Email or push notifications — which performs better?

Push wins on immediacy and email wins on depth. A push notification is seen within minutes and holds a sentence; an email is seen within a day and can carry a catalogue.

The reasoning

They are not alternatives. Push for time-sensitive things — a restock, a drop, an order update — and email for anything requiring consideration. Push also requires an app, which is the real prerequisite most comparisons leave out.

What most people get wrong

A channel that works at small spend often stops working at large spend, because the cheap audience runs out first.

Paid traffic is rented and gets more expensive every year. Every channel you own — email, notifications, your own audience — gets cheaper as it grows.

Attribution is harder than the dashboards suggest. A customer sees six things and the last one takes the credit.

How an app changes it

Push notifications sit on the owned side of that line, which is the whole commercial argument for an app.