Push does come to shove — and improves sales — if internet retailers are right.
Nine out of the 10 top e-retailers in the 2015 Internet Retailer Mobile 500 make use of push notifications to market content to consumers.
“The way to market to mobile users might just be through the push notification—notifications that pop up on a smartphone or tablet when a consumer isn’t actively engaging with the app,” according to a post at InternetRetailer. “For example, if a retailer has a sale that starts at 10 a.m., a notification could pop up at that time on a shopper’s phone whether or not she has the app open.”
Push notifications are on the rise. A study published by mobile messaging analytics firm OtherLevels in May found that 77 of the top 100 e-retailers, per the 2013 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, had mobile apps. The number of retail apps employing push notifications increased 48 percent from 2012 to 2013, and 66 percent of the top 100 retailers with an app used them, the study discovered.
Push notifications have been shown to increase engagement and retention among consumers, especially for retailers. Consumers who opted in to push notifications on retail apps generated 40 percent more monthly app opens than opted-out consumers, according to a study from Urban Airship, a vendor focusing on mobile push messaging.
