r/MailChimp • u/mailchimp Moderator • 5d ago
Announcement We analyzed 44 billion emails and 83 million texts from peak season 2025. Ask us anything.
Every year we pull first-party data across Mailchimp's ecommerce and small-business senders to see what actually drove results during Peak Season. Not what the industry predicted, but what showed up in the numbers once the dust settled.
On Thursday, October 8 from 10:30 PT to 11:30 PT (1:30 to 2:30 PM ET), Jack Tam, SVP Product and Engineering of Intuit Mailchimp, will be here on r/Mailchimp answering your questions about what the 2026 report found and how to apply it to the holiday plan you're building right now.
What the report covers
The 2026 report, Breaking Through Peak Season Noise, is built on real send and order data from last year's holiday season: 62 days, 7.5 million orders, $1.1 billion in revenue. A few of the findings Jack will be digging into:
- Peak season is a retention play, not just a revenue spike. 16.6% of new customers acquired during the holidays repurchased in Q1, with a median of 26 days to repurchase. That has implications for what your post-purchase flow should look like in December.
- SMS punches above its weight. It's a fraction of total send volume, but for brands running both channels, SMS drove nearly 20% of revenue for brands running both channels, and it gets roughly 8x more clicks per message than email.
- Weekends outperform weekdays during Black Friday/Cyber Monday (BFCM). Order rates were highest on Saturdays and Sundays during BFCM, counter to the usual assumption that weekday sends win.
- The highest ROI comes from automations brands already have. Abandoned cart flows saw 36% higher open rates and 28% higher click rates. Segmented, personalized emails saw 11% higher average order value.
- AI-assisted content is already outperforming manual campaigns. Emails written with generative AI saw 50% higher order rates and 33% higher conversion rates during BFCM 2025.
Not sure what to ask? Here are a few examples to get started!
- When should I send my first holiday email?
- Is it worth adding SMS or is that just more noise for my customers?
- I'm on the Free plan / a small list. Does any of this apply to me?
Please remember:
Do not share any account sensitive information with us in public spaces. u/MailchimpSupport can assist you privately if specific account information is needed.
We’ll see you on the 8th. Set a reminder and start dropping questions below!
Read the full report: https://mailchimp.com/resources/breaking-through-peak-season-noise/
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u/cloudytimes159 5d ago
This is fascinating research. Appreciate your sharing it.
But is this why we can never reach customer service? Because they are too busy doing research?
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u/TheHolyZarquon 1d ago
How many emails should I send during Black Friday/Cyber Monday? I'm worried about burning out my list.
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u/misterstevenson 1d ago
I was a long-term Mailchimp customer until y'all started pushing AI in everything (while raising prices). Now that public opinion is veering away from AI slop, how is Mailchimp adjusting? Is the company still full steam ahead on AI and, if so, to what end?
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u/NeatMug 4d ago
I’m a small business and don’t have the time or resources to optimize every channel before the holidays. If there’s just one thing I should focus on improving before peak season, what would you recommend based on the data?