Email open rates decreased 8.3% in 2Q13 from 1Q13 levels, but increased 11.5% over the equivalent period in 2012, resulting in an overall average open rate of 28.5%, according to Epsilon's quarterly email trends and benchmark report.
The average click rate in 2Q13 was 4.3%, down both quarter over quarter and year over year.
However, the average non-bounce rate (the percentage of emails that were not returned as undelivered) remained strong at 96.1%.
Below, additional key findings from the report, which was based on data from Epsilon’s proprietary email platform.
Performance by Industry
- In 2Q13, the highest open rates occurred in the retail (40%), financial services (39.6%), and travel (31.8%) categories.
- The highest click-to-open rates occurred in the consumer products (40.5%), retail apparel (24.4%), and consumer publishing/media (20.7%) categories.
Email List Behavior
- In 2Q13, 51% of subscribers to the average email list were active—up slightly quarter over quarter, with 50.1% active in 1Q13 and 49.9% active in 4Q12.
- 36% of new subscribers were active after their initial opt-in to an email program (New Clickers and New Openers in the following chart). That is an increase over 2Q12, when 34% of new subscribers were active.
- The remaining 64% of new subscribers were unengaged with marketers' email programs.
About the research: The report was based on data from from 6.1 billion emails sent by Epsilon in April, May, and June 2013 across multiple industries on behalf of approximately 150 participating clients.
