Guest post by Shiju Mathew

What are web push notifications? They are similar to mobile app push notifications except that web push works on websites instead of apps and can be accessed on all devices (desktop, mobile, tablet etc.), platforms and browsers. Once subscribed, notifications are sent in the form of clickable messages.

The beauty of web push notifications is that you can send them to users’ desktops or other devices even when the website is not open on their browser. This makes it a great new marketing channel to help re-engage your site visitors without requiring them to submit their email or other contact details.

All that the user must do is subscribe to notifications from your brand when prompted. Web Push Notifications already work on over 85% of devices. Besides, the fact that Push is a free channel that doesn’t have any advertising spends attached to it makes it even more attractive.

And the best part is that Browser Push can help you engage and retain customers across the sales funnel.

Here’s how you can build personalized engagements with users and encourage them to move to the next stage in the purchase cycle:

1. New Users
   If new users browse your mobile website and navigate away after a while, browser push notifications can provide them with other options in the category that they were searching.
2. Retarget drop-offs
   Let’s say a user spends a lot of time looking at a particular product, but drops off without buying it. With dynamic feeds to personalize browser notifications, you can remind the user about the pending purchase.
3. Re-engagement
   If a regular user has not visited the website for an extended period of time, using browser push notifications to maybe show discounted products on previously viewed categories can entice the user to come back to the website.
4. Loyalty
   For loyal users, keeping a note of their favourite categories and offering them loyalty benefits on those products, especially during festive seasons, can be the key to achieving customer delight.
5. Mobile Audience
   Browser push notifications allow you to connect with those users who are not using your app. You can still engage and nurture shoppers on mobile devices (and other devices) through your website.

Considering the fact that 98% of users drop-off an ecommerce website without a purchase, browser notifications are the perfect way to re-engage website drop-offs, especially during peak shopping seasons. Complementing your emails with browser push can enable you to reach shoppers much more effectively.

We give you the best practices for using Browser Push Notifications:

• Personalize: Irrelevant and generic notifications might seem intrusive to your audience and could result in opt-outs. Therefore, user-centric engagement campaigns with personalized recommendations that help your users with their purchase decisions are recommended.
• Avoid spam: Too many and too frequent browser push notifications could seem intrusive to users. Use browser push judiciously.
• Consider user feedback and actions: Gather user level insights and tweak segmentation and messaging at a user level. For example, if a user has ignored your last-seen product recommendation try sending her frequently bought product. If discount percentage hasn’t excited him, include the revised price instead.
• Respect opt-outs: Once the user opts out or clicks on deny for the opt-in request, the brand must ensure that the user is blocked from any further opt-in requests.

No matter which channel you choose, the true success of your campaigns are decided based on how successful you were in connecting with your audience. The crux of your marketing campaign must always be the customer.

About the Author:

Shiju Mathew is the VP of Mobile Products at Vizury, a company that provides a robust platform for mobile marketing automation and push notifications. He has over 13 years of rich experience in Product Management and Strategic Marketing in the digital world and has worked with companies such as Honeywell, Syncapse, Bosch prior to Vizury. He is passionate about trends in internet technology and is a mobile marketing enthusiast.