International Email Benchmark 2025 results announced

Impressive figures and international coverage

What scale of data are we talking about? This year the research encompasses no less than 11.4 million email campaigns, compared to 5.2 million in 2024. There were 521 billion emails sent (2024: 203 billion), spread across 54,000 organizations (2024: 42,000), and the geographical coverage has almost doubled, with data from 61 countries (2024: 31). For the fourth time, the benchmark has been published via an interactive dashboard, providing cross-border insights based on email campaign data.

How can you use the benchmark?

On the dashboard you get insight into all statistics, can compare previous years and zoom in further on data per country and sector.

You can find the complete interactive dashboard here .

Highlights from the benchmark

Stable acceptance and open rates, but click behavior changesThe acceptance rate remained stable at 98.7% and the unique open rate at 32.5% since 2022. This stability shows that email marketing remains strong as a channel. However, the challenge lies in engagement: recipients still open their emails, but click less.

Declining click rates worldwideWorldwide, the Click to Open Rate (CTO) fell by 1.2 percentage points to 7.6% in 2024 and the Click Through Rate (CTR) by 0.7 percentage points to 2.9%. This indicates that marketers need to work harder to make their content more relevant and attractive.

Retail under pressure, other sectors stableThe retail sector in particular is struggling with declining engagement. Since 2022, retail campaigns worldwide have shown a decline of 2.8 percentage points in CTO (now 6.3%) and 1.4 percentage points in CTR (now 2.3%). Other major sectors show stable to strong performance, demonstrating that relevance and segmentation are crucial.

New insights: volume versus relevance

A striking finding is that the retail sector is responsible for 81% of all emails sent worldwide in 2024. The average number of campaigns per retailer amounts to 810 worldwide, compared to 163 in other sectors.

However, this massive reach has a downside: often generic, promotion-driven retail campaigns lead to saturation and declining engagement. This is also where the opportunity for improvement lies: email remains effective, but recipients expect more relevance.

Small is the new big: segmentation pays off: Large, generic campaigns are also becoming less valued, while smaller, usually better segmented campaigns generate more impact. Compared to 2023, results for large batches have declined significantly: large batches had a CTO of 4.3% in 2023, but this dropped to 2.9% in 2024 (compared to an average of 7.6%), and CTR dropped from 1.2% to 0.8% (compared to an average of 2.9%).

Remarkably, large bulk campaigns worldwide have a lower unsubscribe rate (0.06% vs. 0.12% average), but this points more to lack of interest than to loyalty or engagement. Recipients simply ignore emails, as can be seen in the low interaction in other metrics.

Low unsubscribe and spam complaint rates

Just like last year, the unsubscribe and spam complaint rates remain low. This shows that email as a channel is becoming increasingly professional and that marketers are taking better care of the quality of their mailing lists and content.

Of course, GDPR also plays a role here: consumers expect their privacy to be treated respectfully. And the sector has also adapted to this.

Professionalization and responsibility

The results show that email marketing continues to grow and mature. Email Service Providers (ESPs) play a crucial role by taking spam more seriously and by providing methods to make unsubscribes and spam complaints more transparent at campaign level. This confirms that email, a long-established marketing channel, continues to evolve and that marketers handle compliance with legislation and security responsibly.

The most important lesson from this benchmark? Email marketing remains a powerful channel, but the bar is getting higher. Success now requires more than ever a focus on relevance, segmentation and personal approach. The time of massive, generic campaigns is over. The future belongs to marketers who truly understand their recipients and provide them with valuable, personalized content.

What does this mean for your email strategy?

Focus on segmentation: The figures clearly show that smaller, better segmented campaigns perform better than large bulk campaigns. Invest time in understanding your target audience and creating relevant content for different segments.

Quality over quantity: With Flexmail's new drag & drop email builder and brand kit functionalities, you can more easily create professional, consistent emails that stand out in the inbox. The inline image editor also helps you adjust your images without external tools.

Test and optimize: The declining click rates make it more important than ever to optimize your subject lines, content and call-to-actions. Use A/B testing to discover what works for your specific target audience.

About the GDMA International Email Benchmark 2025

The benchmark results are based on anonymized campaign data from 2024, provided by 20 participating ESPs and covering 61 countries in the Americas, Europe, APAC, Africa and the Middle East. Organizations worldwide are invited to participate and contribute to the further expansion of this study.

Ready to take your email marketing to the next level? Try Flexmail free for 30 days and discover how our user-friendly tools and personal guidance help you create relevant campaigns that actually deliver results. Start your free trial and experience for yourself why more than 10,000 organizations choose Flexmail as their trusted email partner.