

  • The first cause customers delete retail advertising and marketing emails with out opening them is simply too many emails/inbox overload (39%).
  • The highest cause customers unsubscribe from a retailer’s emails is that emails are despatched too regularly (67%).
  • Most desire weekly emails (32%) or 2-3 instances per week (20%).
  • Throughout holidays, customers are break up between wanting the identical frequency with higher content material (33%) versus fewer however higher-quality emails (32%).

Key takeaway: E-mail frequency is the essential issue driving shopper e mail fatigue and unsubscribe conduct.

Retailers over-email their clients, with frequency being each the highest cause for unsubscribes and a serious driver of unopened emails. There’s additionally a major disconnect between present practices and shopper preferences, as most need emails weekly or 2-3 instances per week at most. This means many retailers may enhance engagement and scale back churn by merely sending fewer, extra thoughtfully timed messages, relatively than bombarding subscribers with each day communications.

Even throughout high-stakes intervals like holidays, customers stay break up between frequency and high quality, reinforcing that quantity alone isn’t the reply to driving gross sales by means of e mail advertising and marketing.

Content material relevance and personalization

  • 29% of customers delete emails primarily based on topic traces alone.
  • Irrelevant or non-personalized content material drives 46% of unsubscribes.
  • 32% need fewer however extra priceless emails with higher-quality, personalised gives throughout main vacation purchasing seasons.
  • 42% unsubscribe on account of extreme promotions with few priceless gives.

Key takeaway: Content material high quality and relevance matter greater than quantity, with personalization being important to stopping subscriber loss.

Almost half of all unsubscribes stem from irrelevant or non-personalized content material, whereas one other 42% go away on account of extreme promotions that lack actual worth. This reveals that customers are selective about what lands of their inbox: they’re keen to have interaction with e mail advertising and marketing, however solely when it feels tailor-made to their wants and gives real worth.

One-third of customers make deletion choices primarily based solely on topic traces, emphasizing how vital first impressions are for chopping by means of the noise. Throughout peak purchasing intervals, customers persistently sign they’d relatively obtain fewer emails if it means greater high quality and higher personalization, suggesting retailers who concentrate on relevance over frequency will see higher engagement and retention charges.

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Client conduct and decision-making

  • E-mail advertising and marketing ranks as the highest channel affecting buy choices (28%), even forward of social media advertisements (22%).
  • Almost one-third (31%) delete emails inside seconds primarily based on topic traces.
  • Youthful demographics usually tend to delete after briefly skimming the preview textual content — 26% of Millennials and 28% of Gen Z.

Key takeaway: E-mail advertising and marketing stays essentially the most influential digital advertising and marketing channel, however shopper consideration spans are extraordinarily quick, demanding fast relevance and influence.

Regardless of the crowded digital panorama, e mail nonetheless outperforms social media advertisements as a purchase order driver, proving its enduring worth for retailers. Nonetheless, this affect comes with a essential caveat: customers make split-second choices about e mail engagement, with practically one-third deleting emails inside seconds primarily based on topic traces alone. This pattern is much more pronounced amongst youthful buyers.

Whereas e mail advertising and marketing gives the very best ROI potential amongst digital channels, success hinges on nailing these first 30 characters or so.

Belief and privateness issues

  • 39% mentioned ‘no distinction’ when requested if they’d be roughly prone to belief a retailer’s advertising and marketing emails in the event that they knew they have been written by AI.
  • 38% have been both ‘considerably much less prone to belief’ or ‘a lot much less prone to belief.’
  • Belief elevated with youthful generations like Millennials (38%) and Gen Z (38%).
  • The three most vital elements of e mail privateness have been transparency about knowledge assortment (58%), no third-party sharing (54%) and management over private info entry (52%).

Key takeaway: AI-generated e mail advertising and marketing faces a belief divide alongside generational traces, whereas knowledge privateness transparency stays universally essential throughout all demographics.

Client attitudes towards AI-written advertising and marketing emails reveal a transparent break up, which creates a slender margin for acceptance. Nonetheless, this skepticism isn’t uniform—youthful customers are rather more reliable.

No matter AI attitudes, privateness issues stay paramount throughout all age teams, with transparency about knowledge assortment main shopper priorities. This means that retailers ought to focus first on constructing belief by means of clear privateness practices earlier than introducing AI-generated content material into their e mail methods.

Put together your e mail program for what’s to return

Get the information, insights, and developments you want from practically 1,000 entrepreneurs to future-proof your e mail program from The State of E-mail Improvements Report.

Methodology: This analysis relies on a survey of 1,000 U.S. customers aged 18 and older performed by Dynata on behalf of Litmus from Validity in April 2025. The pattern was designed to be consultant of the U.S. grownup inhabitants. For analyses referencing generational teams, the next age ranges have been used: Era Z (10-25 years), Millennials (26-41 years), Era X (42-57 years), and Child Boomers (58-76 years).

***Uncooked knowledge from the survey can be found here.


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