LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Retail (2026)

Key Takeaways

In retail, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 34.3%. Replies to the connection note average 3.2%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 16.9%. Those numbers come from 70,483 connection requests sent by 59 retail accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. All three run above the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%.

Retail vs. the platform average

Metric	Retail	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	34.3%	28.5%	+5.8 pts	3rd of 38
Connection-note reply	3.2%	3.0%	+0.2 pts	9th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	16.9%	10.4%	+6.5 pts	2nd of 38

Across the 38 industries with at least 50 sending accounts, acceptance runs from 21.8% (telecommunications) to 36.5% (staffing & recruiting). Note replies run from 1.8% to 6.6%, and message replies from 7.2% to 18.9%.

What the numbers say about retail outreach

Outreach from retail converts better than outreach from any industry except staffing and recruiting. About 5.8 in every 100 recipients reply to a follow-up message, 2nd of 38 and nearly double the 3.0 platform-wide. Retail is also one of only two industries, with staffing and recruiting, to rank in the top three on both acceptance and message replies, 3rd at 34.3% and 2nd at 16.9%.

The note is the ordinary step. Note replies of 3.2% rank 9th, only 0.2 points above the 3.0% cross-industry average, while staffing and recruiting, the one industry ahead of retail end to end, gets 6.6%. Retail reaches second place without much help from the note, so on these numbers its advantage sits in acceptance and in the conversation that follows it.

Its closest matches are events services, logistics and supply chain, and information services, each above the platform on both acceptance and message replies, and retail runs ahead of all three on both. The figures rest on 59 accounts and 70,483 requests, the small end of what is reported here, so a rank this high is better read as a position near the top than as a precise place in the order.

If your numbers sit below these

The dataset says where an account sits, not why. From what we see in campaigns, three gaps come up most often in this sector, and they point at different problems.

Message replies under 16.9%. The sector’s strongest measure at 2nd of 38, and the largest single source of its end-to-end result. A retail account replying at the 10.4% platform average has given back most of the sector’s advantage while still looking ordinary on a generic benchmark. A shortfall here usually means the first message asks for time before it explains why a retailer is writing.

Acceptance between 28.5% and 34.3%. Above the platform, below the sector. This is the range where a retail account looks healthy against cross-industry benchmarks and is underperforming its own sector, which ranks 3rd of 38. It usually points at a list that has widened beyond the people with an obvious reason to hear from a retailer.

Note replies under 3.2%. Retail sits only 0.2 points above the platform here and still ranks 2nd of 38 end to end, so the note carries little of the sector’s result. This is the measure to leave until last.

Further reading:

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• How many LinkedIn invites can you send a week?
• Personalising a LinkedIn message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula
• Tips for building a LinkedIn content strategy for B2B sales
• The best AI lead generation software to add to your stack

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn acceptance rate in retail?

34.3% is the sector average, 5.8 points above the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 3rd of 38 reported industries. Retail sets a high bar, so an account at the 28.5% platform figure is ordinary overall and well under par for the sector. Above 34.3% is good.

How well does LinkedIn outreach from retail convert?

Better than from almost any other industry. About 5.8 in every 100 people who receive a connection request from a retail account reply to a follow-up message, 2nd of 38 behind staffing and recruiting at 6.9, and nearly double the 3.0 platform figure. The sample is 59 accounts, so read the rank as approximate.

How does retail compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 3rd of 38, message replies 2nd and note replies 9th. End to end about 5.8 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, 2nd of 38 behind only staffing and recruiting, and nearly double the roughly 3.0 across all industries.

How this data was collected

Retail is reported from 59 accounts and 70,483 connection requests sent between May 2025 and April 2026, drawn from the LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 dataset of 13.2 million requests across 13,302 accounts. That report carries the full methodology, along with the breakdowns by sender seniority, company size and month that are not repeated here.

Two things to hold in mind while reading any of these figures. The industry is the sender’s, taken from their company profile, not the recipient’s. And only industries with at least 50 sending accounts are reported at all: below that, a single unusual account moves the average by several points, which is why some of the most extreme numbers in the full appendix are not published here.

Related industry benchmarks

• Events Services, 31.5% acceptance and 13.8% message replies
• Logistics & Supply Chain, 32.3% acceptance and 11.8% message replies
• Information Services, 31.6% acceptance and 11.2% message replies
• All industry benchmarks

Grade your own outreach against these numbers

Enter your own acceptance and reply rates and grade your outreach against the retail benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

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Data updated 19 August 2026. Refreshed quarterly against the source report.