![Kathmandu AU promotional email: Happy birthday, [NAME]!](/email-examples/img/19b1504f4756e488-t.webp)
What a retail and fashion promotional email is
A retail and fashion promotional email is a marketing email a shop or clothing brand sends to get people buying: new arrivals, a themed edit, a gift with purchase, an early look at a sale, a birthday voucher.
We collected 138 of them from 75 brands in two ordinary inboxes, sent between 2016 and 2026, and show 21 here. The percentages describe all 138. They run from fashion and activewear labels such as Lilly Pulitzer, lululemon and Millie Savage to outdoor, hardware and music shops such as Kathmandu, Bunnings and Musos Corner. 100 of the 138 are tagged to Australia, and no brand sent more than 6.
Browse 21 retail and fashion promotional emails
Filter by design style, 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.
Lilly Pulitzer
New Arrivals + Citrus & Veggie Prints 🍋🟩🍊🍌
lululemon
Restock your summer staples.
Millie Savage
⚡MORE shiny bits ⚡
Tripulse
3 Ways to Wear Midnight Navy! 💙
ZONE by Lydia
Why we rarely do this
Lilly Pulitzer
Ends Soon! Festive Hat with $200 Spend
Active Truth
Long Weekend 👉 Save on Shorts
Musos Corner
Still Time To Save (And What A Weekend!) 🤘
Mini Zali
This is what $100 gets you now 😮
YETI
Commit To Fit
YETI
Meal Prep Solutions
lululemon
Return to work in style.
Pit Viper Australia
12 DAYS OF TURBO IS BACK
FRACTEL
Hat of the Year: E-Series Takes the Crown
Bunnings
Nail The Block bedroom looks
Kathmandu AU
Happy birthday, [NAME]!
REI Membership
See the Gear Other Co-op Members Love
Biome
"This is my third bottle." ✨ Pure plant oils for soft, calm, glowing skin.
Biome
Plastic chopping boards? We need to talk! 😐
Marrickville Metro
Discover FREE Easter Fun at Marrickville Metro! 🐰✨
Baby Village
Celebrating World Breastfeeding Week 🤱
How retail and fashion promotions differ
Retail and fashion promotional email against two neighbors
138 retail and fashion promotional emails, 2,661 promotional emails from other industries and 117 retail and fashion sales and discount offers, all from the same two inboxes| What we measured | Retail and fashion promotions | Promotions, other industries | Retail and fashion sales and discount offers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Image heavy | 38% | 11% | 32% |
| Opens with a hero image | 51% | 22% | 56% |
| Shows a grid of products | 22% | 5% | 18% |
| Text heavy | 17% | 49% | 26% |
| Plain-text layout | 8% | 26% | 9% |
| Minimal design style | 30% | 17% | 38% |
| Bold graphic design style | 23% | 13% | 32% |
| Discount named in the subject line | 33% | 22% | 61% |
| Urgent tone | 17% | 20% | 72% |
| Warm tone | 22% | 17% | 5% |
| Sent to existing customers (retention stage) | 86% | 49% | 97% |
| Aimed at new customers (acquisition stage) | 12% | 41% | 1% |
| Greets the reader by first name | 19% | 29% | 20% |
| Exactly one call to action | 38% | 30% | 53% |
| Median calls to action | 2 | 2 | 1 |
Against promotional email from other industries, retail and fashion sells with pictures. 38% is image heavy against 11%, 51% opens with a hero image against 22%, and 22% shows a grid of products against 5%. Only 17% is text heavy, against 49% elsewhere. It also goes to people who already buy: 86% is tagged to the retention stage, against 49% of other promotions, which are aimed at new customers 41% of the time.
Against retail and fashion sales and discount offers, the promotions hold back on price. 33% name a discount in the subject line, against 61% of the sales, and 17% use an urgent tone, against 72%. They are warmer instead: 22% use a warm tone, against 5% of the sales.
What is in the grid
All 21 emails in the grid were sent in 2025 or 2026. Of the 138 collected, 112 were sent in 2023 or later. They cover the jobs a retail promotion does besides a straight sale, each with the real subject line:
- New arrivals and restocks: lululemon, “Restock your summer staples.” (2026)
- A gift with purchase: Lilly Pulitzer, “Ends Soon! Festive Hat with $200 Spend” (2026)
- A heads-up before a sale: ZONE by Lydia, “Why we rarely do this” (2026), the one text-heavy email in the grid
- A birthday voucher: Kathmandu, “Happy birthday, [NAME]!” (2025)
Sales with a number on them are on their own pages, sale emails and discount offers.
Next to this one
The same library, cut a different way: every retail and fashion email, promotional emails from every industry, promotional ecommerce emails, or the job the email does: sale emails, discount offers, product launch emails and seasonal emails. Fashion newsletters, which tell a brand story rather than push a product, are in newsletter examples.
Questions about the collection
More like a catalog page than other promotions. Of the 138 we collected, 38% are image heavy and 51% open with a hero image, against 11% and 22% of promotional email from other industries. 22% show a grid of products, and only 8% use a plain-text layout.
Some do. 33% of the 138 name a discount in the subject line, against 22% of promotions from other industries and 61% of retail and fashion sales and discount offers. Filter the grid by subject line, then pick Names a discount, to read the ones on this page.
Mostly to people who have already bought. 86% of the 138 are tagged to the retention stage and 12% to acquisition. Promotional email from other industries in the same inboxes is aimed at new customers 41% of the time, and retail and fashion sales 1%.
34 of the 138 are published in the library so far. We took 13 off this page: 5 repeats of a template already shown, 5 that show the reader's own purchases or loyalty balance, 2 faulty renders and 1 credit card offer. The other 104 are not published yet but count in every percentage.