How retail brands use BIMI to drive higher email open rates

Your customer’s inbox is packed with 50+ promotional emails from Black Friday sales, holiday deals, and end-of-year clearances. Your well-written email about that amazing winter collection is crammed right between messages from Amazon, Target, and every other retailer on the planet. 

How do you get them to pick yours?

Traditional email marketing tactics like clever subject lines and perfect send times only get you so far when everyone’s fighting for the same attention. What if there was a way to make your emails recognizable before customers even read the subject line?

Well, that’s where BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) can help. It’s an email authentication standard that puts your logo directly next to your message in the inbox. Most retail brands are still figuring out basic email authentication, but the ambitious ones are using BIMI to stand out, build customer trust, and drive higher email open rates.

Here’s how you can join them. 

The retail email engagement problem

The average email open rate across retail sits around 35%, which means roughly 3 out of every 10 emails you send are getting ignored. Honestly, that’s not too bad, but it’s an average (which means some will be much higher and others much lower). Other sources see retail open rates as low as 17%.

So, how do you make sure you’re on the upper-end of that open rate? It starts with recognition.

The problem is that customers can’t tell the difference between your legitimate marketing emails and the dozens of other messages filling their inboxes. Between promotional emails, newsletters, shipping notifications, and yes, phishing attempts that look suspiciously like retail communications, inboxes have become digital chaos.

Customers have developed what we might call email fatigue. They scan subject lines in milliseconds, making split-second decisions about what deserves their attention. Without clear visual cues that immediately identify your brand as trustworthy and legitimate, your emails get lumped in with everything else competing for attention.

The trust problem runs deeper than just getting opened. Retail brands are frequently targeted by cybercriminals who create fake emails that look exactly like legitimate shipping notifications, order confirmations, or promotional offers. When customers can’t easily distinguish between real and fake emails from retail brands, they become more cautious about engaging with any retail emails at all.

This creates a vicious cycle: the more skeptical customers become about retail emails in general, the harder it becomes for legitimate retailers to build the trust needed for engagement.

What is BIMI (and how does it work)?

BIMI is an email authentication standard that shows your company logo directly in the recipient’s inbox right next to your message. It’s the equivalent of a verified checkmark for your brand, but instead of just a blue tick, customers see your actual logo.

BIMI builds on top of DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance), which is already protecting your domain from spoofing attacks. Once you’ve reached DMARC enforcement, you can implement BIMI by publishing a special DNS record that points to your logo and (in some cases) a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) that proves you own the trademark.

When you send an email, email providers like Gmail, Yahoo, and Apple Mail check your BIMI record and display your logo alongside the message. It’s automatic authentication that happens behind the scenes to give customers visual confirmation that your email is legitimate.

Recipients don’t need to do anything special. They just see your logo appear next to emails from your domain.

Is your domain ready for BIMI? Use the free Valimail BIMI checker to instantly get your domain’s BIMI readiness:

5 ways BIMI helps retail email marketing

BIMI addresses the core challenges retail marketers face every day. Here’s how a verified logo can improve your email marketing campaigns (and open rates):

1. Visual brand recognition in crowded inboxes: Your logo becomes an instant identifier that cuts through inbox clutter. Customers can spot your emails at a glance, even when scanning quickly through dozens of messages. This visual recognition works faster than reading subject lines and creates immediate brand recall.
2. Higher open rates through trust signals: Emails with BIMI logos see open rate increases of up to 20%. Customers are more likely to open emails when they can instantly verify the sender’s legitimacy, especially important for retail brands that send frequent promotional content.
3. Protection against brand impersonation: BIMI helps customers distinguish your real emails from phishing attempts that spoof retail brands. When customers see your verified logo, they know the email actually came from you.
4. Improved customer confidence in transactions: Order confirmations, shipping notifications, and payment receipts carry more weight when they include your verified logo. Customers feel more confident clicking through to track packages or update account information when they can confirm the email’s authenticity.
5. Competitive differentiation: Most retail brands haven’t implemented BIMI yet, and that means early adopters have a major visual advantage. Your emails stand out not just because of the logo, but because you’re showing a higher level of email security and professionalism that competitors haven’t matched.

Ultimately, better recognition leads to higher engagement, higher engagement improves your sender reputation, and improved sender reputation leads to better inbox placement for future campaigns.

Want to see how your retail competitors are utilizing BIMI and get real-data insights into how impactful it could be for your brand? Use Valimail’s free BIMI Simulator to get unique insights for your brand.

BIMI best practices for retailers

BIMI is easy to implement (especially if you use a service like Valimail), but it’s more than just uploading your logo and hoping for the best. Here’s how to maximize your logo’s impact:

• Design your logo for email inbox display: Your logo needs to work at tiny sizes and on both light and dark backgrounds. Stick to simple, high-contrast designs that are recognizable when displayed at roughly 40×40 pixels (that’s harder than you think). Avoid detailed text or complex graphics that become unreadable at small sizes. Square logos work better than rectangular ones since most email clients display BIMI logos in square format.
• Maintain consistent branding across all email types: Use the same logo for promotional emails, transactional messages, and customer service communications. Consistency helps customers recognize all emails from your brand, whether it’s a sale announcement or a shipping confirmation. Different logos for different email types can confuse customers and reduce the trust-building benefits of BIMI.
• Handle multiple brands and product lines strategically: If you operate multiple retail brands, implement BIMI for each brand’s domain separately rather than trying to use one master logo. Customers shopping for outdoor gear from your sporting goods brand shouldn’t see your luxury fashion logo. Each brand deserves its own visual identity in the inbox.
• Plan for seasonal campaigns and logo variations: While you want consistency, you can create seasonal variations of your logo for holiday campaigns—just make sure they’re still clearly recognizable as your brand. Test seasonal logos with a small segment before rolling them out broadly to guarantee they don’t hurt recognition or engagement.
• Monitor performance and iterate: Track how BIMI affects your open rates, click-through rates, and overall engagement across different customer segments. Some audiences might respond better to logo variations, and you’ll want data to guide future decisions about logo design and implementation.

How to get started with BIMI for retail email marketing

Fortunately, getting BIMI up and running isn’t as complicated as it might sound, but there are some steps you’ll need to follow to make sure everything works correctly.

Step 1: Achieve DMARC enforcement first: BIMI only works when your domain has DMARC set to “quarantine” or “reject” policy. If you’re still at p=none, you’ll need to reach enforcement before BIMI becomes available. Use our retail email risk assessment to determine how difficult it will be to reach DMARC enforcement.

Step 2: Prepare your logo: Create a square SVG version of your logo that looks crisp at small sizes. Your logo file needs to be hosted on a secure server (HTTPS) that email providers can access to display it.

Step 3: Get a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) or a Common Mark Certificate (CMC): Most major email providers require a VMC to display your logo. This certificate proves you own the trademark for your logo and adds an extra layer of verification.

Step 4: Publish your BIMI record: Add a BIMI record to your DNS that points email providers to your logo file and VMC.

And then there’s the easier way: Valimail Amplify. Rather than managing all these technical details yourself, Valimail Amplify automates the entire BIMI process. We handle the VMC acquisition, DNS configuration, and ongoing management, so you can get your logo in customers’ inboxes faster without the technical headaches.

Real-world BIMI success in retail

Retail brands across industries are already seeing the benefits of BIMI implementation. Companies like Mercedes-Benz, AMD, Suzuki, and Zwilling have implemented BIMI to strengthen their email authentication and improve customer recognition in crowded inboxes.

The 40% growth in retail BIMI adoption over 2024 (yes, a single year) shows that forward-thinking brands understand the competitive advantage of visual email authentication. Early adopters are building stronger customer relationships while their competitors are still sending generic-looking emails that get lost in the noise.

These brands aren’t just adding logos for aesthetics, either. They’re using BIMI as part of a comprehensive email security strategy that protects customers from impersonation attacks while improving engagement rates.

It’s a win-win for everyone.

Don’t let your emails get lost in the shuffle

Your retail emails are either going to stand out or get swallowed up by the inbox abyss. There’s really no middle ground anymore. BIMI gives you the recognition factor that cuts through all the noise and makes customers feel confident about opening your messages.

The brands that figure this out first are going to have a massive head start while everyone else is still sending anonymous-looking emails that customers scroll right past. You ultimately get higher open rates, fewer customers falling for fake emails using your brand name, and that satisfying feeling of knowing your emails actually look professional.

Don’t overthink it. Check where your domain stands with Valimail Monitor, and if you want to skip the technical headaches, Valimail Amplify will get your logo showing up in inboxes without you having to become a DNS professional. 

Your customers want to see that familiar logo. Give them what they’re looking for.