H2 2025 Benchmarks Reveal Highest Response Rate

H2 2025 Benchmarks Reveal Post-Handover Emails Have The Highest Response Rates

Published: January 2026

Proactive digital communications sent immediately after the handover of a newly purchased vehicle have the highest response and engagement rates of all messages issued to customers and prospects, according to our new analysis.

We analysed around 4.5 million messages sent by over 500 franchised retail businesses in the UK during the second half of 2025. Those email messages that were sent post-handover to capture reviews and introduce the aftersales department saw a remarkable average 80% open rate and a 19% click-through rate.

The next most effective in H2 2025 were those emails issued to customers approaching the end of their finance term, which saw a 63% open rate, up 12% from the first half of 2025.

Sales-related messages sent in H2 2025 saw their engagement rates rise, up 3% on H1, with enquiry follow-up emails achieving an average open rate of 65% and click-through rate of 16%. Our StockAlerts communications, which share details of vehicles similar to those that the customer enquired about, saw an average open rate of 52% and a click-through rate of 38%, further demonstrating the power of having ready access to accurate data and an automated contact plan.

“Creating relevant and personalised touchpoints throughout the purchase and ownership cycle is an effective way to build long-term loyalty and drive aftersales revenues. Data cleansing and automation can take much of the burden of doing this at scale, with minimal strain on the sales and aftersales teams.

It is imperative, however, that retail teams record and keep up-to-date data. From our analysis, we found that 9% of customer records did not have an email address logged, and 7% did not have a mobile number included in the record. By improving these numbers, positive outcomes could be increased further.”

Charlotte Murray, Managing Director, Marketing Delivery

Our AI-driven messages automate the process of notifying sales prospects and aftersales customers. VoiceBox can integrate with the retailer’s DMS to send hyper-targeted email communications at relevant points in the purchase and ownership cycles. Retailers implementing these automated communications can increase the scale and effectiveness of customer outreach while reducing administrative strain for the sales and aftersales departments.

Enhanced CRM email open rates and click-through rates for UK car, van, and motorcycle retailers

Message	Objective	Ave Open Rate	Ave Click Rate	Hard Bounce	Unsubscribe Rate
Enquiry Follow Up	Nurture active leads	65%	16%	1%	1%
Stock Alerts	Engage open enquiries with new or reduced stock	52%	38%	0%	0%
Appointment Confirmation & Reminders	Improve kept appointments	76%	10%	0%	0%
Lost Sale Follow Up	Capture business insight and re-engage unconverted leads	58%	18%	2%	1%
Post Delivery	Capture reviews and introduce aftersales	80%	19%	0%	0%
Motability Messages	Bespoke customer journey for Motability customers	60%	24%	1%	0%
Service and MOT reminders	Re-engage customers and keep workshop front of mind	56%	14%	1%	1%
End-of-term finance renewals	Warm up existing customers to aid sales retention	63%	16%	1%	0%

Marketing Delivery builds customer marketing solutions exclusively for the automotive sector, with AI-driven, dynamic, and personalised email, SMS, and social media communications. Our nationwide team of automotive experts boasts 300+ years of combined industry experience, providing solutions to 500+ retailer clients.

If you’re looking to enhance your CRM, contact us today.

Disclaimers

The accuracy of email open rates may be impacted by Apple’s privacy changes and their Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) feature, and this should be considered as you interpret open rate data. The data provided on this page is an average of all emails sent between 1 January 2025 and 30 June 2025 and may vary from email marketing benchmarks data provided within the VoiceBox application.

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