On the 22nd of September, we hosted our first event after the summer break, and we must admit it felt like a great way to come back to the routine. As usual at our events, we enjoyed -which was maybe – the last open terrace networking session of the year with some mandatory beers.
This time, the main topic of the event was the controversial ‘cookieless era’. And our main goal was to equip our attendees with the tools and strategies so that they could stay at the top of their game. Questions such as “Can I actually do retargeting without ads/third-party cookies?”, “What are the cookieless strategies I can implement?”, “What’s the difference between first-party and third-party cookies?” were answered by our host and CEO, Ata Gur.
So, if you couldn’t join us at the event, but still would like to learn more about the main takeaways, keep on reading to elevate your marketing skills.
Why retention is essential by Ata Gur
To start off, it is essential to understand the customer journey that a user usually does while navigating a website with a conversion purpose, whether that is a sales or acquiring leads goal.
The usual journey has 5 stages that customers go through until they reach the intended purpose. It starts with a 100% conversion rate and ends up with a 1% conversion rate and an estimated value of $25 USD.
The key takeaway #1 is that client acquisition is indeed an expensive process already, so why not look further into retention to maximise all efforts?
As shown in this graphic, returning customers frequently represent a higher conversion rate than new customers. So, if you have an e-commerce and your sales goals aren’t going as expected, perhaps your focus shouldn’t be on “how to acquire new customers?”, but rather on “how can I better nurture my returning customers?”
At this point, you have seen why retention is crucial for any eCommerce business. Now, let’s move forward with the alternatives to the retention channels that you have:
Email, SMS, social media, app push notifications & web push notifications: Belong to the owned media category and work with first-party cookies.
Retargeting ads: Bring the customers back with third-party cookies, and a pay-per-click basis. The ROI is usually adequate, but the ‘cookieless era’ is their biggest threat. Many browsers are restricting its usage, such as Safari, Firefox and soon Google Chrome. This revolutionizes the way we are used to doing retargeting because every retargeting service provider like Facebook, Google, Criteo or other third-party providers will need to change or else become obsolete.
You might be thinking: “Okay, but I still hear “cookies”, both first and third-party cookies. What’s the difference?”
To keep it short, the main difference is that with third-party cookies, our information can be accessible to all the ads network. Our information is available and shared with others who we don’t trust or know anything about. In fact, 72% of the users reported feeling observed and tracked for their online behaviour, according to Pewresearch.org.
On the other hand, with first-party cookies, we can rest assured that our information will be stored safely, as it is directly anchored to the domain we are at. This means our information isn’t shared with others we aren’t aware of.
Alternatives to third-party cookies for retargeting
Now, let’s dive deeper into what it means that we are moving into a ‘cookieless world’ and what actions you can take to minimise the loss.
The first thing to have in mind is that the cookieless world is nothing more than a new system that is here to stay and is here to protect the privacy of users. As it is an imminent change, there’s no reason to avoid it or delay its implementation.
The key takeaway #2 is that now we need to move forward with understanding and building new cookieless funnels.Our efforts should be focused on first-party cookies channels.
In the following graphic, you can find an example of what a cookieless funnel can look like:
What are the main advantages of relying on first-party cookies, and what channels do you have at your disposal?
The channels you can use are: push web, push app, email, and SMS
The main advantage is that you can double your reach by attaining both registered and non-registered users (A.K.A. you don’t need a form to target users with push web and push app notifications)
You can hyper-personalise the experience, meaning that automatisation doesn’t have to feel cold and robotic.
You can interact with your audience before they even register with push web and push app notifications, even if they are not on the app or site.
The interactions can be intentional, meaning you can set them up according to the behaviour of the user.
Users don’t stay in just one channel: maximise your marketing efforts so that you can target your users across their customer journey.
Key takeaway #3: Maximise your retargeting efforts by relying on first-party cookies channels.
Discover the benefits that Web Push Notifications can bring to your e-site
In this case, we are going to revise further our starred channel: Web Push notifications. We found there was an industry gap for this particular channel and have specialised enough, which has led us to know the ins and outs of it.
Web push notifications are the newest retention channels for websites, in which messages are sent by a website and appear on the screen of a user’s device. As we mentioned earlier, messages can be sent even if the website is closed, and they can operate without personal data. It is the latest and a very powerful digital channel for websites to re-engage and communicate with subscribers who opt-in to receive them, providing useful/interesting information.
Where can you use web push notifications or browser push notifications?
The coverage you get by using these notifications is great.
For browsers, they are fully operative on:
Safari
Chrome
FireFox
Microsoft Edge
Opera
On the other hand, in operating systems they work on:
Microsoft Desktop
MacOS
Android
iOS (coming soon with iOS 16 in 2023!)
Key takeaway #4: Web push notifications can bring a higher opt-in rate, increasing your reach and retargeting possibilities.Web push notifications have a 5% to 10% opt-in rate, whereas email opt-in ranks at a 2-4%. With the release of the web push notifications on iOS 16, it means the current rate is likely to increase by 50%.
What are the expected results?
To make it clear, you can find in the following chart how all the different channels can be compared in terms of opt-in rate, click rate and reach rate:
With these graphics, we can see clearly that, on average, web push notifications have better performance rates than other channels, including social media posts.
Emails, on the first hand, require that users confirm their opt-in, which can easily push back the users to complete the action. Social media, on the other hand, usually prioritise paid ads, meaning that organic posts are hardly seen by your audience.
With web push notifications, the opt-in only requires one click from the user. The click rate can be completely personalised and tailored to the part of the customer journey your user is at, making it relevant. Lastly, the reach is definitely one of its strengths as typically you aren’t competing with other brands, opposite to what happens in social media.
Another great advantage of using web push notifications is that they are completely GDPR friendly, as they don’t require the usage of personal data for them to succeed.
How do we use web push notifications at Frizbit?
We begin by analysing your sales funnel and creating hyper personalised notifications for each stage of the funnel. For instance, if in an e-commerce a user is interested in the category of the same product, but doesn’t add the product to their cart, they will receive a notification that helps them to go back and purchase a particular product.
Key takeaway #5: Nothing is more relevant than sending the right message, to the right user, at the right time, through the right channel. And web push notifications can help to do this effectively.
If at this point, you are wondering if the web push notifications can be beneficial for your business, you can apply for a free demo here.
First-party cookies retargeting strategies
We want to show you that moving on from third-party cookies is possible. You can do retargeting without relying on them while keeping in line with the newest GDPR regulations.
In the following graphic, you can see what an integral strategy, incorporating different first-party cookies channels, looks like:
In this example, we are showing a retargeting strategy for abandoned carts. As seen here, you can combine different channels seamlessly, creating personalised flows with specific timing options.
What are the expected results you can look for with each channel?
Definitely, using all the channels strategically can represent an increase in sales or in your conversion goals. Each channel has a particular strength, and whether you should use one or another in a higher proportion depends on the purpose and industry of your brand.
To summarise:
The cookieless world is approaching, and we are leaving behind the so-known third-party cookies, which can limit the way we know on how to do retargeting.
We recommend investing time and effort in developing strong owned media channels.
Start creating first-party cookies retargeting funnels using channels like web push notifications, email marketing and SMS
The key element of success for any retargeting strategy is to send the right message, to the right user, at the right time, through the right channel.
Having said this, we would like to thank everyone who took part in this experience and made it possible. Special thanks to Áticco Working Spaces for their collaboration and continuous support.
If you missed the event and want to have a deeper understanding on how to do retargeting without third-party cookies, the replay of the session is available here.
Web push notifications are messages sent through browsers. Besides the text, they can also include images and action buttons. What’s great about web push notifications is that they work as a retargeting channel but with added values:
No personal data from users required
Can reach users on both desktop and mobile
They have hyper-personalization capabilities
If you want to dive deeper on the functionality of this new channel, we recommend you check out our Complete Guide on Web Push Notifications. But in this blog post we are going to focus specifically on the types of web push notifications and how you can use and combine them to grow your online business, engage users and increase your revenue.
Types of Web Push Notifications
First of all, what you need to know is that there are two main categories of web push notifications: automated and time- based ones. This distinction is important because each of them have their own subcategories. So let’s get into it!
What are Automated Web Push Notifications?
Automated web push notifications are behaviour-based messages sent to users automatically after they perform a specific predefined action on the website. These notifications require the definition of a trigger event and exception event and a time frame to be sent.
For example, if someone adds a product to their shopping cart and leaves the site without completing a purchase, after the time you define, they will receive a web push notification reminding them about their abandoned cart and inviting them to go back and complete the purchase.
On the other hand, in the same scenario, if the user adds the product to their cart and completes the purchase, the notification won’t be sent. In simpler words:
Triggering event: product added to cart
Exception event: product purchased
Automated web push notifications campaigns only have to be configured one first time, then everything keeps running automatically. You just need to define the messages, for each one, the trigger and event scenarios and the timings.
Just like with emails, cart abandonment web push notifications are the most popular and common ones. However, you can have more than one message for each campaigns you create and it is possible to define as many triggering and exception scenarios as you desire to match your typical user journey:
1. Types of Automated Web Push Notifications
1.1 Welcome Notification
In order to subscribe to a web push notifications channel, users need to click on Allow in the otp-in prompt shown to them when they visit a site that has web push notifications enabled. Once they do, after a few seconds (we recommend 10 seconds), you can send a notification welcoming them!
In this case the trigger event would be “subscription received”. Normally, the welcome notification doesn’t have an exception event because it is sent rather quickly after the action taken by the user and it is always a good idea to seize the opportunity to make that first contact through this new channel.
You can express your gratitude to them for opting in and take the opportunity to redirect them to a specific page on your site like a new collection, a sales section or maybe the about page.
Another option is to offer them a discount coupon for their first purchase or invite them to join your newsletter. The welcome notification is a great way to introduce the channel to your new subscribers and let them know what they can expect from it.
1.2 Category Notification
In a very traditional user journey in an e-commerce site, the second step after landing in the home page would be to visit a category page. With automated web push notifications you can define a scenario accordingly.
If a user visits a category page and then leaves the site without taking any further action, a notification will be sent (after the time you decide) with a message related to the visited category.
In other words is doing category retargeting with a message that can include the complete name of the category, an image representing it and an appealing message that invites the user to come back and take another look.
In this automated scenario the triggering event would be “category viewed” and the exception event “product viewed”, which takes us to the next type of notification.
1.3 Product Notification
The product retargeting notification is sent to users when they visit a product page and then leave the site without doing anything else. In this case the triggering event would be “product viewed” and the exception event would correspond to the obvious next step which is “product added to cart”.
Since product pages have much more detailed and specific information, the product notification can include it making it a lot richer for the user. You can include product image, product name, product brand, price, size and even color if the case. These are all dynamic parameters taken directly from the website so you don’t have to do any manual work.
By making the notification as personalised as possible, you can highly increase the click through rate because it will be more relevant to the user that receives it.
1.4 Cart Abandonment Notification
The following stage in this journey would be to add the product to the shopping cart. The retargeting cart abandonment web push notification is sent to users that add a product to their carts and then leave the site without completing the purchase.
The triggering event would be “product added to cart” and the exception event “product purchased”. This means that the notification won’t be sent if the user goes through with the purchase.
The same as with Product Notifications, you can also include dynamic parameters to make the message as personalised as possible. For cart abandonment web push notifications is also a good strategy to include messages that appeal to a sense of urgency such as “last units”, “get it before we run out”, or “this is your last chance”.
Normally, click-through rates of cart abandonment notifications are the highest because, when users reach this stage of the funnel they already show a higher purchase intent than in other stages. If you design an appealing message you will get amazing results for sure.
1.5 Post-purchase Notification
You are probably already familiar with post-purchase emails. Well, there’s a web push notification version in which you can set an event that automatically sends a message to a customer some time after they made a purchase.
In this scenario, your imagination is the limit! You can send a notification asking for their opinion of the product they purchased and use it as a strategy to get more online reviews about your brand, for example. There’s also the option to announce a new collection, new arrival and invite them to come back and make a new purchase.
Post-purchase web push notifications are great to stay in touch with your customers after they have already converted by sending updates and information that could interest them. The main objective here is to stay in their top of mind and try to make them recurring customers.
1.6 Cross-sell Notification
Cross-sell campaigns are very popular and effective for e-commerce. These campaigns offer value to shoppers and can increase business’ revenue significantly. They consist of sending a message to a customer that finished a purchase, suggesting complementary products.
In this scenario the trigger would be “product purchased” and there wouldn’t be an exception event. To set up web push notification cross-sell campaigns you need to register and track information regarding the product the customer bought and time since the last purchase.
Combining this data you can create a hyper-personalised notification suggesting a product that complements the previous purchase. For example, if the shopper got a moisturizing day cream, you can suggest a moisturizing night cream from the same brand.
1.7 Back to Stock Notification
Back to stock announcements are very effective because they make reference to a very popular and on-demand product that customers are surely eager to get. If you run out of stock from a specific product, it’s safe to assume that there’s a lot of people waiting to buy it, so sending a notification letting them know that it’s available again is a great strategy.
You can send this message to all users that visited said product with a trigger event “back to stock” and an exception event “product purchased”. Keep in mind that, in order to be able to send back to stock web push notifications you need an additional integration process in your site through an API.
1.8 Price Drop Notification
The same as with back to stock, price drop web push notifications also require an extra step with integration with an API to get the info of when a product experiences a price drop.
The trigger event here would be “price drop” so the notifications get sent to all subscribers that visited said product page. These types of notifications also show great results because they are extremely relevant for users. Not only do they show information about a product they have expressed interest in, but they have the added value of the price drop making it much more attractive for them.
1.9 Lead Nurturing Notifications
Lead nurturing web push notification sequences are great for B2B. You can create a flow of messages that offer valuable information that helps prospects move down the funnel during their decision making process.
For example, you can send a first message sharing information about a special feature your product has 1 day after receiving the subscription. Then, 1 week later you can send a web push notification with a case study as an example of what you can do for your clients and 1 week later maybe a whitepaper with useful information about your product in different industries.
2. Types of Time-based Notifications
2.1 Manual Web Push Notifications
Also called bulk web push notifications, they are the notifications equivalent to email newsletters. These notifications are not automated, which means you have to set them up manually and they are sent to all of your subscribers database unless you segment manually as well.
Manual web push notifications are used to share time sensitive information like sales, special promotions or contests. You can use them to communicate any time you launch a product, for example, and they are excellent for special dates like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Keep in mind that bulk web push notifications are not behaviour based like the automated ones. This means that you need to be extra creative and careful with your copies and the images you add to make sure you park your audience’s interest with a great message.
One of the great benefits of these types of campaigns is that, since you can send them to all of your subscribers at once, they are amazing traffic generators to your site. If you like to plan ahead, you have the option to schedule them for a specific time and date or, in any other case, to send them as soon as you create them.
2.2 Recurring Web Push Notifications
Recurring web push notifications are great to ensure a permanent contact with your subscribers. You can set up 2 or 3 different generic messages to be sent automatically in a 30 day period inviting subscribers to visit your site again.
Since you can design a couple of different versions, they will be sent randomly to all your subscribers varying each month. For example, you can have a monthly notification with a message related to new arrivals and another one inviting users to visit your social media pages. Each month 50% of your subscribers will receive one of them and the other 50% the other one. You can have as many versions as you want and use Frizbit’s A/B testing features to choose the percentage of subscribers you want to send each one to.
Another option, if you sell a product that’s bought frequently like pet food for example, you can set up recurring web push notifications that work as a reminder for pet owners letting them know it’s time to buy again! Your subscribers will find it valuable because it would serve the purpose of a reminder of something that’s important to them and you’ll increase the chances of them purchasing from you again. It’s a win-win situation!
Recurring web push notifications correspond to the loyalty stage of the funnel.
General Comments
As we mentioned before, you can create as many scenarios as you want for your web push notifications campaigns. However, for optimal results we strongly recommend to set up at least the 4 main ones:
Welcome notifications
Category retargeting notifications
Product retargeting notifications
Cart abandonment notifications
You can create a sequence of automated notifications for each of them with a different message that’s sent after certain periods of time. For example:
The important thing is that you try and find the combination that works best for your online business regarding timings and amount of notifications for each campaign. While for one brand it would make sense to send 5 product retargeting notifications in one week, for another it might be better to only have a couple notifications in a 3 day period.
Web push notifications open a whole new world of possibilities when it comes to retargeting strategies and we would be delighted to show it to you. If you want to request a one trial month period with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
Natura is a miscellaneous product retailer with 221 stores open between Spain, Portugal, Italy and Andorra. They recently launched their e-commerce site with 5 languages and were looking for a solution to engage,bring back customers and increase their revenue with a hyper pesonalized experience that fits their brand.
They implemented automated web push notifications and emails from Frizbit.
Natura Success Story by Frizbit
By using behavioural, hyper-personalised emails and web push notifications from Frizbit, Natura managed to bring customers back to finish their transactions with a ROAS of 16.8x, a 0,10€ cost per session and a 4,3% increase sales increase for the month of July.
We have put together a complete Success Story explaining the problem Natura was facing and how Frizbit offered an all-in-one solution. In this study you will find all the information, data and insights about this specific case and understand how Frizbit offers the possibility to retarget completely anonymous users without ads and 3rd party cookies when they have already left your site.
Get the Case Study and Request a demo for your site
Here at Frizbit we are always looking for ways to innovate, make our platform better and fulfill our clients need with top notch technology. That’s why we keep improving as we grow so we can offer the best possible service and user experience.
We would like to share with you the latest
Frizbit Product Updates of Q2 2021
1. Launch of Campaign Analytics
Frizbit launched its campaign analytics so you can see all the performance metrics of each campaign. Based on the channel (email, sms or push notification) of the campaign, the relevant metrics vary.
2. Multi-product Cart Abandonment Emails
Frizbit now supports the use of dynamic parameters of multiple product in the same message. It’s very useful for cart abandonment emails or recommended products.
3. Flexibility of Trigger and Exception Events
Now you can select the same trigger and exception events for the same campaign. This allows marketers to decide if they would prefer to trigger based on the first event, or the last event. For example, you can retarget users either the first category or the last one.
4. API for Sending Messages
Frizbit now published its API to send messages via any channel and any content you choose. It’s an alternative method to sending messages via dashboard. Besides Frizbit’s marketing automation engine, if you would like to trigger messages through another system you can implement this API and do so.
5. Email Suppression List Management
Through Frizbit, now you can manage the list of email addresses in your blacklist. You can add email addresses manually or you can upload files with multiple email addresses to add them to your blacklist. Email Unsubscription can be done by users, but for special cases this gives marketers an option to manage their lists manually.
Shopping cart abandonment makes reference to the action of initiating a checkout process on an online store by adding a product to a virtual shopping cart and leaving the site without completing the purchase.
There are many reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts. Maybe they were just looking around, perhaps they weren’t ready to buy, they just wanted to see the final cost of the transaction before making a decision or didn’t have enough time. Unexpected shipping costs, complicated site navigation or confusing checkouts can also be the cause.
However, all of these reasons don’t mean they aren’t willing to complete the purchase and this is where cart abandonment strategies come into play. Cart abandonment emails have been the number one strategy for e-commerce sites to bring customers back to finish a transaction they left halfway.
But, what happened with cart abandonment emails when GDPR came into the picture?
GDPR makes reference to the General Data Protection Regulation. Is the legislation enforced in May 2018 that aims to protect users’ data privacy. It applies to any business that provides services to EU residents, even if it’s located anywhere else in the world.
This legislation states that no business can disclose users’ personal information or send any type of communication to users without their previous consent. It’s pretty clear that this raised many eyebrows of concern for marketers wondering what would happen with their customer’s email database.
Cart abandonment email retargeting is the main practice marketers rely on to tackle the issue of only 2% of users converting. If the appearance of GDPR meant they would lose the user’s database they have built with so much effort and time and wouldn’t be able to retarget customers that initiated a transaction on their site, it would be a disaster.
So, are cart abandonment emails GDPR compliant?
In order to answer this question as accurately as possible, it’s important to clarify that there are three different types of emails. Each one of them fulfills a purpose and depending on its objective.
1. Marketing Emails
Marketing emails are the ones that contain a commercial message and it’s sent to groups of customers or to prospects. The objective of marketing emails is to push leads down the marketing funnel.
These types of emails are not sent programmatically, they are timed and sent strategically like newsletters, announcements or welcome emails.
2. Promotional Emails
A promotional email is an email sent to inform email subscribers about offers and time limited sales, like Black Friday or Mother’s Day. They have a specific time frame and could be recurring given the nature of the offer.
Its objective is to get the word out about and inform email subscribers about something special. Promotional emails usually also include some sort of promotional code or coupon with the goal of encouraging customers to move down the funnel and complete a purchase.
3. Transactional Emails
Transactional emails are direct one-to-one emails with personalised information regarding a transaction a customer did or started on a site. They are not sent to a large group of subscribers or to the entire list because transactional emails are triggered by an action a user took when browsing the site.
They include:
Order confirmations
Delivery updates
After purchase receipts
Post-purchase review requests
Cart abandonment reminders
Cart abandonment emails are considered transactional emails because a user that added a product to the shopping cart showed an intention to buy, thus initiating a transaction.
Unlike marketing and promotional emails, transactional emails are programmed to be triggered by specific user behaviour on site. With platforms like Frizbit, you can set up an event that sends an automated email to users that add a product to their carts but leave without finishing a purchase.
One of the main attractions of transactional cart abandonment emails is that they only need to be configured one first time. Since they’re automated and triggered by the scenario you define, you just have to take time to create templates and content once to set up the campaigns and then everything runs smoothly by itself.
You can schedule a sequence of emails to be sent:
1 hour after adding a product to the cart and leaving the site without completing a purchase
1 day later
3 days later
These automated cart abandonment recovery emails, include hyper-personalised information such as user name, product name, price and image. These features increase the value of the communication between sender and recipient by making the information much more relevant.
Is sending cart abandonment emails still allowed under GDPR?
Now that you know what types of email exist and what their objectives are, you’ll understand the answer is yes. According to the European Commission’s definition of legal grounds for processing data, cart abandonment emails are compliant as long as you have explicit consent from users to receive those emails. (Source Nosto.com)
Abandoned cart emails are categorized as direct marketing and can work under the legal grounds of legitimate interest which basically states that if the recipient is really going to be interested in what you have to say and find value from it, it’s ok to send it:
“Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party except where such interests are overridden by the interests…”icoo.org.uk
Processing personal data for direct marketing purposes may be considered done for legitimate interest. (BOE.es)
This means that you might not need specific consent from users to send this type of communication because when customers share their email addresses with you in the intent of making a purchase and don’t complete it, both parties have legitimate interest on the transaction being finished.
That being said, we strongly recommend you to not take any chances on this and be very explicit and straightforward in order to receive consent from users before sending any type of automated cart abandonment campaign.
You can make sure your emails are compliant by checking the following:
Users need to actively opt-in or subscribe. Unchecking a box is not enough, this has to be a voluntary decision.
Include a registered address.
Make sure your website’s privacy policy clearly states the type of information being collected. Specify you’re going to send transactional cart abandonment messages. Here are a couple of examples:
We will use your data to suggest products or offers based on the profile you create based on your purchase history, the products you view when you browse our platforms, or the products you leave in your cart when you do not finish the purchase process.
Your data may also be used for other marketing and advertising purposes. These suggestions can come to you through push notifications, banners, or even to your email using the abandoned cart feature.
If you’re going to rely on legitimate interest, your privacy policy should say something like this:
Why do we process your personal data? Guarantee the correct processing of your order, in the event that you purchase any of our products.
The Responsible Party treats user data for the following purposes: other commercial communications by email about the Responsible and the provision of services
Check the source of the email list you have before automating an abandoned cart recovery campaign. GDPR also affects data collected before its implementation, so it’s very important for you to verify what type of consent previous subscribers agreed to.
Include an easy way for users to unsubscribe from your list.
Should you be using Cart Abandonment Emails?
Cart abandonment recovery emails by Frizbit have reported a CTR of 17,1% and conversion rates of 4,1%, making them the highest performing channel in automated cart recovery campaigns.
When it comes to GDPR and cart abandonment emails, consensus says that there’s no problem with sending these types of emails to users that voluntarily subscribe to your mailing list thanks to the base of legitimate interest.
If you haven’t implemented a strategy for cart abandonment recovery, getting started with automated and hyper-personalised emails is a great way to go. If you’d like to know more about how to do so, get in touch with us and we will be happy to guide you.
Cart abandonment recovery is the biggest issue e-commerce sites face every day. According to Statista on a study including different industries, for March 2020 an average of 88.05% of online orders were left behind without completion. Specifically, the online retail sector has an average of 84.51 percent shopping cart abandonment rate.
Since it represents a huge leak of sales, it’s one of the most (if not the most) important problems to tackle if you own or run any type of online store. There are many reasons why customers abandon their shopping carts. Before we go into detail on how to mitigate this issue, let’s point out some of the:
Main reasons shoppers abandon carts:
Confusing site
Unexpected costs in shipping or taxes
Confusing checkout process
Online “window shopping”
Security concerns
Found a better deal on another site
If you want to implement cart abandonment recovery strategies, there are many techniques you can apply as for today and start getting results. Even though all users are different, with their own likes, dislikes and needs, there are some similarities and commonplaces to be identified within the segments and come up with a strategic approach that offers the right solutions.
Cart Abandonment Recovery Strategies
1. Use retargeting channels strategies
Marketers are very lucky. Yes, cart abandonment is a big issue for online stores, but there’s a wide variety of channels and marketing tools to use and tackle the problem from all angles with a tailor made strategy that fits your needs and fulfill customer’s expectations. One of the most important moves to make is to implement retargeting strategies.
The following table shows an estimate of how each channel performs for cart abandonment recovery strategies. The numbers where measured for a average e-commerce site.
Opt-in rate: The op-in rate shows how many visitors subscribe to each channel.
% of subscribers in sequence: the % of subscribers in sequence makes reference to how many of those subscribers can be reached by the respective channel.
Number of messages in sequence: when it comes to the number of messages in the sequence, it shows how many messages where designed to include as a series.
CTR: is the click-trough rate for each channel, it show how many subscribers who received the messages clicked on it.
Conversion rate: how many subscribers who received the messages and clicked on it, finished a purchase.
Increase in sales: how much revenue said channel generated for the site.
Channel
Opt-in Rate
% Of Subscribers in Sequence
# Of Messages in Sequence
CTR
Conversion Rate
Increase in Sales
Email – Cart Abandonment
1- 3%
100%
3
17,2%
3,8x
4%
SMS – Cart Abandonment
0,5-1,5%
100%
1
35,4%
5,2x
2%
Web Push – Cart Abandonment
5-10%
10-15%
3
12,1%
2,3x
1%
Web Push – Full Funnel
5-10%
100%
3
10,7%
0,8x
2%
Users that have reached the checkout stage of the shopping funnel are easier to convert than visitors or potential customers. There’s no reason not to make the biggest effort on this step.
You have three main channels available for cart abandonment recovery and recover lost sales while retaining users: automated web push notifications, emails and SMS.
Cart abandonment recovery automated Web Push Notifications
Web push notifications are messages sent through browsers to, either mobile or desktop, to subscribers that opt-in to receive them. They’re delivered the moment users open the browser and start navigating online, indistinctly of the site or page they’re on at the moment.
Automated web push notifications allow to send users automatic messages related to the step of the shopping journey they were on the moment they left the site. For example, when users put an item in the basket, but abandon the web without completing the order, they will receive an automated web push notification reminding them about the product they left behind.
You can recover lost sales from abandoned carts by sending automated notifications to users who left products in their basket but didn’t complete the purchase. You can schedule a sequence of messages to be delivered after certain amounts of time, like 1 hour, 1 day and 3 days after the user abandoned its shopping cart.
The most engaging feature about using this channel to recapture lost customers, is that you don’t need any type of personal data from them. Unlike email or SMS, you can retarget visitors and anonymous users with web push notifications and bring them back to your site so they can finish their purchase.
Cart abandonment recovery emails
Cart abandonment email might be the strategy online stores use the most to tackle this issue. When using automated emails, they’re automatically sent to users that left the site on some step of the checkout process without completing a purchase after they added products to their cart.
Frizbit allows you to set up automated behavioural emails to recover abandoned carts. The configuration process only needs to be done once, so implementing this strategy won’t represent a continuous effort or add to your normal workload.
Recovering abandoned carts emails should be as highly customised as possible. When users identify and relate to the content of the message, click-through and conversion rates increase significantly which translates to a recovery of lost sales and an increase in your revenue.
This strategy has always been so popular, because it has presented a direct communication with users by contacting them through their email accounts. The downside is that, in order to do so, you need people to share with you their personal information and they don’t always do that. So, basically, if a user leaves the site before reaching the part of the checkout process where they’re supposed to submit their email address, you lose that user for good.
Even though cart abandonment emails have always presented encouraging results for online stores, combining them in a strategy that also includes automated web push notifications will help you optimize your strategy and take it to the next level. Keep in mind that with emails, you can only reach those people that registered, while losing visitors and anonymous users. Adding an additional channel, that allows you to communicate with all visitors might be what your strategy is missing.
You can check out our Success Story with Bidcom, an online retailer in consumer electronics that uses a combination of Frizbit’s automated behavioural emails and web push notifications campaign to recover abandoned carts.
Cart abandonment recovery SMS
SMS cart abandonment are messages sent to users that left a site during some step of the checkout process after adding a product to their basket. They work with the same principle of cart abandonment emails, but instead of receiving the message in the inboxes, users receive them on their mobile devices.
The format of SMS presents a great opportunity for online stores, since the information is delivered directly to the hands of the user through their phones, which makes it a very direct form of communication. Everyone has their mobiles nearby and constantly checks them during the day. Unlike emails, with SMS you don’t have to wait for users to go and check their inboxes to get the message.
They are also highly customisable as well, and can include user name, product name, category name, brand or pretty much anything you wish to highlight about the article. This helps by making the message more relevant and harder to ignore by the user.
However, the way it happens with emails, you need users to provide information: their phone number. If people are already reluctant to share their email address, this unwillingness increases a lot when it comes to sharing much more personal information like their personal number. If they don’t, you’ll lose them as well.
Create a multichannel cart abandonment recovery strategy
There are multiple roads you can take to deal with cart abandonment: optimizing the web experience, using retargeting emails, sms or web push notifications. The way we see it, the real solution for this issue is to combine all of them in a well-planned retargeting strategy.
FYI, we’re not saying that you should harass your users with messages while you follow and stalk them through every possible channel. What we’re saying is that you need design and execute a multichannel cart abandonment strategy in a way each channel complements the other.
Create a strategy thought out like a service you’re providing your customers. You want to bring them back to finish their purchases and recover lost carts in a way they feel they’re also gaining something. You can use each channel available in a different way, with different types of messages, different frequencies and segmenting by users by creating a flow of messages.
Remember to always make the message as relevant as possible by using the dynamic fields available such as user name, product name, image, price or any information you see fit. The most important thing you need to keep in mind when designing your multichannel cart abandonment strategy is to use the frequency cap parameter so you can regulate the time periods your messages are delivered.
This is especially important if you work with different providers for each channel. You’ll have to coordinate the time frames in which you want each message to be delivered so they don’t clash with each other. For example, if the recovery cart email is sent after one hour, you’ll have to change the web push notification timing to be sent after two hours. If the user clicks on the email and completes a purchase, that event will be fulfilled, hence cancelling the web push notification automatically.
If you work with the same provider for web push, emails and SMS, this won’t present a problem or extra work. Frizbit allows cross-platform event triggering coordination, meaning that if a user clicks on the cart abandonment recovery notification, the email and the SMS won’t be sent and so on.
Additional Tips to Reduce Cart Abandonment Rates
1. Optimize your site
When we talk about cart abandonment issues, we’re referring to the last step of the shopping funnel. So why are we even mentioning the quality of the site as an important element here? Simple: user experience from top to bottom.
Simplify navigation
Simplify the journey as much as you can. A lot of users abandon carts because of a confusing, complex navigation. The more clicks you put them through, the higher the chances that they leave before completing a purchase. The ideal number here is up to three clicks. To get there, make sure you organize your products in different, identifiable categories with names that clearly describe what’s in them.
Create engaging informative product pages
Remember that before any user even thinks about adding a product to the basket, they browse through your site. They get a feeling from what they see, from the homepage to the product page. You want to focus on creating an engaging experience for them that also presents all the information they might need to know before making a decision.
Include product visuals that portray as best as possible the characteristics of the article: photos from different angles, videos, details. When shopping online, customers don’t get to touch, smell or experience the product in any physical way, and that can be a huge barrier to the shopping process. Reduce it by adding as much visual and descriptive information as you can.
Reduce loading times
Long loading times can greatly affect cart abandonment rates. Keep in mind that people get easily bored and distracted when browsing online. If you make them wait too long to go through checkout after finally deciding to shop for a product on your site, you can very easily lose them.
This risk is even bigger for mobile users who already present higher cart abandonment rates as they are. Bottom line, if your site is slow, users will abandon. The checkout page is the step where you want to boost your site’s loading time as much as possible. Making the shopping journey easy and fast in this stage is crucial for customers to complete their purchase and avoid cart abandonment.
2. Increase site trust
As we mentioned before, one of the main reasons for cart abandonment is a lack of trust in the shopping process. Even though by now most of us are extremely used to shopping online and we do it all the time, there are still a lot of barriers regarding the level of trust on online transactions.
You’re asking people that don’t know you from anything to trust you, not just with personal information, like email or phone number, but with very private and sensitive credit card and bank account details. It’s your job to increase the level of trust. You can do it by:
Displaying logos of security companies your work with: One study done by Actual Insights found that, on average, 61% of people did not buy because a trust logo was no were to be found on the site, and over 75% said they didn’t buy because they didn’t recognize the logos used.
Including social proof: If you also let users know that others have purchased products from you and had a great experience doing so, you might tilt the balance in your favor. It’s all about adding valuable information that reduces hesitation by increasing trust leves of your site.
Avoiding to request unnecessary information: nobody likes to share their personal details on the internet. Especially if you don’t know what they’re going to be used for, so refrain yourself from asking people to fill endless forms with personal data. If possible, create a “guest checkout” option that doesn’t require users to create a profile on your site.
3. Be honest about your prices!
Unexpected and hidden additional charges in the checkout page is the biggest reason customers leave without completing a purchase. 56% of shoppers claimed to have abandoned their cart because extra rates were not mentioned before.
To lower this stat, be as transparent as possible from the get go. Make sure to display shipping rates and tax charges as clearly as you can so people can see it and don’t be surprised when they’re about to click that final “complete purchase” button.
You can add a shipping calculator where customers can introduce their addresses and learn how much it will cost them. Another option is to offer free shipping when a certain basket price is met. This way, not only will the costs be clear, it will be an extra incentive for customers to maybe spend a little more on your site.
You can reduce cart abandonment rates dramatically if you plan and execute a seamless retargeting strategy. If you want to request a one month demo period to try it out on your site, let us know by clicking here, we’ll be happy to help.
Definition (what are they, what are they used for, where are they shown and in which formats)
What’s the difference between web push and mobile push notifications?
What’s the difference between pop-ups and web push notifications?
What elements compose a web push notification?
What operating systems do they work on?
What browsers support web push notifications?
What devices support web push notifications?
How do web push notifications work?
Opt-in process
Manual web push notifications
Automated web push notifications by Frizbit
Why should I use web push notifications on my website?
Retention of anonymous users
Reach users outside of the website
Desktops and mobile reach without having and app
Quick traffic generator
Time efficient
Are web push notifications effective?
High opt-in rate
High CTR
Profitable channel
How much can you increase revenue?
How do I send web push notifications from my website?
How to install web push notifications
What metrics should I track to optimize my web push notification campaign?
How to measure web push notifications performance
Metrics to keep track of
Are web push notifications GDPR compliant?
What makes a good web push notification?
It’s relevant
It’s personal
It’s specific
How to choose a web push notification service provider?
1. What are Web Push Notifications?
Web push notifications are clickable messages sent by a website and appear on the screen of a user’s device, even if the website is closed and the user hasn’t filled any type of registration form. It is the latest and a very powerful digital channel for websites to re-engage and communicate with subscribers who opt-in to receive them, providing useful/interesting information.
What are web push notifications used for?
They’re used as a direct communication channel to keep users informed about news, promotions, abandoned products on their shopping carts or general information and updates. Web push notifications can be installed on any website: e-commerce, newspapers, blogs or magazines and their purpose is to entice users to return to the site and complete an specific action.
Where do web push notifications appear?
The format and position of web push notifications changes depending on the operative system, browser and device they appear on. They slide on the top right corner on Mac devices, on the bottom right corner on Windows devices , and on mobile they appear in the same way to a regular push notification from an app.
Windows Desktop Web Push Notification
Android Mobile Web Push Notification
What’s the difference between web and mobile push notifications?
Mobile push notifications are messages sent by an app that is installed on a mobile device or tablet. In order to receive them, users need to give permission and they’re shown on the screen of the device, no matter if the user is actively on that app or not.
Web push notifications are simply the website version of the app push notifications. They are messages sent by a website and delivered through browsers even when the users are not on that website, to both mobile and desktop devices.
The first time a user accesses a notifications-enabled website, users will be asked if they would like to to allow or block them by a browser permission prompt, just like apps would ask their users to allow notifications.
What’s the difference between pop-ups and web push notifications?
A pop-up is a message that suddenly shows-up on a website over the content while the user is currently navigating on it. The majority of them show-up as soon as a user lands on the page. In some cases they can be activated based on users’ actions, such as a click, scrolling down, spending a specific time period or closing a window (exit intent pop-ups).
Web Push Notification
Pop-up
Pop-ups can appear both on desktop and mobile, and are typically used for advertisement with the purpose of directing the user’s attention to a specific message in the site they’re visiting. User experience is usually diminished by these types of messages as they’re considered intrusive and annoying.
Web push notifications differ from pop-ups mainly because they’re shown on the screen of the user not necessarily within the browser window even if the user is not on the website, while pop-ups can only be shown within the browser window when the user is actively browsing on that website.
What elements compose a web push notification?
Web push notifications are composed of various elements that conform their anatomy. They include: icon, headline, description, call to action button, a large image and the page url from where it’s being sent. All the elements are modifiable for each notification, you can change the icon, image, text, CTA for each one if you wish to.
Icon: The icon is usually the logo of the brand. Its position inside the notification varies between different OS and browsers, but is always visible. The icon has to be a square image preferably at least 256 x 256 px.
Tips and insights: if you use your logo, you can adapt the design to match the season or a holiday!
Headline: The headline is the first text line of the notification. It usually appears in bold letters as an attempt to catch the user’s attention in most of the browsers & OS’s. The length of the visible area varies between 43 to 69 characters depending on different OS and browsers
Tips and insights: use the most appealing words at the first 43 characters of your content to make sure it’s visible regardless of the OS and browser.
Description: The description is the textual content that follows the headline and it’s used to offer a more detailed explanation. The length of the visible area varies between 50 to 136 characters depending on the OS and browser.
Tips and insights: use the most appealing words at the first 50 characters of your content to make sure it’s visible in all OS and browsers. Personalise the content using the dynamic parameters in this section as it has more area which can accommodate longer values of parameters
Large Image (Optional): An image that complements the message, it should be descriptive and appealing. It’s only visible on Google Chrome, Windows and Android OS.
Tips and insights:push notifications with images have a 20% higher CTR, according to A/B testing conducted by several Frizbit clients. The ideal ratio of the image to make it visible on all OS and devices is 2×1 horizontal, minimum size being 512 x 256 px and recommended size being 1024 x 512 px. You can read more about the ideal size and resolution for rich web push notifications here.
Page URL: Is the domain of the website that’s sending the notification, the one the user subscribed to. The subscriber can be directed to any destination URL, it doesn’t necessarily have to be the same domain.
Tips and insights: send subscribers to a page as close to the lower end of the shopping funnel as possible. This will increase the possibility of conversion. Don’t forget to add UTM tags to track the traffic coming from each different push notification campaign
Action button (Optional): Action buttons (you can have up to two) are optional buttons which can be used as call to action to tell users what you want them to do, what action is expected from them. Its visibility also varies depending on OS and device. It is possible to define a distinct URL to action buttons, other than the main URL of the notification.
Tips and insights: be precise on the CTA (Call to Action), tell the subscribers exactly what you want them to do: finish your purchase, book now. Don’t forget to add UTM tags to track the traffic coming from each different push notification campaign.
Even though all web push notifications include the same elements, how they’re shown will depend on the browser, operating system and device. Some will include the image, some won’t and the visibility of the text and action buttons will vary as well.
All the elements can be highly customised with personalised text, images and even emojis. If you make use of the dynamic parameters, you can include even more specific information such as category name, product name, product image, product price and user name to make the message as relevant as possible for each user, making them feel that you’re talking directly to them.
What operating systems support web push notifications?
Web push notifications are supported by all major operating systems, except iOS. Windows, Android, MacOS work properly with web push while iOS doesn’t support them by default.
Chrome Android Web Push Notification
Chrome MacOS Web Push Notification
Chrome Windows Web Push Notification
Firefox Android Web Push Notification
Firefox MacOS Web Push Notification
Firefox Windows Web Push Notification
Safari MacOS Web Push Notification
What browsers support web push notifications?
All major browsers, Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera and Microsoft Edge support web push notifications, except Internet Explorer.
What devices support web push notifications?
Web push notifications are shown on desktop, mobile and tablets even if the user has left the website. Their appearance and where they’re shown will vary depending on the operating system of the device.
2. How do web push notifications work?
From the publisher’s perspective
Web push notifications work for any kind of website. Any brand or business that owns a website can configure and send web push notifications very easily. No mobile app is required to do so, and the implementation is fairly simple by adding a small piece of code from a web push notification service platform to their site. We explain the process with more detail ahead in this article.
From the user’s perspective
Web push notifications is a permission based marketing channel, which means that it can be only sent to a user if they allow a website to do so. In order to start receiving web push notifications all a user needs to do is basically to opt-in (give permission to that particular website to send push notifications) and become a subscriber. This can be done by two ways:
Native opt-in: is the browsers’ default prompt to ask users their permission to subscribe to the web push notifications channel. It includes a non-customizable text and uses the language settings chosen by the user. It triggers when a user visits a site for the first time and they have to click “allow” or “block”.
Custom opt-in: is a form of opt-in which shows first a pop-up that can be customized with the website’s branding that also appears the first time a user visits the site. It offers the possibility to personalise the message and include the logo of the brand. It can be shown on the top middle of the screen and after clicking “allow” on, it triggers the browsers’ opt-in prompt, in which the user must give permission again to become a subscriber. The downside of using a custom opt-in, is that it requires two clicks from users in order to actually allow the notifications and this results in a 3x decreased opt-in rate.
Opt-out: How to disable web push notifications?
When it comes to this channel, the users have complete control over them. In order to unsubscribe from web push notifications, subscribers just need to access their browser settings panel, look for the notifications option, find the website they would like to opt-out and select “block”. The process may vary a little depending on the browser you use, for details you can check these articles:
There are two types of web push notifications: manual and automated. Depending on the service provider you choose, you’ll have more options regarding the type of messages you can send. The difference between them is their triggering mechanism:
Manual (bulk) push notifications: manual web push notifications are used to send manually a massive communication to all or a segment of users informing about special discounts, promotions, time sensitive sales or new products. They could be understood as the push notification equivalent to email newsletters. You can send messages regarding:
News
New blog post
Event information
Flash sale
New products
Automated (triggered) push notifications: automated notifications are highly personalised messages sent to users based specifically on their individual behaviour on the site. They’re designed and scheduled to be sent automatically in predetermined time frames after a user completes an action. You can define as many scenarios as you wish to trigger an automated web push notification, depending what type of site you have:
E-commerce: you can define events that send a message to users for every step of the funnel. Ex. Cart Abandonment, Product Retargeting, Category Retargeting.
Travel: you can define events to trigger notifications to recover lost reservations of the users that didn’t complete the booking or to improve the UX of the trip. Ex. Last Seats for a specific destination, last available room, check-in, boarding, luggage reminders.
B2B/SaaS: you can generate more leads by sending a sequence of web push notifications to nurture leads that visited a page but dind’t complete a sign up.
Real Estate: you can generate more leads and interactions by communicating with users about a listing they have viewed but didn’t engage with it or recommending similar properties or announce them about new listings.
Why should I use web push notifications on my website?
Web push notifications present a direct and real-time communication channel with users. Subscribers receive the message when they’re online, which highly increases the chances of interaction within minutes of the notification being sent. There’s no other digital marketing channel that has this inherent power that web push notifications have.
Engage anonymous users
The main reason web push notifications are becoming so popular amongst marketers, is because it is a unique channel to retain users that didn’t leave any personal information on the website. To become a subscriber, a user has to simply click “allow” on the opt-in prompt without filling any form, sharing their email address or any other type of personal data. This presents a major opportunity for businesses to create a flow of communication with users that might never decide to drop their email.
Reach both desktop and mobile without having an app
One the most attractive features of web push notifications is that they don’t require an app to function. In order to send a push notification, you just need to have a website and you can reach your subscribers on both desktop and mobile devices. This means that you don’t have to wait for users to check their emails to get the message through. Being able to reach people at any time, on any device is a unique advantage of web push notifications.
Reach users out of the website
What makes web push notifications so special is that they can reach audiences even when they’re not actively browsing your website. If a user subscribes, leaves and starts navigating any other site, they’ll still receive notifications from you. There’s currently no other direct digital marketing channel you can do this with, which adds to the list of reasons why you should use web push notifications on your website.
Generate traffic in seconds
Web push notifications is a real-time communication channel. This means users get the message the moment they’re online which inmensely increases the chances of interaction. On average, most notifications are clicked within the first hour after receiving it. For example, with manual web push notifications, you can direct lots of traffic in a very short period of time. In less than a minute after sending it, you’ll see sessions being generated on your web and users engaging with the site in real-time in your web analytics solution.
Time efficient
Digital and online businesses are used to working with multiple marketing tools to get their message across. Most of the time it would seem overwhelming to add one more channel to the mix. However, web push notifications is different. The campaign setup is extremely simple and you don’t have to spend a lot of time creating each message and manually sending it. Using automation you can create templates that will be sent automatically when triggered by an event you define on your site. You’ll only need to invest some time once to configure your campaigns and that’s it!
Are web push notifications effective?
The most simple and straightforward answer is YES! But let’s dig a little deeper. If used wisely it can become the most effective retargeting channel for online businesses.
High opt-in rate
Web push notifications have proven to be much more effective than other traditional channels. They have an average 3x higher opt-in rate than emails, which can easily be related to how seamless the process is. With just one click, visitors can become subscribers without handing over their email address or other personal information. Reducing the steps one person has to follow and complete to opt-in to any type of digital communication, will decrease the hesitation and make them more open minded to subscribe.
High CTR
Stats have shown that web push notifications have a 4x times higher click through rate than emails. That’s a 8,5% over in comparison to the 2.4% CTR of emails. The hyper-personalisation capabilities of web push notifications, allow to significantly increase the CTRs. When people feel like you’re really talking specifically to them, it will translate into more clicks and that is one of the biggest benefits of using web push notifications.
Profitable channel
Web push notifications present a very valuable alternative for marketers that allocate a big part of their marketing budget to retargeting ads. Most web push notification services are based on monthly fees that vary on the amount of subscribers or visits to the website. There are no extra fees for the amount of messages sent, implementation nor PPC rates involved. You can send unlimited notifications.
This makes the cost of retaining a customer very profitable. Consider that returning users that have already converted are the biggest asset to your business. Web push notifications allow you to bring them back without having to spend a large marketing budget chasing them around with expensive retargeting ads.
How much can you increase your revenue with web push notifications?
Web push notifications offer varied results depending on the industry, type of business and amount of traffic of the site. You can access our calculator and introduce a few data to estimate how much you can increase your revenue using web push notifications in just a few clicks: https://get.frizbit.com/revenue-calculator/
How do I send web push notifications from my website?
1. Upload Service Worker
The process of implementing web push notifications is very simple and can be done in any website. The first thing you have to do is to upload the Service Worker file of your provider to the root folder of your website’s domain. A Service Worker is a file that allows a browser to run functions that don’t need a web page such as sending push notifications to a user when they are not on your site.
2. Add JavaScript snippet
The next step is to add the JavaScript snippet of your provider that will help you create a user profile for every person that visits your site, allowing you to to track their behaviour. There are two options to do this:
A) Via Google Tag Manager: most web pages nowadays already use GTM and you can easily add this snippet as a tag on GTM. Besides, a web push notification service provider such as Frizbit can offer all the implementation on GTM in a few moments.
B) Adding directly to the web: if you don’t work with Google Tag Manager, you have the alternative to directly add the JavaScript snippet by copying and pasting it inside the <head></head> section of your website.
Working with a web push provider makes the process very simple, since they can take care of all the configuration, onboarding and then they hand everything over to you. After the setup is complete, you’ll instantly start collecting subscribers when they visit your site and opt-in. All that’s left is to design the notifications. Some providers, like Frizbit, will offer you templates, advice and support for the optimization of your campaigns.
How to create a web push notification?
Web push notification service providers usually have a dashboard where you can create the content of push notifications. Frizbit’s dashboard allows you to design your messages personalising with the use of all kinds of dynamic parameters and also see the changes in your design in real time for each browser and operating system. This way you have complete control and awareness of how the notification will be shown to users.
Access the dashboard, select “New” and enter a name for your campaign
Fill in the information of the title, and description and include the icon
Select the options for Google Chrome and add a large image, write the message for the call to action. You can add a second one if you wish to.
Follow the same steps for Safari
In the “Advanced Options” tab, you can set a timer and add a tag for your campaign.
Proceed to select when and how you want the notification to be delivered: right now, scheduled, recurring or event triggered.
Next, continue with the audience segmentation. Here you can select as many filters as you wish, such as language, country, type of event, browser, device and much more.
Once you’re done, you can save your design as a draft or publish immediately. The web push notification you created, will be saved on your dashboard and you can edit it later or copy it for new creations.
Remember you can perform different versions and conduct A/B testing. You can assign percentages of users to each campaign variation and see for yourself which one performs better. Use the results to optimize your notifications as much as possible and get the best results.
What metrics should I track to optimize my web push notification campaigns?
Web push notifications significantly increase user engagement and improve retention rates. There are several metrics you should keep an eye on in order to constantly improve your campaigns.
Opt-in rate: is the percentage of the unique users on your site clicking “allow” and becoming subscribers. Keeping track of this information will give you hints on where to ask users if they want to receive notifications from your site and adjust accordingly. You can place the opt-in prompt in any page you want, and trigger it by an action of the user. It’s not necessary to ask permission within the second a visitor enters the site.
Click-through rate: is the percentage of subscribers that click the notification over the total number of subscribers you sent it to. It’s so important to keep close track of this number, because it lets you know what type of notifications your subscribers are responding to. You can test different messages changing the title, image, description and CTA and analyse which ones are resulting in more clicks.
Time spent on a page: when sending a notification, you tell users what to expect when they click on it. Directing them to a good landing page that fulfills their expectations is key. That’s why you should keep track of how much time subscribers spend on a page after they click the notification. This will give you valuable insight on how the messages portrayed in the notification meets the landing’s information. If there’s no connection between the copy of the notification and the content of the page you send users to, bounce rate will increase, letting you know there’s an issue in copywriting.
Opt-out rate: shows the number of people that unsubscribed from web push notifications from your site. This is a vital metric to keep track of. Naturally your opt-in numbers should be much higher than opt-outs. If you discover that your opt-out rates are increasing over time, ring your alarm bells and start looking for the problem. In this case it’s usually related to low relevance of your notifications, or maybe you’re sending too many notifications that your subscribers perceive as spam and decide to opt-out.
Conversion rate: this is the ultimate goal of your campaign and the main metric of any type of business. This metric indicates the accomplishment of your goal, whether completed sales, signup or another type of engagement. All of the improvement efforts for other metrics should be aimed at ultimately increasing conversion rates. You can have great opt-in rate or click-through rates, but if they’re not translating into conversions, it is time to evaluate your web push notifications campaign strategy in place, identify the problem and do whatever it requires to resolve it.
You can keep track of the majority of these metrics, setting goals on Google Analytics and checking the reports that provide your web push notifications provider.
Are web push notifications GDPR compliant?
Web push notifications are GDPR compliant by nature. They present a direct communication channel with users with no personal data requirements. This means that users have to give consent to become recipients, but they don’t have to provide their name, email, phone number or any other type of personal information.
These instant alert messages are device oriented. The user is not targeted based on some personal data they share, but to their device. The subscription information is all stored in the browser, so businesses have no access to it and can’t use it or sell it in any way.
The user is the one in complete control by having access to the notifications panel, where they can easily decide to opt-out if they wish to.
What makes a good web push notification?
The best web push notifications have three attributes that bring results: they’re relevant, personal and precise. This channel offers many possibilities that can greatly benefit your online business if used correctly. If you exploit all its features with a well-thought strategy and avoid common mistakes, you’ll be a web push notification lover just like us.
A great web push notification is:
Relevant: Tracking the user’s behaviour on your site gives you all that you need in order to make the notification as relevant as possible. Define different scenarios to trigger a specific notification based on each user activity, so that the message they receive is directly linked to what they did on the site. You also want to keep in mind user segmentation. You don’t want to send a special offer on a product today, to a customer that bought it the day before. The same way you should keep in mind to send notifications about sales or special offers during the time they’re active and deactive the campaign the minute the promotion is over. Web push notifications that are highly relevant, have much higher click through rates.
Personal: Make use of all the dynamic parameters available: user name, product name, category name, image or any other available parameter to design a super personalised notification. If a user feels that you’re talking directly to him, the message will present a higher value and the user will be more enticed to engage with it. You should also contemplate language and time zone. Customize the campaign for each language and country you’re sending it to. The content of your web push notification has to appeal to each subscriber as an individual.
Specific: Great web push notifications let the subscriber know exactly what you want them to do and what they can expect when clicking that action button. Make it clear and precise with your title, message and CTA. Write the text keeping in mind how it will display on each OS and browser. Write the most important message in the title to make sure it’s always visible and make sure you link to the right landing page where your subscribers will find all you promised in the notification.
How to choose a web push notification service provider?
There are a list of features and considerations to be made when choosing a web push notification service. It’s important that you do your research and don’t jump ahead and go for the first service you find online. The main aspects you must consider are:
Customer data protection
There are many well-known free web push notifications service providers in the market. You might feel enticed to choose one of these instead of a paid one. The thing is, that free web push notifications services might sell your customer’s information, they’re “free” for a reason. When using one of these providers, you allow them to collect and sell your subscribers behavioural data, which can be purchased by your very own competitors. You have to decide which price to pay: a normal service fee or to sell subscribers personal information to third parties.
Subscriber portability
When choosing a web push notification provider, you want to make sure you collect subscribers under your own domain. Some of the providers offer you an alternative way of subscription where the users will be subscribed to a subdomain of the provider rather than the domain of the business itself. If you agree to this, all the subscribers that accept and opt-in to notifications from you, won’t belong to your website, they’ll belong to the website of your service provider. This means that, if one day, you wish to change providers for whatever reason, you’ll lose all your subscriber’s base and will have to start from scratch.
Personalisation and automation
Make sure you select a platform that offers the option of hyper-personalisation through dynamic parameters. As we mentioned before, customised notifications that include details like user name, have higher CTRs and lower opt-out rates. The same happens with automation. Notifications triggered by the behaviour of users on the website, have high relevance that translates in better engagement.
Good customer support
Whether you’re new with web push notifications, or have been using them for a while, good customer support is extremely important. You want to choose a provider that’s always going to be present if you have any doubt, concern or issue with your campaigns. Frizbit offers its clients a step by step onboarding, ready-to-send templates for your automated campaigns and consulting of any type.
When choosing a push notification provider, seek one that offers a trial period. This will help you ensure it ticks all the boxes and put you at ease with your decision. If you want to request a demo from Frizbit, click here and let us know!
In this example, we are showing a retargeting strategy for abandoned carts. As seen here, you can combine different channels seamlessly, creating personalised flows with specific timing options. 
