Email marketing benchmarks by industry: 2026 vertical data
Wedding-industry emails get opened 52.43% of the time. Vape shops get 19.27%. Same year, same dataset, same platform — Omnisend's 2026 benchmarks put a 33-point gap between the best and worst performing verticals.
So when someone tells you the average email open rate is "about 35%," that number is arithmetically true and practically useless. It's the average of a florist and a fintech. If you're a solo consultant wondering whether your 41% open rate is good, the blended figure tells you nothing — and it might tell you the wrong thing entirely.
This piece cuts the 2026 data by vertical instead. Find your row, then read what actually explains the gap.
The open rate table, cross-checked across four platforms
No single provider's data should be treated as the truth. Their customer bases differ, their measurement differs, and their automation mix differs. So here's the same question — what do emails in this industry actually get — answered by four separate datasets.
| Industry | Open rate | Click rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nonprofit | 46.49% | — | HubSpot |
| Hospitality | 45.21% | — | HubSpot |
| Media / publishing | 43.16% | 7.32% | ActiveCampaign |
| Non-profit | 42.68% | — | ActiveCampaign |
| Blogger / author | 41.99% | 7.73% | ActiveCampaign |
| Healthcare | 41.48% | — | ActiveCampaign |
| Government | 40.55% | 4.58% | Mailchimp |
| Non-profits | 40.04% | 3.27% | Mailchimp |
| B2B services | 39.48% | — | HubSpot |
| Retail | 38.58% | — | HubSpot |
| SaaS | 38.14% | — | HubSpot |
| Software | 36.20% | 6.67% | ActiveCampaign |
| E-commerce / retail | 35.66% | — | ActiveCampaign |
| Education | 35.64% | 3.02% | Mailchimp |
| Business / finance | 31.35% | 2.78% | Mailchimp |
| Ecommerce | 29.81% | 1.74% | Mailchimp |
| Vitamin supplements | 27.34% | — | Mailchimp |
Notice something uncomfortable. Nonprofit sits at 46.49% in HubSpot's data, 42.68% in ActiveCampaign's, and 40.04% in Mailchimp's. Six points of spread for the same vertical. Ecommerce shows the same pattern — 38.58% at HubSpot, 35.66% at ActiveCampaign, 29.81% at Mailchimp.
That spread isn't a mistake in anyone's math. It's the whole-platform difference showing up: ActiveCampaign reports a 39.26% all-industry average while Mailchimp reports 35.63%. Use the ranking, not the decimal.
Clicks rank industries differently than opens
Here's where most people stop reading too early. Open rate ordering and click rate ordering are not the same list.
ActiveCampaign's click data puts Blogger/Author on top at 7.73%, followed by Media/Publishing at 7.32% and Consulting/Agency at 7.05% — against a 6.21% all-industry average. Software lands at 6.67% on clicks despite sitting near the bottom on opens at 36.20%. Fewer people open software emails. The ones who do actually want something.
Mailchimp's ordering flips a different way: Government posts the highest click rate at 4.58% despite not leading on opens, while Ecommerce trails at 1.74%.
CTR vs CTOR — and why the difference matters
Click-through rate (CTR) measures clicks against everyone you sent to. Click-to-open rate (CTOR) measures clicks against people who actually opened.
Omnisend's numbers show why you want both. The Internet category posts a 1.40% CTR — the highest in their dataset — but a 6.98% CTOR. Beauty and fitness sits at 0.72% CTR. If your CTR is weak but your CTOR is healthy, you don't have a content problem. You have a subject line or deliverability problem.
Why some verticals just have it easier
Three patterns explain most of the gap, and none of them are about how good your copy is.
Content beats transaction. Nonprofit and media/publishing sit near the top in both ActiveCampaign's and HubSpot's breakdowns, while ecommerce and retail sit near the bottom in both. People opted in for the content itself. A promotional email has to earn the open every single time.
Corporate inboxes are hostile. HubSpot's data puts SaaS at 38.14% and B2B services at 39.48%, below the 40%+ that engaged consumer audiences clear. Strict corporate spam filtering and genuinely crowded work inboxes suppress the number before your copy ever gets a vote.
Built-in urgency wins. Wedding at 52.43% and travel at 44.84% in Omnisend's data aren't outperforming because those marketers are better. They're outperforming because a wedding has a date on it.
Where solo creators and small businesses actually land
Good news if you're running a small list. The micro-verticals in ActiveCampaign's breakdown — Blogger/Author at 41.99% open and 7.73% click, Consulting/Agency at 7.05% click, plus healthcare at 41.48% — outperform the big transactional categories on both metrics.
That tracks with what Mailchimp observes about segmentation: smaller, properly segmented, niche lists routinely clear 40% open rates. Your list of 800 people who know your name is a structural advantage over a retailer's list of 80,000 who bought once.
Don't benchmark yourself against Ecommerce at 29.81% just because you sell something. Benchmark against the relationship-driven verticals — that's the send pattern you're actually running.
The lever that beats your industry entirely
Whatever vertical you're in, the split between automated flows and one-off broadcasts is a bigger performance factor than the vertical itself.
| Metric | Automated flows | One-off campaigns |
|---|---|---|
| Click rate (Klaviyo) | 5.58% | 1.69% |
| Revenue per email (Omnisend) | $3.41 | $0.155 |
Klaviyo's 2026 data from 183,000+ customers puts flows at roughly 3x the click rate of campaigns and 13x the placed-order rate. Omnisend measures the revenue side at 19–22x per email — with welcome emails hitting $6.16 per send at 2.11% conversion and abandoned cart at $3.59 per send at 1.72% conversion.
Two independent datasets, same conclusion. A software company running good automation will beat a nonprofit running manual blasts, every time.
Worth adding: Klaviyo reports AI product recommendations averaging 3.75% CTR, with top performers reaching 8.79% — higher than most industries' entire campaign click average.
Five ways industry benchmarks will mislead you
- Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens. MPP pre-loads images, registering opens that never happened. Some platforms correct for it, some don't, and almost none say which. Any year-over-year or cross-platform open rate comparison is suspect unless MPP handling is stated.
- Platform averages aren't comparable. ActiveCampaign's 39.26% overall versus Mailchimp's 35.63% reflects different customer bases and automation mixes, not different realities.
- Sector definitions drift between studies. "Ecommerce" in one dataset may fold in subscriptions or digital products that another counts separately. Read cross-source comparisons as directional.
- Conversion data is the shakiest of all. Omnisend's conversion figures — Games 0.19%, Smoking/Vaping 0.18%, Finance 0.17%, Computers 0.04% — depend heavily on landing pages and offers, not the email.
- Nobody talks about unsubscribes, and they should. Rates run from roughly 0.08% in B2B and SaaS up to around 0.4% in retail. A high number means your audience is wrong for your content — not just that you're sending too often.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good open rate for my industry in 2026?
It depends entirely on your vertical. HubSpot puts nonprofit at 46.49% and SaaS at 38.14%, while Omnisend records wedding at 52.43% and smoking/vaping at 19.27%. Find your closest category, then compare against your own trend line rather than any single published figure.
Why do email benchmarks differ so much between platforms?
Each provider reports only its own customers, and those customer bases differ in list quality, automation usage, and sector mix. ActiveCampaign reports a 39.26% all-industry open rate while Mailchimp reports 35.63%. Measurement of Apple Mail Privacy Protection opens varies too.
Which industries have the highest email click rates?
ActiveCampaign's data ranks Blogger/Author highest at 7.73%, then Media/Publishing at 7.32% and Consulting/Agency at 7.05%, against a 6.21% average. In Mailchimp's dataset, Government leads at 4.58% while Ecommerce trails at 1.74%.
Do automated emails really outperform regular campaigns?
Substantially, and in every vertical measured. Klaviyo reports flows at 5.58% click rate versus 1.69% for campaigns, plus 13x the placed-order rate. Omnisend measures $3.41 revenue per automated email against $0.155 per campaign email.
Should small businesses compare themselves to industry averages at all?
Use them for direction, not as a grade. Smaller segmented lists frequently clear 40% open rates according to Mailchimp, well above the ecommerce average — so a solo creator benchmarking against a large retailer's numbers is measuring the wrong thing.
Final thoughts
Pick your row, note the range, then stop looking. The most useful benchmark you'll ever have is your own last quarter — because it controls for your industry, your list, your sending platform, and your MPP exposure all at once.
The one change that moves the number regardless of vertical is shifting sends from manual broadcasts to sequences that fire on behaviour. That's what Doxiboo is built around — AI-assisted multi-step campaigns for small teams and solo creators, without the enterprise setup overhead. Start your free trial if you'd rather compare against your own improving numbers than someone else's average.
