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Open Rate Drop: Seeking Solutions for Our Recent Email Campaigns

  • October 14, 2023
  • 3 replies
  • 314 views
M
Contributor I
Forum|alt.badge.img+2

Hello Community,

We recently took control of an online store and have sent out two email campaigns since then. The previous owner also used Klaviyo and typically achieved open rates of 43-45%. We transferred the email contacts exactly as they were, and for the first two campaigns, we had open rates of 29.5% and then only 22% for the second one.

We're wondering why the open rate has dropped so significantly by more than 50%. Can anyone provide some insights or assistance with this issue? We'd greatly appreciate your help.

Thank you very much.

 

 

Best answer by inboxingmaestro

Hi @Marania 

When you say that you took control of an online recently from previous owner, did you mean - 1) moving the store on to a new top level website domain or it’s the same TLD? 2) Using the same sending domains on new Klaviyo account or created a new sending domain setup.

In either scenario, when you go through any migration phase (from deliverability perspective), it’s necessary to establish the sending reputation with mailbox providers by following email best practices. I’m not sure whether the migration is done completely and you have set the expectations with the list once you have taken control.

- Have you gone through any warmup & rampup exercise while ensuring you have suppressed the blacklisted data on Klaviyo account?

- Was there any spike in negative KPIs like spam complaints, bounces, or unsubscribe?

- What is your domain/IP reputation health?

- Have you tried checking where your emails are landing - in inbox or spam?

Last but not least, fluctuations in open can happen anytime and should not be a concern unless there’s an impact of other important KPIs too.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards,

Mohsin

    3 replies

    Brian Turcotte
    Forum|alt.badge.img+37

    Hi @Marania!

     

    Essentially, this is going to boil down to the details of how you “took control” of the new store. Did the previous owners of the store also transfer an old Klaviyo account?


    From a deliverability standpoint, it’s possible you’re seeing drops in open rates because some inboxes can identify when you are using the same branding/logos/lists as a different sender, and mark them as suspicious. In other words, it could be a consequence of the old sending infrastructure not being brought over. 

     

    That said, I would recommend the following Community threads to help improve your overall deliverability:
     


    Best,
    Brian

      inboxingmaestro
      Partner
      Forum|alt.badge.img+19

      Hi @Marania 

      When you say that you took control of an online recently from previous owner, did you mean - 1) moving the store on to a new top level website domain or it’s the same TLD? 2) Using the same sending domains on new Klaviyo account or created a new sending domain setup.

      In either scenario, when you go through any migration phase (from deliverability perspective), it’s necessary to establish the sending reputation with mailbox providers by following email best practices. I’m not sure whether the migration is done completely and you have set the expectations with the list once you have taken control.

      - Have you gone through any warmup & rampup exercise while ensuring you have suppressed the blacklisted data on Klaviyo account?

      - Was there any spike in negative KPIs like spam complaints, bounces, or unsubscribe?

      - What is your domain/IP reputation health?

      - Have you tried checking where your emails are landing - in inbox or spam?

      Last but not least, fluctuations in open can happen anytime and should not be a concern unless there’s an impact of other important KPIs too.

      Let me know if you have any further questions.

      Regards,

      Mohsin

      Having trouble getting your emails to the inbox? Not anymore! Get my strategic guidance to understand what you need to change in your email programs to improve your deliverability, engagement and skyrocket your email ROI. Let's talk #loveforemails
        A
        Contributor I
        • AndrianV
        • Contributor I
        • April 6, 2026

        Seeing such a big drop in open rates right after taking over is really annoying, but it happens more often than people realize. Gmail and Outlook look at the "from" name and email address very closely. If you changed the sender name to your new store name or even slightly altered the sending domain, the inbox filters might be flagging your mail as suspicious because the sender signature changed. It takes time for those systems to trust a new sender identity, even if the list of people you are emailing stayed exactly the same.

        Another thing to check is whether the previous owner was cleaning their list regularly. If they stopped doing that during the sale process, you might be hitting old addresses that are now dead or acting as spam traps. Lately, I have seen people mention Unspam Email as a tool that helps check if your content or technical setup is hitting blocks. You can find more about how that works here: https://unspam.email/ to see if your emails are actually getting through or just landing in the trash folder.

        Try sending to only your most active buyers for a few weeks to build that trust back up with providers. If you keep hitting the whole list while your rates are low, it just makes the reputation problem worse. This is likely just a temporary setback while the algorithms get used to the new management style. Focus on high engagement for now to fix the trend.

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