eCommerce marketers in India use only 20 percent of best performing emojis: Report

CleverTap launched the eCommerce edition of its Art of Emoji Report, with a view to demonstrate which emojis are the most common, which ones work best, and which to avoid. Since inception in 1998, emojis have been a very effective medium of communicating tone, subtext, irony, among other things plain text cannot. According to the Emojipedia Annual Report 2023, there was a remarkable 77% YoY surge in emoji usage.

Today, brands have discovered the immense value in emojis, with 60% of global push notifications containing them. The CleverTap Art of Emoji report found that notifications containing emojis drive a staggering 12% higher click-through rate compared to those without. Therefore, brands see them as a persuasive and accessible tool to build more meaningful connections with their customers.

CleverTap analyzed 10 billion data points across 40 million push notifications sent by eCommerce platforms globally, to understand customer preferences, the impact of emojis, and how marketers are using them. It found that regardless of region, eCommerce brands incorporate only 20% of the best-performing emojis in their messages; while in some regions, up to 30% of the most used emojis are underperformers.

To help marketers better engage customers via emojis, the report breaks down the performance of various emojis by region—outlining the most commonly used ones, the best-performing ones, and the ones to avoid. Below are a few examples from within the report:

From a quirky novelty to a mainstay on any device, emojis have come such a long way. They have ingrained themselves into the fabric of modern communication and helped us convey so much more than if we were only limited to text.

“Emojis are a potent tool at the disposal of any marketer that, when used well, can instantly make a message feel alive. But, just like personal communications, using it anywhere and everywhere would disorient the recipient.” said Jacob Joseph, VP – Data Science, CleverTap. “Marketers must experiment with various emojis, see what works best for their target audience, but use it only when it’s contextually relevant. Else it may lose its potency. Remember, you want to keep things fresh, relatable and most importantly, culturally sensitive when it comes to deploying such a persuasive tool within your marketing toolbox.”

Speaking on the future of emojis in customer engagement, Jacob added, “With advancements within MarTech, brands will be able to hyper-personalize this experience by honing in on which emojis work best with individual users. Eventually, emojis will be dynamically adjustable based on the sentiment and context of the conversation, thus enhancing the emotional depth of communication. Alongside, more ubiquitous integrations of emojis with AR/VR (such as Apple Animojis) will allow customers to express themselves more vividly within immersive environments. It could redefine the way customers interact with products and services, enhancing their overall shopping experiences.”