How Daylight Savings Impacts Ecommerce Email Marketing
Spring forward, fall back—daylight savings is more than just a clock change. For ecommerce brands, it’s a golden opportunity (and a potential pitfall) for your email marketing strategy. The twice-yearly time shift directly impacts open rates, conversion windows, and even customer sentiment. So, how do you keep your emails for email marketing campaigns converting when the clocks jump?
Let’s break it down, get tactical, and make sure your next email campaigner move is your best yet.
Why Daylight Savings Is a Big Deal for Ecommerce Email Marketing
You already know timing is everything in email marketing. But when daylight savings hits across North America, The Netherlands, and Denmark, your customers’ routines shift overnight. Suddenly, that carefully optimized send time might land your emails in the middle of a morning rush, a commute, or—worse—lost in a sleep-deprived inbox scroll.
Here’s what the data shows:
- Open rates can drop by up to 6% after a time change if send times aren’t adjusted.
- Conversion rates spike for brands that sync their email deployment with new customer behaviors post-DST.
That means this isn’t just a minor blip. If you run a Shopify store or manage ecommerce flows, ignoring daylight savings could cost you sales and hurt your email marketing ROI.
Three Ways to Win Daylight Savings with Email Marketing
1. Adjust Send Times—But Go Beyond the Obvious
Don’t just move your email blasts by an hour and call it a day. Use your email marketing email analytics to spot new patterns. Are your North American customers opening emails later? Do your Dutch subscribers now shop after dinner, not before?
Tip: Leverage Klaviyo flows or your preferred email mktg platform’s time zone features to personalize delivery. If you use email marketing for Shopify, segment by geography for precision.
2. Refresh Your Ecommerce Email Strategy
Daylight savings is a natural reset—a great excuse to tweak your abandoned cart flows, post-purchase sequences, and winback campaigns. Maybe your abandoned cart reminders hit better in the early evening now. Or perhaps your ecommerce newsletters convert higher on Sunday mornings post-clock change.
Quick wins:
- Update automation triggers based on recent engagement data.
- Test new subject lines that play on time, seasons, or sleep (think “Wake Up to Savings” or “You Snooze, You Lose”).
3. Double Down on Retention with Timely Touchpoints
Customer retention is critical, especially in the wake of schedule upheaval. Use service email marketing touchpoints to check in, offer value, and re-engage lapsed customers.
- Post-purchase emails: Remind customers about shipping or review requests at their new “prime time.”
- Winback emails: Use the clock change as a creative hook to bring old customers back into the fold.
Don’t Let Email Deployment Fall Behind
Daylight savings can make or break your email campaign performance. The best email marketing firms know that smart timing—powered by data and a sharp ecommerce email strategy—turns a routine clock change into a revenue boost.
Ready to avoid the time trap and master email marketing as a service, no matter the season? Let Flizz handle your next high-converting email campaign so you can focus on scaling your store.
Maximize every hour, every email. Daylight savings waits for no one—neither should your marketing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. How does daylight savings affect ecommerce email marketing open rates?
Daylight savings shifts customers’ daily routines, which can cause open rates to drop by up to 6% if email send times are not adjusted accordingly. Syncing email deployment with new customer behaviors post-DST can help maintain or even improve open rates.
2. What are the best strategies to adjust email campaigns for daylight savings?
Key strategies include adjusting send times based on geographic data, refreshing ecommerce email flows such as abandoned cart and post-purchase sequences, and using timely retention touchpoints to re-engage customers after the time change.
3. Can Klaviyo email flows help optimize email marketing around daylight savings?
Yes. Klaviyo flows allow you to segment customers by timezone and behavior, making it easier to personalize email delivery times and content, which improves engagement during daylight savings transitions.
4. Why is customer retention important after daylight savings changes?
Customer routines shift after daylight savings, which may affect engagement. Timely retention emails like post-purchase follow-ups and winback campaigns help maintain customer loyalty and lifetime value despite schedule disruptions.
5. Does Flizz offer specialized email marketing services for ecommerce brands during daylight savings?
Absolutely. Flizz specializes in done-for-you ecommerce email marketing, including email deployment and campaign optimization that considers regional time changes like daylight savings in North America, The Netherlands, and Denmark.