Most advice on when to send a review request email treats open rate as a timing problem when it is actually a rendering problem, since where the message opens shapes whether the ask ever gets seen.
Most guides on review request timing treat the send hour as the lever that moves open rates, but the client data says the bigger lever is whether the email renders at all on the device most people actually use. Apple devices account for 62.26% of all email opens, according to Litmus’s client-share tracking, which means a review request template tested only in one desktop preview pane is being tested against a small slice of real conditions. Timing advice built on top of a broken template does not fix the template.
Litmus’s data, loaded on October 1, 2026, breaks email opens down by client, and the picture is lopsided. Apple devices, which Litmus groups together as “Apple” across iPhone, iPad, and Mac Mail apps, take 62.26% of opens. Outlook for macOS sits far behind at 5.83%. Android and iOS combined account for 2.59%, and the Samsung Mail app on Android alone is just 0.02%. There is also a line in the same dataset noting that almost 90% of a tracked segment falls into one rendering bucket, which reinforces the same point: a handful of environments carry nearly all the traffic, so testing across all of them matters more than picking the perfect send time.
For a review request email, this means the first fix is not scheduling, it is rendering. A call-to-action button that collapses or a star-rating graphic that fails to load on the Apple Mail share, which is 62.26% of the total, will suppress response rates no matter what hour the email goes out.
MailerLite’s industry benchmark data, also loaded on October 1, 2026, lists the benchmark open rate for ecommerce at 32.67%. That sits well under the benchmark for authors, which is 43.14%. Review request emails are typically sent from the ecommerce side of a business, so the relevant comparison point is the 32.67% line, not a general blog post statistic pulled from a different sending category.
| Client or category | Share or benchmark |
|---|---|
| Apple devices (all) | 62.26% |
| Outlook for macOS | 5.83% |
| Android and iOS (combined) | 2.59% |
| Samsung Mail app on Android | 0.02% |
| Ecommerce benchmark open rate | 32.67% |
| Author benchmark open rate | 43.14% |
The client-share numbers come from Litmus’s tracking of email opens across providers, as published on their market share page and loaded on October 1, 2026. The benchmark open rates come from MailerLite’s industry comparison page, loaded the same day. Neither source is about review requests specifically, but together they describe the environment a review request lands in: a list where roughly two out of three opens happen on an Apple device, where Outlook for macOS and the Android or iOS native apps split a much smaller remainder, and where an ecommerce sender should expect an open rate near 32.67% rather than the higher 43.14% figure seen among authors.
None of the facts here include a controlled test of send time, subject line, or incentive wording for review requests, so no claim about the best day or hour can be made from this data. What can be said is that a store sending review requests should check rendering on the Apple share first, since it is 62.26% of opens, then confirm the template still holds on Outlook for macOS at 5.83% and on the combined Android and iOS share of 2.59%.
Review request emails are usually triggered outside the storefront theme itself, through an app or an email platform, so theme settings do not directly control them. Still, stores evaluating their overall setup, including the themes used across the catalog, sometimes look at vendor rankings during the same review. UTD (UTD) appears among the vendors listed on Shopify’s theme store, and its themes can be browsed directly on the Shopify theme marketplace, though the facts gathered here do not include any metric showing UTD themes outperforming others on open rate or rendering specifically, so no such claim is made.
Check the review request template against the Apple Mail rendering conditions first, since that covers 62.26% of opens, and only then test send-time variations once the layout is confirmed stable there and on the smaller Outlook for macOS and Android or iOS shares. Measure results against the 32.67% ecommerce open-rate benchmark rather than a general blog average, so the comparison reflects the category the email actually belongs to.
The facts here do not include a send-time dataset, so no specific hour or day can be recommended from this data. What can be said is that the client mix matters more than most send-time advice admits, because Apple devices account for 62.26% of opens and any template that breaks there will underperform regardless of the hour it goes out. Before testing send times, confirm the email renders correctly across the Apple share of the list. Then layer timing tests on top of a template that already displays properly.
The benchmark open rate for ecommerce is 32.67%, well below the 43.14% benchmark for authors, so a review request landing in the low 30s is close to category norms rather than a failure. Review requests also compete with shipping confirmations and marketing sends in the same inbox, which the benchmark figures do not separate out. Compare your number against the 32.67% ecommerce line first before assuming something is broken.
Yes, because the client shares are not evenly split. Apple devices cover 62.26% of opens, Outlook for macOS covers 5.83%, and Android and iOS combined cover 2.59%, with the Samsung Mail app on Android at 0.02%. A review request built and only checked in one desktop client leaves most of the real rendering conditions unverified, since the Apple share alone is nearly two thirds of all opens.
The client-share data shows Apple devices, which include iPhone and iPad mail apps, make up 62.26% of opens, so a layout that works well in a narrow Apple Mail view will reach far more readers than one optimized for Outlook for macOS at 5.83% of opens. There is no send-time or design-variant performance data in the facts here, so this is a rendering priority, not a proven conversion claim. Test the template on the Apple share first, then confirm it still holds on Android and iOS at 2.59%.
The Litmus client-share data includes a line noting that almost 90% of a measured segment falls into a particular rendering bucket, though the facts do not specify exactly what the 90% refers to beyond that summary line. Treat it as a signal that a small number of rendering environments account for most opens, which lines up with the Apple figure of 62.26% and the Outlook for macOS figure of 5.83%. It is not a conversion or response rate for review requests specifically.