Litmus surveyed 1,000 consumers about their email preferences, with an emphasis on retailer emails. The participants, aged 18+, were designed to represent the U.S. adult population. Check out the results:
Table of contents
Email frequency and timing
- The primary reason consumers delete retail marketing emails without opening them is too many emails/inbox overload (39%).
- The top reason consumers unsubscribe from a retailer’s emails is that emails are sent too frequently (67%).
- Most prefer weekly emails (32%) or 2-3 times per week (20%).
- During holidays, consumers are split between wanting the same frequency with better content (33%) versus fewer but higher-quality emails (32%).
Key takeaway: Email frequency is the critical factor driving consumer email fatigue and unsubscribe behavior.
Retailers over-email their customers, with frequency being both the top reason for unsubscribes and a major driver of unopened emails. There’s also a significant disconnect between current practices and consumer preferences, as most want emails weekly or 2-3 times per week at most. This suggests many retailers could improve engagement and reduce churn by simply sending fewer, more thoughtfully timed messages, rather than bombarding subscribers with daily communications.
Even during high-stakes periods like holidays, consumers remain split between frequency and quality, reinforcing that volume alone isn’t the answer to driving sales through email marketing.
Content relevance and personalization
- 29% of consumers delete emails based on subject lines alone.
- Irrelevant or non-personalized content drives 46% of unsubscribes.
- 32% want fewer but more valuable emails with higher-quality, personalized offers during major holiday shopping seasons.
- 42% unsubscribe due to excessive promotions with few valuable offers.
Key takeaway: Content quality and relevance matter more than volume, with personalization being essential to preventing subscriber loss.
Nearly half of all unsubscribes stem from irrelevant or non-personalized content, while another 42% leave due to excessive promotions that lack real value. This reveals that consumers are selective about what lands in their inbox: they’re willing to engage with email marketing, but only when it feels tailored to their needs and offers genuine value.
One-third of consumers make deletion decisions based only on subject lines, emphasizing how important first impressions are for cutting through the noise. During peak shopping periods, consumers consistently signal they’d rather receive fewer emails if it means higher quality and better personalization, suggesting retailers who focus on relevance over frequency will see better engagement and retention rates.
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Consumer behavior and decision-making
- Email marketing ranks as the top channel affecting purchase decisions (28%), even ahead of social media ads (22%).
- Nearly one-third (31%) delete emails within seconds based on subject lines.
- Younger demographics are more likely to delete after briefly skimming the preview text — 26% of Millennials and 28% of Gen Z.
Key takeaway: Email marketing remains the most influential digital marketing channel, but consumer attention spans are extremely short, demanding immediate relevance and impact.
Despite the crowded digital landscape, email still outperforms social media ads as a purchase driver, proving its enduring value for retailers. However, this influence comes with a critical caveat: consumers make split-second decisions about email engagement, with nearly one-third deleting emails within seconds based on subject lines alone. This trend is even more pronounced among younger shoppers.
While email marketing offers the highest ROI potential among digital channels, success hinges on nailing those first 30 characters or so.
Trust and privacy concerns
- 39% said ‘no difference’ when asked if they would be more or less likely to trust a retailer’s marketing emails if they knew they were written by AI.
- 38% were either ‘somewhat less likely to trust’ or ‘much less likely to trust.’
- Trust increased with younger generations like Millennials (38%) and Gen Z (38%).
- The three most important aspects of email privacy were transparency about data collection (58%), no third-party sharing (54%) and control over personal information access (52%).
Key takeaway: AI-generated email marketing faces a trust divide along generational lines, while data privacy transparency remains universally critical across all demographics.
Consumer attitudes toward AI-written marketing emails reveal a clear split, which creates a narrow margin for acceptance. However, this skepticism isn’t uniform—younger consumers are much more trustworthy.
Regardless of AI attitudes, privacy concerns remain paramount across all age groups, with transparency about data collection leading consumer priorities. This indicates that retailers should focus first on building trust through clear privacy practices before introducing AI-generated content into their email strategies.
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Methodology: This research is based on a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 18 and older conducted by Dynata on behalf of Litmus from Validity in April 2025. The sample was designed to be representative of the U.S. adult population. For analyses referencing generational groups, the following age ranges were used: Generation Z (10-25 years), Millennials (26-41 years), Generation X (42-57 years), and Baby Boomers (58-76 years).
***Raw data from the survey can be found here.
