Email open rate in Russia 2026
The average open rate of B2C mailings is 18%. By type of letter, the figure ranges from 8% (reactivation) to 62% (transactional). Apple Mail Privacy has distorted the metric - we no longer pray for absolute values, only for the trend.
what is included in this figure
Open rate = (opened letters ÷ delivered) × 100. Share subscribers who opened the letter. Not "received", not “received and did not unsubscribe”, namely opened - clicked on the topic or enabled image loading.
The metric became problematic after Apple Mail Privacy Protection (from 2021) - it automatically “opens” letters for the user. In mailing accounts (Sendsay, Unisender, eSputnik) this is adds 15–25% to the actual open rate. That is, "real" The open rate is lower than what the account shows.
What I take into account in these numbers:
- The numbers in the table are medians based on what the office shows mailings (without amendment to Apple Privacy).
- The actual open rate is 15–20% lower - but the trend works: if your open rate dropped from 22% to 12%, that means something really broke.
- I calculate benchmarks based on delivered emails (after filtering bounces), not by sent. This is the standard.
open rate table by type
| Niche | Top 25% (higher) | Median Open rate | Weak (lower) |
|---|---|---|---|
B2C promotional mailing (promotions, discounts) open rate | 26.0% | 17.0% | 8.0% |
B2B newsletter (content mailing) open rate | 35.0% | 24.0% | 12.0% |
Transactional (checks, statuses) open rate | 72.0% | 58.0% | 40.0% |
Triggered (abandoned cart) open rate | 48.0% | 35.0% | 18.0% |
Welcome series (1-3 letters) open rate | 55.0% | 42.0% | 22.0% |
Reactivation (base 6+ months of silence) open rate | 12.0% | 7.0% | 3.0% |
Transactional emails (62% median) are the kings of open rates. “Your order has been completed”, “purchase receipt”, “delivery status” - Almost everyone opens them. Welcome series (45%) and triggered letters (cart abandonment, 38%) is also in the top: they catch the hot moment.
B2B newsletter (28%) - high compared to B2C promotion (18%) because subscriptions are conscious, the audience is narrow and involved. B2C promo (18%) is a mass mailing where Most of the subscribers “once left an email and forgot.”
Reactivation (8%) - bottom floor. These are letters from a database that silent for 6+ months. The open rate is predictably low, but the segment is worth it: even 8% with a base of 50 thousand is 4 thousand discoveries, and some of them will lead to purchases.
how it changes over time
Average open rate B2C in the Russian Federation for three years:
- 2024: 22% median. Apple Privacy is already added inflate, but the market was less saturated.
- 2025: 20%. Email fatigue is growing mailer filters (Mail.ru, Yandex Mail) have been tightened filtering mass mailings in “Promotions”.
- 2026: 18%. Further tightening antispam filters, mailer fragmentation, migration audiences in messengers.
The trend is −18% over two years. It's not "you have a bad base", it's market. Who pushed the open rate of 25% in 2024 with the same way - in 2026 he will receive 18% and be surprised. There is no treatment rate, but by segmentation: mailing to narrow segments with relevant content gives an open rate of 30–40% even in 2026.
what does your open rate mean in context
Open rate higher than good (for example, 35% in B2C promo). Most likely: small base (up to 2000 subscribers, where percentage is noisy), narrow segment (for example, only buyers in the last 30 days), a strong subject line with a trigger urgency. Check stability - on three mailings in a row stays at 30%+? It's no longer noise.
Open rate is around the median (15–22% for promo). You're in the market. Then you look at the CTR (click inside the letter) and conversion by email traffic on the site. Open rate without CTR is nothing: they opened and closed - the money did not come.
Open rate is below bad (less than 9% in B2C). Three typical reasons. The first is getting into the spam folder. Check SPF, DKIM, DMARC and domain reputation via mail-tester.com. The second is a dead base: it hasn’t been cleaned for a long time from bounces and inactive. The third is a burnt-out topic: alone and the same email subjects for months, without A/B tests.
sources and methodology
- 6 of my projects 2024–2026 - main data on B2C promos, welcome series, triggered letters.
- Correspondence with 12 colleagues in email marketing — data on B2B newsletter, reactivation, transactional newsletters in niches where I have no personal experience.
- Open reports Sendsay, Unisender and eSputnik on open rate benchmarks 2025–2026.
Method: for each type of mailing 4–6 sources, median and quartiles. Anomalies (open rate above 80% or below 2%) recline - usually this is a broken analytics or microbase.
The numbers do not constitute financial advice. Open rate This is a funnel entry diagnostic, not a KPI. KPI is considered by revenue per email or conversion to purchase.
related metrics and tools
- Landing page conversion 2026 — median 2.5%. CR landing from email traffic usually 1.5–2 times higher than paid - the audience is warm.
- CPL in B2B 2026 — median 5500 ₽. Email is the main growing channel MQL → SQL in B2B.
- LTV/CAC in SaaS 2026 — median 2.5x. Email marketing increases LTV without increasing CAC.
Calculators: CPA calculator, LTV/CAC calculator, unit economics calculator.
On the blog: email marketing 2026, CRM Marketing 2026, sales funnel 2026. From the glossary - CTR, conversion rate, LTV.