The year buying
became intentional

Throughout 2025, ecommerce continued to change its shape. Based on data from 150,000 brands, 27 billion emails, 321 million SMS messages, and 458 million push notifications sent last year, our report reveals precisely what that change was.

• Ecommerce order volume grew +98% YoY, but growth wasn’t shared evenly. Just 5% of brands generated 57% of total order volume growth, while the remaining 95% competed for what was left.
• Open rates rose for the fifth consecutive year, even as click rates declined. At the same time, click-to-conversion jumped 53% YoY, meaning fewer people clicked — but those who did were far more likely to buy.
• Q4 engagement was lower, but the value was higher. Clicks dropped, yet average order value nearly doubled compared to other quarters, showing that shoppers bought with purpose when they did engage.
• Automations delivered outsized results. They represented just 2% of email sends, but drove 30% of revenue, earning 16× more per send than scheduled campaigns by reaching shoppers at high-intent moments.
• SMS and push became critical intent channels. SMS click rates more than doubled YoY, while push automation conversion rates surged to 22.9%, giving brands a direct line to ready-to-buy customers.

Ecommerce order volume growth didn’t arrive all at once in 2025. It built steadily over time.

YoY growth climbed from +82% in Q1 to a peak of +146% in Q4, before settling at +98% for the year overall. This reflects total ecommerce orders across all sales channels, not just revenue attributed to Omnisend messages.

At the same time, that growth became increasingly uneven. Nearly six in ten brands increased their order volume during the year, which suggests that many businesses were moving in the right direction. But strong market-level growth masked a different reality at the brand level.

Most of the year’s gains were captured by a small group of fast-growing brands:

• The top 5% of brands generated 57% of total ecommerce order growth
• The top 10% of brands accounted for nearly 69% of all growth
• The top 20% drove 81% of total growth

You can see that by the time you include the top 20% of brands, more than four-fifths of all growth had already been absorbed.

The result was a year where ecommerce looked exceptionally healthy from a distance, but far more competitive up close. Growth didn’t disappear, but surely it was more concentrated. Brands that found traction early and were able to react quickly to customer behavior accelerated faster, while many saw smaller, incremental gains that didn’t reflect the headline numbers.

Marty Bauer

Ecommerce Expert at Omnisend

Automations made up just 2% of all email sends, yet generated 30% of total email-driven revenue. Their strength lies not in frequency, but in timing. Triggered by real customer behavior, automations reached shoppers when interest already existed.

That intent shows clearly in performance. Nearly one in three clicks on an automated email resulted in a purchase, making them some of the strongest buying signals across channels. On average, each automated email earned $2.87 per send, compared to $0.18 for scheduled campaigns — a 16× difference in value per message.

Campaigns continue to play a critical role in reach and awareness, but automations complement them by turning attention into action. Across the board, automated messages delivered 24% higher open rates, 6× stronger click engagement, and 19× higher conversion rates.

Most automation results came from a small set of workflows:

• Abandoned cart and Welcome messages drove 76% of all automation-generated orders
• Back-in-stock emails delivered the highest conversion rates (6.46%) of any automation type
• Birthday messages produced average order values more than 4x higher than average ($744.37)

Automation works because it listens first. When brands respond to what shoppers are already doing, results follow.

Marty Bauer

Ecommerce Expert at Omnisend

Push notifications continued to gain traction in 2025, with message volume growing 11% year over year. Rather than competing in inboxes or ad feeds, push offers brands a direct, low-friction way to reach customers at moments that matter.

Just like with SMS, timing made the difference. Push automation had a standout year: while click rates stayed relatively stable, click-to-conversion jumped from 13.9% in 2024 to 22.9% in 2025, showing that engagement increasingly came from shoppers already ready to act.

Compared to campaign sends, automated push messages delivered nearly 10× higher conversion rates, 7× higher ROI, and 37% higher open rates. Push proved most effective not as a discovery channel, but as a precise nudge that turns existing interest into action.