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Stay ahead of Gmail and Yahoo email inbox updates. Learn how engagement-based sorting and new unsubscribe rules impact you.
Have you noticed your marketing emails aren’t landing where they used to? Maybe your promotions aren’t getting the same clicks, or open rates are slowly dipping.
You’re not alone.
Gmail and Yahoo are rolling out major email inbox updates that change how messages are sorted, seen, and engaged with, and that means retailers need to adapt their approach fast.
Instead of showing emails in simple chronological order, some inboxes are now guided by engagement. The more your customers open, click, and interact with your messages, the higher you’ll appear in their Promotions tab. Those who don’t? Your emails might quietly slide down the list.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through the key email inbox changes affecting placement and engagement in 2025 and the year to follow, and what they mean for your email marketing strategy. Here’s what we will cover:
Inbox Placement Now Depends on Engagement
If you’ve noticed your marketing emails slipping lower in Gmail or Yahoo’s Promotions tab lately, it’s not your imagination. Both inbox providers are moving away from the old “Most Recent” sorting system and shifting to “Most Relevant.” Instead of simply showing the newest emails first, inboxes now prioritize messages based on how much people interact with them—opens, clicks, replies, and even time spent reading.
This change started testing in late 2024 and continued expanding through mid-2025. In other words, the inbox is starting to act more like a social media feed. The more your customers engage with your emails, the higher your messages appear. If engagement is low, your campaigns could quietly drift down the list, even if you sent them just a few minutes ago.
For retailers, this inbox email update prioritizes quality and relevance. And here are four things you can do to stay visible:
Pro Tip:
Calls-to-action don’t have to be dramatic to get clicks. Test minor tweaks that feel conversational and familiar to your audience. If your readers usually click “Shop Now,” try softer variants like “See What’s New” or “Check Out This Week’s Picks.” Subtle changes like these can lift click-through rates and help keep your messages near the top of the inbox where they belong.
Gmail “Nudges” and the Rise of the Purchases Tab
If the first inbox update was about who gets seen, this one’s about when. Gmail has started quietly reordering certain promotional emails to the top of the Promotions or new Purchases tab when they contain time-sensitive offers. This “nudge” system uses AI to detect real dates and deadlines, so if your subject line says “Sale ends Friday,” Gmail might automatically surface that message just when the shopper is most likely to act.
The rollout began in late 2024 and progressed throughout 2025. Retailers don’t need any special code or schema markup to benefit. Gmail’s models are smart enough to understand natural, date-based language, but vague urgency phrases like “limited time only” or “ending soon” won’t trigger the same visibility.
Here’s what retailers can do to align with this change:
Manage Subscriptions View and Unsubscribe Changes
The next wave of inbox updates puts more control directly in the hands of subscribers. Gmail’s new “Manage Subscriptions” dashboard lists every brand a user receives emails from, along with how often they send them. From there, people can unsubscribe or adjust preferences in just a couple of clicks.
This update started rolling out in late 2024 and continued through 2025. It’s designed to make inbox management easier for users, but it also means retailers need to be thoughtful about their frequency and content. If your brand emails too often or sends messages that don’t add value, it’s easier than ever for subscribers to opt out quietly.
But here’s what retailers can do to stay on the right side of this change:
Pro Tip:
If someone does unsubscribe, that doesn’t have to be the end of the story. With Celerant’s Customer Engagement Suite, you can automate a gentle re-engagement workflow, something as simple as a “We’ll miss you” message with options to reduce frequency or receive product alerts instead. A small gesture like this often brings shoppers back without feeling intrusive.
Expert Insights from Celerant’s Email Marketing Specialist, Carley Tupper
With all these email inbox updates rolling out, we asked Celerant’s Email Marketing Specialist, Carley Tupper, what still matters most for retailers trying to stay visible in Gmail and Yahoo inboxes. Her answer was simple -the fundamentals haven’t changed. Engagement is still everything.
Here are Carley’s recommended best practices that continue to drive results no matter how often inbox algorithms shift:
Pro Tip from Carley:
Before you send any campaign, always preview it on both desktop and mobile. You’d be surprised how often good emails lose engagement simply because the layout doesn’t load right or the text is too small to read. A quick check can make the difference between a click and an unsubscribe.
Want to Stay Visible in the New Inbox? Try the Customer Engagement Suite
Inbox visibility now is only earned through consistent and meaningful engagement. With Gmail and Yahoo changing how promotions appear, the best time to adapt your email marketing strategy is now, not after open rates start to dip.
Retailers who focus on sending relevant, well-timed, and visually clean emails will see their messages stay near the top, where shoppers are most likely to engage. And the right tools make that easier to manage.
Celerant’s Customer Engagement Suite (CES) helps you create data-driven, compliant, and high-performing email campaigns, all connected directly to your retail data. From segmentation and automation to social and reputation management, everything you need to engage smarter is already built in.
Ready to stay visible in the new inbox?
