Mobile email is an increasingly important marketing channel as stats show that around 40% of email is opened on smartphones

It appears that businesses are finally beginning to react to this change in consumer behaviour, as the new Econsultancy/BuyDesire Mobile Marketing and Commerce Report shows that optimised emails are one of the top mobile priorities for businesses in the next 12 months.

For further information on this topic check out our blog post detailing case studies on responsive email design, or read on to find out which of the aforementioned fashion retailers are already optimising their emails for mobile…

ASOS

Though ASOS should obviously be applauded for optimising its emails for mobile devices, the experience is still far from perfect. Mobile optimisation wasn’t universal across all of its marketing messages and those that did render correctly suffered from usability issues.

For example, the images occasionally overlap or there are large gaps between the top of the screen and the content.

                      

I’m aware that some of these issues will be caused by problems with the email client but it’s still something that needs to be tested, particularly when you take into account the popularity of Android smartphones.

However there are obviously also some good aspects to ASOS’s email design that it’s worth highlighting. This email was sent to promote a 50% off sale that was due to last only 24 hours – the message is simple and easy to read even on a mobile screen.

               

If you compare it to the desktop version, ASOS has removed the ‘Premier’ logo and the image of the chap in his jacket to simplify the design and ensure the email remains readable.

Nordstrom

Nordstrom has attempted to optimise its emails for mobile screens, however it is let down by a large banner which makes the message too wide.

As such, although there is a single column of content that is the perfect width for a smartphone, the botched banner means the user has to scroll left and right to manually align the content in the centre of the screen. 

                      

Mr Porter

Mr Porter suffers from the same usability problem as Nordstrom. The messages are only partly optimised for the mobile screen, with certain aspects causing the user to have to scroll left and right.

To use this newsletter as an example, the image of Ethan Hawke renders perfectly but then displaying four clothing items side-by-side is clearly too wide for a smartphone screen.

                      

On the plus side, the CTAs on the banners tend to be simple and large enough to click without accidentally pressing something else.

American Apparel

Though American Apparel’s emails render perfectly on a mobile screen without any need for swiping left or right, the design itself could be greatly improved.

In these examples the main promotions jumps out (‘15% off’ and ‘Halloween photo contest’) however everything else is quite small and difficult to read.

Similarly, there are no obvious calls-to-action. The user is supposed to just click on the image, which then links to a desktop site…