Drive sales on autopilot with ecommerce-focused features
See FeaturesThe 63 best fall email subject lines (backed by research)
Fall is the highest sales season of the year for most businesses. Many events like Back-to-School, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are celebrated in fall. That is why you should use high-converting fall email subject lines.
It’s important to strike a different tone for this season. For clothing, seasonal changes are quite easy and logical.
For other types of ecommerce businesses, it’s important that you go along with the more serious feeling for this season.
Summer was a nice break, but now in the fall, it’s important for people to get back to business, students to get back to school, prepare for the festive Holiday season, and focus on longer-term goals and strategies.
This could be updating their electronics and gadgets, enrolling in courses, or buying higher-ticket items.
In fall, we have the following holidays and occasions (check more on “October newsletter ideas” article) :
- US Labor Day
- Oktoberfest
- Halloween
- Veteran’s Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Black Friday
- Cyber Monday
There is an extensive list of US September national events and the most important international days and a variety of engaging September newsletter ideas that go beyond the typical choices.
So let’s look at the best performing autumn and fall email subject lines to inspire your marketing campaigns in the busiest shopping season of the year (and remember to check out our guide on the best email subject lines overall).
Should I use ‘fall’ or ‘autumn’ in my email subject lines?
Because we see in our data that our customers are using ‘fall’ and ‘autumn’ separately and differently, we decided to separate these two terms, even though they discuss the same thing.
In general, when deciding which words to use in your subject lines, you may be wondering: fall or autumn?
It really depends on where most of your customers are—for North Americans, fall (in red) would be the most applicable, and for everywhere else, autumn (in blue) would work the best.

According to Google Trends, ‘fall’ always beats ‘autumn’ as a search term, and this goes to show the internet power (and spending) of the ‘fall’ countries.

This trend seems to be reflected in our email marketing statistics as well. Even though we have 100,000+ customers spread across more than 130 countries, ‘fall’ still performs better in email subject lines.
The 5 top-performing general fall email subject lines
When we break down the subject lines into ‘fall’ and ‘autumn,’ we get different results. Here are the top 5 email subject lines with the word ‘fall’:
#1 Fall email subject line: “[Brand Name] colour for Fall”
- Open rate: 53.1%
- Click rate: 4%
#2 Fall email subject line: “[Brand Name]’s back for fall”
- Open rate: 50.2%
- Click rate: 5.1%
#3 Fall email subject line: “FALL FREEBIE”
- Open rate: 41.5%
- Click rate: 18.5%
#4 Fall email subject line: “The [Brand Name] Start of Fall Sale!”
- Open rate: 39.2%
- Click rate: 23.7%
#5 Fall email subject line: “New Post – How To Wear Long Coat This Fall”
- Open rate: 36%
- Click rate: 2.7%
Here is an example by Solomon. The subject line is “Early drop of our brand new fall/winter collection!“

The 5 top-performing autumn email subject lines
For autumn, the following subject lines fared the best. Surprisingly, the emoji and mood of these subject lines are more related to later in the season than what we saw previously. Also, you’ll notice mention of ‘winter’ below:
#1 Autumn email subject line: “Swedish simplicity for autumn”
- Open rate: 24.9%
- Click rate: 4.9%
#2 Autumn email subject line: “{{Customer name}}, Autumn Skincare Tips”
- Open rate: 23.9%
- Click rate: 1.2%
#3 Autumn email subject line: “Gear Up for Autumn!”
- Open rate: 22.1%
- Click rate: 2.9%
#4 Autumn email subject line: “Fall into Autumn: See What We Got for Your Pets”
- Open rate: 21.1%
- Click rate: 1.5%
#5 Autumn email subject line: “Autumn/Winter is on the way – See what’s new”
- Open rate: 20.5%
- Click rate: 4.2%
Here is an example by HAY. The subject line is “The Autumn Sale begins today“

What does it mean for your business?
The data here is quite revealing.
The countries that tend to buy more products online usually use the word ‘fall’ rather than ‘autumn’, and that’s perhaps why we see much better open and click rates (a high open rate of 53.1% and click rate of 23.7%) for ‘fall,’ while ‘autumn’ could only reach a high open rate of 24.9% and click rate of 4.9%.
This would be enough incentive to use ‘fall’ instead of ‘autumn’, but the ABT law still applies here: Always Be Testing.
See what your customers respond best to and go with that.
Fall newsletter subject lines about the end of summer
- So Long Summer
- End of Summer Sale: Last Call
- The Sun Is Setting on This Sale.
- Bye, Felicia ☀️! Hello, Fall
Here is an example by Marriott. The subject line is “End-of-summer savings never felt so rewarding”

Fall subject lines that play with the word ‘fall’
- It’s Time to Fall Back into Your Practice!
- Fall in Love with Interweave Knits
- Fall Into Savings and Get 20% Off
- Fall For What You Love
- Fall Blazers Only $199 | Casual Pants 50% OFF
- Fall Into Style & Get Ready For Colder Weather
- Fall for Fall
- Fall in love with these NEW September styles
- New Season & New Styles to Fall In Love With
- “Fall” in Love with Up to 70% OFF
- Fall’s Pride! 25% OFF For 2 Days
Here is an example by Peloton. The subject line is “3 Ways to Crush Your Fall Fitness Routine”

Fall subject lines about sales and savings
- Our Biggest Fall Sale Ever Starts Today!
- FALL SALE up to 70% off
- LAST DAY to SAVE 25% during our BIGGEST FALL SALE!
- New for Fall + SALE
- Get your closet fall-ready – SALE on full price and markdown styles
- Our Fall Clearance Event Starts Now!
- 25% Off – Fall Fashion Event
- Fall Clearance Event
- Fall Season Sale
Here is an example by Arlo Smart Home. The subject line is “The Best of Fall Sale is here!”

Fall subject lines with free shipping
- Ready for Fall? Last chance for free shipping
- Autumn in the air: 25% off + FREE shipping sitewide
- NFL Kickoff Weekend – Get Free Shipping on Your Order
- Experience Autumn: 2 for $10 Candles + $6 Wallflowers
Here is an example by Design Within Reach. The subject line is “It’s our treat: Free Shipping sitewide!”

Fall email subject lines announcing new products
- Psst… First Look at Fall
- All eyes on the new season
- Just In! Your New Fall Faves
- New Season & New Styles to Fall In Love With
- New Arrivals: Our 2024 Fall Collection is here!
- New Fall 2024 Products | Available Now!
- New Fall Styles Have Arrived, Shop Now
- Introducing The New Collection | Fall
- New Fall Styles Just Arrived
- Fresh Fall Looks, Straight from the Catwalk!
- The hottest fall sneakers are in…
- Our New Fall Direction
Here is an example by Magic Spoon Cereal. The subject line is “Limited Edition: Our fall flavors are here!”

Other fall and autumn email subject lines
- Check Out These Fun Ideas for a Disney Halloween!
- Tricks ‘n’ treats for some wicked good fun
- Fall’s Must-Haves
- Hello Fall
- Fall is here! Stock up!
- Fall Fashion Event (check Fashion newsletter templates for more ideas)
- Fall Is Lit!
- Spice up your fall wardrobe
- Trend alert! 5 must-haves for fall
- Fall Savings Event starts today.
- On now! The Fall Beauty Event
- Fresh For Fall
- 10 Fabulous Ways to Make Fall Your Favorite Season
TABLE OF CONTENTS
What’s next
No fluff, no spam, no corporate filler. Just a friendly letter, twice a month.