Published figures point to roughly a quarter to a third of store revenue being attributed to email. Klaviyo's own benchmark report measured 27% across about 1,000 stores, and a common agency target published on Klaviyo's blog is around 30%. Treat it as a range, because your attribution window, list size, order value and repeat purchase rate all move the number.
The short answer: the published figures cluster around a quarter to a third of total store revenue. If your Klaviyo dashboard shows email at 25% to 30% of revenue, you are in the range most sources describe as healthy. If it shows something closer to 12%, there is usually missing setup rather than a bad product.
The longer answer is that this is one of the softest benchmarks in ecommerce. There is very little hard data behind it, and the number on your dashboard depends heavily on a setting most store owners have never opened. So before you compare yourself to anyone, it helps to know what is being measured.
What attributed revenue means
Attributed revenue is the revenue your email platform claims credit for. In Klaviyo, an order is attributed to a message when the customer interacted with that message and then ordered inside a set time window.
According to Klaviyo's help center, the default window is 5 days for email and SMS on accounts created after October 9, 2024, both opens and clicks count for email, and credit goes to the most recently opened or clicked message (last touch). The window can be changed in account settings, and you can choose to exclude Apple Mail Privacy Protection opens and bot clicks.
The percentage you see is simply attributed revenue divided by total store revenue for the same period. That means two things can change it without your email program getting any better or worse: the attribution rules, and what happens to the rest of your revenue.
What published benchmarks say
I looked for real published numbers rather than repeated rules of thumb. There are fewer than you would expect.
| Source | Figure | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Klaviyo benchmark report | 27% of store revenue | Measured, about 1,000 US stores, Q4 2016 |
| Klaviyo benchmark report | Nearly a third | Same study, stores with $10M+ annual revenue |
| One 10 Media on Klaviyo's blog | About 30% | Agency target, not measured data |
| One 10 Media on Klaviyo's blog | About 12% | Where the author says many brands stall |
Klaviyo's ecommerce email benchmark report is the only measured figure I could find from the platform itself. It looked at roughly 1,000 US companies in Q4 2016 and found email attributed revenue was 27% of their overall store revenue. The largest stores in the study, those above $10M in annual revenue, brought in nearly a third through email.
Two honest caveats. That data is old, and it covers Q4, which is the heaviest email quarter of the year. I would expect a full year average to sit lower.
The second figure is a target, not a measurement. In an article on Klaviyo's blog, a Klaviyo partner agency describes its goal as around 30% email attributed revenue, split about half from flows and half from campaigns, and says brands tend to plateau near 12% when popups, a welcome series and abandoned cart flows are missing. That lines up with the older measured data, but it is one agency's working target.
So the sources agree on the neighborhood, roughly 25% to 30%, and they agree that bigger, more mature stores sit at the top of it. I could not find a current, large sample study of this specific number, so I would not treat any single figure as precise.
Why the number varies so much
Attribution window
This is the biggest one. A long window that counts opens will claim far more revenue than a short window that only counts clicks. Same emails, same customers, different percentage. If you compare your number to another brand or to an agency case study, you are only comparing fairly if the settings match.
List size relative to traffic
Email can only influence people who are on the list. A store that captures a healthy share of its visitors has more people to send to, and more of its orders will have an email touch before them. A store with a weak popup has a small list and a low percentage, no matter how good the emails are.
Average order value and purchase frequency
Consumables like skincare, supplements and beverages get repeat orders, and repeat orders are where email does most of its work. A store selling one expensive item every few years has fewer chances to bring a customer back, so email's share is naturally lower. That is not a failure. It is the business model.
How much you spend on ads
The percentage has total revenue underneath it. If you double paid spend and new customer revenue jumps, email's share drops even if email revenue grew. The opposite is also true: a brand that cuts ads can see email's share climb while the business shrinks. Always look at the dollar amount next to the percentage.
How to check your own number properly
- Open your attribution settings and note the window for email and SMS
- Check whether opens count, or only clicks
- Check whether Apple privacy opens and bot clicks are excluded
- Compare the same date range in Klaviyo and Shopify
- Separate flow revenue from campaign revenue
- Look at attributed revenue in dollars, month over month, not only the share
If you run SMS in the same account, decide whether you are measuring email alone or all owned channels together, and stay consistent. I also like to look at the number on a click only basis at least once, because it shows how much of the total is resting on opens.
What to do if you are below the range
A low percentage nearly always traces back to one of three gaps. I check them in this order.
- List growth. If the popup converts poorly, everything downstream is small. Fix the offer, timing and mobile layout first.
- Core flows. Welcome, abandoned checkout, abandoned cart, browse abandonment and post purchase. Klaviyo's benchmark data shows flows produced nearly 41% of email revenue from 5.3% of sends, so missing flows leave a large hole.
- Campaign rhythm. Many stores send only when there is a sale. A steady weekly schedule to engaged segments, with content that is not always a discount, raises the campaign half.
The flow figure above comes from Klaviyo's email marketing benchmarks. The same partner article on Klaviyo's blog says many brands earn only 5% to 8% of total revenue from flows and puts the target at 15% to 20%, which is a useful sanity check for your flow number on its own.
A low email percentage is usually a setup problem, not a product problem.
What if you are well above it?
A very high share is not automatically good news. It can mean the attribution window is generous, that you are discounting heavily to your list, or that new customer acquisition has slowed and existing customers are carrying the business. Check new customer revenue before you celebrate.
What to do next
Pull three numbers for the last 90 days: total store revenue, flow attributed revenue and campaign attributed revenue. Write down your attribution settings next to them. If the total is under a quarter of revenue, look at list growth and flows before you send more campaigns. If you want a second pair of eyes on which gap is costing you the most, that is exactly what I look at in an audit.
Questions people ask
What is a good email attributed revenue percentage in Klaviyo?
Published figures sit around a quarter to a third of total store revenue. Klaviyo's benchmark report measured 27% across about 1,000 stores in Q4 2016, and a Klaviyo partner agency writing on Klaviyo's blog uses about 30% as its target.
Why is my Klaviyo revenue higher than what Shopify shows for email?
The two tools use different attribution rules. Klaviyo credits an order to the last email opened or clicked inside its attribution window, so an order can count for email there even when the customer did not arrive from an email link.
Does a longer attribution window make email look better?
Yes. A longer window and counting opens both increase the revenue credited to email without changing actual sales. Keep the settings consistent when you compare periods or brands.
Should flows or campaigns bring in more of the email revenue?
A common target is roughly half from each. Klaviyo's benchmarks show flows producing nearly 41% of email revenue across its customers, so anything far below that suggests missing or weak flows.