With the wide range of devices on which people now read their email, I wondered if this had caused retailers to adjust their email templates — my assumption would be to make them narrower. So I thought I would review some of the retail emails to which I subscribe in order to see if there was an ideal email width or any kind of recommended standard.

I reviewed the width of emails from 155 retailers, which ranged in width from HSN with the narrowest at 580px to Harry & David with the widest email at a whopping 894px!

To be fair, Harry & David recently redesigned their email template and it looks narrower, but for some reason they have stopped sending me emails so I have yet to receive one with the new design.

Here's how the retail email widths compare in chart form. The average email width is 675px.

Digging a little deeper into the data, we can see that:

• 17% of the retail emails are 600px wide or less
• 44% of emails are 650px wide or less
• Almost 75% of all the emails reviewed are less than or equal to 700px wide

Email Width	< 601px	< 651px	< 701px	< 751px	< 801px
% of Emails	17%	44%	74%	92%	98%

Interestingly, although the ideal email width has for many years been recommended at between 550-600px, only 17% of retailers are following this guideline. On the other end of the scale, only 8% of retailers opted to make their emails wider than 750px.

As far as the 'ideal' email width is concerned, three widths stood out as being preferred, which can be seen by the plateaus in the chart above:

• 600px
• 650px
• 700px

Each of these widths was used equally by 14% of retailers, and as a group they accounted for 42% of the retail emails studied.

Looking at the data in terms of ranges gives a more general idea of where email width preferences fall:

Email Width	576-625px	626-675px	676-725px	726-775px	776px+
% of Emails	22%	29%	34%	10%	5%

I was surprised that not one of the ranges stood out clearly as the most popular, which shows that when it comes to ideal email width there is not a great deal of consensus among online retailers.

Finally, here's the full table of results (click on a header to sort the data):

Retailer	Email Width (px)
HSN	580
RedEnvelope	585
Crabtree & Evelyn	590
Cabelas	592
SkyMall	593
Anna Scholz	600
Bonobos	600
FansEdge	600
Patagonia	600
Reebok	600
Zappos	600
AutoAnything	600
Soap.com	600
Bon-Ton	600
Conns	600
Dillard's	600
Mothercare	600
Orvis	600
SmartBargains.com	600
Brookstone	600
IKEA	600
Linens-N-Things	600
Ashford	600
Blue Nile	600
Buy.com	600
Zazzle	600
HP	607
OfficeMax	607
Appleseed's	608
Office Depot	612
Gettington	619
Ford	620
Starbucks	620
NorthernTool	622
Walmart	629
CafePress	630
JC Whitney	633
Sierra Trading Post	636
eForCity	640
figleaves.com	640
L.L.Bean	640
Kohl's	640
Target	640
Micro Center	640
Sam's Club	641
The Sharper Image	642
Ralph Lauren	646
Horchow	650
Aeropostale	650
Boden USA	650
Chadwicks	650
Crocs	650
Cusp	650
dressbarn	650
Frederick's of Hollywood	650
Neiman Marcus	650
Sports Authority	650
Tommy Bahama	650
Diapers.com	650
Fingerhut	650
Hayneedle	650
Spiegel	650
Walgreens	650
World Market	650
CircuitCity	650
Dixons	650
Newegg.com	650
Pottery Barn	650
Harrods	654
eCOST.com	655
Petco	660
Kate Spade	660
Motorcycle Superstore	660
Overstock.com	660
CompUSA	660
Coldwater Creek	662
B&H Photo	664
Loft	670
1-800-Flowers.com	675
Baby Phat	680
TK Maxx	680
B&Q	681
The Home Depot	682
CDW	685
J.Crew	686
Nordstrom	687
H&M	690
J&R	690
CB2	690
Chapters.Indigo.ca	692
Bare Necessities	695
Charlotte Russe	696
Build.com	699
adidas	700
Ann Taylor	700
Athleta	700
Banana Republic	700
Bluefly	700
Converse	700
farfetch.com	700
Fred Perry	700
Gap	700
Next	700
Talbots	700
Topshop	700
Beauty.com	700
Sephora	700
Bass Pro Shops	700
Layla Grace	700
Lillian Vernon	700
Marks & Spencer	700
REI	700
RadioShack	700
UncommonGoods	700
Zales	700
J.C. Penney	704
Crutchfield	708
The Land of Nod	708
Bath & Body Works	709
Crate and Barrel	710
Anthropologie	718
Abercrombie & Fitch	720
aerie	720
Barneys New York	720
Express	720
Gilly Hicks	720
The Limited	720
Saks Fifth Avenue	720
The Container Store	720
Tiffany & Co.	720
Staples	720
77kids	725
Dell	728
Chico's	730
Debenhams	732
Coach	737
American Eagle Outfitters	740
Dune Shoes	740
Lands' End	740
Brooks Brothers	742
Apple	742
Eddie Bauer	748
Swatch	749
Hallmark	758
Victoria's Secret	760
Anne Klein	770
Tory Burch	770
Currys	770
John Lewis	782
Restoration Hardware	784
Gymboree	800
Costco	800
Frys	820
Old Navy	836
Harry & David	894

It's worth noting that almost all of the emails reviewed were graphically heavy and virtually none were of the newsletter format, a study of which may produce very different results.

Note: Thanks to Tableizer for making it a snap to convert these tables from Excel into HTML.

Posted on: October 16, 2011 | 9 Comments

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