Unsubscribes happen. But they’re not always bad news. In fact, a healthy unsubscribe rate can improve your email performance. Here’s what ecommerce store owners using Klaviyo need to know.
What is the Unsubscribe Rate?
The unsubscribe rate shows how many subscribers opt out after receiving your email. Klaviyo calculates it simply:
(Number of unsubscribes ÷ Emails delivered) × 100
For example, 5 unsubscribes from 1,000 delivered emails = 0.5% unsubscribe rate.
Klaviyo automatically suppresses profiles once they unsubscribe, ensuring compliance and keeping your list clean.
Why Unsubscribes Can Be Good
- Boost engagement: Uninterested subscribers leaving improves your overall engagement (open and click rates).
- Protect reputation: Better to unsubscribe than mark your emails as spam, harming your sender reputation.
- Cleaner lists: Keeping your list filled with engaged subscribers boosts deliverability and conversions.
- Cost savings: Removing inactive contacts lowers email marketing costs.
In short: unsubscribes help maintain a healthy, engaged email list.
When to Worry About Your Unsubscribe Rate
A normal ecommerce unsubscribe rate is about 0.27% per email campaign, but up to 1% can be acceptable. Klaviyo suggests aiming for under 0.3%. Consistently seeing 0.5% or more is cause for concern, and 1% or higher is a warning sign.
Pay special attention to sudden spikes or consistently high rates—they signal potential issues with your content, frequency, or targeting.
How to Reduce Unsubscribe Rates
- Deliver relevant content: Always offer value. Match content to subscriber expectations and avoid misleading subject lines.
- Set clear expectations: Clearly communicate what subscribers can expect from your emails in terms of content and frequency.
- Find the right frequency: Aim for a consistent sending schedule, typically 1-3 emails per week for ecommerce. Use Klaviyo’s Smart Sending feature to avoid overwhelming subscribers.
- Segment and personalize: Target emails based on purchase history or engagement level. Highly segmented emails can reduce unsubscribes by 50%.
- Keep content fresh: Vary your content and formats. Avoid repetitive or stale messaging.
- Easy unsubscribe/preference options: Clearly visible unsubscribe links reduce spam complaints. Preference centers let subscribers opt for fewer emails instead of unsubscribing entirely.
- Regularly clean your list: Periodically remove or suppress subscribers who haven’t engaged for months. This improves your unsubscribe rate and email deliverability.
Klaviyo Tools to Manage Unsubscribes
- Smart Sending: Automatically spaces out emails to prevent subscriber fatigue.
- Segmentation: Easily create targeted email lists based on behavior, preferences, or engagement.
- Analytics and reports: Monitor unsubscribe trends closely and quickly identify problematic campaigns.
- Preference centers & global unsubscribes: Give subscribers control over email frequency and topics, reducing unsubscribes.
- Automated flows: Set up welcome series, sunset flows, and re-engagement campaigns to keep your audience engaged and clean your list regularly.
Final Thoughts
Don’t fear unsubscribes—they’re part of a healthy email marketing program. Monitor your rates, learn from trends, and leverage Klaviyo’s tools to ensure your emails always add value.
Happy emailing!
P.S. If you need help with email marketing, click here to book a call. We’ll talk about how we can support your business.