Why do my emails go to the Promotions tab in Gmail, and is that bad?

Gmail's tabs are a sorting system, not a penalty. Its filters look at the sender, the formatting, the links and how the recipient has treated your past mail, and put bulk marketing email into Promotions. Image-heavy templates, multiple buttons, discount language and a no-reply address all make that more likely. Your email still arrives, and people who want it go looking there, especially during sales such as Eid or 11.11.

Spam is different and serious. If your mail goes to Spam, check that your domain has SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up correctly through your email platform, that you are sending from your own domain rather than a free Gmail address, that your list contains only people who signed up, and that your complaint rate is low. A sudden move to Spam after a change of platform or domain almost always traces back to authentication.

If reaching Primary genuinely matters, for example a school's notices or a consultant's monthly letter, write the email the way a person would: mostly text, one link or two, a real reply-to address with a name, and a question that invites a reply. Replies are a strong signal that the mail is wanted. You can also ask new subscribers in the welcome email to drag your message to Primary or add you to contacts.

For a store, chasing Primary is usually not worth making the email worse. A clear, attractive promotional email that sits in Promotions and gets clicked beats a plain one that reaches Primary and sells nothing.