Half of Consumers Read Email Exclusively On Mobile

Email marketing is far from dead — but is your brand optimizing email campaigns for mobile?  If the answer is no, then it’s time to start: a new study from Yesmail Interactive shows that, as of Q4 2013, half of consumers now read emails only on mobile devices.

Based on an analysis of 6.4 billion emails sent in Q4 2013, the study showed an impressive rise in mobile stats in just one quarter:

• the percentage of consumers interacting with email exclusively on mobile rose to 50%
• email-generated mobile sales increased at triple the rate of desktop sales (52% vs. 18%)
• the number of mobile orders went up by 58%
• growth in mobile conversion rate (orders compared to clicks) outpaced the desktop conversion rate by more than two to one

The study clearly indicates that not only are more consumers accessing email via mobile only, but they are also increasingly comfortable with making actual purchases on smartphones and tablets.

“In quarters past, marketers have been embracing mobile as a variable in the consumer journey. Now, mobile should be marketers’ primary focus,” said Michael Fisher, president of Yes Lifecycle Marketing.

While mobile-only email viewers rose 60% from June to December 2013, ‘hybrid’ viewership – consumers who view an email both mobile and desktop over time – declined nearly 40% from Q3 to Q4 2013.

However, there’s still a long way to go before mobile purchasing can catch up to desktop: only one in five purchases driven by email happened on a mobile device (18% vs. 82% for desktops).  Of those mobile orders, tablets were responsible for the majority (59%) with smartphones accounting for the remaining 41%.

How often does your brand run email marketing campaigns? Are you keeping mobile-only viewers in mind?

For more information, click here to download the full report from Yesmail Interactive.