A swipe file is the collection of other people's advertising you learn from. In email marketing it usually looks like this: take a screenshot, drop it in a folder, never find it again. The problem is not discipline, it is the format. An image stores what an email looked like. It does not store what it promised, on what condition, for how long, or whether the sender does this every week.
So we looked from a different angle. The basis is 2,014 newsletters sent by 252 German online shops between 10 August and 6 September 2026, four full weeks from Monday to Sunday. None of them sits in our panel as a screenshot. Each one is a set of attributes: mechanic, condition, run time, subject line, send time. Those records answer what a swipe file has to contain if you want answers out of it later. We do not name the shops. This is about the patterns, not about the senders.
One limit up front: we see what was sent, not how it performed. Opens, clicks and revenue of these shops are not available to us. Where we read something into the observation, we say so.
What four weeks add up to
Before the fields, the volume. It explains why folders of screenshots get abandoned.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Emails in the period | 2,014 |
| Shops | 252 |
| Emails per shop, median | 7 |
| Emails per shop, upper quartile | 11 |
| Most active shop | 47 |
| Shops sending eight or more | 109 |
| Shops sending two or fewer | 44 |
| Shops with no discount email at all | 13 % |
| Shops using a code at least once | 114 of 252 |
Twenty shops at the median of seven emails each puts 140 newsletters in your inbox per month. Filing only the promotional ones by hand is a standing calendar appointment before a single question is answered.
The way out is not collecting less, it is collecting differently. Four fields are enough, and the next four sections cover them with the panel numbers and three emails each.
Field 1: the mechanic
The most common swipe file mistake is sorting by percentage only. The 2,014 emails split into seven mechanics, and the discount email with a number is one of them.
| Mechanic | Share |
|---|---|
| Content, no promotion | 40 % |
| Discount without a code | 24 % |
| Discount with a code | 14 % |
| Discount phrased as "up to" | 12 % |
| Promotion without a percentage | 7 % |
| Free item or gift with purchase | 2 % |
| Fixed cash amount | 1 % |
A supplements brand, Tuesday 11 August, 1:34 a.m. Subject: "Warum die Leber im Sommer mehr braucht" (why the liver needs more in summer). A health topic, no number, no percent sign. Inside sits a buy-four-pay-for-two offer on one product, while stocks last. That is 50 percent in arithmetic, invisible in any discount statistic. 450 words, three buttons.
A furniture retailer, Tuesday 11 August, 4:24 p.m. The subject sells outdoor inspiration for families. The offer inside: two for the price of one, but only on Tuesdays in August, only on flagged articles, and only with the loyalty card. The window runs 31 days; the mechanic applies on four of them.
A secondhand fashion shop, Wednesday 12 August, 7:45 a.m. Subject: "Der Look, der nicht am Strand bleibt" (the look that does not stay at the beach). No discount, a price threshold instead: 72,000 items under 9.99 euros. Six buttons, 120 words.
How to read it: 45 percent of promotional emails name no percentage at all. A swipe file with one field called "discount in percent" loses almost half of your competitors' promotions, and systematically the more inventive half. Build a mechanic field instead, with these seven values.
Field 2: the condition
The field that goes missing most often, and the one that pays best. Across the panel, 12 percent of emails state a minimum order value: median 65 euros, lower quartile 45, upper quartile 129. Sixteen percent list exclusions. Among the 288 code emails: 34 percent carry a minimum order value, 58 percent an exclusion list.
A pet food retailer, Friday 28 August, 9:04 a.m. The subject advertises "bis zu 31 % Rabatt" (up to 31 % off) in the new leaflet. The code inside delivers 12 percent, on dry dog food only, from 59 euros, once per customer, for six days, with an exclusion list in the footer. Nineteen points sit between the number in the subject and the number you get.
A fashion marketplace, Saturday 29 August, 9:56 a.m. Subject: "20% auf Spätsommer-Highlights" (20% on late summer highlights). The code applies to flagged articles only, from 35 euros before the coupon is deducted, until 11:59 p.m. the next day, and redeemable up to three times, which turns a discount into an incentive to order three times in two days.
An online pharmacy, Sunday 6 September, 7:42 a.m. Subject: "Alles für Ihr Immunsystem" (everything for your immune system). Twenty percent with a code, but only from 199 euros, only on participating brands, only online and in the app, only when logged in, medicines excluded. Eight conditions for an email of 96 words. The threshold turns the discount into basket steering.
How to read it: codes discount more shallowly than open promotions in this panel. The median for code emails is 19 percent against 25 percent for discounts without a code. A code is rarely the more generous offer, it is the more controlled one. So the minimum order value and the number of conditions belong next to every percentage. Without them you compare 20 percent from 35 euros with 20 percent from 199 euros as if they were the same offer.
Field 3: the subject line
Subject lines are what swipe files collect most, usually as quotes without context. They become useful only as patterns. In the panel the median length is 37 characters, the lower quartile 28, the upper 47, and only 8 percent go past 60.
| Pattern in the subject line | Share |
|---|---|
| Contains a number | 30 % |
| Contains a percent sign | 15 % |
| Contains a word in all caps | 16 % |
| Contains a deadline word ("nur noch", "letzte", "endet") | 6 % |
| Is a question | 6 % |
| Uses the informal "du" | 14 % |
| Uses the formal "Sie" | 5 % |
A home furnishing retailer, Sunday 30 August, 8:27 a.m. Subject: "Schlaf-Tage starten jetzt: Bis zu 60% sparen" (sleep days start now: save up to 60%). A self-invented campaign name plus the highest number in the promotion. The mechanic in the body is a different one: free shipping from 250 euros, plus reduced mattresses and pillows. The window runs 14 days.
A lingerie and apparel brand, Monday 31 August, 7:02 a.m. Subject: "Letzte Chance: zusätzlich -10%" (last chance: an extra 10% off). One of the 6 percent carrying a deadline word. The code applies from 50 euros, that day only, not combinable. The deadline is real.
A children's fashion retailer, Sunday 6 September, 6:31 a.m. Subject: "Die neue Denim-Kollektion" (the new denim collection). No hint of a promotion. Inside: 15 percent on baby and kids items from 59 euros with a code, six conditions, valid on that single day. The shortest-running promotion in this set is not mentioned in the subject at all.
How to read it: only 15 percent of subject lines carry a percent sign, only 6 percent a deadline. German retail largely does not sell the mechanic in the preview pane. For your swipe file that means subject line and mechanic belong in two separate fields.
Field 4: the rhythm
The last field is the send time, and it needs the run time with it. Sunday is the strongest send day at 17 percent, followed by Thursday at 17 and Friday at 16. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday sit at 14 percent each, Saturday is the emptiest at 9 percent. Almost one email in three (30 percent) lands between 6 and 9 a.m.
Run time is the second half of the rhythm: in half of all promotional emails in the panel, at least one offer is valid for exactly one day, and in 39 percent everything in the email is. Seven days accounts for 5 percent, three days for 7, two days for 7.
A retailer with stores and a shop, Monday 10 August, 7:06 a.m. The subject advertises a prize draw. The actual promotion inside runs 27 days: spend 100 euros in a store, get a cinema voucher. 300 words, one button. A promotion that carries a whole month.
A secondhand media shop, Thursday 27 August, 9:35 a.m. The subject is a question, one of the 6 percent: it picks up the end of the holiday season and promises relief. Inside: 15 percent on media plus free shipping, with a code, from 35 euros, six days.
An outlet shop, Wednesday 2 September, 6:58 a.m. The subject announces a designer label. The mechanic is a new-customer code worth 12 percent from 49 euros, with seven conditions and validity through the end of the year. A standing arrangement riding along inside a campaign email.
How to read it: when half of all promotions run for one day, the send date is nearly identical to the promotional window. The interesting swipe file entries are the exceptions: the 27-day promotion and the permanent code. They show what a competitor offers at all times. How send days behave over longer periods is in When Do Competitors Send Emails?.
What you can leave out
A swipe file does not get better by being complete. In the panel, 109 shops sent eight or more emails, together 72 percent of all mail. Among them, a median of 70 percent of a shop's emails use the same mechanic, and seven use only a single mechanic across four weeks.
Among the 53 shops with at least three fixed-discount emails, a median of 40 percent of those emails repeat the same percentage, and 6 percent of subject lines from active shops are verbatim repeats.
Put differently: most of what an active competitor sends only confirms what you already know. The deviation is what is worth having, and a swipe file that treats every email alike hides it. One sorted by mechanic and condition shows it at first glance.
What the four fields leave you with
- Collect attributes, not pictures. Mechanic, condition, subject line and timing answer questions. A screenshot answers none.
- Seven mechanics, not one. 45 percent of promotional emails name no percentage. A single "discount in percent" field hides them.
- Minimum order value belongs next to every percentage. 20 percent from 35 euros and 20 percent from 199 euros are not the same offer.
- Codes are shallower, not more generous. Median 19 percent with a code, 25 percent without.
- Run time before date. Half of all promotions last one day. The exceptions reveal what runs permanently.
How we counted
The basis is 2,014 newsletters from 252 German online shops, sent between 10 August and 6 September 2026, captured through test accounts in the Reyo panel. An email is a unique combination of sender, send time and subject line; emails carrying several offers count once. Every email is coded for mechanic, discount level, minimum order value, conditions, run time, urgency and scarcity signals, word count and buttons. The fixed discount is the highest percentage an email states without "up to". A shop counts as active with eight or more emails. The twelve examples were chosen for variety of mechanic, not for size of shop. We name senders by sector, never by name. Subject lines are quoted only where they do not identify the sender and contain no first name. Voucher codes are not reproduced.
What you need for this
Four fields are quick to set up. Filling them is the work, and it grows with every competitor you add. That is what competitor monitoring in Reyo takes over: every email in your set sits there as a searchable record with the same attributes as this article. The campaign planner puts your own dates next to it, and the Q4 Guide 2026 sorts the fourth-quarter occasions in advance. To see this with your own set, book a demo.
Related reading: Newsletter Examples: 12 Emails from German Retail and Newsletter Monitoring Tools: Track Competitor Emails.