What's a Good Email Open Rate? (Industry Benchmarks 2025)
Understanding Email Open Rates
If you're running email marketing campaigns, you've probably wondered: "Is my open rate actually good?" The answer depends on your industry, audience, and email strategy. Let's break down what you need to know about email open rates in 2025.
What is an Email Open Rate?
Email open rate is the percentage of recipients who open your email out of the total number of emails delivered. It's calculated as:
Open Rate = (Emails Opened ÷ Emails Delivered) × 100
For example, if you send 1,000 emails and 250 people open them, your open rate is 25%.
Average Email Open Rates by Industry (2025)
Here are the current industry benchmarks for email open rates:
- E-commerce & Retail: 15-18%
- Fashion & Apparel: 16-20%
- Health & Wellness: 20-24%
- Food & Beverage: 18-22%
- Home & Garden: 17-21%
- Beauty & Cosmetics: 16-19%
- Sports & Outdoors: 19-23%
- Technology: 14-17%
- Non-profit: 24-28%
What's Considered a "Good" Open Rate?
Generally speaking:
- Below 15%: Needs improvement - review your subject lines and sender reputation
- 15-25%: Average - you're doing okay but there's room to grow
- 25-35%: Good - you're above average and engaging your audience well
- Above 35%: Excellent - you're crushing it with highly engaged subscribers
Factors That Affect Your Open Rate
1. Subject Line Quality
Your subject line is the first thing people see. Make it compelling, clear, and relevant to your audience.
2. Sender Name Recognition
People are more likely to open emails from senders they recognize and trust.
3. Send Time
Timing matters. Test different days and times to find when your audience is most engaged.
4. List Quality
A clean, engaged email list will always outperform a large, unengaged one.
5. Mobile Optimization
Over 60% of emails are opened on mobile devices. Make sure your emails look good on all screens.
6. Email Frequency
Sending too often can lead to fatigue; too infrequently and people forget about you.
How to Improve Your Email Open Rate
Write Better Subject Lines
Use personalization, create urgency, ask questions, or spark curiosity. A/B test different approaches.
Segment Your List
Send targeted emails to specific groups based on their interests, behavior, or purchase history.
Clean Your Email List Regularly
Remove inactive subscribers every 3-6 months to maintain a healthy engagement rate.
Optimize Send Times
Test different days and times. For e-commerce, Tuesday-Thursday mornings often perform well.
Use a Recognizable Sender Name
Use your business name or a person's name that subscribers will recognize.
Avoid Spam Triggers
Stay away from all caps, excessive punctuation, and spam trigger words like "FREE!!!" or "ACT NOW!!!"
Important Note About iOS Privacy Changes
Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (introduced in iOS 15) has impacted open rate tracking. Some opens may be artificially inflated because Apple pre-loads email content. This means open rates might not be as reliable as they once were.
Focus on other metrics too, like click-through rates, conversions, and revenue per email to get a complete picture of your email performance.
The Bottom Line
While benchmarks are helpful, the most important comparison is against your own past performance. Track your open rates over time, test different strategies, and focus on continuous improvement.
A "good" open rate is one that's improving and driving real business results for your store. Don't get too caught up in hitting a specific number - focus on building genuine relationships with your subscribers and providing value in every email you send.