Email open rates in New Zealand fall for second consecutive year

Uyen Duong

15th Jun 2026

Open rates for essential business emails in New Zealand declined over the past year, while click-to-open rates increased, according to Cumulo9’s Essential Email Insights Report 2026.

Data from millions of essential emails, including invoices, statements, payslips and notifications, showed open rates fell from 68.5 per cent to 63.6 per cent. However, click-to-open rates increased from 6.2 per cent to 6.7 per cent, suggesting recipients are interacting more with content once emails are opened.

David Allen, GM of Cumulo9, said the report reflects email usage patterns among New Zealand users.

“Email receipts and open rates are measurable, an important advantage to sectors like utilities and financial services where service providers must be able to prove that customers opened important communications,” he said.

Among the 18 sectors analysed, local government recorded the highest open rates, followed by financial services, travel and tourism, media and entertainment, utilities and insurance. Real estate recorded the lowest open rates, followed by investments, charities and banking. Financial services and insurance were the only sectors to record growth in readership compared with the previous year.

Patterns around email timing have also shifted. Friday recorded the highest open rates, while Monday generated the highest click activity, suggesting recipients often view emails and act on them at different times.

The period between 8pm and midnight on Monday recorded an open rate of 70.05 per cent. The share of emails sent between 4pm and 8pm on weekdays increased from 10 per cent to 13 per cent. This suggests more organisations are testing delivery outside standard business hours.

Mobile devices accounted for 66 per cent of email opens, although recipients often revisited emails on desktop devices after first opening them on mobile. This highlights the need to support both platforms.

Organisations are also adapting to changing requirements from email providers. Since May 2025, Microsoft has required SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication, one-click unsubscribe options, and spam complaint rates below 0.3 per cent for emails sent to Outlook, Hotmail, and Live addresses. Apple has also tightened its DKIM requirements, in line with measures already adopted by Gmail and Yahoo.

Cumulo9 said organisations that fail to comply risk having emails redirected to spam folders or rejected. Allen said organisations should continue to test and adapt their email strategies as user behaviour changes.

• Further reading: How bait‑and‑switch sales tricks make us click on online ‘bargains’.