Push Notifications: how do I send notifications to my shoppers?

What the Push Notifications app does

Push Notifications lets you bring shoppers back to your store for free. Visitors agree to get notifications from your store, then you send them a short message with a link, for example to a new product, a collection, or an offer. The notification shows on their phone or computer even when your store is closed. It is a free app in the Marketing and Advertising collection of the Apps market.

Setting it up

1. Open Apps, find Push Notifications, and install it.
2. Click Settings on the app card and open the Settings tab. The app starts switched off, so nothing shows on your store yet.
3. Turn on Activate. Bell button and Thank you page then show under it, both on by default, so turn off any place you do not want, then click Save. Your store starts collecting subscribers right away.

How shoppers subscribe

• Bell button: a small bell in a corner of every page. When a visitor taps it, a short card explains what they will get, with Turn on notifications and Not now. If they tap Not now, the bell stays hidden for them for a week.
• Thank you page: after placing an order, buyers see a card that invites them to turn on notifications. This is when shoppers are most willing to say yes.

After they tap the button, the browser asks for permission. Once they allow it, they are subscribed and the bell disappears for them.

Who can subscribe

Push notifications work in the normal browser of Android phones and computers, such as Chrome, Samsung Internet, Edge, and Firefox. Shoppers who browse your store inside the Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok apps cannot subscribe, because those in-app browsers do not support notifications, so they do not see the bell or the card. On iPhone, notifications only work when the shopper added your store to their home screen. Many shoppers coming from ads browse inside those apps, so expect your subscriber count to grow more slowly than your visitors.

Sending a campaign

1. Open the app and click New campaign. The button stays disabled until your first shopper subscribes.
2. Write a Title (shown in bold, up to 65 characters) and a Message (up to 160 characters). A counter under each field shows how many characters you have used. Phones show about two lines of the message, so put the important part first.
3. Pick a Link: the page that opens when the shopper taps the notification. Click the field to choose your home page, the search page, a collection, a product, or a page, or paste a link.
4. Pick the Markets. All your markets are selected by default. Only shoppers who subscribed while browsing a selected market receive the notification.
5. Choose the Launch time: Now sends it within a minute, Scheduled lets you pick a date and time up to 30 days ahead, in your store time zone.
6. Click Create campaign.

You can send up to 3 campaigns a day. Shoppers who get too many notifications turn them off, so keep them for real news like a new collection or a limited offer.

Following your results

The top of the Campaigns tab sums up all your campaigns:

• Subscribers: how many shoppers can receive your notifications today, with how many joined this month.
• Notifications delivered: how many notifications reached a phone or computer, with the campaigns sent and the notifications that failed.
• Click rate: the share of delivered notifications that shoppers tapped, with the clicks and deliveries it is measured on. For example, 1,000 delivered and 50 clicks is a 5% click rate.
• Orders: the orders placed by shoppers who opened one of your notifications, with how many came this month.
• Conversion rate: the share of clicks that ended in an order, with the orders and clicks it is measured on. For example, 50 clicks and 5 orders is a 10% conversion rate.
• Revenue: the total of those orders, with their average order value. Orders from every market are converted to your store currency.

The table shows the same figures for each campaign, next to its status (Scheduled, Sending, or Sent) and its markets. Test, duplicate, and abandoned orders are not counted. Some notifications cannot be delivered, usually because the shopper turned notifications off; those shoppers are removed from your subscribers automatically.

Canceling or deleting a campaign

Click the trash icon on a campaign row. Deleting a Scheduled campaign cancels it, so it is never sent. Deleting a Sent campaign only removes it from your list. A campaign that is sending right now cannot be deleted.

Good to know

• To pause the app, turn off Activate and click Save. The bell and the card disappear from your store and no campaign is sent, but you keep your subscribers and your campaigns. A scheduled campaign whose time passes during the pause is sent as soon as you activate the app again, so delete it first if it is no longer relevant.
• Bell position: pick the side where the bell does not cover other buttons on your store, like a chat bubble or the back to top button. It only shows while Bell button is on.
• The bell and the card do not show inside the builder preview. Open your store in a new tab to see them.
• Subscribers belong to the store where they subscribed. Each store has its own subscribers and campaigns.
• Uninstalling the app deletes your subscribers and campaigns. If you install it again, you start with no subscribers.
• To reach buyers who do not use push notifications, see WhatsApp Connect.