What a retail and fashion email is
A retail and fashion email is a message a shop or clothing brand sends its customers: new arrivals, sales and discount codes, welcome emails, order and delivery updates, and requests to review what they bought.
We collected 633 from 157 brands in two ordinary inboxes, sent between 2016 and 2026, and show 144 of them here. The percentages describe all 633. The set runs from fashion, activewear and swim labels such as Zimmermann, Lilly Pulitzer and lululemon to department stores, outdoor and sports retailers, hardware, books and games: Target, Myer, REI, Bunnings, Dymocks and EB Games. 501 of the 633 are tagged to Australia, and no single brand sent more than 19.
Browse 144 retail and fashion emails
Filter by type, or search a brand or subject line. Open any email to see it full length, with its subject line, notes on what it is doing, and a prompt that rebuilds it.
Zimmermann
Twisted Romance: Our Cruise 26 Collection Is Here
Paire
You left something behind
KISS ACTIVE
🔥 20-60% Off Everything Is LIVE
Biome
The wait is over 🏃♀️ Plastic free shampoo bars are back!
Halcyon Nights
We peeped, you peeping! 👀
Halcyon Nights
NEW! Say Hej to Blomma! 😊🌼🌸
HELLO
20% Off | Father's Day Sale
Mountain Warehouse
SALE | Up To 60% Off! 🚨
LETE ACTIVE
Don't Miss 30% Off 🌿 🌊
Jamie Kay AU
Welcome to the Jamie Kay Family 🤍
Sports Basement
Wanna save 10% on this order?
Milk Label
The Next Drop of Milk 🥛
Target
Feeling the chill? Get 30% off coats & jackets!
Flower Power
Mother's Day Gift Ideas She'll Love
ALO
New in: Faux Fur
ZONE By Lydia
Still thinking about this one? 💛
Crocs Australia
New Barbie styles just dropped 💖🎀🛍
Target
An item arrives today! Order [REF]
lululemon Like New
Thanks for signing up
Dymocks Booklover
Welcome to Booklover!
FRACTEL
Ready for your next race?
EB Games
🔒 Our black Friday prices are unlocked! Deals go live from 19 Nov 12.01AM AEST
HELLO
⏰ Countdown Begins: Only 3 Days to Save 20%!
Bunnings
Father's Day gifts for every budget
How retail and fashion email differs from the rest of the inbox
Retail and fashion email against ecommerce and everything else
633 retail and fashion emails, 1,448 ecommerce emails and the 10,630 other emails in the same two inboxes| What we measured | Retail and fashion | Ecommerce | Everything else |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales and discount offers | 18% | 12% | 5% |
| Discount named in the subject line | 21% | 16% | 10% |
| Order, shipping, delivery and receipt emails | 23% | 49% | 13% |
| Review requests | 7% | 4% | 2% |
| Image heavy | 24% | 10% | 4% |
| Opens with a hero image | 35% | 17% | 10% |
| Shows a grid of products | 13% | 15% | 2% |
| Minimal design style | 33% | 19% | 19% |
| Bold graphic design style | 15% | 9% | 5% |
| Text heavy | 31% | 47% | 64% |
| Plain-text layout | 18% | 24% | 34% |
| Greets the reader by first name | 39% | 46% | 40% |
| Warm tone | 22% | 15% | 15% |
| Exactly one call to action | 40% | 33% | 29% |
| Median calls to action | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Retail and fashion is the most image-heavy email in the two inboxes, ahead of every other industry we tag. 24% of it is image heavy, against 10% of ecommerce email and 4% of everything else, and 35% opens with a hero image, against 17% and 10%. It sells harder too: 18% are sales or discount offers, against 12% and 5%, and 21% name the discount in the subject line, against 16% and 10%.
Nearly half of ecommerce email in the same inboxes is order and delivery updates, 49% against 23% here. Retail and fashion brands ask for more reviews, 7% against 4% and 2%, and write warmer: 22% use a warm tone, against 15% of both the others. Greeting the reader by first name is no more common than elsewhere, 39% against 40% of everything else.
What is in the collected set
By type
all 633 retail and fashion emails collected| Type | Emails | Share of the set |
|---|---|---|
| Promotional | 138 emails | 22% of the set |
| Sale | 87 emails | 14% of the set |
| Shipping | 57 emails | 9% of the set |
| Order confirmation | 52 emails | 8% of the set |
| Review requests | 42 emails | 7% of the set |
| Product launch | 41 emails | 6% of the set |
| Welcome | 40 emails | 6% of the set |
| Discount offer | 30 emails | 5% of the set |
| 23 other types | 146 emails | 23% of the set |
141 of the 144 emails in the grid were sent in 2023 or later. The grid leans further to marketing email than the collection does: it shows 6 of the 57 shipping emails and none of the 52 order confirmations, and 4 of the 144 use a plain-text layout, against 18% of all 633.
Next to this one
The same library, cut a different way: promotional retail and fashion emails on their own, ecommerce emails and beauty emails by industry, or by the job the email does: sale emails, product launch emails, welcome emails, abandoned cart emails and survey emails.
Questions about the collection
Of the 633 retail and fashion emails we collected, 22% are promotions and 14% are sales. Shipping updates make up 9%, order confirmations 8%, and review requests 7%. Product launches and welcome emails are 6% each. Sales and discount offers together are 18%, against 5% of email outside retail and ecommerce.
With big pictures. 24% of the 633 are image heavy, against 10% of ecommerce email and 4% of everything else in the same two inboxes, and 35% open with a hero image. 33% use a minimal design style, against 19% of other email, and only 18% use a plain-text layout.
Often. 21% of the retail and fashion emails we collected name a discount in the subject line, against 16% of ecommerce email and 10% of everything else. Filter the grid by subject line, then pick Names a discount, to read the ones on this page.
211 of the 633 are rendered full length so far. We took 67 off this page: 21 repeats of a template already shown, 33 faulty renders or emails with private details, 6 walls of text, 4 off-topic sends and 3 whose subject lines break our page format. The other 422 count in every percentage.