Holiday Email Report: Pre-Black Friday (Nov. 14 – Nov. 21)

With holiday email campaigns in full swing, you’re probably curious about how your customers are actually interacting with your messages. That’s where we come in. We’re taking a close look at holiday email activity during the busiest weeks of the season. We’ll look at opens by device, email conversions and more to help you keep tabs on industry trends.#### Pre-Black Friday email activityWhile most businesses kicked off their campaigns in [October](https://movableink.com/blog/report-the-2016-retail-holiday-readiness-report/), the week leading up to Black Friday always sees high email volume. According to [eDataSource](http://www.edatasource.com/pre-black-friday-emails-volumes-read-rates-up-deliverability-down/), email send volume is up 13% this year over the volume from 2015. Interestingly, read rates are up too: 15% of those emails have read rates exceeding 20%, versus the 11% that did in 2015.We looked at our own data for email opens and conversions to give you an overview of how customers are interacting with email this holiday season. Please note that all percentages are approximate.Let’s jump right in.#### Pre-Black Friday email opens, Nov. 14 – Nov. 21[](https://s3.amazonaws.com/movableink-blog-production/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/28163406/MovebleInk-HolidayReport-Graphics_1.png)In the week leading up to Black Friday, smartphones had a strong lead for email opens with 58%, followed by desktop with 28% and tablet with 15%.#### Pre-Black Friday email conversions, retail apparel vs. retail non-apparel Nov. 14 – Nov. 21[](https://s3.amazonaws.com/movableink-blog-production/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/28163409/MovebleInk-HolidayReport-Graphics_2.png)Retail conversions followed email opens to a T, and smartphones led the pack once again with 57%. Interestingly, retail (non-apparel) conversions were significantly higher on desktop, with 71% of total conversions.One possible reason for this could be that some consumers feel more comfortable using a larger screen for high-ticket items and/or first-time purchases of those items.#### The bottom linePre-Black Friday opens and conversions on smartphones were strong as ever this year, indicating that many consumers are comfortable with reading and interacting with email on their mobile device. However, when it came to non-apparel retail purchases, most consumers opted to complete their purchase via desktop.Be sure to check back later this week when we look at email opens and conversions from Black Friday!