An eMarketer report establishes that the global sales from retail will surpass $27 trillion in 2020. There are tons of other studies pointing out to this one trend that online retail is growing at an incredible pace globally. However, as with all other growing industries, online retail too is facing certain inherent challenges.
Competition is cutthroat. And, with the rise in the number of players in the market, it is exceedingly becoming costlier for businesses to acquire new visitors.
As a retailer you know that you can’t thrive by simply staying brick-and-mortar. You also understand the challenges of going online. How do you win at this game?
Improving Your Engagement And Retention Strategy
Let’s consider that you have managed to rank your online retail store on Google’s first page with search engine optimization techniques. You also run paid campaigns to get high-intent visitors on your website. The traffic is there, but conversions low. How do you break-even?
To maximize returns on investment and to optimize conversions, marketers are continuously revamping their tool kit. There is growing emphasis on customer engagement and retention, and this is exactly where newer channels like push notifications are emerging.
This post walks you through five ways in which web push notifications can be used by online retailers to win at engagement and conversions.
5 Ways Your Online Retail Store Can Benefit From Web Push Notifications
If you’d like a bit of proof about the power of web push notifications, before you actually start using it, here are some solid reasons and numbers:
- 84% of millennials respond to push notifications
- Push notifications have a 50% higher open rate than emails
- 65% users return to app in the 30 days after the initial download, if push is enabled
Now that you are convinced, here’s how you can use web push notifications for your online retail store:
Send Out Location Based Notifications
Location based notifications can be used to drive engagement and sales for onsite as well as off-site stores.
For example, you could target a user who is currently nearby, with a notification about discounts running in your physical store. You could also send out weather condition reminders to people in a particular geography/location and assist them to shop products that they might need. Plot Projects has some interesting insights to share about the do’s and don’t of location based push notifications. Follow them and you surely will be able to crack more conversions.
Get Inactive Users Back To Browsing And Buying
Users who haven’t interacted with your website for quite a while, need the right nudge and reminders. Don’t be intrusive though. With web push notifications you can keep them informed about items they left behind in their cart, discounts on their wishlisted items, and notify about restocked items.
Cleverly use the scarcity principle to see inactive users quickly come back to your website. Based on user’s past browsing behavior out notifications that might nudge him to come back. For example, your notification could say, “Denim jackets in size 14 are quickly going out of stock.”
Increase Average Order Value
As per RJMetrics, top performing eCommerce have an average order value of $102. As an online retail business you need to get close to that number to be better off than competition.
Offering free shipping is an excellent tactic to increase average order value. Use push notifications to send out ‘free shipping’ alerts to users who are about reach the free shipping threshold, and see them add more ‘value’ to their cart.
Drive Impulse Purchases
While a planned shopper would just buy what he needs, an impulse buyer might just buy something more. Every online retail store, therefore, needs to focus on increasing impulse purchases.
Cross-selling is an interesting use case on increasing impulse purchases. A visitor just purchased a pair of sunglasses? If it is summer season, you could cross-sell a hat to offer complete shade from the sun.
Product recommendations also work well in driving more engagement and sales from impulse buyers. Since recommendations take into account a visitor’s past buying behavior, your web push notifications can be highly personalized to suit your user’s likes. For example, if a user recently purchased an H&M shirt, show recommended and most bought apparel from the same brand to catch interest.
Win Customer Loyalty
As an online business your ultimate conversion goal might be revenue. However, there is more to business than just sales. You need to retain customers with the improve customer experience in every manner to see that you don’t lose your customers to competition.
Keeping your customers and happy requires that you encourage feedback and act on it. Using push notifications, you can ask them to rate their latest purchase from your online store, on a scale of 0-10.
Gift cards and coupons sent with a personalized message never fails to impress. Win your customers’ hearts by making them feel special on their special days. Segment buyers who have made at least 5 purchases in 2 months. And, offer them a discount on their favorite products.
To Wrap Up
Online retail players need to up their engagement and stay ahead of competition. By intelligently using web push notifications, online retailers can do exactly this. Have our examples helped you realize the power of push notifications?
Hand-Picked Related Articles:
- 10 Effective Ways To Increase Sales
- Understanding The Customer Acquisition Lifecycle
- Optimize Your Site For Every Stage Of The Buying Cycle
* Adapted lead image: 
