Litmus surveyed 1,000 customers about their e mail preferences, with an emphasis on retailer emails. The individuals, aged 18+, had been designed to characterize the U.S. grownup inhabitants. Take a look at the outcomes:
Desk of contents
E mail frequency and timing
The first purpose customers delete retail advertising emails with out opening them is just too many emails/inbox overload (39%).The highest purpose customers unsubscribe from a retailer’s emails is that emails are despatched too often (67%).Most desire weekly emails (32%) or 2-3 instances per week (20%).Throughout holidays, customers are cut 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 prospects, with frequency being each the highest purpose for unsubscribes and a significant 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 every day communications.
Even throughout high-stakes intervals like holidays, customers stay cut up between frequency and high quality, reinforcing that quantity alone isn’t the reply to driving gross sales via e mail advertising.
Content material relevance and personalization
29% of customers delete emails based mostly on topic traces alone.Irrelevant or non-personalized content material drives 46% of unsubscribes.32% need fewer however extra worthwhile emails with higher-quality, customized gives throughout main vacation procuring seasons.42% unsubscribe attributable to extreme promotions with few worthwhile 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 attributable to extreme promotions that lack actual worth. This reveals that customers are selective about what lands of their inbox: they’re prepared to interact with e mail advertising, however solely when it feels tailor-made to their wants and gives real worth.
One-third of customers make deletion choices based mostly solely on topic traces, emphasizing how vital first impressions are for reducing via the noise. Throughout peak procuring intervals, customers constantly sign they’d relatively obtain fewer emails if it means greater high quality and higher personalization, suggesting retailers who deal with relevance over frequency will see higher engagement and retention charges.
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Client conduct and decision-making
E mail advertising ranks as the highest channel affecting buy choices (28%), even forward of social media advertisements (22%).Almost one-third (31%) delete emails inside seconds based mostly 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 stays essentially the most influential digital advertising channel, however shopper consideration spans are extraordinarily quick, demanding speedy relevance and impression.
Regardless of the crowded digital panorama, e mail nonetheless outperforms social media advertisements as a purchase order driver, proving its enduring worth for retailers. Nevertheless, this affect comes with a essential caveat: customers make split-second choices about e mail engagement, with practically one-third deleting emails inside seconds based mostly on topic traces alone. This development is much more pronounced amongst youthful consumers.
Whereas e mail advertising gives the best ROI potential amongst digital channels, success hinges on nailing these first 30 characters or so.
Belief and privateness considerations
39% mentioned ‘no distinction’ when requested if they’d be roughly prone to belief a retailer’s advertising emails in the event that they knew they had been written by AI.38% had 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 features of e mail privateness had been transparency about knowledge assortment (58%), no third-party sharing (54%) and management over private data entry (52%).
Key takeaway: AI-generated e mail advertising faces a belief divide alongside generational traces, whereas knowledge privateness transparency stays universally essential throughout all demographics.
Client attitudes towards AI-written advertising emails reveal a transparent cut up, which creates a slim margin for acceptance. Nevertheless, this skepticism isn’t uniform—youthful customers are rather more reliable.
No matter AI attitudes, privateness considerations 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 via clear privateness practices earlier than introducing AI-generated content material into their e mail methods.
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Methodology: This analysis relies on a survey of 1,000 U.S. customers aged 18 and older carried out 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 had been used: Technology Z (10-25 years), Millennials (26-41 years), Technology X (42-57 years), and Child Boomers (58-76 years).
***Uncooked knowledge from the survey could be discovered right here.
