Open Rate
The percentage of recipients who opened the email. Average: 20-25% in eCommerce.
In practice
Open rate is a 'hunger index' — how hungry the audience is for content. Subject line matters more than sender name, which matters more than preview text.
Common misconception
'A 50% open rate is excellent.' Since iOS 15, Apple opens emails automatically. Open rate is inflated by 10-15%. Click rate is a better metric.
How to fix it
Dropping? (1) deliverability, (2) clean the list — remove inactives after 6+ months, (3) A/B test subject lines, (4) a personal sender name.
Example
A bookstore: open rate dropped from 28% to 14% due to 8,000 inactive recipients. Removing them brought open rate back up to 31%.
Priority
Clean your list every 6 months.
Related terms
Keep learning. Metrics that touch the same area:
- DeliverabilityAnalyticsThe ability of emails to reach the main inbox, not spam. Affected by reputation, bounce rate, and list quality.
- ConversionAnalyticsA desired action a visitor takes — a purchase, sign-up, form submission. The basis for measuring marketing success.
- Conversion Rate (CR)AnalyticsThe percentage of visitors who completed a desired action. Average: 1-4% for purchases, depending on category.
- ATC – Add To CartAnalyticsThe action where a visitor adds an item to the cart. Average ATC rate: 8-10% of product page visits.
- Cart AbandonmentAnalyticsA customer added an item to the cart but didn't complete the purchase. Average: 70-75%. One of the biggest opportunities.
- Click RateAnalyticsThe percentage of recipients who clicked a link. Average: 2-3%. A CTOR (click-to-open rate) of 10-15% is a good target.
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