thread Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly? in Customer Engagement

Email open rate has dropped significantly?

finehg104 — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 07:29:39 GMT

We typically send a once-a-week Friday email (to ~850 emails). For most of the last year, our open rate hovered around a very healthy 50%, and email was quickly becoming our most reliable way to reach our most loyal customers — but especially those customers who likely don't see our social media posts. In April, the open rate started dropping consistently week after week (45%, then 40%, then 35%, then 25%, and now 20% ... less than half of what it was before), with several customers asking if we still send them at all. Anyone else noticing this issue? Several customers seem to find the emails in spam or not receive them at all.

Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly?

MayaP — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 23:21:38 GMT

Hey @finehg104, thanks for flagging this. I’d like to help investigate further.

I checked on the backend and didn’t see anything preventing the emails from going through. How many sellers have reported this, and when did it start?

Tagging a few Super Sellers here as well in case they have any insights to share: @Abigails_stl @Callee1945 @rjonin @keicollective

Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly?

doc_choc — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 10:26:29 GMT

We are not seeing any issues, typical open rate of 40% +/- 2%

We may be on a different system here in the UK, so not sure if this will affect things?

Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly?

MayaP — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 20:35:18 GMT

Thank you for your feedback! @doc_choc! 😌

Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly?

Callee1945 — Wed, 25 Jun 2025 16:39:38 GMT

Hi @finehg104 ! 15 years digital marketing experience here! This isn't a Square issue. Many email providers in April changed their spam requirements as well as how they report open rates. This is affecting anyone who sends ecommerce emails universally. More information here: https://digitalmarketingoncloud.com/deliverability/yahoos-april-2025-deliverability-shake-up/

The good news is, the number of people that open and read your email is likely a lot higher than is being reported to Square. The bad news is that yes, more emails are going to spam. One way to prevent this is to send an email explaining how to "whitelist" your emails (moving from promotions tab to primary on google, marking as safe or "not spam," etc.) Here's a guide on how to set up deliverability processes: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/whitelisting/

Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly?

finehg104 — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 16:27:59 GMT

Thanks for this insight!

Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly?

MayaP — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 18:04:01 GMT

Hi @finehg104,

Wow — thank you so much for jumping in and sharing your experience. Fifteen years in digital marketing is no joke, and your insight here is incredibly valuable. I really appreciate you taking the time to help out. I know anyone who sees this will be appreciative! 🙂

Re: Email open rate has dropped significantly?

aleuhub — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:20:33 GMT

Seeing your open rates drop by half in just a few months is really annoying, especially when you rely on that weekly connection with your most loyal fans. A sudden decline like that usually points to a deliverability issue where mailbox providers like Gmail or Yahoo have started flagging your domain as less trustworthy. Even with a small list of 850 people, hitting a spam trap or getting a few manual "mark as spam" reports can ruin your sender reputation quickly.

Our team tried Unspam Email not too long ago to figure out why some of our messages weren't landing in the inbox. It helps to look for technical errors in your SPF or DKIM records that might have broken without you noticing.