Email Marketing

What is the Best Time to Send eCommerce Emails (2025 Update)

December 23, 2024

What is the Best Time to Send eCommerce Emails (2025 Update)

Nearly 11% of Americans check their email, first thing in the morning. So, even if your eCommerce emails get opened at 4 AM, subscribers will likely forget about them. Naturally, this brings us back to:

Best times to send eCommerce emails by day of the week
Best days of the week for sending eCommerce emails
How to determine the best sending time for eCommerce emails?

The good news is: we will answer all of these questions – here’s the short version 👇

TL;DR

🕣 Best times on average: anywhere between 8 AM to 9 AM on most days (except for weekends and holidays like the 4th of July, Black Friday, etc.)

📅 Best days: Tuesday, Friday, and Thursday (exceptions occur for some industries)

🎯 Some key learnings:

Paydays are the best times for email conversion rates to peak, i.e., the 1st and 30th
The lunch hour slot is extremely underrated when it comes to email-sending times
People open as early as 7 AM, peak around 10 AM, but actually start clicking through in the late afternoon
Most usually check emails 3 times a day – morning, afternoon, evening
Evenings are a good time to send longer content

👉 What we’ve taken into account

Country: US
Open Rate: The percentage of delivered emails that were opened – shows which timings (hour and day of the week) during which subscribers open emails
CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of clicks within delivered emails – shows how subscribers engage with emails per hour and per day
CTOR (Click to Open Rate): The percentage of clicks compared to the number of emails opens, by the hour and day of the week – shows when shoppers actually engage with the emails
No. of emails sent: By all kinds of brands during a particular hour and day of the week – helps determine when inboxes aren’t too busy receiving emails

👉 Data Sources:

⚠️ Note: Apple's Mail Privacy Policy automatically reports emails as opened, irrespective of whether the email has actually been opened – meaning, actual opens may be lower than what you would expect.

But first 👇

Why should you optimize sending times?

When you send emails at optimal times, you ensure that your email actually gets seen – which gives your email a chance to perform.

Needless to say, timing alone won’t guarantee performance – remember that open rates, conversions, and clicks depend on your subject line, content relevance, and how likable and remembered you are (as a brand).

Some other factors that decide the best times to send emails:

Your list size
Subscribers locations
Number of work emails in your list
No. of email campaigns sent out each week

This means that if you send emails way too often, people are probably going to ignore your emails.

Wondering how many emails is too much? Read: How often should you send marketing emails? (eCommerce)

Best Times To Send eCommerce Emails For Each Day Of The Week: The Data

⚠️ Best times don't work for transactional and triggered emails (like cart abandonment, welcome emails, etc.), as those are triggered specifically by subscriber interaction.

▶ Monday

Score: ⭐

👉 Best types of email campaigns to send on Monday: ‘Monday Scare Day’ / ‘Breeze through Monday’ type promotional emails, upsell quiz emails to induce delight.

👉 Best times to send eCommerce emails on Monday: 9:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 8:00 PM.

Why: Monday is a busy day – meaning 10 AM will get the highest open rate, but it's likely just for work. This means people may open your promotional emails, but not act on them until lunch or late at night (note the CTOR spike around 8 PM and 3 PM). Sending a bit early, between 7 and 9 AM, ensures a healthy space for your emails to perform. After all, who hasn't mindlessly scrolled through emails while commuting?

Also read: What is a Good Open Rate for eCommerce Emails?

▶ Tuesday (Best Day to Send Emails for Opens)

Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (🏆)

👉 Best types of email campaigns to send on Tuesday: Promotional emails that don't require a lot of effort to engage with.

👉 Best times to send eCommerce emails on Tuesday: 11:00 AM, 3 PM to 5 PM, 8 PM to 9 PM.

Why: Tuesday is a lot like Monday, except email open rates and CTR peak at 11 AM (while the CTOR peaks at 9 AM). It's likely that most people start early, and so do other brands, as the percentage of campaigns sent reaches the peak by 10 AM. We could have recommended sending emails at 9 AM or 7 AM. However, we didn't do so, solely because people come back to emails during the afternoon, evening, and night – even when campaigns aren't being sent out (note the open rates and CTOR at 3, 5, and 8 PM).

Also read: How To Improve Email Marketing "Click-to-Open" Rate in eCommerce

▶ Wednesday

Score: ⭐⭐⭐

👉 Best types of email campaigns to send on Wednesday: Customer engagement emails like loyalty program emails, and product update emails.

👉 Best times to send eCommerce emails on Wednesday: Between 8 and 9 AM, 7 PM and 8 PM.

Why: Wednesday is what we term as the middle of the week hump. People are more focused on getting done with work – so most email open and click volumes peak by 11 AM. For the rest of the day, interactivity remains low, till the evening. There's a small spike between 4 and 5 PM, but for eCommerce brands, 7 to 8 PM is the best email send time on Wednesday.

▶ Thursday

Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

👉 Best types of email campaigns to send on Thursday: Discount emails, selling fast emails.

👉 Best times to send eCommerce emails on Thursday: 9 AM and 10 AM, between 5 PM and 8 PM

Why: Thursday is the day when people are just boosting ahead, some have wrapped up existing tasks – some are going full steam to have their work cut out for Friday. Like all mornings, Thursday morning is not a lot different, except, the email sending volume is quite low – meaning, people will be more responsive during mornings. A mini-Friday, if you will. Thursday evenings, however, are different from evenings of other days, as open rates skyrocket (Thursday evenings record the highest open rates). This of course means, sending between 5 and 8 PM on Thursdays is a great idea.

Also read: Email Marketing Audit – 74 Point Checklist for eCommerce Stores

▶ Friday (Best Day to Send Emails for Conversions)

Score: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

👉 Best types of email campaigns to send on Friday: Any kind of promotional emails in general – like last-chance emails with countdowns or back-in-stock emails.

👉 Best times to send eCommerce emails on Friday: 9 AM to 11 PM, 1 PM, and 5 PM

Why: Friday is when people plan their shopping. Also, the day that generates the highest revenue per email. However, try getting your emails in before 5 PM, because open rates and click-through rates drop abysmally after that time. The best time slots to send emails start at 8 AM and end at 2 PM.

▶ Saturday

Score: ⭐⭐

👉 Best types of email campaigns to send on Saturday: Here's what you missed emails, replenishment/reorder emails (especially for F&B brands).

👉 Best times to send eCommerce emails on Saturday: Between 5 and 7 AM, and between 10 and 11 AM.

Why: Saturday is when most shoppers stock up. This means early mornings get the most opens – meaning it's a great day to send promotions and personalized emails. Unlike most mornings, Saturday mornings record lower open rates (but people still click through). However, we don’t recommend sending after 11 AM, as open rates fall (the lowest open rates of the week happen on Saturday evenings). In case you do want to take a risk, we recommend you take it between 6 PM and 8 PM.

▶ Sunday

Score: ⭐⭐

👉 Best types of email campaigns to send on Sunday: Newsletters

👉 Best times to send eCommerce emails on Sunday: 10 AM, between 5 and 8 PM (ideally at 5 PM and 7 PM).

Why: People prep for work, late at night. Also, a shopping day. People get into chill mode, and stock for the week. Open rates, CTR, and CTOR spike at 10 AM (the highest in the week), meaning the morning slot between 9 AM and 11 AM is awesome for sending newsletters and personalized emails. After that, the next best slot comes from 4 PM, as open rates pick up – which may be due to people prepping for Monday, the work day.

‍▶ Average Best Times

Best slots for opens: 9 AM and 10:00 AM on weekdays – 7 to 8 AM on weekends

Best slots for conversions: 7 PM on Weekdays – between 6 PM and 8 PM on weekends

🎯 Key takeaway:

The trends reveal that average audiences have little time to spare on emails outside their work. Most check emails while at work – the emails that grab attention get reopened later during the day.

Also, culture remains consistent across countries. The patterns remain the same. People are still workaholics. If you constantly trigger subscribers at odd hours, chances are they will get irked. It’s worth reminding that 44% of subscribers hit unsubscribe when they feel a brand is emailing them too much. Remember, the goal is to send at the right time at the right frequency.

Here’s a visual representation of when subscribers check their emails in the UK & US:

When do subscribers check their emails in the US and the UK?

Best Days for Sending eCommerce Emails

The best day in the week to send eCommerce emails is Tuesday.

Earlier it used to be Fridays, but Tuesdays record better open rates, click-through rates as well as click-to-open rates.

The second-best day to send eCommerce emails is Friday (drives the highest amount of revenue).

And the third-best day is Thursday.

Here’s what we found when we crunched the numbers for the open rate, clicks, and CTOR of all types of email campaigns sent in the US:

Best days for sending out eCommerce campaigns

The average clicks and opens were highest on Tuesdays, with the lowest open rates on Saturdays (Sundays had a surprising number of opens).

So from Monday through Wednesday, it may be wiser to send educational & tutorial content, while from Thursday onward (specifically Thursday to Saturday), it’s ideal for promotional emails. As a best practice, keep Sundays received for newsletters and send out content that really brings out your value, as a brand.

Also read: eCommerce Marketing Calendar 2025 (& Tips on How to Promote)

Best Times to Send Emails During Holidays

Most eCommerce brands start planning their holiday campaigns at least 15 days in advance. However, what should be your strategy, when email sending volumes peak?

On average, the average email user gets about 120+ emails per day – and that number probably hits the cap during the BFCM weekend.
So, what times should you target, so your holiday emails get the best possible traction? Early mornings (6:00 to 8 AM) and nights (7 to 11 PM) – it’s when the email send volumes are comparatively lower. This strategy will work even better if you let shoppers know in advance to keep their eyes open for odd hours.

As for the best days to send emails during holidays, avoid sending longer emails during the weekends. Remember: The shorter the email content is, the better it performs.

Key Takeaway: When running month-long holiday email campaigns, switch up the usual email send times and days for better performance (although, make sure you do test the normally optimal times during the holiday season, as well).

Also read: Best-Performing Holiday Email Templates for eCommerce (+ Brand Examples)

How to determine the best sending time for eCommerce emails?

The thing is: the best sending times change by email type, list size, and marketing goal. For example, triggered emails and email blasts (bulk campaigns) have completely different best sending times.

So, how do you calculate the best sending times irrespective of campaign type, audience type, and list size? Personalize sending time by historical metrics – here are the steps:

1. Build up your sending volume first

If you are a new sender, start sending emails at the best times, as outlined above.

Re-check the engagement and conversions after sending out at least 3 campaigns. Then, you will be able to follow up with the steps outlined in the next steps.

2. Create segments based on open data & subscriber data

Almost all ESPs (email service providers) let you create segments out of subscriber engagement times. This is why it always makes sense to create segments like these out of open data from the last 3 emails:

🌞 "Early Morning Openers" → last 3 opens happened between 4:00 AM and 6:29 AM

🔆 "Morning Openers" → last 3 opens happened between 6:30 AM and 11:59 AM

🍕 "Afternoon Openers" → last 3 opens happened between 12 PM and 4:29 PM

🌅 "Evening Openers" → last 3 opens happened between 4:30 PM and 8:20 PM

🌑 "Late-Night Openers" → last 3 opens happened between 8:21 PM and 3:59 AM

This will help you recognize patterns within your list and understand which time slots get the most amount of opens by looking at the number of subscribers in each segment.

💡 Quick Tips:

If you have a smaller list size, or, if you send less than 3 to 4 emails per month, reduce the number of emails in the segment-building condition, down to 2 emails
You can take it a step further, and refine your segments by a subscriber’s location (this is possible if you capture user IP during signup)

3. Structure bulk email campaigns by desired engagement

There are various types of bulk campaigns – each with a different goal. For example, an event email will require tailoring according to the event’s schedule. Or, for that matter, a referral email will need to be sent at a time when subscribers actually can engage – for example, on workdays, within work hours, but much later in the day (1 PM to 5 PM).

This means some campaigns will require you to schedule emails within certain times and days – irrespective of subscriber engagement times (quick examples: event emails or referral emails).

However, if you want to send out newsletter emails, you can’t just hit schedule at a fixed time. A newsletter will require more time and energy to go through. Optimizing the send time by previous open times will help. Here’s an example of how you can do this:

If you’re scheduling a newsletter for Sunday – create 4 separate email blasts for 3 segments:

Sunday Morning Newsletter – scheduled for 10 AM, targets the "Morning Opener" segment
Sunday Evening Newsletter – scheduled for 7 PM, targets the "Evening Opener" segment
Sunday Afternoon Newsletter – scheduled for 3 PM, targets the "Afternoon Opener" segment
Sunday Newsletter – scheduled for 12PM, excludes all other open time-based segments, non-engaging subscribers, and subscribers in particular flows (ensuring any subscribers who don’t meet the time criteria (yet) also receive the newsletter)

Remember that you will always have to create one version of every campaign that targets subscribers who don’t meet any open time-based segments (because they are new or open at erratic times).

💡 Quick tip: When scheduling campaigns, ensure the campaign is sent out by a subscriber’s local timezone:

Schedule send emails by a subscriber's time zone

4. Send times aren’t meant for transactional/triggered emails

Here’s why: Most transactional/triggered/drip emails are driven by real-time events in your store or email list. These emails get the highest open rates, as they are highly relevant at that moment.

However, send times do apply to some drip email campaigns, which are triggered by behavior triggers like not purchasing after making the first purchase, or customer milestone emails.

Here are some examples where send times don’t apply:

Cart/Browse Abandonment Emails: Send within 1 to 3 hours of abandonment
Post-Purchase/Thank You Emails: Trigger immediately after purchase
Order Updates: These are critical for customer trust, so send them as soon as the event occurs

5. Adjust follow-up emails by send times

The goal here is to create a fallback mechanism – and also ensure that your transactional emails get maximum traction, in case the first email in the flow doesn’t get opened.

For example, if a shopper purchases a product at 2 AM, an immediate confirmation is quite OK to be sent by 2:30 AM – but, the next email can wait for the next day.

Here’s what we mean:

▶ Triggered Email 1

▶ Add time delay of 1 to 2 days

▶ Check if the subscriber belongs to any open time-based segments

▶ Triggered Email 2

If “Morning Opener” → Send Email 2 at 8 AM
If “Evening Opener” → Send Email 2 at 7 PM
If no segment → Send Email 2 at 11:37 AM (or appropriate time)

Also read: Turn boring transactional emails into cash cows: 10 proven ideas

6. Set exceptions for non-engagement

21% of all email opens happen in the first hour – and by 24 hours, 80% of all email opens will have happened. This means, any emails that might have remained unopened, were solely because they were unattractive – or got lost in a deluge of emails.

The simplest way out is to simply resend the email with a different subject line and different send time.

Here’s what we mean:

▶ Triggered Email 1

▶ Check if opened and interacted

✅ Yes

▶ Add time delay of 1 to 2 days

▶ Check if the subscriber belongs to any open time-based segments

▶ Triggered Email 2

If “Morning Opener” → Send Email 2 at 8 AM
If “Evening Opener” → Send Email 2 at 7 PM
If no segment → Send Email 2 at 9 AM (local subscriber time)

❌ No

▶ Add upto 24 hrs of time delay

▶ Check if the subscriber belongs to any open time-based segments

▶ Resend Email 1 with a different subject line

If “Morning Opener” → Send at 8 AM
If “Evening Opener” → Send at 7 PM
If no segment → Send at 2:35 PM (local subscriber default time)

Also read: 15 amazing drip email campaigns that actually drive sales

7. A/B Test Non-Optimized Send Times

Chances are that you may find subscribers engaging at times that aren't outlined in this article.

The reason: audiences behave differently. If you cater to younger audiences, the entire pattern may be different. Evening sends may take priority.

The goal is to test combinations of:

day vs. night times
weekday vs. weekend

Keep in mind that non-optimized email subject lines won't perform, no matter what time you send at.

This is why it's crucial that you have a benchmark set first before you go out and test.

💡 Quick Tip: When determining the send time, send at 3:57 instead of 4:00 – the goal is to offset common send times at which most mass emails are scheduled.

Also read: Email A/B Testing: Elements to Test + Mistakes to Avoid