Experian Marketing Services has released its 2014 Q3 Email Benchmark Report finding that both mobile device usage and email engagement increased and that 53% of emails were opened on a mobile or tablet device during the quarter.

Here’s a look at opens and clicks by platform across various categories:

The report also finds that email volume rose by 17.1% year-over-year, while unique open rates were up at 16.7% compared to 16.2% in 2013. Unique click rates were 2.1%, down slightly from 2.3% in Q3 2013. Revenue per email was $0.08, which is the same as the year prior.

“With the increase in alternate channels such as social media, many may think that email is no longer a valuable way to create engagement with consumers,” says Experian’s Emma Yousif. “On the contrary, email marketing is still one of the most effective tools for marketers — especially when it is paired with mobile.”

Indeed, this was further proven by another report from Custora we just covered, which looked at ecommerce trends throughout the holiday season. This one found that during Thanksgiving weekend (the five days from Thanks-giving to Cyber Monday, including Black Friday), email was “by far” the primary marketing channel driving e-commerce orders, and that Black Friday and Cyber Monday were the top two shopping days.

Epsilon reported earlier this month that open rates were up 6.5% year-over-year (also finding click rates to be slightly down), and that this was largely due to mobile device usage.

“Because people are so connected with their devices today, it only makes sense that they would want to use their mobiles and tablets to check their emails in real time,” says Shelley Kessler, Manager, Reporting and Analytics, Experian Marketing Services. “This is why it is so important for marketers to adopt mobile optimization into their marketing plans. Without it, their overall engagement and click rates will significantly drop and they may ultimately lose their audience.”

On that note, you may want to consider what you should be avoiding in your campaigns. The Relevancy Group recently gave us a glimpse of what things people don’t like about getting email messages on their phones:

Read this for some thoughts from various experts on optimizing email campaigns for mobile.

Images via Experian, The Relevancy Group