Shopify mobile app push notifications: what they are actually worth
The reason to build one at all
Shopify mobile app push notifications: the only way to reach a customer that does not charge per message.
Every other channel is rented. An advertising platform charges to reach
somebody who already bought from you; email costs per thousand and lands
in a crowded inbox. A push notification costs nothing to send and goes to
somebody who chose to hear from you.
What it is worth, in the arithmetic rather than the pitch
Take the cost of winning one customer through advertising and compare it
against zero. That is the whole of Shopify mobile app customer
retention as an argument, and it is why the case for an app is decided
by repeat purchase rather than by revenue.
A store where a fifth of revenue comes from returning customers gets
less from this than a smaller store where half of it does. Pull that
share for the last twelve months before anybody quotes you — it is the
number that decides whether an app is early or overdue.
Honest numbers
-
Install rate. Between 5% and 20% of active customers
in the first year for most stores, and it depends almost entirely on
whether you ask at the right moment. -
Permission rate. Around half to three quarters of
people who install will allow notifications if the ask is explained.
Ask on the first screen with no context and it is far lower, and
iOS gives you one chance. -
Open rate. Several times an email’s, and it falls
fast if you send too often. This is the single most abused channel
in ecommerce. -
Where the revenue comes from. Restock alerts, order
updates and a reminder timed to the repurchase gap — in that order.
Discount broadcasts are the least valuable and the most likely to
get notifications switched off.
What to send, and when
Shopify mobile app marketing is mostly a timing problem rather than a
copy problem. The store already holds the data that decides it.
Worth sending
The thing they wanted is back in stock. Their order has shipped. The
product they buy every seven weeks is due. Early access to something
scarce. Each of these is information the customer asked for, which is
why they are opened and why they do not cost you a permission.
Send carefully
A sale, a new arrival, a campaign. These work and they have a budget:
roughly one a week is tolerated, two is the edge, and three is how a
store trains its best customers to turn notifications off. Shopify
mobile customer engagement is a balance that is easy to overdraw.
Do not send
Anything with no reason for arriving today. A greeting, a brand
message, a reminder that you exist. The permission is the asset and
every message with nothing in it spends a little of it.
The permission is asked at the order
Not on the first screen, where the customer has no reason to say yes.
The moment of highest trust is the order confirmation, and the ask that
works is specific: may we tell you when this ships.
The same principle governs Shopify mobile app engagement generally.
Every permission — notifications, location, an email address — converts
several times better when it is attached to something the customer
already wants than when it is asked for on arrival.
How it connects to the rest
Increase Shopify sales with a mobile app and increase Shopify
conversion with a mobile app are two different mechanisms and it is
worth keeping them apart.
Conversion improves because the app removes steps — saved addresses,
wallet payment, one-tap reordering. Sales improve because the customer
comes back more often, and that is the notification. A store that
builds the app and never sends a notification has bought half of it.
Questions about notifications
Are push notifications worth building an app for?
For a store with repeat customers, this is usually the whole business case. Every other way of reaching somebody who already bought from you costs money per contact; this one does not. For a store selling something bought once a decade, it is not, and we will say so.
Can a mobile website send push notifications instead?
Not reliably. iOS support for web push is limited and requires the site to be added to the home screen first, which almost nobody does. On Android the permission exists and is granted to websites far less often than to apps.
How often should a store send one?
Transactional messages — shipped, delivered, back in stock — as often as they genuinely occur. Marketing messages about once a week. The fastest way to lose the channel is to treat it like an email list.
Who sends them — you or us?
You do, from a dashboard, whenever you want. We set up the mechanism and the automated ones (order updates, restock alerts) and hand over the rest. It is your channel and you should not need us to use it.
What if customers turn notifications off?
Some will, and the rate at which they do is the honest measure of whether you are sending too much. It is visible in the dashboard, which is the point of watching it rather than only watching opens.
Bring your repeat-purchase number to the call.
It is the figure that decides whether an app pays for itself, and we would rather work it out with you than guess.