Klaviyo benchmarks 2026: open rate, click rate, revenue and ROI by vertical

Klaviyo benchmarks 2026: why pre-2024 numbers are worthless

If you’re still reading email benchmarks quoting an “average e-commerce open rate of 18%,” you’re looking at pre-MPP numbers (Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, launched late 2021).

Since 2022, two things have changed:

1. Open rate has become mechanically inflated on Apple Mail recipients (which pre-fetches images, triggering an “open” even without a real open)
2. Frequency expectations have risen — a DTC recipient today receives 4 to 8 marketing emails a week, vs. 2 to 3 in 2020

Result: real 2026 benchmarks are different from the ones still floating around. Here’s the up-to-date table.

Global DTC e-commerce benchmark 2026

For promotional campaigns sent to a 90-day engaged segment:

Metric	Market average	Good	Top 10%
Open rate	38%	48%	62%
Click rate (CTR)	1.8%	3.2%	5.5%
Conversion rate (CVR)	0.12%	0.30%	0.80%
Revenue per recipient (RPR)	$0.18	$0.42	$1.10
Unsubscribe rate	0.25%	0.15%	0.08%

For automated flows (welcome, abandoned cart, post-purchase):

Metric	Market average	Good	Top 10%
Open rate	52%	65%	78%
Click rate	4.5%	8.2%	14%
Conversion rate	1.2%	3.5%	8%
Revenue per recipient	$1.80	$4.50	$11

Read: a flow should always outperform a campaign on every KPI. If your flows convert worse than your campaigns, your flows are broken.

Benchmarks by vertical (promo campaigns)

Not every vertical plays in the same league. Here are the spreads observed across hundreds of DTC accounts.

Beauty and cosmetics

• Open rate: 42% (above average, emotional purchase)
• Click rate: 2.4%
• RPR: $0.28
• Natural purchase frequency: 60–90 days

Fashion and accessories

• Open rate: 36% (average, saturated vertical)
• Click rate: 1.6%
• RPR: $0.22
• Natural purchase frequency: 75–120 days

Food and beverage

• Open rate: 45% (strong recurring interest)
• Click rate: 2.8%
• RPR: $0.35
• Natural purchase frequency: 15–45 days

Supplements

• Open rate: 40%
• Click rate: 2.1%
• RPR: $0.38 (high AOV)
• Natural purchase frequency: 30–60 days

Sports and fitness

• Open rate: 39%
• Click rate: 2.0%
• RPR: $0.32
• Natural purchase frequency: 90–180 days

Home and decor

• Open rate: 35%
• Click rate: 1.4%
• RPR: $0.25 (but high AOV)
• Natural purchase frequency: 120–270 days

Tech and electronics accessories

• Open rate: 33%
• Click rate: 1.3%
• RPR: $0.30
• Natural purchase frequency: 180–360 days

The 3-KPI rule (ignore the rest)

Most brands track 8 to 12 Klaviyo KPIs. That’s too many. Here are the 3 that actually matter.

1. Revenue per recipient (RPR)

Formula: attributed revenue / number of emails sent

It’s the KPI that ties everything together. If your RPR drops, it doesn’t matter why: you need to act. If your RPR rises, everything else is fine.

Benchmark to hit: $0.40 minimum on campaigns, $3 minimum on flows.

2. Revenue per recipient by engagement cohort

This is the KPI that reveals whether you’re diluting. Calculate RPR separately for:

• 30-day engaged
• 90-day engaged (excluding 30d)
• 180-day engaged (excluding 90d)

If the 180-day cohort RPR is < 20% of the 30-day cohort RPR, you’re wasting sends (and hurting your deliverability).

3. CRM revenue as % of total revenue

Formula: attributed email revenue / total e-commerce revenue

For a well-optimized DTC brand: 25 to 40% of total revenue comes from CRM.

• < 15%: your CRM is underused, big revenue opportunity
• 15–25%: average zone, optimizations possible
• 25–40%: well optimized

• 40%: careful, you may be over-dependent on CRM

The KPIs to stop tracking

You’ll save time by no longer watching:

• Open rate alone: polluted by MPP since 2022, still flattering but no longer means much
• List size: list size no longer correlates with revenue, quality is what counts
• Click-to-open rate (CTOR): redundant with click rate, adds confusion
• Bounce rate: only relevant for deliverability, not for revenue

The “continuous comparison” mode we recommend

Rather than reviewing your benchmarks every quarter, set up monthly tracking on 3 axes:

1. Campaign RPR: 6-month trend, by cohort
2. Flow RPR: 6-month trend, by flow
3. % CRM revenue: 12-month trend

If any of these 3 KPIs drops for 2 consecutive months, you have a structural problem to address.

What Retain does on benchmarks

Connecting Retain to your Klaviyo gives you, continuously:

• Your KPIs compared to your vertical’s benchmarks
• An alert when a KPI drops by more than 10%
• An automatic diagnosis of the likely cause
• The estimated $ impact if you fix it

No more manually hunting down benchmarks every 6 months. You always know where you stand.