Push Notifications for Shopify Stores: Examples and Best Practices
How Shopify stores use mobile app push notifications to drive repeat sales, with example messages for drops, restocks, sales, order updates and abandoned carts, plus timing and frequency tips.
Push notifications are the main reason stores build an app. A push lands on the lock screen of every customer who opted in, without an ad budget or an inbox to compete with. Used well, it's the highest-converting marketing channel a store has. Used badly, it's the fastest way to get your app deleted.
The three kinds of push
- Campaigns you send by hand: new arrivals, sales, restocks, announcements.
- Transactional updates sent automatically: order shipped, out for delivery, delivered.
- Behavioral reminders triggered by what a shopper did, like leaving items in the cart.
Transactional and behavioral pushes run in the background once you turn them on. Campaigns are where your creativity goes.
Example messages that work
New drop
The Linen Edit just landed 馃尶
12 new pieces in sizes XS鈥揦XL. App shoppers get first pick.
Restock
It's back: the Everyday Tote
Sold out in 3 days last time. Restocked in all 4 colors.
Flash sale
24 hours only: 20% off everything
Code APP20 is already on your cart. Ends midnight.
Back-in-season / reminder
Running low on coffee?
Your usual Ethiopia Guji is in stock. Reorder in two taps.
Abandoned cart
Still thinking it over?
Blue Hoodie and 2 more are still waiting in your cart.
Order update
Your order #1042 is out for delivery
It should arrive today.
Best practices
Lead with the news, not your brand
Your app icon already shows who it's from. Spend the title (keep it under about 50 characters) on what's new, and use the message for the detail or the reason to tap now.
Send people somewhere specific
A push about the Linen Edit should open the Linen Edit collection, not your home screen. Every extra tap loses shoppers. In Casa, you choose whether a push opens the home screen, a collection or a product.
Use images
On Android, a notification image (ideally 2:1) makes a push much harder to ignore. Show the product, not a logo.
Mind the frequency
One or two campaigns a week is plenty for most stores. Daily pushes get notifications switched off. Automatic pushes should have limits too: Casa sends at most one abandoned-cart reminder per cart and at most one every three days per phone.
Time it for your customers
Evenings and lunchtime usually perform best for shopping. Avoid nights in your customers' time zone.
Ask for permission at the right moment
If the app shows the system "Allow notifications?" prompt the moment it opens, many people say no, and on iPhone you can't ask again. Explain the benefit first ("Be first to hear about drops and order updates"), then show the system prompt. Casa does this with a short explanation screen and only asks a few times, weeks apart.
Speak their language
Automatic pushes in Casa are sent in each device's language, using the wording you set in Text and languages.
Set up the automatic pushes first
If you only do one thing, turn on the automatic pushes. They need no ongoing work:
- Order status: customers signed in to the app get a push when their order ships, when it's out for delivery and when it's delivered, including orders placed on your website. Fewer "where's my order?" emails, and another reason to keep the app.
- Abandoned cart: one reminder 1, 4, 12 or 24 hours after the cart last changed, and only if it hasn't been ordered or emptied.
How push works on Shopify apps
Most builders deliver notifications through Firebase Cloud Messaging, Google's free service, for both iOS and Android. In Casa you connect your own Firebase project once (about 15 minutes; the setup guide walks you through it), and then sending is unlimited from the Push notifications page in your Shopify admin.
New to apps? Start with how to turn your Shopify store into an app.