What is a good email open rate for Mother's Day campaigns?

Question

You are sending Mother's Day emails and want to know whether your open rates indicate a healthy campaign or a problem that needs fixing. Benchmarks vary by industry, list quality, and whether you measure unique opens or total opens.

Muhammed Tüfekyapan · Accepted Answer

Mother's Day Email Open Rate BenchmarksOpen rate is the percentage of delivered emails where the recipient opened the message. For Mother's Day campaigns, open rates are influenced by subject line quality, send timing, list segmentation, and the increasing distortion from Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP), which auto-opens emails for Apple Mail users.Open Rate Benchmarks by SegmentSegmentExpected Open RateNotesFull list blast15-22%Includes inactive subscribers, inflated by MPPEngaged subscribers only28-40%Last 90-day openers or clickersPast Mother's Day buyers35-50%Highest relevance, strongest performanceWin-back (inactive 6+ months)8-14%Low baseline, use different subject line approachUse Click-Through Rate as Primary SignalBecause Apple MPP pre-fetches email images to protect user privacy, any Apple Mail user counts as an opener even if they never actually read the email. This inflates raw open rates by 10-20 points depending on your audience device mix. A 1-3% click-through rate on your Mother's Day emails is a more reliable indicator of genuine engagement - it represents subscribers who found the offer compelling enough to act.DIAGNOSTIC TIPIf your open rate looks strong but CTR is below 1%, the subject line is working but the email body or offer is failing. If both are low, investigate deliverability - check your spam score and domain reputation before your next send.Improving Open RatesTest subject lines - A/B test at least two variants for every Mother's Day email; time-specific urgency lines outperform generic holiday themesSend at peak times - Tuesday through Thursday mornings (9-11 AM recipient local time) produce the highest open rates for retail emailsClean your list - Remove subscribers who have not opened or clicked in 12+ months before the campaign to protect deliverabilityGrowth Suite: Trigger CampaignsGrowth Suite's Trigger Campaigns send personalized offer emails based on specific behaviors - like cart abandonment or visit frequency - so each Mother's Day email reaches subscribers when they are most likely to open and convert, rather than at a fixed broadcast time.

What is a good email open rate for Mother's Day campaigns?

In depth

Mother's Day Email Open Rate Benchmarks

Open Rate Benchmarks by Segment

Use Click-Through Rate as Primary Signal

Improving Open Rates

Put this answer to work in your store.

Resources

Shopify Upselling & Cross-Selling

Shopify Conversion Rate: The Complete Resource Hub

Shopify Holiday & Seasonal Campaign Strategies

Shopify Countdown Timer

Shopify Cart Abandonment

Shopify Discount

Use Cases

Segment	Expected Open Rate	Notes
Full list blast	15-22%	Includes inactive subscribers, inflated by MPP
Engaged subscribers only	28-40%	Last 90-day openers or clickers
Past Mother's Day buyers	35-50%	Highest relevance, strongest performance
Win-back (inactive 6+ months)	8-14%	Low baseline, use different subject line approach