Browser push notification, an innovative tool to create a buzz about a brand, enhance brand engagement and awareness. Now you must be wondering how? It is innovative in the way it communicates the information interactively to the user in a fraction of seconds. It is different as it waits for the user to come online. It also gets expired after a certain interval of time. While SMS messages are on the edge of death; and email marketing campaigns are facing low click through rates, browser push notifications are a revolutionary way to drive engagement and higher sales on your eCommerce store. So, how do we drive sales and engagement with the help of browser push notifications on the website? Let’s get into the background of browser push notifications first before understanding its benefits for the eCommerce businesses.
Browser Push Notification: Background
Browser push notifications were first launched by Apple in late 2013 when they started supporting push notifications on safari. Followed by safari, google chrome and Firefox also joined the league started supporting browser push notifications. Browser push notifications came into the picture after the massive success and conversion rate which mobile application push notifications brought to its users. They were useful for the readers as they provided them with all the data and also for the companies as their message got conveyed effectively.
Browser push notifications have been massively successful in past and promise an extensive growth in future. Before understanding how browser push notifications can benefit the eCommerce stores, let us understand the goals which the owners of browser push notifications would want to achieve:
1.Generating greater number of sales, revenue, and profits
2. Increasing the number of upsells, cross-sells, and repeat sales
3. Higher product performance and category performance
4. Decrease in the number of cart abandonment
And many more…
But, the eCommerce business owners generally come across various issues. Some of the issues faced by the eCommerce stores are:
1. User abandons the cart after adding products
2. Cost of the product becomes a constraint
3. The open rate of promotional emails is low
For eCommerce stores, the browser push notifications can be utilized in numerous ways. However, the top three benefits of integrating the browser push notifications on the eCommerce stores which we shall be discussing in the further sections are as follows:
1. Growth in engagement on their website or blog or product page
2. Increase in the click through rate on the promotional offers or discounts
3. Increase in the number of upsells, repeat sales and cross-sells
Growth in engagement on the website
Browser notifications update your users about any sort of information which you want to convey to your users. It can be notification of addition of a new blog on your website, addition of new products, price drop alert, a personalized update which can benefit the user, special discounts, etc. There are two types of browser push notifications when it comes to functionality:
1. Notifications with specified call to action buttons
2. Notifications with an important update but no interactive buttons
Also, one very important factor which is crucial to understand is that whether the push message would exit on its own or would it stick to its place until the user interacts with it. Both of the functionalities have their own pros and cons. If you want the push message to stay on for only a specific duration then you can time them but if you would want them to be forced to interact with the push message, then use the latter option. However, we recommend you using the second option as the user might not be looking at the screen when the notifications come and exit. So, it’s advisable to give him an opportunity to interact with the notification.
How do push notifications engage users?
1. They are sent to the user the moment he opens the browser. Thus, these notifications are real time and are sent when the user is actually on the screen.
2. These are short and crispy. You do not need to spend much of your time thinking about an amazing subject line like emails so that user opens and reads through them.
3. In one small push notification, the attention of the user is gained, the message is conveyed in a fraction of seconds and then and there the user gets an option to go further or close it.
Increased click-through rates on promotional offers
Let’s imagine a situation where a visitor goes onto a website, visits a set of products and exits without purchasing anything. Now, if you start sending a discount or promotional email to him then the chances are very low that he will open the mail and even get to know about the offer. With push notifications, you can segment your users based on smart triggers like the actions taken by them on the website, product pages visited, location etc. Now these promotional offers can be only meant for a certain group of users and not everybody. By sending these notifications you are reaching only to your targeted segment which might get interested. This would not only increase the click through rate of your message but also the product performance in terms of views and sales.
Increase in the number of upsells, repeat sales and cross-sells
If the browser push notification service used by you has smart analytics features and can segment the users based on the triggers then it would help you to send action oriented notifications to your users. For example, based on their purchase history you can suggest more products to them. If they had abandoned the cart, then you can send them price drop alerts or you have items left in your cart notification. Also, for if they have bought replenished products then you can send them a reminder push notification regarding the purchase. This would boost the conversions on your eCommerce store and help you increase the engagement rate.
Conclusion
Now with browser push notifications, you need not invest a lot of time in writing converting emails. You just need to write short and impactful push messages and send them to your users on the right time. Timing, expiry time of the notification and the frequency capping are very important for a larger impact.
