Should e-commerce stores implement an email sunset policy for inactive customers?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 17 Jul 2025
Updated 16 Aug 2025
7 min read
For e-commerce stores, the question of whether to implement an email sunset policy for inactive customers is a critical one, directly impacting deliverability and marketing efficiency. Sending emails to disengaged subscribers can seem harmless, but it can significantly damage your sender reputation and inflate marketing costs. A well-defined sunset policy allows you to nurture engaged customers while strategically managing those who no longer interact with your brand, ensuring your messages land where they matter most: the inbox.
Ignoring inactive customers can lead to lower open rates, higher spam complaint rates, and ultimately, your emails being routed to the spam folder, even for active subscribers. It's not just about saving money on your email service provider (ESP) bill, but about maintaining a healthy and responsive email list that yields better returns on your marketing investment. Many e-commerce businesses grapple with this balance, aiming to re-engage potential customers without harming their overall email program.
When customers stop opening, clicking, or making purchases, they become inactive. Continuing to email them contributes to a declining engagement rate, which email service providers (ISPs) like Gmail and Yahoo interpret as a sign of poor sender reputation. This can lead to your legitimate emails being marked as spam or blocked entirely, affecting your entire list's deliverability, not just the inactive segments. The risk of sending to inactive users can be substantial.
Beyond deliverability, there's a cost implication. Most email marketing platforms charge based on the number of subscribers you have. Sending emails to addresses that aren't engaging is essentially throwing money away. It also skews your analytics, making it difficult to accurately assess campaign performance and identify what resonates with your active audience. This creates a misleading picture of your overall marketing effectiveness.
Furthermore, inactive subscribers can act as spam traps. These are old, abandoned email addresses that ISPs convert into traps to catch senders with poor list hygiene. Hitting a spam trap can immediately land your domain or IP on a blacklist (or blocklist), leading to severe deliverability issues across the board. Prevention is key here, as recovery from a blocklist can be a lengthy process.
Risks of emailing inactive subscribers
Poor sender reputation: ISPs monitor engagement rates. Low engagement signals that your emails aren't valued, leading to more messages being sent to spam.
Increased spam complaints: Disinterested recipients are more likely to mark your emails as spam, which further harms your reputation.
Higher costs: You pay for every subscriber, active or not. Inactive users inflate your bill without contributing to revenue.
Spam trap hits: Old, unused email addresses can become spam traps, leading to instant blacklisting.
What is an email sunset policy?
An email sunset policy is a structured approach to managing inactive subscribers. It involves defining criteria for inactivity, attempting to re-engage these segments, and, if those efforts fail, removing them from your regular sending list. This doesn't necessarily mean deleting their customer accounts or completely cutting ties, but rather stopping promotional email communication to them.
The primary goal is to maintain a high-quality email list, which directly correlates with better deliverability. By focusing your sending efforts on engaged subscribers, you signal to ISPs that your content is relevant and desired. This improved engagement helps keep your emails in the inbox and out of the spam folder, maximizing the return on your email marketing campaigns.
For e-commerce, a sunset policy is particularly crucial. Transactional emails, like order confirmations or shipping updates, would still be sent to all customers regardless of their activity, as these are expected and important communications. The policy specifically targets marketing and promotional emails, ensuring you're not annoying potential customers who have clearly disengaged. This differentiation is key to a balanced strategy.
Before sunset policy
Undifferentiated sending: All subscribers, active or inactive, receive the same promotional emails.
Inflated list size: Many inactive contacts remain on the primary mailing list, increasing ESP costs.
Skewed metrics: Open rates and click-through rates are artificially lowered due to unengaged recipients.
After sunset policy
Segmented communication: Active and inactive subscribers are managed differently.
Optimized list size: Inactive contacts are suppressed or removed, reducing costs and improving list hygiene.
Protected reputation: Focusing on engagement boosts deliverability and protects your sender score.
Accurate reporting: Metrics reflect true engagement, allowing for better strategic decisions.
Implementing a sunset policy in e-commerce
Implementing a sunset policy involves several steps, starting with defining what inactive means for your e-commerce business. This definition should consider factors like last purchase date, last email open, or last website visit. A common threshold for e-commerce is 6 to 12 months without engagement. Some suggest longer for high-value, infrequent purchases like cars.
Before outright removing customers, it's advisable to implement a re-engagement campaign. This typically involves a series of emails designed to win back their interest, perhaps with special offers, surveys for feedback, or highlights of new products. The goal is to prompt a positive interaction, which can then pull them back into your active segment.
If reactivation efforts fail, these subscribers should be moved to a suppressed list, meaning they no longer receive regular promotional emails. This keeps their data available for other marketing channels, like SMS or direct mail, or for potential future re-entry if they show activity elsewhere, such as logging into their account. It is crucial to have a clear plan for how long to keep inactive email addresses.
Sample inactivity definition for e-commerce
An email subscriber is considered inactive if they have met ANY of the following conditions for a period of 12 months:
Inactivity Criteria
- No email opens or clicks from promotional campaigns.
- No website logins to their customer account.
- No purchases or transactions recorded.
- No interactions with re-engagement campaigns.
Benefits and considerations for e-commerce
The benefits of a sunset policy for e-commerce are numerous. First, it significantly improves your email deliverability. By removing unengaged contacts, your open and click rates naturally increase, signaling to ISPs that your emails are valuable and should be delivered to the inbox. This also helps you avoid blocklists and mitigates the impact of spam traps.
Secondly, it optimizes your marketing spend. You'll only be paying for active, engaged subscribers, leading to a more efficient budget allocation. This allows you to invest more in strategies that genuinely drive sales and customer loyalty. It also provides clearer data for better strategic planning.
However, consider the nature of your e-commerce business. For seasonal products, a longer inactivity period might be appropriate. For example, a customer might only purchase holiday decorations once a year. A sunset policy needs to be flexible enough to account for these cyclical purchasing behaviors. If your business has a seasonal model, you need a different strategy for reducing inactive contacts.
Finally, having a plan for re-engaging unengaged subscribers who show signs of renewed interest (e.g., logging back into their account) is vital. You might not want to immediately reincorporate them into your general promotional cadence but rather put them on a tailored, less frequent communication path to slowly build back engagement.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Implement a tiered re-engagement strategy before fully sunsetting subscribers.
Define clear criteria for inactivity based on your specific e-commerce customer journey.
Continuously monitor engagement metrics to identify declining activity early on.
Ensure transactional emails are separate from promotional ones when applying the policy.
Common pitfalls
Deleting inactive subscribers outright without attempting re-engagement first.
Using a one-size-fits-all inactivity period for all customer types or product lines.
Failing to monitor for renewed activity from suppressed subscribers.
Ignoring the impact of inactive users on overall sender reputation and deliverability.
Expert tips
Consider leveraging other channels like SMS or phone calls for re-engagement if email fails.
When re-engaging, offer incentives like coupons or exclusive content to entice interaction.
If a customer re-engages, slowly reintroduce them to your main email cadence with customized content.
Analyze purchase history versus email activity to understand complex customer behaviors.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says: You should stop sending blindly to people who do not react, but consider that personal data storage must also be limited in time, potentially requiring deletion after a common limit like three years, depending on GDPR requirements.
2022-01-01 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says: If you have a seasonal business model, it is beneficial to analyze data concerning customer purchases versus their last activity to inform your sunset policy.
2022-01-01 - Email Geeks
Optimizing your e-commerce email strategy
For e-commerce stores, implementing an email sunset policy for inactive customers is not just recommended, it's essential for long-term email marketing success. It’s a proactive measure to protect your sender reputation, optimize your marketing budget, and ensure your messages consistently reach engaged customers. While it requires careful planning, especially regarding re-engagement strategies and defining inactivity, the benefits far outweigh the perceived loss of list size.
By focusing on quality over quantity, e-commerce brands can foster stronger customer relationships and drive more meaningful interactions, leading to improved sales and brand loyalty. Regularly cleaning your list and strategically re-engaging or sunsetting inactive profiles is a cornerstone of robust email deliverability.
