AI Gives Australian Marketers the Edge in the Holiday Shopping Rush, New Intuit Mailchimp Data Reveals
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Published on : Sep 25, 2026
Analysis of more than 44 billion emails and 83 million text messages globally reveals how intelligent marketing helps brands make the most of peak season, with targeted emails driving 11% higher average order value
Mailchimp’s Australian customers added 18.8 million new email contacts and 1.2 million SMS contacts during the 2025 peak season
Australian emails using generative AI recorded a 19% higher order rate and 21% higher conversion rate during peak season
First-time buyers dominated Black Friday and Cyber Monday, accounting for nearly 69% of email orders and more than 73% of SMS orders in Australia
The holiday season creates some of the biggest opportunities of the year for Australian businesses, as brands vie for attention across increasingly crowded inboxes and channels. A new report from Intuit Mailchimp, Breaking Through Peak Season Noise, shows how intelligent marketing, or using data with AI and automation, can help Australian businesses make more informed decisions about what opportunities to pursue.
Developed by Intuit Mailchimp and Datalily, the report analysed more than 44 billion emails and 83 million text messages sent globally with Mailchimp in 2025 during peak season, which spans Halloween through New Year’s Eve and includes some of the biggest shopping days of the year. During the period, Mailchimp’s Australian customers added 18.8 million email contacts and 1.2 million SMS contacts*. The findings reveal opportunities to engage customers throughout the season and help build relationships that extend beyond the holidays.
“Peak season is an opportunity to deepen customer connections,” says Jack Tam, SVP of Product and Engineering at Mailchimp. “The businesses that thrive use their own customer data to understand when people are ready to act, which messages matter, and where to focus next. This research helps marketers make those decisions with confidence and build customer relationships that endure long after the season ends.”
Intelligent marketing capitalises on peak season engagement
The research highlights how breaking through peak season noise comes down to making smarter choices around targeting, timing, and channel strategy, helping brands find an edge during the most competitive marketing season of the year.
- More targeted messages saw higher order values. During Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) weekend, Australian marketing emails using personalisation (dynamic content) drove 3% higher average order value than those that didn’t. Globally, campaigns using abandoned cart content blocks also saw 36% higher open rates and 28% higher click rates, showing the potential of using customer data and automation to reach shoppers with more relevant messages.
Australian travel company TravelOnline has seen the impact of a more targeted approach firsthand. After moving away from high-frequency, one-size-fits-all email campaigns and working with Mailchimp to segment customers based on engagement, the company recorded a 66% lift in open rates, 38% fewer unsubscribes and a 13% improvement in email ROI within two months. “The biggest shift for us has been moving away from using automation simply as a way to save time and towards making every customer interaction more relevant,” says Sheri Adamson, Marketing Manager at TravelOnline. “Instead of sending the same message to hundreds of thousands of people, we're sending fewer, more relevant communications based on how customers are interacting with our brand.”
- Email and SMS played different but complementary roles. Email sustained communication and drove more revenue overall, while SMS captured attention during high-intent, time-sensitive moments. At peak, SMS delivered up to 6x higher order rates than email and 3x higher revenue per message worldwide. Among Mailchimp customers using both channels during BFCM, SMS drove nearly 20% of their total combined ecommerce revenue.
- Generative AI emails saw stronger performance. During peak season, 450 million emails globally used generative AI. Emails in Australia using the feature saw a19% higher order rate and 21% higher conversion rate than those sent without it, pointing to the potential of AI to help marketers create content that performs.
- Lower-volume days revealed overlooked opportunities worldwide. Weekend order rates were 2x higher than weekday rates, even though brands sent roughly 60% fewer messages on weekends. Around BFCM, shoulder days also drove stronger engagement, while the Sunday between Black Friday and Cyber Monday saw 59% fewer emails and 82% fewer text messages than Black Friday.
Opportunities extend beyond the holidays
Mailchimp customers added more than 500 million contacts to their audiences during peak season. Email contact additions increased heading into Black Friday Cyber Monday weekend, while SMS opt-ins rose sharply immediately before Black Friday. First-time buyers represented 68.6% of email orders and 73.4% of SMS orders during BFCM in Australia.
Some of those first-time buyers returned after the holiday season. Among customers who made their first purchase during peak season, 16.6% globally purchased again in the first quarter of 2026. Those who returned took a median of 26 days to make their next purchase. The findings show why businesses should treat holiday acquisition as the start of the customer relationship and prepare retention campaigns before demand peaks to turn seasonal shoppers into longer-term customers.
Download Breaking Through Peak Season Noise for interactive charts, practical recommendations, and full methodology.
*Based on internal aggregate Mailchimp data in countries where SMS was available. Individual results vary.
About Intuit: Intuit is the global financial technology platform that powers prosperity for the people and communities we serve. With approximately 100 million customers worldwide using products such as TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, Mailchimp and Intuit Enterprise Suite, we believe that everyone should have the opportunity to prosper. We never stop working to find new, innovative ways to make that possible. Please visit Intuit.com and find us on social for the latest information about Intuit and our products and services.
Methodology: This report was created in collaboration with Datalily. Unless otherwise noted, metrics presented in this report are based on internal aggregate global data of active Mailchimp free and paid plan users evaluated across two primary observation windows: Peak Season 2025 (October 31, 2025, to December 31, 2025) and Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) 2025 (November 28, 2025, to December 1, 2025). All revenue, gross order value, Average Order Value (AOV), order rate, and conversion rate metrics apply specifically to Mailchimp users with a connected e-commerce store. Revenue metrics reflect gross e-commerce sales synced to Mailchimp and attributable to email and/or SMS campaigns (excluding orders synced via the QuickBooks integration). SMS metrics reflect markets where Mailchimp SMS was commercially available during the observation period. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Individual results and regional feature availability vary.
