Remember the small crisp messages that pop on your phone at random times, but isn’t an email, SMS or a missed call? These messages called as Push Notifications, come from the several apps that you may have installed on your phone.
Push notifications are one of the most powerful ways of marketing in the world of e-commerce. They empower the app publishers to reach out to their customers wherever they are, to engage them, and eventually redirect them to their app-offers and deals.
The intended messages are delivered in real-time and the instant response rates are much higher as compared to other modes of communication, like emails or sms. This helps in increased customer engagement and retention, and leads to more sales.
What are Web and Mobile Browser Push Notifications?
While ‘App’ push notifications have already gained notable popularity, ecom retailers now have another reason to rejoice, with the upcoming ‘Browser’ Push notifications.
Similar to App notifications, Browser notifications are also clickable messages, but are sent by a ‘website’ to their subscribers’ browsers – even if the subscribers are currently not on that website. They too require an opt-in from visitors (or let’s say permission from users) to send them push messages.
Furthermore, these messages can be accessed on all devices, whether it’s a desktop, mobile or a tablet.
How do Browser Push Notifications help Increase Engagement and Sales?
Browser Push notifications are mostly based on the onsite activities and search behaviours of the users as well as their previous purchase history. This information can effectively be used to increase the conversions, while enhancing a buyer’s experience. You can use them to –
1. Announce a new product to the targeted audience
Based on the user’s search activities and interests, you could promote your new and relevant products by selective targeting. The notifications can also be used to personalize your promotions/ deals, as well as cater to the wish list of the users, once the products are available again.
2. Announce a sale in real time
Create a strong urgency factor with these notifications. Setting up an expiry date/ time for a sale, or putting up limited/ selected products for sale for a certain period, will drive the customers into taking an immediate action.
You could also send real-time reminders to keep up the excitement, such as ‘how much time is left for the sale to close’, or ‘few products remaining’ etc.
3. Recover abandoned carts
Many users add items to their carts but forget to checkout due to numerous reasons. Push notifications can help you in recovering potential lost revenue. You just need to send reminders to users about their abandoned carts and content within, and prompt them to checkout.
4. Keep the users informed about their purchase
Once the sale is made, use the notifications for updating the customers about their delivery status, so that they can track their shipment and make themselves available at the time of delivery. Its an effective real time strategy for customer satisfaction.
5. Validate all your unknown users
Incentivise the signup process and make all your visitors subscribe to you. Messages like ‘ Sign up and get 20% off’ or ‘ Register to get a free coupon’, or anything that can lure a user to give in their details.
This way you can easily track their online behaviour such as browsing patterns, cart additions, recent purchases etc. across all kind of devices, that can help you engage them better.
Subtle Push Notifications – How Not to Cross the Limit.
While Push notifications can do wonders for your brand, you must maintain the subtlety in context and relevance.
Understand that people are way too busy and don’t have the time or patience to read vague messages. So the messages should ideally be drafted to highlight the most important value proposition, in a very concise way.
Push messages also lose their effectiveness if they are sent either too frequently or too rarely. Overdoing will lead to annoyance amongst the users that will make them uninstall your app; while sending them rarely, may not be enough to generate the desired interest and revenue.
Another important factor is to know ‘when’ to send out the right kind of notifications for maximum response. Promotional messages should be sent when the users are expected to be more relaxed to react, while the witty ones could be scheduled for the afternoons to pep up the bored users.
It’s also important to match with the timezone of your global subscribers. You can’t expect a user to react to your message in the middle of night!
Conclusion
According to Localytics, 88% of app engagement is triggered by Push notifications, which means that E Commerce stores just cannot afford to ignore the web and mobile browser notifications.
With PushFlew by Ebizon, you can create the trending ‘segmented’ push notifications for improved customer experience and retention, while optimizing your push notification campaigns to deliver great results for your online store.