The state of B2C email marketing

11 min read

You’ll know first-hand that email marketing is a powerful tool to connect with your customers. But there’s more to email than simply clicking ‘send’. You’ll need a solid, informed strategy to deliver impactful results and boost your engagement and conversion rates.

We’ve collected some of the top email marketing statistics for 2025, to uncover what works and what to avoid when it comes to B2C email marketing. We’ll reveal the email marketing benchmarks you should aim for, so you can fine-tune your email marketing strategy. The benefits of email marketing are undeniable, but how you leverage these insights can take your campaigns to the next level. 

Key benefits of email marketing in the B2C landscape

B2C email marketing offers your business a direct line of communication with your customers. There are numerous benefits of email marketing campaigns, but here are just some of the key advantages that can help you grow your brand.

• Increased ROI: Email is one of the most profitable channels and offers a high return on investment (ROI). 
• Communication with customers: Email is a personal and direct way to communicate with your customers, allowing you to share offers, product information and other brand content straight to their inboxes.
• Targeted campaigns: By segmenting your customers, you can tailor your content to specific audiences and increase the relevance of your campaigns. This means customers are more likely to resonate with your content and engage with it.
• Measurable results: With the right tools you can track the performance of your B2C email marketing. You can measure metrics such as click-through rate, open rate and conversions to know what’s working and what you can improve on.
• Improved brand awareness: Email allows you to regularly interact with your customers, with content that reflects the nature of your brand. This improves brand recognition and awareness, making your customers more likely to remember you. 

B2C email marketing statistics for 2025

We’ve compiled a list of B2C marketing statistics to highlight the power of email campaigns in driving revenue, engagement and brand awareness. We’ve sorted these statistics by key metrics and trends, so you can learn the value of investing in email marketing for your B2C business.

General email marketing statistics for 2025

Here are some of the latest email marketing statistics to help you gauge the potential and effectiveness of email marketing for achieving your business goals. 

• Email marketing revenue worldwide is set to reach $17.9 billion by 2027 [Statista] 
• The number of emails sent and received per day is projected to reach 408.2 billion by 2027 [Statista] 
• The return on investment (ROI) for email marketing stands at an impressive $36 for every $1 spent [Litmus]

It’s clear from these figures that email is more than just a profitable marketing channel, it’s also an essential element of any successful marketing strategy. As email marketing continues to evolve, marketers will need to find innovative ways to engage their customers effectively, to benefit from email marketing’s strong ROI. 

Current landscape of B2C email marketing

The statistics below explore the impact of B2C email marketing right now and how it helps to grow customer retention.

• 59% of consumers say marketing emails influence their purchase decisions, with over 50% saying they purchase from an email at least once a month [OptinMonster] 
• 80% of small and midsized businesses say that email marketing is their most important online tool for customer retention [OptinMonster]

• 80% of retail professionals indicate email marketing as their greatest driver of customer retention [Word Stream] 

These stats reiterate the importance of email marketing in the B2C sector in acquiring new customers and retaining existing ones. It’s a valuable tool for maximising engagement, sales and brand loyalty.

Email benchmarks for 2025

Here are some email benchmark statistics you can use to measure your own email marketing performance.

• The average open rate across all industries is 35.63% [Mailchimp]
• The average click-through rate is 2.62% [Mailchimp]
• The average unsubscription rate is 0.22% [Mailchimp]
• The average hard bounce rate is 0.21% / the average soft bounce rate is 0.7% [Mailchimp]

These stats uncover email benchmarks across the board, to help marketers assess how well their campaigns perform compared to industry standards. These figures can also be motivational, showing what is achievable within your industry when setting realistic goals. Metrics such as open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates allow you to measure engagement, identify issues and continuously improve your email marketing strategy.

Industry specific email benchmarks for 2025

These statistics compare open rates, click-through rates and unsubscription rates across different industries.

[Mailchimp]

The religion, arts and sports sectors have higher-than-average open rates, demonstrating their email subscribers’ loyalty to and interest in their content. When it comes to the highest click-through rate, the government and media sectors take the top spot - likely due to their highly relevant, topical and informational content. Whereas restaurant and health and fitness industries have the highest unsubscribe rates. This may be due to subscribers receiving too many emails that aren’t of interest to them, or that the content they receive needs more personalisation to capture their attention.

Consumer behaviour insights 

These statistics reveal how users interact with email marketing and how it influences their buying habits and behaviour.

• 99% of email users check their inbox every day, with some checking 20 times a day. Of those people, 58% of consumers check their email first thing in the morning [Hubspot] 
• Nearly half of all people who click on a cart abandonment email make a purchase [Omnisend] 
• It’s three times more likely that people purchase from email marketing than social media [Forbes] 
• 63% of people who open up an email try and find a discount [LXA Hub] 
• Anniversary emails generate nearly seven times more revenue — on average, they earn 66 cents per email compared to 10 cents for bulk mailings [Forbes] 
• Triggered emails, which are sent based on an individual's actions, receive 70.5% more opens than other types of emails [Porch]

[Porch]

When it comes to consumer behaviour, these statistics suggest that consumers engage well with email marketing, especially when the content is relevant and personalised to their needs and interests. The more personalised your emails are, the more likely your subscribers are to respond to them, with users opening personalised, triggered emails more than standard messages.

Trends in B2C email marketing

Trends in recent years have affected customer expectations and behaviours. To meet the demands of your audience, you’ll need to keep up with the latest developments in email marketing, to ensure your emails remain relevant and engaging. We’ll uncover some of the key trends shaping email marketing today that you should be aware of.

AI 

• 49% of email marketers use the help of AI to create content [Forbes] 
• 51% of AI users use OpenAI's ChatGPT, with other tools including Copy.ai, Scalenut, Anyword, DALL-E, and Jasper [Wix]

• 69% of marketers agree that AI tools can help them personalise the experience their customers get [Hubspot]

[Adobe] 

The above stats emphasise the growth of AI in email marketing and how it can benefit content creation and the performance of your campaigns. As AI tools continue to develop, they can benefit your marketing strategies and help you deliver more targeted and effective campaigns.

Mobile optimisation

• Nearly 1 in 5 email marketing campaigns are not optimised for mobile devices [Super Office]
• 55% of emails are opened on mobile devices [Hubspot] 
• 41% of email views, and 75% of Gmail users’ email views — come from mobile devices [Mailbutler] 
• 35% of email marketers use a mobile-first or mobile-responsive design process [Litmus]
• Launching a mobile-responsive email design can increase unique mobile clicks by 15% [Mailchimp] 
• 81% of people who use mobile devices for email prefer to open emails on their smartphones.
• 50% of people will delete an email if it's not optimised for mobile. [Optinmonster] 

It’s clear from these stats that mobile optimisation is crucial for email marketing. If your emails aren’t mobile-friendly, your customers may struggle to navigate them or experience slow loading times, leading them to delete the email or worse, unsubscribe. Mobile-optimised emails ensure a seamless user experience and increased engagement rates. You’ll be able to reach customers on the go, from any device and improve the impact of your campaigns as a result. 

Automation

• 87% of B2C marketers use email automation [Sender]. However, 49% of marketing professionals say they're held back by a lack of expertise in automation [Exploding Topics
• Automated emails can generate 320% more revenue than emails that are not automated [Campaign Monitor] 
• Automated emails have an average open rate of 42.1% and click-through rate of 5.4% [Wix]
• Back-in-stock emails have the highest conversion rate of automated emails at 5.84% [Wix
• Customers who receive automated abandoned shopping cart emails are 2.4 times more likely to complete their purchase. [Campaign Monitor]

Automation is a valuable tool in email marketing, allowing your business to send relevant and personalised emails at the right time, without manual effort. These statistics prove the power of automation, particularly in driving higher conversion rates and improved engagement. While 87% of B2C marketers use automation, nearly half of marketers feel limited due to a lack of expertise. If this skills gap applies to you and your business, you may be unaware of automation’s full potential and it may be worth investing time into learning and development to improve not just campaign performance, but your skillset too. 

Data privacy

• 73% of marketers have reported that the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has led to increased email engagement [Charle]
• 33% of consumers are unsure how brands get their email addresses, down from 43% the year before [Smart Insights] 
• 45% of EU citizens are concerned about their data privacy. 46% of consumers feel they can't adequately protect their data [Moosend] 
• 41% of consumers say the GDPR has made them more confident in how brands handle their data [Smart Insights]

These insights emphasise the importance of data privacy in building trust with your customers. The more transparent you are with your customers, the better they will engage with your brand and campaigns. 

Best practices for B2C email marketing 

You’ll know how competitive email marketing is, and putting together effective campaigns that engage your customers requires a comprehensive strategy. This is because consumer expectations are higher than ever before, and businesses must implement certain best practices to boost their customer engagement. We’ll cover some of these best practices below, so your customers do more than just open your emails - they remember them too.

Segmentation and personalisation

• Marketers report that segmented emails drive 30% more opens and 50% more click-throughs than unsegmented ones [Hubspot]

[Hubspot] 

• Personalised emails are opened 82% more than generic emails [G2] 
• 52% of consumers say they will go elsewhere to find what they want if an email is not personalised [G2] 
• 79% of consumers say they will only engage with an offer email if it has been personalised to reflect previous interactions with the brand [Forbes]
• 74% of baby boomers consider email to be the most personal means of communicating with their brands of choice [G2] 

These statistics emphasise the value of segmenting your recipients for personalised email campaigns. Segmentation allows you to target your customers with relevant, personalised content that appeals to their interests and values and boosts engagement as a result.

Optimising subject lines

• 47% of email recipients say they open an email based on the subject line alone [Optinmonster] 
• 69% of email recipients mark an email as spam based on the subject line alone [Optinmonster] 
• Subject lines with 6–10 words have the highest open rate at 21%. Subject lines between 61–70 characters are also read the most at 17% [Mailmodo] 
• Emails with personalised subject lines are 22% more likely to be opened than those without [Invesp]
• Urgent subject lines increase the open rate by an average of 22% [Porch]
• Incorporating dynamic elements such as location-based offers or milestone celebrations can further enhance the effectiveness of subject lines [Charle]
• The first 30 characters in the subject line are the most crucial, as they’re the only visible characters in Apple’s iPhone email app [Yola] 

All that time you spend on crafting the best email subject lines is worth it. These statistics demonstrate the value of concise, informative subject lines that capture the recipient’s attention. Including their name and other personal details can also boost open rates - making the emails feel that bit more personal. 

A/B testing

• A/B testing can help identify the most effective subject line variations. Emails that undergo A/B testing have a 49% higher open rate and a 135% higher click-through rate [Charle] 
• Businesses that A/B test every email see a 37% higher ROI than those that don't [Mailmodo]
• Testing personalised content can increase click-throughs by 15% [Campaign Monitor]

A/B testing is vital to see which elements of your emails actually appeal to your audience. Testing your email marketing efforts removes the guesswork, allowing you to compare two versions of an email and gain insight into your customers’ preferences. From there, you can make data-driven changes to your emails to boost open rates and ROI.

B2B email marketing stats for 2025

While these statistics are primarily for B2C marketers, B2B marketers may also benefit from these insights to improve their email marketing efforts. B2B email marketing allows you to connect directly with key stakeholders and decision-makers. As a B2B marketer, you can adapt B2C best practices to effectively reach, engage and convert other businesses and drive results.

1. 50% of B2B marketers say email marketing is the most impactful channel in their multi-channel marketing strategy [Emarketer] 
2. B2B brands run one email marketing campaign every 25 days, on average [Super Office] 
3. Around 44% of B2B marketers use email to drive traffic to landing pages, ahead of SEO (~36%) and paid ads (~33%) [Hubspot] 
4. The average B2B cold email open rate is around 36%, but it varies based on industry [Focus Digital] 
5. 67% of B2B buyers will set up a specific junk email mailbox to avoid unwanted marketing emails [Gartner] 
6. 73% of B2B marketers distribute content through email newsletters [Content Marketing Institute] 
7. B2B emails sent on Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to have the highest click-through rates, with peak engagement often occurring mid-morning [Cognism] 

The statistics above emphasise the value of B2B email marketing, with half of B2B marketers claiming email as their most effective channel in their marketing efforts. Introducing effective B2B practices, such as personalisation and automation, can help you create tailored, impactful campaigns that deliver the results you’re looking for.

Case study: Insights from a successful B2C email campaign 

With almost 30 different brands to their name, Goodwood were looking for a way to communicate with their different customers without overmailing them. While they engaged with customers regularly, their unsubscribes continued to rise. They were looking for a dynamic way to serve customers the right messages, with a one form of communication, without it taking a toll on their different brands’ performance.

They set out to build one single marketing communication per week, where each element of the email was tailored to the individual’s unique interests, rather than trying to target each type of customer with numerous different emails. They used Apteco’s FastStats Discoverer and PeopleStage to create relevant content their customers would care about. The result? Less overmailing with 70,000 less individuals sent to, 84,000 more clicks to the website year on year and a 3% increase in overall engagement. 

Take your email marketing to the next level 

Keeping up with the latest trends and best practices in email marketing can ensure you meet your customer’s expectations, and drive engagement and conversions as a result. These insights can help you create campaigns that are relevant and engaging, to keep your recipients coming back to your business in the future. As we enter 2025, adapting to trends is vital to retain your customers and remain competitive in your industry. Embracing innovation and continuously refining your email strategy can ensure that your email marketing efforts achieve optimal results in the coming year and beyond.

Need some help getting started? Check out Apteco’s integrated email builder to elevate your email marketing.