6 push notification strategies top retail brands use to boost customer retention

Customer activity and habits have always shifted depending on a variety of factors, including the economy, trends, supply, and more. In recent years, however, it seems that this evolution happens faster than ever — thanks largely to technological developments, including smartphones.

Now, more than ever, customers demand personalized, 1:1 marketing and messaging from the businesses and brands they interact with. What’s more, they demand this personalization across multiple channels — in any channel they spend time in, whether email, social, SMS, print, or digital. Smartphones offer easy delivery of tailored, individualized messaging that customers crave across many channels.

One channel that retailers and other businesses don’t always prioritize? Push notifications that can be delivered directly to customers through their devices.

Below, we take a closer look at what push notifications are and the role they can play in modern retail engagement. We also review several strategic use cases you may not have considered incorporating into your marketing strategy. We also explain why having clear, accurate, and easily accessible customer data is key to push notification success. 

What are push notifications?

Just to briefly recap in case you aren’t super familiar, a push notification is a type of alert that appears on an individual’s web browser or mobile device. Businesses use them to deliver essential communications to their customers and users or to initiate some other action, such as:

• Opening an application or window
• Completing a purchase
• Delivering a promotion, such as a coupon code
• Introducing newly-launched app features or products
• Completing a survey or application
• and more

Push notifications can be sent in various ways, including via a customer’s web browser (mobile or web), desktop, or mobile device.

Understanding push notifications in modern retail

Mobile push notifications can be a particularly effective marketing communications channel because they can be delivered whether or not a customer currently has a mobile application open. This allows brands to initiate communications even when customers do not actively think about the brand. 

With this in mind, they can be an excellent means of re-engaging a customer who has stalled in their customer journey. 

For example, a retailer might use push notifications to remind customers about items sitting in an abandoned cart, with the goal that the user will complete the purchase. Alternatively, a social media app might use push notifications to encourage a new user to finish filling out an incomplete profile, hoping that doing so will entice them to spend more time on the platform. 

Likewise, an investing app might use push notifications to remind a new user to link their banking details — knowing that doing so will make it more likely for the user to complete their first investment.

Strategic use cases for push notifications

There are countless ways that your brand can use push notifications to further its marketing efforts. Some potential strategies include:

Cart abandonment recovery

If you’re in the ecommerce space, you know that cart abandonment is just a part of the game. By some estimates, over 70% of all online shopping carts were abandoned in 2024. But just because a cart was abandoned doesn’t mean it has to stay that way; with push notifications, each cart can be an opportunity for you to bring customers back to complete a purchase. 

Of course, what message you send and when you send it should be based on what you know about your customers, their expectations, and their shopping habits. Don’t be afraid to A/B test different recovery messages and timing to see what works.

Product discovery and recommendations

Push notifications can also help your customers discover products or services they may want to purchase. Consider building a push notification strategy around the following:

• Making product recommendations based on past purchases or browsing habits
• Notifying customers that a previously sold-out product is back in stock
• Showcasing new or recently launched products or services

Time-sensitive marketing

Your customers are human, so chances are pretty good that they don’t want to miss out on a good deal. Using push notifications to launch a time-sensitive promotion can create a sense of urgency to tap into that FOMO and strum up interest in your brand that might not otherwise be there. 

In practice, this can take a lot of different forms, including: flash sale announcements, limited-time offers, price drop alerts (including on items they’ve saved or added to a wishlist), seasonal campaign coordination, and more. 

Location-based engagement

If you have access to your customers’ geolocation via their smartphones or other devices, you can potentially put that location data to use in many different ways. For example, you might:

• Promote store-specific deals or regional sales and promotions to customers within a certain number of miles of that location
• Notify a customer that their in-store order is ready for pickup when they are near the store
• Invite customers to local events taking place at your location
• Notify local residents that your in-demand products are in stock at certain locations
• Make weather-based product recommendations (such as rock salt or shovels when a snowstorm is approaching)
• Offer in-store promotions as a customer navigates your physical location

But there is a fine line between offering value to your customers and potentially making them feel their privacy is being trespassed upon. Be sure to test any location-based engagement strategies with a small cohort of customers to gauge this response before rolling it out in force. 

Post-purchase engagement

Push notifications don’t just need to be used to facilitate transactions. They can also help you provide value to your customers after a purchase has been made. 

For example, push notifications can confirm that an order has been placed, provide shipping and delivery updates, and encourage opportunities to buy related products. You might use push notifications to request customer reviews and cross-sell related items that a customer may not have known about — potentially helping you boost the value of the purchase. 

Customer loyalty and retention

Finally, consider how you might be able to leverage push notifications to boost customer loyalty and retention — for example, by delivering exclusive content or access to customers in your VIP program, providing updates on reward points, or providing birthday and anniversary messages and promotions. 

If you believe that a customer may be about to churn, you might be able to use push notifications to defuse the situation — inviting a customer to complete a satisfaction survey where they can vent and relieve some steam or connecting with a member of your support team.

A data-driven push notification marketing strategy

When implementing a push notification strategy for your business, it's best to back it in data. That's because a data-driven approach makes it possible to accurately measure the effectiveness of your push notification strategy so that you’ll be in a better position to know what’s working and what’s not — empowering you to continuously test and optimize moving forward. 

At the same time, leveraging customer data to inform your push notification strategy — the language you use, the promotions you offer, the time you send, etc. — increases the likelihood that you will see results that help move your bottom line. The more you can tailor your strategy to what you actually know about your customers, the more likely you’ll see success from push notification marketing.

It’s important to have the right tools in place to support a data-driven approach to push notifications. Two essentials? A cloud data warehouse (CDW) like Snowflake to centralize and organize your customer data, and a customer data platform (CDP) like Simon Data to transform that data into usable assets like Customer 360s, segments, audiences, and more. 

Ready to learn more about how Simon Data and Snowflake can help you unlock your customer data's true power and potential? Take a free virtual tour of Simon’s platform today.