Email turned 55 this month. Despite its age, the messaging technology remains vital for ecommerce. It’s one of the few owned media channels a store has. 1971 was a notable year in technology. Intel introduced the first microprocessor. Bell Labs released the Unix operating system. IBM created the floppy disk. And Ray Tomlinson , an American software engineer, invented email that year while working at BBN Technologies. He chose the now-familiar “@” symbol for addresses and sent the first message on April 23. Fast forward to 2026, and email offers a direct connection between a business and its audience of customers. Owned Media That direct connection is especially important in an AI world. Many of the online channels sellers use to reach their prospects are changing. Ecommerce product discovery is shifting toward AI-driven search, AI recommendations, and agentic shopping . At its most basic, “email is a way to connect party A to party B,” said Adam Rosen, CEO of the Email Outreach Company .…