What is the best time to send marketing emails?
The short answer
For ecommerce brands there is no universal best time. Across 4,788 email campaigns from 34 brands sent between November 2025 and October 2026, the median campaign on every day of the week was within about 7% of its brand's typical click rate, and every day of the week was the best click day for at least one brand. Evening sends (5pm to 9pm) had higher click rates than morning sends (7am to noon) for 15 of 17 brands that used both, but not higher revenue per email, and Saturday or Sunday was the best revenue day for almost half of brands. Send when your list already responds, then test two windows in your own account, judging on clicks and revenue rather than opens.
How much does send time matter?
Less than day-and-hour advice suggests, and differently for every brand. Campaigns are one of the main ways a brand brings existing customers back for another order, so it is worth knowing what actually moves them. Everboost looked at 4,788 campaigns from 34 ecommerce brands and found that the median campaign on every day of the week was within about 7% of its brand’s typical click rate, and the day that worked best for one brand was often among the worst for another.
Large published studies point the same way once you look past the headline. Omnisend’s 2026 analysis of about 26 billion emails, for example, found open rates varying only between about 29.7% and 31.3% across the days of the week, even though it names Tuesday as the winner.
That is not a reason to ignore timing. It is a reason to test your own list rather than copy a single answer, and to spend most of your effort on who you send to and what you say.
What does the data show?
Everboost’s 2026 ecommerce email panel covers 37 direct-to-consumer brands whose Klaviyo accounts we have worked in or audited, including campaigns sent before or without our involvement, analysed together with no brand identified. They span health and wellness, personal care, pet and other categories, selling in the UK, US, Europe and Australia. Of those 37, 34 sent campaigns that met the criteria for this analysis: 4,788 in total, sent between 1 November 2025 and 31 October 2026. We included scheduled campaigns delivered to at least 500 people and excluded resends to non-openers, campaigns sent in recipients’ local time zones and the Black Friday period, which would all distort timing. Times are in each brand’s own time zone.
Every campaign was converted to an index against its own brand’s median across all its campaigns, so 1.00 means a typical send for that brand and 1.10 means 10% better. That lets brands with very different list sizes be compared fairly.
| Day | Campaigns | Click rate index | Revenue per email index |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | 563 | 1.01 | 0.99 |
| Tuesday | 815 | 1.01 | 0.98 |
| Wednesday | 631 | 1.03 | 0.95 |
| Thursday | 827 | 0.93 | 0.96 |
| Friday | 705 | 1.03 | 0.95 |
| Saturday | 541 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| Sunday | 706 | 1.01 | 1.03 |
As of November 2026, these are all the campaigns that met the criteria. Revenue per email is the revenue Klaviyo attributes to each campaign, which is useful for comparing days within a brand but overstates what any one email caused.
What is the best day to send marketing emails?
There is no universal one in Everboost’s panel. Among the 31 brands with enough sends to compare day by day (at least three sends on a day), every day of the week was the best click day for at least one brand: Monday for seven, Saturday for six, Tuesday and Sunday for five each, Friday for four, Thursday for three and Wednesday for one. Thursday had the lowest index overall and was still the best click day for three brands.
Revenue per email leaned towards the weekend: Saturday was the best revenue day for eight of the 31 brands and Sunday for seven, so the weekend came out on top for almost half of them. If you have to pick a day for an offer without any data of your own, the weekend is a reasonable starting point, and a better one is a test.
What is the best time of day to send marketing emails?
Most brands in Everboost’s panel send in two windows, mid-morning and early evening. Among the 17 brands that sent regularly in both the morning (7am to noon) and the evening (5pm to 9pm), evening sends had the higher click rate for 15 of them, by about 10% at the median, but higher revenue per email for only seven. Pooled, 5pm to 8pm has the highest revenue index in the table below, but brand by brand evening beat morning on revenue for only seven of 17. Evening gets more clicks; it does not reliably earn more revenue.
| Send time (brand’s local time) | Campaigns | Brands | Click rate index | Revenue per email index |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5am to 8am | 179 | 16 | 1.13 | 1.00 |
| 8am to 10am | 1,100 | 29 | 0.97 | 1.00 |
| 10am to noon | 1,264 | 32 | 0.94 | 0.94 |
| Noon to 2pm | 344 | 30 | 1.12 | 1.00 |
| 2pm to 5pm | 327 | 29 | 1.07 | 0.89 |
| 5pm to 8pm | 1,304 | 30 | 1.06 | 1.06 |
| 8pm to midnight | 245 | 18 | 1.05 | 0.98 |
The 25 campaigns sent before 5am are not shown. Lunchtime (noon to 2pm) had a high click index across 30 brands without more revenue, and mid-afternoon sends looked a little weaker on revenue overall, but only just over half of the brands sending then saw a drop. We cannot tell from this data why, and the campaigns brands send at unusual times may simply be different campaigns. Treat the outlying rows as ideas to test, not rules.
Does send time change your open rate?
No, and that is the most useful finding for anyone running send-time tests. Across every hour and every day, recorded open rates were the same to within about 2%. Apple Mail Privacy Protection, introduced with iOS 15 in 2021, can register an open when the email arrives, whether or not anyone reads it, so opens no longer tell you whether timing worked.
If you have been choosing send times based on open rate, the test was largely measuring the email app, not your customers. Everboost judges send-time tests on clicks and revenue per recipient. For more on how Apple’s change affects opens, see Klaviyo’s note on Mail Privacy Protection.
How do you find the best send time for your own list?
The approach Everboost recommends is a simple rotation over several weeks rather than one big split:
- Pick two windows, for example 9am and 7pm in your customers’ main time zone.
- Alternate them across eight to ten comparable campaigns to the same audience, keeping offers and content as similar as you can.
- Compare revenue per recipient first and click rate second, never open rate. Evening may win on clicks without winning on revenue.
- Keep the winner, then test days the same way if you have the volume.
If your campaigns go to 12,000 people or more, Klaviyo’s Smart Send Time will run exploratory sends and recommend one time for your whole audience. Klaviyo’s Personalized Send Time, part of the Personalization package, goes further and picks a time for each person; our guide to Klaviyo Personalization explains when that is worth paying for. For brands selling across time zones, schedule in recipients’ local time so a 9am email lands at 9am everywhere.
What matters more than send time?
Who receives the email and what it offers. In Everboost’s view, both matter more than timing. The gap between the best and worst day in this data was about 11 points on the click index, while click rates differed between brands far more than between days. If you have an hour to improve your next campaign, spend it on the audience and the offer, and keep the send time your list already responds to. For what goes with more clicks in the subject line itself, see our subject line analysis.
The exception is a deadline. On Black Friday and launch days, when you send matters because the offer ends; our Black Friday email strategy covers timing for those days. To see what focusing on the right customers did for one brand, read the Salt Grooming case study, where returning customer sales grew 58% in 12 months. If you would like a retention agency to work out when and what to send for your brand, book an intro call.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to send marketing emails?
There is no universal best time for ecommerce brands. In Everboost's analysis of 4,788 campaigns from 34 brands, evening sends (5pm to 9pm) had higher click rates than morning sends (7am to noon) for 15 of the 17 brands that used both, by about 10%, but revenue per email was not consistently higher. Start with the window your list already responds to and test one alternative on revenue.
What is the best day to send marketing emails?
There is no universal best day. Across 34 ecommerce brands, the median campaign on every day of the week was within about 7% of its brand's typical click rate, and every day of the week was the best click day for at least one brand. For revenue per email, Saturday or Sunday was the best day for 15 of 31 brands with enough sends to compare.
What is the worst day to send marketing emails?
In Everboost's panel, Thursday had the lowest median click rate, about 7% below a brand's typical send, but it was still the best click day for three brands. A gap that size is small next to the effect of who you send to and what you offer.
Is it better to send marketing emails in the morning or evening?
Evening tends to win on clicks, not clearly on revenue. Among 17 brands in Everboost's panel that sent regularly in both the morning (7am to noon) and the evening (5pm to 9pm), evening sends had the higher click rate for 15, by about 10% at the median, but higher revenue per email for only seven. Test both with your own list and judge on revenue.
Does send time affect email open rates?
Not in a way you can measure any more. In Everboost's panel, recorded open rates were the same to within about 2% across every hour and day, because Apple Mail Privacy Protection can record opens automatically when the email arrives. Judge send-time tests on clicks and revenue instead.
Should I send marketing emails at the weekend?
Often, yes. In Everboost's panel, Saturday and Sunday click rates were about the same as a brand's typical send, and Saturday or Sunday was the best day for revenue per email for 15 of 31 brands with enough sends to compare.
What time should I send emails to customers in different time zones?
Use local-time sending, so each person receives the email at the chosen hour in their own time zone. In Klaviyo, choose to send in recipients' local time zone when you schedule a campaign; if the time has already passed in someone's time zone, Klaviyo lets you send to them immediately or wait until the same time the next day.
Should I use Klaviyo Smart Send Time?
It is worth trying if your campaigns go to at least 12,000 people, which Klaviyo requires. It runs exploratory sends across the day and then recommends one time for your whole audience. Below that size, a simple test of two windows over several campaigns gives you a usable answer.
How do I test the best time to send emails?
Pick two send windows, alternate them across eight to ten comparable campaigns to the same audience, and compare click rate and revenue per recipient, not open rate. Change one thing at a time and repeat the test before treating the result as a rule.