Use PushOwl Push Notifications to Bring Customers Back to Your Shopify Store
Getting someone to visit your online store is only part of the job.
Think about how many people visit your website, look at a product, read a blog post, add something to their cart, and then leave.
Some may come back. Many won't.
That's why e-commerce marketing shouldn't focus only on getting new traffic. You also need ways to stay connected with the people who have already discovered your store and give them reasons to return.
If you have a Shopify store, PushOwl gives you another way to do that through web push notifications.
The video above shows how to set up and send a push notification using PushOwl. But before you start sending notifications, it's important to understand what they are, how they compare with email, and where they fit into your overall marketing strategy.
What Is Shopify?
Shopify is an e-commerce platform that businesses use to create and manage online stores. You can use Shopify to sell products, manage inventory and orders, accept payments, publish website content and connect additional apps to your store.
One of the advantages of Shopify is its app ecosystem. Store owners can add apps that provide additional marketing, sales, customer service and e-commerce functionality.
PushOwl is one of those apps.
What Is PushOwl?
PushOwl is a Shopify app that allows online stores to communicate with subscribers through web push notifications.
A web push notification is a short message that can appear on someone's desktop or mobile device after that person has agreed to receive notifications from your store.
Instead of requiring someone to open their email inbox and find your message, a push notification can put a short message directly in front of them.
You can use push notifications to tell subscribers about things such as:
- New product arrivals
- Sales and promotions
- New blog posts and helpful content
- Products that are back in stock
- Price drops
- Abandoned cart reminders
- Limited time offers
- Seasonal promotions
- Strategic partner promotions - feature a business, creator, brand or organization you partner with, especially when they're also promoting your business to their audience
- Collaborations and co-branded campaigns
- Events, giveaways or contests
- Customer loyalty and VIP offers
- Gift guides and product collections
- Educational content related to your products
- Other reasons to return to your store
PushOwl also offers automations that can send certain notifications based on customer behavior, although the automations available depend on your plan.
PushOwl was acquired by Sendinblue, now known as Brevo, in 2021. Today, PushOwl is part of Brevo's broader marketing platform, which includes email, SMS and other marketing tools. In this article, I'm focusing specifically on PushOwl's web push notifications for Shopify stores.
Where Do PushOwl Notifications Appear?
Web push notifications can appear on both desktop computers and mobile devices, depending on the browser and device someone is using.
On desktop, subscribers can receive notifications through supported browsers even when they aren't actively browsing your Shopify store.
Push notifications can also reach mobile users, including Android devices through supported browsers. This gives Shopify stores another way to stay connected with shoppers after they leave the website, without requiring the customer to download your own mobile app.
The subscriber must first give permission to receive notifications. Once they opt in, your store can send notifications directly to supported devices and browsers.
This is one of the differences between web push and text messaging. A customer doesn't need to give you their phone number to subscribe to web push notifications.
Why Add Push Notifications to Your Shopify Store?
When someone visits your Shopify store, they may not be ready to buy. That's normal.
They could be researching a product, comparing options, waiting until payday, looking for a sale or simply browsing.
The problem is that once they leave your website, you need a way to reach them again. You could hope they remember your store and come back. Or you can give them opportunities to stay connected.
Email is one of those opportunities. Social media is another. Push notifications give you an additional one.
When someone subscribes to your push notifications, you have another way to bring that person back without having to pay for another ad click every time you want to reach them.
That's one reason I look at push notifications as a customer retention tool, not simply another way to advertise a sale.
Push Notifications vs. Email Marketing
Push notifications should not replace your email marketing. I would use both.
Email gives you room to communicate much more information. You can tell a story, explain a product, include several products, educate customers, share a longer promotion or build an automated email sequence.
Push notifications are much shorter. They're better suited for getting someone's attention quickly and giving them a reason to click back to your website.
For example, imagine you publish a blog post called: 5 Ways to Style Our New Fall Boots
Your email could introduce the article, show a few of the boots and explain why someone should read it.
Your push notification could simply say:
- Our Fall Boot Styling Ideas Are Here
- See 5 ways we're wearing them this season.
Both messages can lead to the same blog post.
You're not choosing email or push notifications. You're giving people more than one opportunity to see your content and return to your store.
Push Notifications Can Help With Customer Retention
Online stores spend a lot of time thinking about acquiring customers.
- SEO
- Social media
- Paid advertising
- Influencers
- Partnerships
Those strategies can bring people to your store, but what happens after they arrive?
Retention is about giving people reasons to stay connected, return and eventually purchase again.
Push notifications can become one part of that retention strategy. You might notify subscribers when a new product launches.
A customer who wanted a sold-out product could receive a back-in-stock notification. Someone interested in a product could receive a price-drop notification.
Depending on your PushOwl plan, an abandoned-cart automation can remind someone about merchandise they left behind.
Instead of every marketing effort starting from zero, you're building audiences you can reach again.
PushOwl Can Help Recover Shoppers Who Didn't Purchase
Not everyone who shows interest in a product completes a purchase.
PushOwl currently offers ecommerce-focused notifications including abandoned-cart recovery, browse-abandonment reminders, back-in-stock notifications and price-drop alerts, with availability depending on the plan you use.
Those types of notifications are different from a general promotional blast because they're connected to something the shopper actually did.
- Someone looked at a product.
- Someone added a product to a cart.
- Someone asked to know when an item was available again.
- Someone showed interest in a product whose price later dropped.
That gives you opportunities to bring people back based on behavior rather than constantly sending the same promotion to everyone.
Start Building Your Push Notification Audience Before You Need It
One mistake businesses make with marketing channels is waiting until they have something to promote before they start building the audience.
Your push notification subscriber list won't magically appear the day you decide to run a sale.
Install PushOwl, configure your opt-in experience and start giving website visitors the opportunity to subscribe.
PushOwl currently offers a free Basic web push plan with up to 500 web push notifications per month and unlimited subscribers, so smaller Shopify stores can start building an audience without immediately paying for a larger web push plan.
As your subscriber base and marketing become more sophisticated, you can decide if the additional automation and campaign features available in the paid plans make sense for your store.
How Much Does PushOwl Cost?
You don't necessarily have to pay for PushOwl when you're first getting started.
PushOwl currently offers three web push plans:
- Basic: Free
The free plan includes up to 500 web push notifications per month and unlimited subscribers. It also includes features such as welcome notifications, back-in-stock alerts and price-drop notifications. - Plus: Starts at $19 per month
The Plus plan starts with up to 10,000 web push notifications per month and adds features such as abandoned cart recovery and shipping notifications. Pricing increases if you need to send more notifications. - Power: Starts at $79 per month
The Power plan starts with up to 25,000 web push notifications per month and adds more advanced features such as subscriber segmentation, browse abandonment, flash sales, Smart Delivery and custom automations.
For a smaller Shopify store that's just getting started with push notifications, the free plan gives you an opportunity to start building your subscriber audience and learn how push notifications fit into your marketing before deciding if you need a paid plan.
PushOwl's pricing and plan features can change, so check its current pricing before choosing a plan.
Should You Add PushOwl to Your Shopify Store?
If you're using Shopify and you're trying to get more value from the traffic you're already generating, PushOwl is worth looking at as another way to stay connected with website visitors and customers.
It shouldn't replace your email marketing, content, SEO or social media.
It should work alongside them.
Getting traffic to your online store costs time, money or both. Once people arrive, you want to create as many appropriate opportunities as possible to turn those visitors into subscribers, customers and repeat customers.
Push notifications give you one more way to do that.
The video above walks you through how to set up a push notification using PushOwl so you can see how it works inside a Shopify store.
Want Help Applying This to Your Business?
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