Friday 21 April 2017

The ultimate mobile email statistics overview


Smartphones and tablets can no longer be ingnored by email marketers. They represent a massive part all email interactions and revenue. But just how massive? I searched near and far for all (useful) available statistics and compiled the ultimate mobile email statistics overview with insight into the current state of mobile email. These numbers will keep on changing, almost every day. So I will update them regularly. I last updated in Apr 2017
Feel free to share these stats with everyone, a link back would be appreciated.

Ultimate mobile email usage statistic

The ultimate mobile email usage stat, this is all you really need:

Ultimate mobile email usage stat:
Mobile email will account for 15 to 70% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product and email type. eMailmonday– “the Ultimate mobile email stats” (2016)

Mobile email statistics: Growth and usage of email on mobile

mobile-email-read

Email is always read first on email for an average of 25,6%. 40% aged 14-18 will always read emails on mobile first, 29% for ages 19 – 34 and 8% of the group of 56 – 67. – Adestra “Consumer Adoption & Usage Study” (2016)
55% of consumers 56-67 say they will never read email on their mobile first. This is only 18% for the age group 19 – 34. – Adestra “Consumer Adoption & Usage Study” (2016)
More email is read on Mobile than on desktop email clients. Stats say 54% of email is now opened on a mobile device – Litmus ”State of Email” (March 2017)



See previous graphs: sept 2012 | march 2013 | june 2013 | august 2013| Jan – Dec ’14 | Jul ’14 – Jun ’15 | Jan ’15 – Nov ’15 | March 15 – March 16 | Jun 15 – Jun 16
Desktop represents 16% of all email opens, webmail 30% and mobile 54%.Litmus ”State of Email” (March 2017)
45% of email opens occurred on mobile, 36% on desktop and 19% in a webmail client.Adestra “Top 10 email clients” (March 2015)
33% of emails are opened in a mobile application, 17% in a webmail client and 48% on desktop. – Freshmail “Best practices for email coding” (May 2015)
56% of total email opens occurred on a mobile phone or tablet in Q4 2015, compared to 54% in Q3 2015. – Experian “Quarterly email benchmark report” (Q4 2015)
Mobile accounts for 35.12% to 39,51% of all unique email opens over the course of 2014 in the Netherlands. DDMA “Nationale email benchmark 2015” (2015)
Women interact with email for just over a hundred million more minutes per month than the industry average. Per individual, it means that women spend seven minutes more per month on a smartphone checking email compared to men. – UKOM & Comscore data (2016)
Majority of Email Is Opened on a Mobile Device. According to Kahuna data, 86% of emails in Q1 2016 were opened on a mobile device. – Kahuna “The Kahuna Mobile Marketing Index” (Q1 2016)

devices-to-check-email
67,2% of consumers use a smartphone to check their email, 42,3% use a tablet while 93,3% uses desktop environment. – BlueHornet “Customer Views of email marketing 2015” (2015)
Mobile accounts for 28.55% in Q1 to 33,43% in Q4 of unique email clicks in the Netherlands. – DDMA “Nationale email benchmark 2015” (2015)
Webmail and desktop opens have steadily declined throughout 2015, each dropping 13% since January. Litmus –”Email Analytics” (Nov 2015)
75 percent of Gmail users access their accounts on mobile devices. Gmail now has 900 million users. – Google / TechCrunch “I/O developers conference” (May 2015)
Mobile email opens have grown with 180% in three years. From 15% Q1 2011 to 42% in Q1 2014. – Campaign Monitor “Email interaction across mobile and desktop” (Q1 2014)



An average of 34.1% opens their emails on Mobile devices – Moosend “Mid-season year report” (Q3 2014)



Responsive design results in a nearly 15% increase in unique clicks for mobile users from a 2.7% average to 3.3%. – Litmus and MailChimp “The Science of Email Clicks: The Impact of Responsive Design & Inbox Testing” (December 2014)



The first link in a responsive design email on mobile has a 30% higher click rate than non-responsive design. – Litmus and MailChimp “The Science of Email Clicks: The Impact of Responsive Design & Inbox Testing” (December 2014)
The iPhone is the most popular platform in the mobile email space (60%) followed by Apple iPad (21%) and Google Android (18%) Litmus “Email Analytics” (March 2016)
The iPad is the third most popular email client (11%). But iPad opens have been on a continuous decline over the past year, dropping over 7% from January to July 2015. – Litmus “Top 10 Email Programs” (July 2015)
Mobile received 39% of unique clicks, with 9% from tablets and 61% from all desktop. – Experian “Quarterly Email Benchmark Study” (Q3 2014)
Mobile email click-throughs grew 22.8 percent on Black Friday, from 44.7 percent in 2014 to 54.9 percent in 2015. This increase is noteworthy because mobile opens were up only 2.7 percent, from 56.1 percent in 2014 to 57.6 percent in 2015. – IBM Silverpop “Watson Trend benchmark” (2015)
The Gmail App reaches 43.5% of the US smartphone users – Comscore“Reports January 2014 U.S. Smartphone Subscriber Market Share”
Apple users are quick email readers; Ipad and Iphone both show a higher percentage with a 0-3 seconds email read length. – Movable Ink “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q2 2014” (2014)
Android phone users spent the most time viewing emails. Android smartphone 52,99% of users spent 15 seconds or more viewing each message. Desktop users came in second, with 43,99% spending 15 seconds or more viewing an email. Movable Ink “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q2 2014” (2014)



By the end of 2018, worldwide mobile email users are expected to total over 2.2 billion. – The Radicati Group “Email Statistics Report, 2014-2018”
By 2018 80% of email users are expected to access their email accounts via a mobile device. – The Radicati Group “Email Statistics Report, 2014-2018”
The biggest turnoffs people have with mobile email are: Receiving too many (44%), Not relevant (37%), Too small to read and interact with (32%), Website and landingpages not mobile optimized (26%) and Not well formatted for mobile phones (21%) – LiveClicker and The Relevancy Group “Exploring the Benefits Real-Time Email – Driving Marketing Effectiveness” (2015)

80-Percent-of-People-Have-Bad-Feelings-About-Mobile-Email

Replies sent from phones are 54% faster than those sent from desktops. Mobile replies have a median reply time of only 28 minutes, followed by emails sent from tablets with 57 minutes and finally replies from desktops with 62. – Yahoo “Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload” (April 2015)
Replies sent from mobile devices are 60% shorter than those sent from desktops. Replies from phones have a median length of 20 words, replies from tablets are 27 words and from desktops are 60 words. – Yahoo “Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload” (April 2015)
The number of mobile e-mail users is predicted to grow 22% in 2015 and 23% in 2016
The Radicati Group “Email Statistics Report, 2014-2018”



In 2017 2.282 million people will access email via their mobile device.- The Radicati Group “Email Statistics Report, 2014-2018”

Mobile email per industry

The IT sector (31,31%), B2B services (28,79%) and Wholesale (26,88%) show the lowest levels of mobile email opens and consumption. – Sign-up.to 2016 Email Marketing Benchmark Report (2016)


TV / Radio / Film (71,89% of opens), Events (59,87%) and Estate Agent (55,24%) sectors show the highest levels of mobile email consumption. – Sign-up.to 2016 Email Marketing Benchmark Report (2016)

Device-email-client-by-industry-ibm-marketing-cloud

Mobile readership across industries ranged widely. Food Service, Sports & Entertainment have a high mobile readership of 57 percent . While reading email on mobile accounts for 28 percent for Computer Hardware & Telecommunications. – IBM Marketing Cloud “2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study” (2016)
Hospitals, Healthcare & Biotech brands had the second-highest mobile readership at 55 percent. The low mobile readership for the Computer Hardware & Telecommunications sector isn’t terribly surprising because those recipients tend to be B2B customers and more likely to view messages on office work computers. – IBM Marketing Cloud “2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study” (2016)
B2C emails get 57,4% more opens on mobile than B2B email, ranking 42.78% opens on mobile for B2C compared to 27.18% for B2B. – DDMA “Nationale email benchmark 2015” (2015)

mobile email opens by vertical movable ink 2015

The total (non-unique) Mobile Email open and click rates differ very heavily per industry, with relative differences over 200% and more. Consumer services has the highest average percentage of total opens on phones with 42.96%.Health Care (20.65%), Consumer products (26,41%) and Associations (24.95%) display the lowest mobile open rates. – Knotice “Mobile email opens report 2nd half 2013” (2014).

mobile email trends per industry Q4 2015

The majority of email opens occurred on mobile phones or tablets for all industries except business products and services. – Experian “Quarterly email benchmark report” (Q4 2015).
Only multi-channel retailers had 50% or more of their total clicks occurring on mobile phones or tablets in Q4 2015. – Experian “Quarterly email benchmark report” (Q4 2015)

Mobile Open Rates By Industry Dialog Insights

The top 3 industries for average of email mobile open rates in Canada are Media and content distributors with 59.2%, Tourism, hotel and entertainment businesses with 55.1% and Retail trade businesses with 53.2% – Dialog Insight “Mobile email open rates: Are you in the top 3?” (2016).

Emails from B2B companies (32,1%) and communication and marketing agencies (25,1) in Canada have the smallest percentage of mobile opens Dialog Insight “Mobile email open rates: Are you in the top 3?” (2016).

Mobile email stats per country

Nearly half (49%) of all emails are read on mobile devices throughout the world Some regions a bit higher and or substantially lower. “Rest of the World” and United Kingdom regions had the highest mobile readership at 56% and 55% respectively. – IBM Marketing Cloud “2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study” (2016)

Device email client by country ibm marketing cloud

Higher consumer adoption of mobile in emerging economies is likely driving the “Rest of the World” region’s higher mobile readership, with contacts often skipping over desktop computer ownership entirely. – IBM Marketing Cloud “2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study” (2016)
The “Rest of Europe” region lagged at 32%, while the extremely low 25% for Middle East/North Africa is surprising and could result from the higher cost of data plans and culture in certain markets. – IBM Marketing Cloud “2016 Email Marketing Metrics Benchmark Study” (2016)
In North America, Mobile opens accounted for 57.4% of total email opens. Tablets accounted for 15.6% of unique email opens. – Inbox Marketer “The mobile Shift” (2015)
For the first time ever, mobile represented the largest proportion of email clicks in North America with 52.1% of all clicks. – Inbox Marketer “The mobile Shift” (2015)

email-mobile-open-rates-addtofavorites

In the Netherlands 29,8% of email opens happened on smartphone, 24,2% of email opens occured on a tablet making a total of 54% mobile opens. – Add to Favorites “Email Open Rate Onderzoek” (2016)
The number of email opens on a mobile device has increased with 6,7% in the Netherlands. – Add to Favorites “Email Open Rate Onderzoek” (2016)


email-opens-freshmail-global-poland

37% email opens are on Desktop, 30% on webmail and 33% on mobile across countries. – Freshmail requested exclusively for “The Ultimate Mobile email statistics overview” (2016)
Poland has a low percentage of people checking email on mobile. With 45% of emails opened on webmail, 30% on desktop and only 25% on Mobile. – Freshmail requested exclusively for “The Ultimate Mobile email statistics overview” (2016)

When do people check their email on mobile?


Smartphone use for reading email dominates throughout the day, desktop use peaks during the mid morning hours and tablet use spikes at night and increases on the weekend. – Movable Ink “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q3 2014″ (2014)
adi_email_report_us_9_emailischeckedalmostanywhere
Americans love to multitask with email. They check email while watching TV or a movie (69%), in bed (57%), and on vacation (79%). – Adobe digital Insights “ADI Email Survey 2016”
A quarter of Americans report checking email regularly right up until they go to bed, with 3% actually gets up in the middle of the night to check messages. – Adobe digital Insights “ADI Email Survey 2016”

email-app-use-mobile-2016

The Late morning is peak time for using email apps on smartphones, based on total time spent. – Google “How People Use Their Devices 2016 – What Marketers Need to Know” (Sept 2016)
Of people using email apps on their smartphone, only 45% use them at home. – Google “How People Use Their Devices 2016 – What Marketers Need to Know” (Sept 2016)
In a given hour when actively using their phone, users interact with 4.8 apps – Google “How People Use Their Devices 2016 – What Marketers Need to Know” (Sept 2016)

how-often-check-email-smartphone

Nearly 3 in 4 (73%) of Smartphone-first consumers check their email more than once a day, 19% higher than those who primarily check on another device. – Fluent ”The Inbox report 2016, Consumer perceptions of email” (2016)
27% of users that primarily check email on their smartphone, do so as the emails arrive.Fluent ”The Inbox report 2016, Consumer perceptions of email” (2016)
Around the holidays there was a significant drop in desktop engagement as mobile engagement increased. If trends continue into 2016, we’ll see mobile engagement surpass PC engagement by 10-15%. – Mailchimp “A MailChimp Record: 1.2 Billion Emails on Black Friday” (Dec 2015)

engagement_device-672x450

91% of consumers check their email at least once per day on their smartphone, making it the most used functionality ExactTarget “Mobile Behavior report” (2014)

Mobile email conversion, revenue and Purchases

Men have the highest conversion rates via mobile email during the afternoon, while women convert highest in the morning. – Live Intent “The People Behind the Screens: A Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Audiences” (2015)
Shoppers signal they are more comfortable buying apparel items on mobile devices than non-apparel items. 66% of apparel shoppers prefer using smartphones and tablets as conversion device, 68% of Non-apparel switched to their desktops to buy. – Movable Ink “Consumer Device Preference Report Q3 2016” (2016)

retail-mobile-conversions-movable-ink-q32016-small

Shoppers spend more on desktops. Desktop conversions gave a 13,5% higher average order value for apparel purchases. Non-apparel shoppers spend even more on desktops, 25,5% more per order than on mobile. – Movable Ink “Consumer Device Preference Report Q3 2016” (2016)

buy via smartphone mobile email

After seeing a marketing email, 38% of consumers have purchased on a smartphone. While 47% say they have purchased from websites, 45% have made an in-store purchase. – Fluent ”The Inbox report 2016, Consumer perceptions of email” (2016)
People with general interest in Shopping have the highest open rates, click rates and conversion rates during the evening.Live Intent “The People Behind the Screens: A Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Audiences” (2015)

open-click-convert-mobile-email

Shoppers have the highest mobile conversion rates via mobile during the evening. – Live Intent “The People Behind the Screens: A Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Audiences” (2015)
News Hounds, Entertainment Fans, Travelers and Health buffs have the highest mobile email conversion rates in the morning. – Live Intent “The People Behind the Screens: A Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Audiences” (2015)
Milenials, GenXers and Baby Boomers all convert best in the morning hour as far as mobile email is concerned. – Live Intent “The People Behind the Screens: A Marketer’s Guide to Mobile Audiences” (2015)

dma consumer email tracking-study 2016 mobile purchase

Almost one third (31%) say they use smartphones as the main device to click through and buy. As more websites cater to mobile users with responsive and mobile ready websites, this proportion will continue to increase. – DMA “Consumer email tracking study 2016”
Despite the clear shift towards greater smartphones usage, smartphones remain tricky for completing various tasks that are simple on a desktop. This idea is reinforced by consumer behaviour. If a consumers sees something he or she want to buy on a smartphone, the top behaviour remains waiting until they are on a PC or laptop (31%), followed by going to the shop or website (22%). Only 8% would buy immediately on the phone. – DMA “Consumer email tracking study 2016”
Financial Service customers stick to desktop to convert. Only 15% of financial service customers—the lowest rate of all industries—used mobile devices to buy products and services in Q1. Travel and hospitality emails had the second highest desktop conversion rate at 70%. – Movable Ink “Consumer Device Preference Report Q1 2016” (2016)

customer-device-preference-email-conversions

On mobile phones, email marketing generated 26.7% of sales, compared to 20.9% on desktop and 23.1% on tablet. – Custora “E-commerce Pulse Mobile report” (2014)



Email is the second biggest driver of revenue, both on mobile phones and on tablets. – Custora “E-commerce Pulse Mobile report” (2014)
Women have a stronger preference for converting on tablets, with 18% of conversions, compared to 13% for men. Liveintent – “Email Everywhere: Adapting to the Mobile Nature of Email Q1 2014 Report” (2014)



Conversions on phones are 43% for age group 18-20 and only 10% for age group 65+. Email opens on phones are 51% for age group 18-20 and only 13% for age group 65+. Opens and conversions on phones decrease the older the age group is. Liveintent – “Email Everywhere: Adapting to the Mobile Nature of Email Q1 2014 Report” (2014)



Average order value (AOV) for mobile grew by 28% in one year, doubling the annual growth of desktop AOV – Yesmail “Email Marketing Compass: The Season of Mobile” (2015)
With only 20% of mobile clicks from email, the iPad generated 48% of the mobile email transactions making it the highest converting mobile device.- Experian Marketing Services “The 2014 Digital Marketer Trend report” (2014)
The iPhone was the most commonly used mobile device for email opens (68%) and clicks (58%). The iPhone produced 40% of the mobile email transactions.Experian Marketing Services “The 2014 Digital Marketer Trend report” (2014)
Mobile revenue made up 20% of all email-generated revenue, growing by a third in one year. – Yesmail “Email Marketing Compass: The Season of Mobile” (2015)
Android showed 20% of unique clicks on email on mobile devices and 12% of the mobile email conversions. – Experian Marketing Services “The 2014 Digital Marketer Trend report” (2014)
Revenue per mobile email click was 40 cents, more than double that of a desktop click. – Yesmail “Email Marketing Compass: The Season of Mobile” (2015)
Email-generated purchases placed on an Android smartphone grew by almost 50% YoY – Yesmail “Email Marketing Compass: The Season of Mobile” (2015)



Christmas is a tablet heavy holiday period with 20,10% of emails being read on a tablet. – Movable Ink “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q4 2013” (2014)
During thanksgiving, 59% of emails are shown on a smartphone. Cyber Monday shows a much bigger percentage of desktop opens than other holidays with 40,15%. – Movable Ink “US Consumer Device Preference Report: Q4 2013” (2014)
47,7% checks their e-mail while watching TV. Making it the 2nd most popular second screen activity just behind websurfing (49%) W3B-report – “Second Screen – Mediennutzung zwischen TV und Internet”(2014)


47.5% of consumers have used their mobile devices to sort through their email before reading them on a desktop.- BlueHornet “Consumer Views of Email Marketing” (2014)

Mobile email optimization

mobile-friendly-email-design-jun2016

23% of emails have a desktop-centric email design in June 2016. Decreasing from 43% in June 2015 and 60% in June 2014. – Litmus and Salesforce Marketing cloud “2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends” (2016)
Mobile-aware email design makes up 27% of emails in June 2016. Increasing from 15% in June 2015 and 15% in June 2014 – Litmus and Salesforce Marketing cloud “2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends” (2016)
Responsive email design usage has increased to 50% in June 2016. This was 41% in June 2015 and 26% in June 2014 – Litmus and Salesforce Marketing cloud “2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends” (2016)

DMA consumer email tracking study 2016 Mobile Email

Smartphone use has increased for almost every measure of email usage since last year.
Reading emails on a smartphone has risen from 33% to 39%,
Opening on a smartphone has increased from 25% to 40%,
Forward an email on a smartphone from 21% to 37%,
Mark as unread from 25% to 35%,
Flag email from 27% to 35%,
Delete message from 27% to 40%,
and keep for future reference from 23% to 34%. – DMA “Consumer email tracking study 2016”
17% has no strategy for mobile email, 34% has basics for mobile email optimization in place. – “Email Marketing Industry Census” (2015)

mobile optimize econsultancy strategy

21% says they have an advanced mobile email strategyeConsultancy – “Email Marketing Industry Census” (2015)
32% of marketers say they preview emails in various email clients and browsers, including mobile before sending. “The State of Email Marketing by Industry 2016” – Getresponse (2016)
Only 17% of marketers use Responsive email design or employ device detection coding. “The State of Email Marketing by Industry 2016” – Getresponse (2016)

use-of-responsive-email-design-sector

Click to open rates are 40% higher for brands that send exclusively responsive emails (14.1%) versus brands that only send non-responsive emails (10.1%). – Yesmail “Email Marketing Compass: The Season of Mobile” (2015)
66% of marketers claim to have implemented mobile-optimized templates. However, only 18% of marketers have templates that support dynamic content, which enables you to personalize each email. – Getresponse “The State of Email Marketing by Industry 2016” (2016)
51,6% of the E-commerce mails from the top 20 ESP in the United States are sent with responsive design, 48,4% are non-responsive. – Publicare “The Publicare Email Marketing Benchmark” (2016)

responsive-design-per-esp

The adoption of responsive email differs per ESP. In ecommerce Hubspot (81,9%) Mailchimp (78,1%) and Klaviyo (75,4%) are the ESPs that send the highest rate of responsive emails. – Publicare “The Publicare Email Marketing Benchmark” (2016)
72% of enterprise email marketers say they are using Responsive design, 27% say they plan or would like to. – Forrester Research “Global Email Marketing Customer Reference Online Survey” (2014)
Thirty-seven percent of all emails deployed in Q4 2014 were responsive, a 28% increase from Q3 2014. – Yesmail “Email Marketing Compass: The Season of Mobile” (2015)

Inconsistent-mobile-email-experience-litmus

48% of B2C brands has both mobile-friendly promotional emails and mobile-friendly website. – Litmus “Inconsistencies in the Mobile Subscriber Experience” (2015)
37% of B2C brands has a mobile-friendly website, but does not have mobile-friendly promotional emails. – Litmus “Inconsistencies in the Mobile Subscriber Experience” (2015)
When marketers optimize their messages for mobile, they go for an entirely responsive email design (average of 69.77%). – flexmail “Email barometer 2015 – 2016 report Belgium” (2016)
30,23% optimized for mobile either by increasing text and button size or adjusting current designs to one column – flexmail “Email barometer 2015 – 2016 report Belgium” (2016)

results-mobile-email-optimization

57,41% of marketers in B2B and 41,03% in B2C did not know what impact optimizing their email design for mobile has on their results. – flexmail “Email barometer 2015 – 2016 report Belgium” (2016)
Optimizing for mobile had a positive impact on the results of email campaigns for 40,74% of B2B marketers and 38,46% of B2C. – flexmail “Email barometer 2015 – 2016 report Belgium” (2016)
Desktop centric design is predicted to be less popular than responsive in December 2014, with only 30% of emails focusing on desktop first.Exact Target “The growing adoption of mobile friendly design” (2014)

mobile-email ugly

71,6% of consumers will delete emails if they don’t look good on mobile, while an average of 10% will read it anyway. – Adestra “Consumer Adoption & Usage Study” (2016)
45% of consumers have unsubscribed from promotional emails because the emails or website didn’t work well on their smartphoneLitmus and Fluent “2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends” (2016)
34% of consumers have marked promotional emails as spam because they didn’t work well on their smartphoneLitmus and Fluent “2016 Mobile-Friendly Email & Landing Page Trends” (2016)
52% of marketers has adapted a simpler email design that renders well on all devices – eConsultancy – “Email Marketing Industry Census” (2015)



If an email does not display correctly, 71,2% will delete it immediately. BlueHornet “Consumer Views of Email Marketing” (2014)
52% of marketers created a mobile responsive email template – eConsultancy – “Email Marketing Industry Census” (2015)
32% of marketers optimizes for mobile by using pre-header text for promotions, 28% has mobile optimized subject lines. – eConsultancy – “Email Marketing Industry Census” (2015)
mobile-email-strategies
41% of brands send mobile friendly emails, however 75% use mobile friendly landingpages – ExactTarget “Mobile Friendly disconnects” (2014)
73% of brands that email at least daily send mobile friendly email – ExactTarget “Mobile Friendly disconnects” (2014)
37% of brands that email less than daily send mobile friendly email – ExactTarget “Mobile Friendly disconnects” (2014)
Reduce (30%) and Hide (26%) are the most popular mobile email design tactics for navigation bars. Reducing the number of nav items or hiding the navigation completely in retail emails when opened on mobile. – StyleCampaign “Responsive email navigation” (2014)
Top to bottom (16%) and Shift (16%) are often used design patterns for mobile navigation bars. Moving the navigation from top to bottom or shifting them into place below logo instead of next to it when opened on mobile. – StyleCampaign “Responsive email navigation” (2014)

Party disclaimer:

Be sure to share at parties, but know that there are multiple ways of measuring the number of opens and market size of mobile email. You could measure all opens, unique opens or opens during a period of time (e.g. during a month)
Also the the average use of email on mobile devices isn’t the same as the use of mobile email for your target audience or email list. The only discussion and party safe mobile email stat, compiled out of all stats available is noted below.
Ultimate mobile email usage stat:
Mobile email will account for 15 to 70% of email opens, depending on your target audience, product and email type. eMailmonday– “the Ultimate mobile email stats” (2016)

Historical Mobile Email Statistics

Below is an overview of the mobile email stats from gone years, either too old or already replaced by newer versions of the same research.
Most aren’t valid anymore, in no way whatsoever. Mobile email has developed so fast. But they do give a unique perspective on how things used to be. Have fun looking into the past of mobile email:

Additional stats about email on mobile from 2010

Redemption rates for mobile coupons are 10 times that of mail- or newspaper-distributed coupons. Borrell Associates – “The 2010 U.S. Local Mobile Advertising & Promotions Forecast” (april 2010)
38,5% of mobile internet internet time is spent using mobile email. Nielsen – “Mobile Media View Internet” (May 2010)
Some 70 million US consumers accessed email through a mobile device, with 43.5 million doing so on a near-daily basis. Comscore– “Mediametrix”  (November 2010)
31.6% of US marketers said having an optimized mobile marketing experience for customers is important. – eROI “The Current State of Social, Mobile, & Email Integration” (2010)
16 to 26% of Europeans will check email on a mobile device once or more per day, depending on country. 26% (NL, DE) to 40% (UK, Italy) of Europeans check email on their mobile at least once a month. eCircle – “European Social Media and Email Marketing Study” (Dec 2010)
22% of US marketers surveyed said that mobile marketing is “very important” to their overall marketing strategy; 26% said “important”; and 28% said “somewhat important.” Only 8 percent said mobile marketing is “not important.” –R2integrated “Mobile Media Survey” (2010)

Additional stats about email on mobile from 2011

Redemption rates for mobile coupons are 10 times that of mail- or newspaper-distributed coupons. Borrell Associates – “The 2010 U.S. Local Mobile Advertising & Promotions Forecast” (april 2010)



Mobile Email usage varies with the day of the week. With more than average number of opens on Friday, the mobile email is most often used in the weekend. – Return Path “The future of mobile messaging” (2011)
80% of consumers finds reading marketing emails on their mobile less easy than on a PC.Edialog “The future of mobile messaging” (2011) Most common complaints were:
* having to scroll across a page to read all the information (15%),
* too much textual content (9%),
* images not rendering properly (8%)
* and a failure for all the information to download (7%).



More than 35% of UK smartphone users check their work email address in their free time. 10% do so while on holidays – Firstsource Solutions (July 2011)
57% of smartphone and tablet owners checked email while watching a TV program. 59% during commercials Nielssen – “State of the Media” (2011)
43% of mobile email users check email four or more times per day, compared to 29% of those who do not use mobile email. – Merkle “View From the Digital Inbox 2011” (2011)



More than one-half (56%) of US consumers who have made at least one purchase using their smartphone have done so in response to a marketing message delivered via mobile email – ExactTarget “Mobile Dependence” (2011).
Overall, 16% of US smartphone owners say they have complete at least one purchase as a direct result of a marketing message they received on their smartphone (including other channels like sms and aps). – ExactTarget “Mobile Dependence” (2011).
75% of marketers are planning to add mobile to their marketing mix. This is not specifically email or advertising related. Forrester Research – “2011 Mobile Marketing prediction” (2011)
See chart
17.71% of users will open email on a mobile device once or more per month. With iOs devices like iphone, ipad and ipod account for 16.01% and Android for 1,70%. These are non-exclusive stats, as many people use more than one emailclient. Campaignmonitor –”Email client popularity” (June 2011)
14% of companies and 24% of agencies are designing emails specifically for mobile – eConsultancy “Conversion Rate Optimization Report” (2011)
5.3% of Mobile phone time is spent on Email/ IM if devided by Function. Nielssen – “State of the Media” (2011)
Iphone (71.98%), Ipad (14.95%) and Android (8.24%) are the biggest in the Mobile Email market. See chart Campaignmonitor –”Email client popularity” (June 2011).
mobile_email_usage_correctedAfter correcting the Campaignmonitor numbers for automatic display of visuals, the corrected Email client popularity is Iphone (42,31%), Android (39,67%), Ipad (9,62%). MarketingXD – “Mobile is 4% of email, not 20” (2011)
Year over year, we have seen a 132% increase in the number of emails being opened on mobile devices. Litmus– “Big thanks to Justine Jordan metrics” (June 2011)
82% of smartphone users check and send email with their device. Google – “The Mobile Movement” (April 2011)

mobile email preferences edialog

Special offers (27%), vouchers (21%) and realtime tracking (21%) are most preferred email types to receive on mobile. Newsletters are the fifth most preferred type with 12% of respondents saying they like to view that email type on their mobile the most. – Edialog “The future of mobile messaging” (2011)

Additional stats about email on mobile from 2012 & 2013

12% of companies use media queries to optimize email creatives for mobile. – Experian “Acquisition and engagement tactics” (dec 2012)
24% of companies aren’t optimizing their email creatives for mobile viewers in any way.Experian “Acquisition and engagement tactics” (dec 2012)
18% of companies have changed the dimensions of email creatives to optimize for mobile. – Experian “Acquisition and engagement tactics” (dec 2012)
24% of companies uses email and non-mobile sign-ups as a metric to gauge mobile marketing success. Chief Marketer – “ 2012 Mobile Marketing Survey” (2012)
48% of marketers don’t know what percentage of their emails are read via a mobile device eConsultancy – “Email Marketing Industry Census” (2012)
With 38%, an interesting subjectline is the most important reason for opening email on your mobile phone, while saving time is least important with 23% STEEL – “Are your emails ready for mobile devices?” (2012)




Clicks to opens in mobile email have declined from 13,6% to 11,5% over the course of 2013. Campaign Monitor “Email interaction across mobile and desktop” (Q1 2014)
Nearly a quarter (23%) of campaigns initially opened on mobile devices were later opened a second time by consumers 70% on the same device, 30% on a different device. – Campaign Monitor “Email interaction across mobile and desktop” (Q1 2014)
In nearly 98% of the emails sent, the email open is occurring on only one type of device – Knotice “Mobile email opens report 2nd half 2013” (2014).



Mobile readers who open emails a second time from their computer are 65% more likely to click through. – Campaign Monitor “Email interaction across mobile and desktop” (Q1 2014)
Users who have recently read email on their mobile will do so again about 45% of the time – Litmus “Saving Email for Later: Opens Across Devices & Environments” (2012)



3.3% of users view a single email in more than one environment (both mobile and either desktop or webmail) – Litmus “Saving Email for Later: Opens Across Devices & Environments” (2012)
45% of holiday season emails are being opened on mobile – up slightly from before the season began – Experian – Hot holiday trends (2012)
90% of smartphone owners access the same email account on mobile and desktop. ExactTarget – “The 2012 channel preference survey” (2012)
Despite the fact 13% of execs are now primarily checking their email via a mobile device, less than half of websites/emails are optimized for customers to view or respond to via handheld resources – MarketingSherpa “Email Benchmark Report” (2012)
78% Of US Email Users Will Also Access Their Emails Via Mobile By 2017Forrester Research “Email Marketing Forecast 2012 – 2017” (2012)
52% of companies let people sign up for email or text Alerts about products and offers as a path to purchase in mobile. Chief Marketer – “2012 Mobile Marketing Survey” (2012)
Men open 20% more emails on mobile, but WOMEN click 10% more often on mobile e-mail TailoredMail – “It’s time to wake up and mobilize!” (2012)
Typically more than 25% of email is read on a smartphone, on average it is 31% for us. Mailup – “Direct Marketing in a Mobile World: a Practical Guide” (2012)
Daily we spend 9 minutes on email via a mobile device, that is 7,6% of the total 119 minutes we use our phone per day. O2 – “Mobile life report” UK (2013)
30% of consumers now read their email exclusively on mobile devicesYesmail “Email Compass: The Mobile Effect” (2013)
68% of UK smartphone owners used their device to check email in the past 30 days. Only text messaging was more popular (92%) Nielsen – “The mobile Consumer” (Feb 2013)
The percentage of people that use on E-mail on their smartphone is very different per country. Ranging from 75% in the last month in US, to 17% in India Nielsen – “The mobile Consumer” (Feb 2013)



Mobile email statistics per Industry



The financial industry consistently shows less mobile opens than other industries – Inbox Marketer “Mobile vs Desktop” (2013)
79% uses their smartphone for reading email, a higher percentage than those who used it for making calls. Adobe – “2013 Digital Publishing Report: Retail Apps & Buying Habits” (2013)
Mobile purchasing decisions are most influenced by Emails from companies (71%) only surpassed by the influence of Friends (87%). – Adobe “Digital Publishing Report: Retail Apps & Buying Habits” (2013)
Only 11,84% of newsletters use responsive design techniques to optimize their layouts for mobile devices. – Equinux (June 2013)
Desktop clients show a consistently higher CTO rate than Phones. Tablets outperform Phones when it comes to CTO. – Knotice “Mobile email opens report 2nd half 2013” (2014).



Earlier stats: 2nd half 2011 | 1st half 2012 | 1st half 2012
13% of marketers has used required email registration as a tactic for growing their opt-in list 55% reported it effective. – Exact Target “2013 Audience Growth Survey” (2013)
Option to opt into email when viewing content on mobile app was used by 13% of marketers as a mobile email list growth tactic, 55% reported it effective. – Exact Target “2013 Audience Growth Survey” (2013)
12% of marketers used paid mobile ads to grow their opt-in list 41% reported it effective.Exact Target “2013 Audience Growth Survey” (2013)
The time that passes between the sending of a marketing email and opening it is around 20% shorter on smartphones compared to computers and tablets. – Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)
87% of online retailers reports that they optimized mobile email or are planning to this year Forrester and shop.org – The State of Retailing Online 2013: Marketing & Merchandising (2013).

58% of marketers see Mobile smartphones and tablets affecting their email program in the next 12 months. Up from 46% a year earlier. – MarketingSherpa “Email Benchmark Report”(2013)
23% of emails with images loaded comes from mobile, 69% from desktop and 5,5% from tablet – LiveIntent “Opens by device Jan 2012 vs Jan 2013” (2013)
68% of Gmail and Yahoo! users’ opens occur on a smartphone or tablet Litmus –”Email Analytics” (Dec 2013)
61% of consumers now read at least some of their emails on a mobile deviceYesmail “Email Compass: The Mobile Effect” (2013)
36% of respondents check email, social media and texts before doing anything else after they wake up, 21% check their email before breakfastAcxiom Digital Impact “2013 Consumer Digital Study”
32% often reads email on their smartphone during the weekend, 31% sometimes reads their mobile email on weekends. – Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)
54% reads email on their smartphone just before they go to bed sometimes or even often- Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)
49% reads email on their smartphone immediately when they wake up sometimes or even often. – Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)



91% of consumers check email on their mobile phones – Acxiom Digital Impact “2013 Consumer Digital Study”
There is probably an Android smartphone email user in your database for each iOS smartphone user you identified. 52,5% of smartphone users own an Android device Brightwave Marketing – “Ignore Droid at your own Risk” (2013)



57% said that email is a smartphone app they can’t go without — not even for one day. Other critical mobile apps: Facebook (41%) and alarm clock (31%). Apigee – “Mobile App Behavior survey” (2013)
50,8% of girls age 17-24 say email is the first thing they check online. and 55,4% check their phone first thing in the morning. Hercampus – “Ultimate college life survey” (2013)



55,6% of girls age 17-24 check their email constantly (on their phone) Hercampus – “Ultimate college life survey” (2013)
16,3% of girls age 17-24 check more than 5x per day, 16% 3-4 times per day and 10,6% 1 to 2 times per day. – Hercampus – “Ultimate college life survey” (2013)
mobile email marketing by gender
Did you know that there are differences per gender in how they treat their mobile email?
74% of women use Gmail for Android, 62% of men instead of their default Android email client – Brightwave Marketing “Ignore Droid at your own Risk” (2013)
Email is the number one most popular activity on a smartphone, 78% check email on their mobile phone. IDC and Facebook – “Always Connected” (2013)





The UK is the European capital of m-commerce, with 10% saying their smartphone is their main method of shopping. – Ipsos Public Affairs “Vouchercode survey” (2013)
46% says if Newsletters are too poorly designed to be read on a smartphone, it reduces the chance they buy something from the vendor – Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)
56% of mobile online sales originating from a marketing email take place on an iPad. Yesmail – “Email marketing compass: consumer purchase behaviour” (2013)
Over 70% of mobile purchasing decisions are influenced by promotional emails.Yesmail “Consumer Online Behavior Report: Digital Marketing Strategies” (2013)




The iPhone accounts for 26% of mobile email purchases; Android smartphones for 18% Yesmail – “Email marketing compass: consumer purchase behaviour” (2013)
9% of smartphone time is spend on emailExperian Marketing services “Simmons Connect panel data” (2013)

Mobile email accounts for 5,1 minutes of smartphone use per dayExperian Marketing services “Simmons Connect panel data” (2013)
77% of consumers without a Smartphone checks their email first thing in the morning. 61% of consumers with a smartphone does the same – ExactTarget “Subscribers, Fans, & Followers part 20” (2013)

10% Of Ipad users say Mobile is their preferred device to read email and 9% for sending it. – Perion “iPad Owners Survey” (2013)


62% believes that newsletters aren’t really easy to read on a smartphone’s screen – Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)
28% states that difficulty to read the landingpage is a reason for them not to click on an email on their smartphones – Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)
29% states uninteresting content is a reason for them not to click on a mobile email marketing message- Apsis “The email Barometer, Email on mobile devices” (2013)

1 comment:

  1. Many traditional agencies have their roots in consumer marketing and do not have the experience needed to develop comprehensive B2B marketing programmes

    B2B email lists

    ReplyDelete