Half of All Emails Opened on Mobile Devices, but Transactions Taken to Bigger Screens in Q2 2013

Half of all emails were opened on mobile devices (i.e., smartphones and tablets) in the second quarter of 2013, according to a study from Experian Marketing Services. However, consumers were more inclined to carry out their transactions on desktop computers.

According to Experian’s “Q2 2013 Quarterly Email Benchmark Study,” 50 percent of unique email opens happened on a smartphone or tablet in the second quarter, while 23 percent of opens happened only on desktops (typically via a client like Outlook) and 23 percent happened only on webmail (typically via a desktop with free email services like Gmail).

This finding jibes with a recent Yesmail study, which found that 49 percent of the more than 5 billion emails the company sent in the second quarter were opened on mobile devices.

During the first week of the 2012 holiday season, Experian found that 44 percent of email opens occurred on mobile devices.

The study also found that 40 percent of unique clicks happened on only mobile devices, while 35 percent happened on only webmail and 19 percent happened on only desktops.

“It is important to remember that these are averages and platform preferences can vary within and across brands, segments, offers and products,” Experian notes in its report.

While plenty of emails were opened and clicked on mobile screens, consumers chose to take their transactions to larger screens. Experian found that 48 percent of transactions happened via only webmail, while 25 percent happened via only desktop and 13 percent happened via only mobile devices.

Meanwhile, 12 percent of transactions happened via what Experian calls “Mobile-combo,” which means subscribers opened these emails two or more times, at least once on a mobile device; and 3 percent happened via “Other,” which means subscribers opened these emails two or more times, at least once was on webmail and at least once was on desktop.

“While only a small percentage of email opens occurred in the mobile-combo and other categories, these two platform types had the most highly engaged and profitable subscribers, reflecting the higher interest of customers choosing to open the email on more than one platform,” Experian notes.

In the second quarter, “Mobile-combo” had a click-to-open rate (i.e., unique clicks as a percentage of unique opens) of 31 percent, while “Other” had a click-to-open rate of 26 percent.

These multi-platform email openers also exhibited higher revenue per unique opener:

According to Experian, the iPhone was the top mobile device for email opens and clicks, while the iPad led the way for transactions.

According to comScore, Android claimed 51.8 percent of U.S. smartphone subscribers during the three months ending in July, followed by Apple with 40.4 percent.

The study uses these findings to highlight an important takeaway for email marketers: optimize your campaigns across multiple platforms, especially on the emerging tablet platform.