Workers and consumers alike tend to check their emails more frequently today. The statistics reveal all: Huffington Post reports that on average, US workers spend 6.3 hours a day checking their email. 90% of respondents said they checked personal emails at work, while 87% of respondents said they checked business emails past work hours.
A separate report shows similar results: 51% ofsmartphone users spend more time in the morning checking their emails and going online than eating breakfast. Only 18% of smartphone users said they spent more time eating breakfast in the morning.
What kind of impact does email have? The following statistics will reveal just how much you spent in your inbox last year and how much of an impact it has on marketing initiatives.
Users prefer mobile
Mobile has taken over as the main device used by people. According to Litmus’ “Email Analytics,” it holds the majority number of email opens at 54%, with webmail and desktop email opens trailing at 29% and 22% respectively.
Desktop represents 22% of all email opens, webmail 29% and mobile 54%. Litmus –”Email Analytics” (Jun 2015)
Google revealed that the Gmail app now has over 900 million users. As for the users’ choice of devices, the iPhone is a clear winner, as the iPhone email client is used by 32.2% of smartphone owners. Gmail follows at 15.2% and the Apple iPad trails at 12%.
Desktop and web mail users saw a steady decline in 2015. Litmus reports that each one dropped by 13% since January 2015.
The Radicati Group’s “Email Statistics Report” estimates that by the end of 2018, worldwide mobile email users are expected to reach 2.2 billion, with 80% of email users expected to use email apps to access their accounts.
But who opens mobile emails the most? According to Sign-up.to’s 2015 Email Benchmarking Report, people from the Events industry take the top spot with 66.9% of mobile email opens. The Online Services industry follows with 52.9%, and those in the Property sector come in at third with 50.8% of email opens.
Mobile email is more effective
Studies show that mobile provides a good number of advantages over desktop and webmail. According to Yahoo!’s “Evolution of Conversations in the Age of Email Overload,” replies sent from mobile get to their intended recipient 54% faster than responses sent from desktops.
Replies from cellphones are also 60% shorter than those sent from desktops, making instructions very short and concise.
Mobile’s positive impact on marketing is also clear. Mobile received 39% of unique clicks, and mobile email click-through rates grew 22.8% on Black Friday in 2015. Even though mobile opens were up only 2.7%, the resulting click-through rates rose from 44.7% to 54.9%.
Several studies also reveal that email is most effectively used as a shopping tool, producing the highest mobile email conversion rates. Men have the highest conversion rates in the afternoon, while women have the highest conversion rates in the morning.
According to one of the studies, mobile revenue made up 20% of all email-generated revenue – a 33% increase in one year.
The future of email
The statistics show that people are spending more and more time in their inboxes, and that they are doing so via mobile. Different studies already show that mobile is beginning to take over as the main device used by consumers and businesses to access email, and this isn’t expected to change anytime soon.
Going back to “Email Statistics Report,” The Radicati Group believes that the number of mobile email users will grow 23% this year, and that in 2017 2.282 million people will access email via mobile. They say by the end of 2018, there will be over 2.2 billion mobile email users around the world. They also project that 80% of users will be checking their email accounts via mobile.
