What is Responsive email design?
Responsive email design is a way of building an email so its layout, text size and images adjust to the screen it is opened on, from a small phone to a wide desktop window.
Most ecommerce email is read on a phone, so the mobile view is the main view. Responsive builds typically use a single column that stacks on small screens, with larger text and buttons that are easy to tap.
Email apps support CSS unevenly, so a responsive layout is built defensively. Designers often use a fluid structure that still reads reasonably if media queries are ignored, rather than relying on one clever technique.
Test in real apps rather than only in a browser preview. Rendering differs between clients, and a layout that looks tidy in one can collapse in another.
A worked example.
A hypothetical shoe store sends a four-column product grid that looks fine on desktop but shrinks to tiny images on a phone. The team changes it to two columns on desktop and one on mobile, makes the buttons full width, and checks the result in several email apps before sending.
Common mistakes.
- Designing on desktop and only glancing at mobile at the end
- Using tiny text or links that are hard to tap
- Previewing in a single app and assuming every client will match
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