Chapter 2
More than 400 billion emails don’t lie. Sinch Mailgun analyzed sending data across the top ten industries by send volume to give you the clearest picture yet of where email performance stands in 2025. Whether you’re sending transactional alerts or promotional campaigns, knowing how your metrics stack up is the first step to improving them.
emails analyzed across industries to build these 2025 benchmarks
highest delivery rate across all top industries: Air Freight & Logistics
lowest bounce rate across top industries: Air Freight & Logistics
delivery rate for Retail and e-comm: the highest among high-volume consumer-facing industries
unsubscribes recorded in Information Technology alone in 2025
delivery rate for Media: The lowest among the top 10 industries by volume
Every number in this table comes from real Sinch Mailgun sending data, not surveys, or estimates. These figures cover more than 400 billion emails sent across the top 10 industries by volume in 2025. Use them to benchmark your own program and spot where there’s room to improve.
The delivery rate is one of the most visible metrics in email and one of the most misunderstood. It measures the percentage of emails accepted by receiving mail servers. What it does not tell you is whether those emails actually reached the inbox.
An email can be delivered to the spam folder and still count as “delivered.” That’s why a strong delivery rate is a baseline, not a finish line. Industries like Air Freight & Logistics (99.25%) and Retailing (98.74%) sit at the top of the table, but smart senders pair those numbers with inbox placement testing to understand the full picture.
But why is this the case? Consider the industry, logistics-based industries are likely sending a larger volume of transactional messaging (your shipping confirmations, payment receipts, etc.) and those emails hold a higher value naturally to consumers. If you’re sending a high volume of transactional emails and marketing emails, separating your sending on domains or IPs can significantly boost your reputation.
Pro tip: Delivery rate vs. inbox placement rate
The delivery rate tells you how many emails were accepted. It says nothing about where they landed. Inbox placement testing — available in Mailgun Optimize — shows you whether your emails are hitting the inbox, the spam folder, or somewhere else entirely, before a real send goes out.
A bounce happens when an email can’t be delivered. Hard bounces mean the address doesn’t exist. Soft bounces are temporary a full inbox, a server timeout, a momentary block.
Most top industries keep bounce rates well under 0.5%. On the low end, just 0.01%, which reflects a tightly managed contact list and clean sending infrastructure. On the higher end, Professional Services comes in at 0.22% and Retail at 0.18% still within acceptable ranges, but worth monitoring.
If your bounce rate is climbing above 2%, that’s a signal your list needs attention.
Watch out: Bounce rates and sender reputation
High bounce rates send a bad signal to mailbox providers. Too many bounces especially hard bounces can damage your sender reputation and lead to more of your emails landing in spam. Regular list hygiene and email address validation before sending are the most effective ways to keep bounce rates low.
Information Technology logged over 261 million unsubscribes in 2025 by far the highest in the top 10. That sounds alarming until you consider the context: IT also sent more emails than any other industry by a significant margin (172.9 billion sends).
The unsubscribe count in isolation tells you very little. What matters is your unsubscribe rate, the percentage of recipients opting out per send. A high volume of unsubscribes from a massive list is far less concerning than a small but growing opt-out trend from a tight, carefully managed audience. You also need your subscribers to be able to unsubscribe easily, both for meeting sending requirements and so they don’t resort to spamming you and increasing your spam rate which can massively impact your reputation.
Retail generated 37.4 million unsubscribes on just 8 billion sends, which is partly the industry but for context, that’s nearly five times the unsubscribe volume of Media, which sent nearly three times as many emails. Retail and e-comm in general is a more volatile sending environment due to the volume of promotional emails. Smart segmentation influenced by your subscriber data and behavior can help mitigate this.
Pro tip: Make unsubscribing easy
When contacts can’t find the unsubscribe link, they often reach for the spam button instead. One spam complaint does far more damage than one unsubscribe. One-click unsubscribe with RFC 8058 is now a requirement from major mailbox providers for bulk senders.
Air Freight & Logistics stands apart from the rest of the top 10. A 99.25% delivery rate and a 0.01% bounce rate suggest a sending program built on clean, verified lists and strong infrastructure. That makes sense for an industry where email often carries time-sensitive operational updates — shipment alerts, tracking notifications, customs documentation — that recipients genuinely need and expect.
Capital Markets follows a similar pattern: 98.13% delivery and a 0.11% bounce rate, with a relatively low unsubscribe count. This points to an audience that opted in and stays engaged.
Compare that to Media at 95.05% — the lowest delivery rate in the top 10. High send volumes, broad audiences, and competitive inbox environments all create pressure on deliverability in this sector.
The common thread in high-performing senders
The industries posting the strongest delivery rates share a few habits: permission-based list building, consistent list hygiene, proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC), and sending content that recipients actually want. These aren’t secrets. They’re disciplines.
Benchmarks are most useful when they’re part of a conversation with your own data. If your delivery rate is sitting at 94% and your industry average is 97%, that gap has a cost — emails that never reached a customer, a prospect, or a contact who needed that message.
Here’s a practical way to put these numbers to work:
Understanding where you stand is step one. Getting there is where Sinch Mailgun comes in. Whether you’re working to reduce bounce rates, improve inbox placement, or scale a high-volume program without sacrificing deliverability, the right tools make the difference.
