The Inbox Index
The table
Three dimensions, 0 to 4 each: Restraint (how much they send), Urgency (how often they tell you to hurry) and Sale permanence (whether the regular price is real). The grade is the Siftbox Score, out of 12.
| Brand | Welcome week | Restraint emails / week | Urgency deadlines / 30d | Sale permanence days on sale | Siftbox Score out of 12 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patagonia Apparel & Accessories | 1 | 0.6/wk | 0.4 | 3% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 2 | J.Crew Apparel & Accessories | 4 | 0.7/wk | 0.2 | 10% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 3 | Sonos Electronics | 2 | 1.4/wk | 0 | 9% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 4 | Zara Apparel & Accessories | 2 | 1.8/wk | 0 | 0% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 5 | HomeSense Home & Garden | 1 | 1.8/wk | 0 | 0% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 6 | Pet Valu Animals & Pet Supplies | 5 | 1.8/wk | 0 | 12% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 7 | WINNERS Department Stores | 1 | 1.9/wk | 0 | 4% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 8 | Bose Electronics | 3 | 2/wk | 0 | 14% | 11 Subscriber-first |
| 9 | Dyson Electronics | 2 | 1.3/wk | 0 | 15% | 10 Attention-first |
| 10 | Sobeys Food, Beverages & Tobacco | 3 | 1.7/wk | 0.5 | 8% | 10 Attention-first |
| 11 | Columbia Sportswear Apparel & Accessories | 5 | 2.2/wk | 0.2 | 4% | 10 Attention-first |
| 12 | Article Home & Garden | 3 | 2.2/wk | 1.9 | 11% | 9 Attention-first |
| 13 | Under Armour Apparel & Accessories | 2 | 2.4/wk | 1.3 | 10% | 9 Attention-first |
| 14 | Dynamite Apparel & Accessories | 7 | 4.3/wk | 0.4 | 3% | 9 Attention-first |
| 15 | Simons Apparel & Accessories | 7 | 5.2/wk | 0.9 | 11% | 9 Attention-first |
| 16 | Home Hardware Hardware | 3 | 2.4/wk | 0.8 | 34% | 8 Compliance-first |
| 17 | Home Depot Hardware | 4 | 3.1/wk | 1.7 | 21% | 7 Compliance-first |
| 18 | Rexall Drugstore Health & Beauty | 6 | 3.2/wk | 0.5 | 42% | 7 Compliance-first |
| 19 | Shoppers Drug Mart Health & Beauty | 4 | 3.4/wk | 2.8 | 22% | 7 Compliance-first |
| 20 | Glossier Health & Beauty | 11 | 3.8/wk | 1.7 | 25% | 7 Compliance-first |
| 21 | Canada Computers & Electronics Newsletter Electronics | 2 | 4.7/wk | 0.5 | 31% | 7 Compliance-first |
| 22 | Kotn Apparel & Accessories | 2 | 5/wk | 2.9 | 21% | 7 Compliance-first |
| 23 | Ren's Pets Animals & Pet Supplies | 3 | 3/wk | 1.5 | 42% | 6 Compliance-first |
| 24 | Sport Chek Sporting Goods | 6 | 3.6/wk | 2.1 | 41% | 6 Compliance-first |
| 25 | Gap Canada Apparel & Accessories | 8 | 4.6/wk | 0.5 | 61% | 6 Compliance-first |
| 26 | Old Navy Canada Apparel & Accessories | 9 | 5.7/wk | 0.7 | 71% | 6 Compliance-first |
| 27 | MEC Sporting Goods | 9 | 6.6/wk | 1.3 | 30% | 6 Compliance-first |
| 28 | Roots Apparel & Accessories | 5 | 4.5/wk | 0.8 | 76% | 5 Compliance-first |
| 29 | The Body Shop Health & Beauty | 9 | 5.7/wk | 2.5 | 66% | 5 Compliance-first |
| 30 | PUMA Apparel & Accessories | 8 | 6.2/wk | 0 | 83% | 5 Compliance-first |
| 31 | West Elm Home & Garden | 11 | 8.5/wk | 3 | 39% | 5 Compliance-first |
| 32 | RW & Co. Apparel & Accessories | 2 | 3.6/wk | 5.1 | 59% | 4 Volume-first |
| 33 | Best Buy Electronics | 6 | 4.3/wk | 4.3 | 54% | 4 Volume-first |
| 34 | Reitman Apparel & Accessories | 7 | 5.8/wk | 4.4 | 73% | 4 Volume-first |
| 35 | Mastermind Toys Toys & Games | 6 | 6/wk | 1.4 | 56% | 4 Volume-first |
| 36 | Leon's Furniture Furniture | 8 | 4.8/wk | 7.5 | 53% | 3 Volume-first |
| 37 | RONA Hardware | 6 | 6.4/wk | 3 | 85% | 3 Volume-first |
| 38 | UNIQLO Apparel & Accessories | 14 | 15.2/wk | 5.9 | 48% | 3 Volume-first |
| 39 | Gap Apparel & Accessories | 16 | 10.3/wk | 2.9 | 81% | 2 Volume-first |
| 40 | Bath & Body Works Canada Health & Beauty | 11 | 11.5/wk | 18.6 | 55% | 1 Volume-first |
| 41 | Crate & Barrel Home & Garden | 10 | 11.5/wk | 5.1 | 96% | 1 Volume-first |
| 42 | Wayfair Home & Garden | 15 | 12.2/wk | 3.8 | 84% | 1 Volume-first |
| 43 | CB2 Home & Garden | 12 | 10.8/wk | 7.6 | 100% | 0 Volume-first |
Welcome week counts the emails sent in the seven days after a subscription's first one — the burst the rate calculation sets aside, published rather than hidden. A ▲ marks a welcome week at least half again the edition median of 6. Emails per week is per subscriber, measured over days actually subscribed with the welcome week set aside.
The quiet tier
These brands sent too little mail for the full rubric, which is the point: requiring twelve emails before scoring would eject exactly the brands behaving best. They are scored on Restraint alone and graduate to the full table at twelve emails in a window.
| Brand | Welcome week | Emails | Restraint emails / week | Weeks observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hoka Apparel & Accessories | 2 | 1 | 0.2/wk | ~6 |
| Reebok Canada Apparel & Accessories | 3 | 3 | 0.3/wk | ~9 |
| Structube Furniture | 1 | 8 | 0.8/wk | ~10 |
| Arc'teryx Apparel & Accessories | 3 | 8 | 0.9/wk | ~9 |
| Air Transat Travel & Tourism | 1 | 9 | 0.9/wk | ~10 |
| A&W Canada Food, Beverages & Tobacco | 3 | 10 | 1.1/wk | ~9 |
| VIA Rail Travel & Tourism | 2 | 11 | 1.2/wk | ~9 |
| Amazon News Department Stores | 1 | 11 | 1.3/wk | ~9 |
How the index is made
Siftbox sells a solution to the problem this index measures.
The index is free, brands are never contacted before publication, and no brand is ever offered a way to change a score. Scores compare within an edition, not across editions: the Publisher Edition measures different dimensions on the same scale. Past editions are never restated.
The panel. Siftbox operates a panel of subscriber inboxes that sign up the way any customer would: an email form on the brand's own site, no account created, no terms assented to. Every claim traces to a specific email the panel received.
Eligibility. One uniform window for every brand. Restraint is scored from any live subscription with enough steady-state runway; the other two dimensions additionally require twelve received emails, since a thin sample genuinely misleads. Scoring begins seven days after each subscription's first email, so no brand is judged on its welcome series. A subscription that stops receiving mail partway through the quarter is scored up to its last email, so a sender that stopped writing is not mistaken for a restrained one.