Mobile email statistics: How smartphones shape email engagement in business

You’ve probably assumed from the start that to get recipients to open your email, it needs to be attractive, with good email design, a vibrant style, and clear content. But that’s not all. Today, most email users read messages on their mobile devices; therefore, you must shift your entire perspective to meet the context of recipient perception. The effectiveness of your entire campaign depends on how well you adapt to this mobile-first paradigm.

This article will inform you of the latest statistics on mobile email marketing. You’ll discover how mobile optimization impacts engagement, revenue, and conversions, resulting in a great email marketing strategy.

Top 10 mobile email marketing statistics you need to know

Mobile email marketing statistics reflect how recipients interact with email content on smartphones and tablets. Statistics show open rates, click-throughs, conversions, and engagement, and are especially useful for email marketers as they get insights into how to design, time, and personalize emails for better performance.

1. According to the latest email marketing statistics, 41% of all emails are opened from mobile devices (ForbesAdvisor).
2. About 42% of recipients will delete their emails if they are not optimized for mobile. (Sendigram).
3. 44% of marketers still don’t optimize their email marketing campaigns for smartphones (ForbesAdvisor). That’s how the market works: half fail. 
4. According to email marketing statistics from Market.biz, mobile-optimized emails are the second popular strategy to enhance return-on-investment.
5. 72% of recipients base their impression of a brand on the usability of its mobile emails (SEO Sandwitch).
6. Email marketing campaigns containing product recommendations convert at a rate of 3.4% on mobile devices (SEO Sandwitch).
7. Mobile email conversion rates average around 1.8% across industries (Amra & Elma).
8. Cart abandonment emails convert at a 4% rate on mobile devices (SEO Sandwitch).
9. Since 2020, mobile email engagement has increased by 18% year over year (SEO Sandwitch).
10. Personalized email marketing campaigns help increase revenue by 6.2% (Email Service Business Directory).

(Source: Forbes)

Let’s take a closer look at how you can leverage insights from email marketing statistics to boost the engagement, clicks, and conversions of your email marketing campaigns.

The rise of email opens on mobile devices

Mobiles now make up almost 50% of all email opens, showing the worth of crafting mobile-optimized email campaigns. With many marketers still hesitant to embrace mobile optimization for email marketing campaigns, you have a chance to get ahead and avoid being among the half of marketers that miss out. 

Mobile vs. desktop click-through rate

Mobile emails have an average click-through rate of 3.5%, catching up with desktops, which previously showed higher rates. Mobile and desktop email click-through rates are expected to equalize by 2026. Should you decide to focus on mobile optimization, a simple, clean email design is the path to success.

Mobile email conversion rates: Sales impact

Mobile email marketing campaigns convert at a rate of around 1.8%, while cart abandonment emails convert at a 4% rate. Simple and personalized mobile checkouts boost these rates.

Key campaign monitor indicators for personalized mobile emails

To create successful, personalized messages on mobile devices, it is essential to monitor specific performance indicators, such as heatmaps and tap-through rates.

• Scroll depth

Track how far your recipients scroll through your emails on their mobile devices. This helps you understand their level of engagement with your content.

• Tap-through rate

To build an effective email marketing strategy, track taps on phone screens as opposed to traditional clicks. This indicator displays mobile recipient activity and the mobile friendliness of your emails. 

• Heatmaps for thumb zones

Heatmaps help discover where mobile email users most frequently tap. Given your findings, you can optimize button and link placement and achieve better usability on mobile devices.

• Image load performance

Monitor the loading speed of mobile-optimized images on different devices to gain insight into the quality of your recipients’ experiences. 

• Device-specific rendering issues

Problems specific to certain mobile phones or mobile email users (​​e.g., Gmail and Outlook Mobile). Monitoring these issues, which can include distorted layouts or hidden buttons, is vital to understanding how to improve your email marketing strategy.

Why optimization for mobile devices is a must for email campaigns 

With the majority of emails (almost 50%) being opened on mobile devices, optimizing your emails for mobile is crucial for efficiently reaching and engaging with your audience.

Mobile-optimized email campaigns ensure that your content is displayed correctly on smaller screens, loads quickly, and provides users with a smooth experience.

Without this optimization, your marketing emails risk being ignored, deleted, or marked as spam. The results will be disappointing and result in lower open rates and missed opportunities. Companies that prioritize quality mobile optimization for email marketing campaigns see higher engagement, CTR boosts of up to 15%, better conversions, and lower deletion rates.

The ROI of mobile-friendly marketing emails

The biggest payoff of allocating a larger portion of the email marketing budget to mobile-friendly email design is higher engagement and greater return on investment (ROI).

Studies of email marketing statistics show that businesses that focus on design for mobile devices experienced enhanced campaign performance and email ROI statistics (sometimes reaching as high as 4200%!). Recipients interact more with emails that are easier to view and use on mobile devices.

(Source: Statista)

eCommerce and mobile email marketing campaigns: A winning combo

Mobile email marketing is especially powerful for eCommerce, where simple, speedy interactions drive sales.

Email usage statistics indicate that 55% of eCommerce emails are opened on mobile devices. Other industries, such as SaaS and B2B email marketing, are catching up to these rates. In 2025, 73% of B2B marketers focus on optimizing their email campaigns for smartphones.

As more people buy on their mobile devices, mobile-friendly messages, such as offers, cart abandonment reminders, personalized emails, and customized offers, not only convert leads into buyers but also drive customer retention and long-term email marketing revenue. 

Mobile email design best practices

In this section, we’ve highlighted the best practices for creating email marketing campaigns that look great and display correctly on any screen.

1. Use responsive layouts with optimized images. Your design should load quickly and be displayed correctly even on the screens of tiny phones and tablets. Tools such as Stripo can help you make fully responsive templates for email marketing campaigns without having to write code. 
2. Position CTAs in thumb reach zones. Make your buttons large enough to tap on mobile devices — place them where the thumbs can reach (typically in the middle or bottom half of the screen).
3. Craft concise subject lines and preheaders. In 2025, email marketing campaigns with short, action-oriented, personalized subject lines had an open rate of 43.28%. Adding a preheader increases open rates by 13.72%.
4. Use short and scannable text. Short paragraphs, bullet points, and bold headlines drive mobile readers quickly to your message.
5. Stick to a single-column design. Multicolumn designs typically break across the small screens of mobile devices. Emails designed with a single column are easier to scroll and are more consistent across devices.
6. Apply readable font sizes (14-16px). Small font sizes can harm readability, but mobile-optimized fonts for email marketing campaigns increase readability by 32%. Make body copy at least 14px and headers easy to read. 
7. Don’t forget about the signature. Try to keep the signature clean and simple. If you want to create an effective mobile email signature, avoid overly long titles or image-heavy blocks.

(Source: Stripo mobile applications email templates)

Always test your email marketing campaigns on devices. Use testing tools such as Litmus or Email on Acid, or test your emails directly using Stripo’s preview tools. This helps email marketers ensure that their emails display correctly on iOS, Android, and Gmail.

Timing, frequency, and mobile user behavior

Tip #1: The latest email marketing statistics show that emails sent between 10:00 a.m.–11:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m. from Tuesday to Thursday are the most opened on mobile. Schedule your email marketing campaigns during these times for better engagement. Evening (3:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.) remains the best time for eCommerce, showcasing far higher mobile CTRs.

Tip #2: Make sure to deliver your main message quickly, as the average time spent reading an email on mobile devices is around 10 seconds. In general, email users of mobile devices are scanning their inbox 3-5 times a day during breaks and commutes. These email marketing statistics show that the content should be brief and easy to scan.

Tip #3: Sending more than four emails created for mobile devices a week results in higher unsubscribe rates. Don’t over-send emails unless your messages are highly personalized or triggered (for example, cart reminders).

Tip #4: Place your key marketing message and CTA above the fold so that mobile users are likely to see it without scrolling. This enhances your customer retention.  

The role of AI and future trends in mobile email marketing

Artificial intelligence and automation will help you optimize your email marketing campaigns in 2025 and beyond. Here’s what you need to know and apply for the best email marketing service:

AI-powered personalization:

• AI-based personalization boosts CTR by 41%;
• hyper-personalized emails driven by behavior, location, and device type boost mobile email engagement statistics by 46%.

Email automation campaigns and predictive send times:

• predictive send times boost open rates on mobile devices by 15%-20%;
• automated email flows achieve average open rates of 51.36%.

Mobile-first and dynamic design:

• according to email marketing stats, dynamic, interactive, mobile-driven designs reduce unsubscribes by up to 15%.

Wrapping up

Email marketing statistics indicate that leveraging AI in combination with responsive, mobile-driven design will help you achieve maximum impact. With tools like Stripo, creating and testing personalized, mobile-optimized email marketing campaigns is easy and code-free. So, why wait? Start building your next successful campaign today!