Website Push Notification: 5 Ways to Improve Performance

Digital eCommerce marketing is no different from an uphill battle against constantly growing competition in an already brimming market. Where brand loyalties fluctuate now and then and returns are diminishing on almost every kind of investment, you need a major weapon in your arsenal to win the odds.

Push notifications, which found marketing applications not long ago, are one such weapon if deployed correctly can give your eCommerce business a whole new turn. 2019 is the year for you to rectify all your marketing mistakes and win over the limitations of other marketing channels like a pro. It’s time to know 5 significant phased of push notifications marketing strategy to improve your eCommerce business stats.

Push notifications marketing – What’s all this hype about?

Originally adopted by Blackberry email app to notify users about a new email received, push notifications today have found a richer application in digital marketing as well. In fact, you don’t even need a mobile app to send these push messages to your prospects. 

You can also trigger these alerts right from your eCommerce website and map any of your stores URL to the notification. These special push notifications are also called as web push notifications, which you can send on web browsers on mobile, desktop, and tablet’s as well.

Using push notifications for marketing is a hype these days, and marketers have found some really awesome stats supporting this buildup:

• Accengage revealed that average global opt-in rate for all kinds of push notifications in 2018 was 67.5%. Out of it, Android devices got 91.1%, while iPhones 43.9% shares of opt-in.
• An average smartphone user in the US receives over 46 push alerts daily reports CleverTap.
• According to Leanplum, Push alerts can boost online purchases by 10x and expenditure by 16%.
• PushEngage found that web push notifications give 5x better outreach for cart abandonment follow-ups than email.

5 tips for a better push notifications marketing strategy in 2019

You can deploy mobile and web push notifications to boost engagement on your eCommerce store. Consequently, the same can be shaped into brand loyalty, and boost not only customer retention but also turn new visitors into paying customers. Here is what you should do to make the best out of your push notifications.

1. A right kind of push opt-in strategy

Any user subscribes to your push notification with an expectation. This expectation is called your value proposition. You have to prove that your notifications are valuable to them, by clearly stating what they can get and what they would miss by blocking you out. Showcase your value proposition as a solution to their problems your brand can fulfill. Make them interested in your brand, and it will take no time to turn new visitors into your push subscribers.  

Formulate a personalized opt-in plan. Identify your customers, and offer a value your web store can bring into their lives by merely opting into your browser notifications. Something like this personalized opt-in box:

Important Notes:

• Android users opt-in automatically to your push alerts while installing your m-commerce app. 
• Your iOS app users must be asked to opt-in your alerts manually after installing the app. 
• You can send web push notifications to only those users who have opted-in manually by selecting the ‘Allow’ option in the opt-in box. Like in the image above.

2. Announce limited-time sales with push notifications

As you promised, it’s time to keep them posted about your latest offers and sales. Include your landing page URL, and let your interested customers land directly on the offer page once they click on the alert. 

You can optimize it further by adding time-sensitive elements to induce FOMO. Add elements like “Limited Time”, “20 minutes sale”, or even a simple visual like a Ticking Clock can make your notifications beautiful and strong. Something like this:

3. Advertise the latest stock and new products

No customer would voluntarily visit your web store every now and then to check your new products. They would never know if you already offer their favorite products at pleasing rates. Rather than waiting for them to come, bring them back by sending new products and new stocks alerts regularly. 

Make the announcements more appealing by including relevant graphics and discounts. This will not only keep your push subscribers in the loop but would also boost your sales more easily. Leverage events like Christmas when customers expect exciting offers from the brands.

4. Micro-target and send personalized Notifications

Notifications are big power in hands. You can use them to spam irrelevant messages or make them informative, timed, and useful to the users. Even the offers work best when they are well-tailored and personalized based on a user’s preferences and past behaviors. 

Though personalized push notifications, you can not only grab attention but secure better click-through rates. Personalization tactics such as using a prospects name in the notification make your messages more likely to be read immediately by the users. 

You can personalize your push alerts by targeting users based on the demographics such as gender, age, language, location, purchase history, and other user activities. Something like this below notification, which tracks a user who visited the site when this product was out-of-stock. Consequently, the site sent a micro-personalized back-in-stock alert.

5. Follow up your abandoned cart prospects strategically

Push notifications do not only make it easier to send abandoned cart follow-ups but also allows users to retrieve their abandoned carts more easily. Not just that, you can actually involve abandoned cart customers into more productive activities by triggering real-time notifications right when users just abandon their shopping carts on your web store.

This system is a perfect combo to use with your CS-Cart Multi-Vendor store, where you can track abandoned customers using an abandoned cart add-on and follow them up using progressive web app push notifications or even club it with emails for extensive targeting.

Over to you

E-Commerce business propels best when equipped with cutting-edge technologies. Whether you are running an inventory-based store or a multi-vendor eCommerce site, push notifications can provide the best upper hand that your business deserves. If you haven’t leveraged them already, give a shot. I am certain that returns on your investment won’t be any lesser than email marketing.

Marry Ann is a branding consultant for PushMaze, a service that lets you send trackable push notifications for users. She mainly passionate about building brands in all aspect of online marketing. Follow Marry Ann on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Quora.