• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 6, 2020

Email open rates boomed in the third quarter as consumers shopped more online.

SMS also pulled higher metrics, according to a study by Omnisend.

Promotional emails generated 10.18% in the third quarter -- 22.12% higher than the same period last year.

Automated messages drew a 34.08% average open rate -- a 10% lift over third-quarter 2019, and 12% over the third quarter of this year. In addition, automated messages drove 32% of the email marketing conversions in the third quarter, although they made up only 2% of the email sends.

But the results are dependent on strong list management and hygiene, the study notes. 

Here are the rates per type of campaign:

• Campaigns — 10.16%
• Post-purchase — 38.23%
• Browse abandonment — 36.22%
• Product abandonment — 35.11%
• Birthday — 32.73%
• Welcome — 32.70%
• Cart abandonment — 30.90%
• Lapsed purchaser — 25.04%

Meanwhile, click rates continued their decline from 2019 — the average was 12.57%, an 18.77% decline from the same period last year, and 11% from the second quarter.

But the trend was reversed in September, perhaps reflecting a bump from back-to-school shopping.  

Automated messages generated a 19.33% rate, a 6.5% falloff from the same period in 2019, and 9% lower than the second quarter.

Here are the click rates per type of campaign:

• Campaigns — 12.57%
• Birthday — 24.15%
• Welcome — 20.46% 
• Cart Abandonment — 20.16%
• Product Abandonment — 17.48%
• Browse Abandonment — 15.45%
• Post-Purchase  —13.70%
• Lapsed-Purchaser — 12.74%

Omnisend analyzed over 3 billion Q3 emails and nine million SMS sent from its own marketing platform, so these stats may not be universal. Despite the decline in click rates, conversions averaged 7.6%, a 168.9% increase YoY, and 42.6% higher than  Q2..

Here are the rates by category: 

• Campaigns — 7.66% 
• Welcome — 52.35%
• Cart Abandonment — 42.64%
• Browse Abandonment — 25.20% 
• Lapsed-Performer — 23.66%
• Product Abandonment — 21.51% 
• Post-Purchase — 20%
• Birthday — 10.23%

Meanwhile, SMS messages pulled a 9.77% click rate during the third quarter, up from 2.1% in the same period in 2019. And they drove a 2.35% conversion rate, compared to 1.19% last year.

This indicates that SMS will be a major source of retail revenue this holiday season. 

The takeaway is that ecommerce brands “need to use email, SMS, and web push notifications in their marketing automation,” said Rytis Lauris, CEO and co-founder of Omnisend.