Klaviyo 2024 Benchmark Report US

Set the scene with trends based on all ecommerce data

high-level takeaways

Quarter-over-quarter engagement rates are relatively steady—especially in email.

Most industries saw only marginal changes from one quarter to the next across average open rate, click rate, and placed order rate.

There's an exception to this: Some industries, like food and beverage, saw higher placed order rates and revenue per recipient in Q4 2023, but the largest increases are less than $0.04 in RPR, primarily in SMS marketing.

What does this mean for the wider ecommerce industry?

Automation is the conversion-driven marketer’s secret weapon.

While one-time email and SMS campaigns often get the glory, automated flows (like abandoned cart or post purchase messages) generate up to 30x more revenue per recipient* than campaigns because they are so timely and targeted.

Of course, campaigns still drive plenty of purchases—and can be even more effective with smart segmentation—but marketers who want to drive revenue while they sleep will do well to focus on their flows.

*Based on the difference between average RPR for email campaigns ($0.11) and average RPR for abandoned cart flows ($3.65).

SMS has the potential to drive

Average revenue per recipient (RPR) for SMS campaigns was slightly higher than email based on all ecommerce industries—which represents exciting things for marketers currently leading the way with this relatively new channel.

Texting is already proving ROI for high-intent buyers, so as SMS marketing strategies further advance and interweave with email best practices, the potential for texting-driven revenue could be even higher than email.

Better than your average benchmark report

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The 2024 Benchmark Report

3 key learnings

Email and SMS campaigns

Automated email flows

Quarterly trends

Learn more

3 key learnings

campaign performance

Dive into email and SMS campaign data specific to your industry

To set the scene for this section, let’s clarify what a campaign is: email and SMS campaigns are one-off sends to a specific marketing list (versus a flow, which triggers automatically based on a subscriber’s behavior).

But not all campaigns are created equally. a message sent to your entire marketing list will almost certainly have lower engagement and conversion than a highly targeted campaign sent only to VIP customers, for example.

In this section, you’ll see how good and great email and SMS campaigns perform—plus how experts recommend using segmentation to target messages and drive more revenue.

Campaign engagement rates & revenues

Email campaign engagement rates

SMS campaign engagement rates

Revenue per recipient

Email campaign engagement rates

SMS campaign engagement rates

Revenue per recipient

All 

Clothing & accessories

Automotive

Electronics

Food & beverage

Hardware & home improvement

Health & beauty

Home & garden

Jewellery

Mass merchant

Office supplies

Other

Specialty

Sporting goods

Toys & hobbies

39.74%

56.32%

1.47%

5.06%

0.09%

0.47%

0.33%

0.09%

40.48%

56.94%

1.64%

5.42%

0.08%

0.36%

0.27%

0.08%

38.85%

55.42%

1.73%

5.74%

0.06%

0.34%

0.35%

0.10%

38.07%

55.56%

1.48%

5.54%

0.05%

0.24%

0.39%

0.10%

40.58%

56.88%

1.49%

4.79%

0.18%

0.83%

0.41%

0.13%

38.88%

53.62%

1.67%

4.88%

0.06%

0.32%

0.51%

0.15%

37.82%

54.81%

1.05%

3.63%

0.12%

0.56%

0.32%

0.09%

41.13%

57.20%

1.61%

5.22%

0.06%

0.32%

0.42%

0.12%

39.58%

56.41%

1.46%

5.03%

0.05%

0.26%

0.28%

0.09%

37.10%

56.83%

1.19%

4.10%

0.05%

0.25%

0.32%

0.07%

37.79%

54.96%

1.56%

4.49%

0.09%

0.46%

0.40%

0.11%

38.13%

55.55%

1.59%

5.80%

0.09%

0.58%

0.40%

0.09%

40.00%

57.04%

1.38%

4.98%

0.10%

0.59%

0.33%

0.10%

40.76%

55.98%

1.74%

5.55%

0.06%

0.30%

0.35%

0.11%

40.19%

56.91%

1.81%

6.53%

0.10%

0.56%

0.35%

0.10%

All 

Clothing & accessories

Automotive

Electronics

Food & beverage

Hardware & home improvement

Health & beauty

Home & garden

Jewellery

Office supplies

Other

Specialty

Sporting goods

Toys & hobbies

11.19%

23.08%

0.11%

0.64%

1.49%

0.37%

10.98%

23.06%

0.11%

0.62%

1.29%

0.30%

12.94%

25.10%

0.05%

0.39%

1.56%

0.52%

14.26%

28.09%

0.06%

0.38%

1.76%

0.51%

11.07%

23.00%

0.20%

1.01%

1.78%

0.51%

11.97%

25.05%

0.04%

0.36%

2.03%

0.70%

10.00%

20.00%

0.14%

0.71%

1.41%

0.36%

11.20%

21.87%

0.06%

0.41%

1.97%

0.57%

10.99%

22.23%

0.07%

0.45%

1.39%

0.40%

10.44%

20.92%

0.07%

0.43%

1.30%

0.10%

12.82%

24.79%

0.09%

0.63%

1.56%

0.26%

12.50%

25.77%

0.11%

0.68%

1.66%

0.37%

13.44%

26.14%

0.08%

0.53%

1.58%

0.48%

15.01%

30.00%

0.15%

0.87%

1.49%

0.39%

All 

Clothing & accessories

Automotive

Electronics

Food & beverage

Hardware & home improvement

Health & beauty

Home & garden

Jewellery

Mass merchant

Office supplies

Other

Specialty

Sporting goods

Toys & hobbies

$0.12

$0.77

$0.11

$0.95

$0.12

$0.80

$0.10

$0.83

$0.13

$0.89

$0.16

$1.23

$0.07

$0.77

$0.10

$1.36

$0.14

$0.74

$0.16

$1.24

$0.08

$0.73

$0.14

$1.38

$0.12

$0.77

$0.10

$0.86

$0.12

$0.76

$0.12

$1.08

$0.09

$0.71

$0.08

$0.69

$0.06

$2.34

$0.08

$0.69

$0.07

$0.40

$0.09

$0.92

$0.09

$0.61

$0.09

$1.04

$0.09

$0.63

$0.10

$0.86

$0.13

$0.77

$0.11

$0.88

$0.11

$0.91

$0.09

$0.98

*Note for RPR: Your product price point influences the positioning of your metrics relative to these averages. Therefore, RPR may not be an accurate benchmark if your product prices deviate from the average within your industry.

AVERAGE

TOP 10%

AVERAGE

TOP 10%

Learn more

How to improve email campaign performance

How to improve SMS campaign performance

The key to an effective email campaign is combining smarter segmentation with highly targeted content.

“Segmentation is key! The more you know your subscribers/customers, the more you'll be able to segment your database and your sendings. Don't send to your entire database because you think you'll make more money. Segment regarding RFM data, activity with your emails and website, and give them different messages.”

“Firstly, perform regular list cleaning to ensure you’re only targeting engaged users that want to hear from you. Then, segment your subscribers into groups that have similar behaviors or interests to serve hyper-tailored content where relevant.”

“Remember that SMS is different in that it is a social tool that we normally use for 2 way communication. Set up Klaviyo auto-responses that walk customers through a simple "What's your favorite flavor" 1, 2, 3 type flow, delivering the customer via SMS to the page that houses the products they are interested in.”

You really need to make sure your SMS messages are personalized. If you're recycling your email message to SMS you're missing the boat. Make SMS conversational and personal. Ask questions and encourage a response. That might be more work for customer service but you will drive more sales and build a positive brand impression.”

“From a customer database perspective, the best indicator of whether a user will complete an action is if they've done that same action before. Therefore, make sure you ruthlessly filter those that don't click SMS out of your sends, to ensure you're targeting users who are likely to click (and shop) again.”

The 2024 Benchmark Report

3 key learnings

Email and SMS campaigns

Automated email flows

Quarterly trends

Learn more

Email and SMS campaigns

THE 2024 BENCHMARK REPORT

Email and SMS performance data to guide your ecommerce marketing

Learn from benchmarks of similar businesses

Data is a marketer’s best friend—particularly performance data.

In this 2024 benchmark report, we share data from the Klaviyo platform to help ecommerce marketers from verticals like fashion, beauty, health, and more.

Whether you want to understand how your current metrics stack up next to industry averages or you’re looking for inspiration on what types of emails and texts yield the highest revenue per recipient, this report is for you.

In this report, you’ll learn what “good” and “great” look like based on real 2023 results from Klaviyo, specific to your industry within retail. Plus, hear from ecommerce experts to guide your own best practices and drive more revenue and smarter digital relationships.

Tips to use this guide

As you browse these key performance indicators (KPIs), here’s how you can get the most from this report:

Separate apples and oranges

Prioritize what areas you want to excel

Make a concrete list for next steps

Learn more about KPIs and terms in this report

Table of contents

Key takeaways from 2023

Set the context with high-level takeaways based on all data.

Email and SMS campaigns

Dive into campaign performance data for your industry.

Automated email flows

See both high-level and flow-specific benchmarks.

Quarterly trends in ecommerce

Visualize how performance may—or may not—shift over the year.

Better than your average benchmark report

Want ongoing suggestions based on your performance?

Try Klaviyo’s personalized benchmarks. You’ll see how you compare to the 100 businesses most similar to yours and where you can take steps to improve.

Learn more

The 2024 Benchmark Report

3 key learnings

Email and SMS campaigns

Automated email flows

Quarterly trends

Learn more

Victor Montaucet, CEO, ThirtyFive/Ben&Vic

Joshua Hobson, Head of Growth, Vervaunt

These days, shoppers expect sales all year, not just on Black Friday—year round, brands often compete for consumer attention with clever discounts and limited-time offers.

Tim Akers, founder, Akers Digital

Randy McHugh, founder, Stimulate Agency

Brands that want to excel beyond the average will need to go beyond discounts to develop smarter digital relationships. Effectively using customer data for smarter segmentation and better personalisation is key to standing out. (Keep an eye out—more tactical advice on this later in the report.)

Damon Didier, founder and CEO, Win at Ecommerce