5 E-Retail Push Notification Valentine’s Tactics

As an e-retailer, Valentine’s Day is a great way to drive up seasonal sales. Here are 5 great push notification tactics to make that strategy effective.

Holidays are crucial times of year for retailers, both online and offline. Holidays, like Valentine’s Day, are a time when people go out of their ways to show loved ones how much they matter. These feelings are often expressed in the form of gifts.

E-commerce brands are primed to benefit from these behaviours. Consumer preferences for e-retail shopping are continuously on the rise. In fact, two interesting articles from Statista shed light on how much consumer demand exists for robust e-retail experiences.

1. 14.1% of all global retail sales were e-retail sales in 2019; 22% forecast for 2023.
2. 64% of all e-retail site visits in Q1 2019 were from mobile devices. Mobile shoppers also accounted for a 46% order share, evenly matching order shares from desktop devices.

There are two key takeaways from those statistics:

• More people continue to shop remotely as opposed to traditional brick and mortar locations as time goes on
• Mobile is, unquestionably, becoming the dominant channel to purchase new products

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and e-retailers who properly leverage mobile as a channel are primed to increase revenue this season. Mobile push notifications can proactively drive shoppers to e-retail sites using strong CTAs that motivate purchasing decisions.

The question for e-retailers becomes – what’s the best way to use push notifications to achieve that desired result? Here are 5 practical tips to make the most of mobile push notifications ahead of Valentine’s Day 2020.

Personalized Notifications Make a Huge Difference

This one shouldn’t come as a surprise. Personalized messaging, in the form of written, visual, or video content is what consumers expect to receive from brands. People are smart enough to recognize when one communication is blasted out to thousands of different prospects. Those types of messages yield no response, at best, and/or blockings and unsubscriptions, at worst.

If you have insight into one of your user’s tastes and interests, why not customize a push notification message based on that user behaviour? Seeing as Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, you may notice users searching for roses, chocolates, and typical items associated with the day. A push notification containing a strong call to action or a special offer could motivate that browser to go the next step and complete the purchase.

Now, imagine you had that same behavioural data on other users. If you could send each of them a personalized push notification, the odds of engagement and conversion are much greater. Also, remember to have fun with the notifications. Studies have shown that push notifications that include emojis have an 85% higher open rate than those without them.

Think About Location-Based Targeting

Another great tactic to keep in mind is geo or location-based targeting. Personalization is so critical to effective push notification messaging, and geographic variables factor into that personalization equation. For example, someone who lives on the east coast of North America will likely have different tastes and interests than someone living on the west coast.

You also want to keep in mind diverse cultures in different parts of the world. Would you want to send the same push notification to someone living in Germany as you would in Japan? Definitely not. The daily ways of life are completely different in those two countries, and one standardized message is not going to resonate.

Use data from your analytics platforms to understand where people who visit your e-retail experience are located. Determine what products appear to be the most popular searches by location. You can then craft the ideal push notification to drive greater engagement with people who live in those markets.

And, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, make sure the holiday is practiced in each location. Don’t send a Valentine’s-themed offer if the day means nothing in that particular market.

Promote Offers With Expiration Dates

Since Valentine’s Day is coming, e-retailers are naturally inclined to offer up special offers on select products and merchandise. To really drum up interest in those promotions, why not position them as limited time offers?

This is a great example of what that type of notification could look like. The message is clear, concise, and includes a very direct call to action. If you don’t act now, you may miss out on a table for a romantic Valentine’s Day dinner.

Follow a similar principle that best applies to your e-retail business and motivate your customers to take action. This is also a great tactic to lure people who may have disengaged with your brand back to the races.

Valen-tize Your Loyalty Programs

Suppose you have a loyalty program for long-time customers. Using holidays to customize the loyalty program with thematic messaging and incentives is a great way to generate greater engagement out of those programs.

Valentine’s Day should be no exception, and push notification technology is a great way to get the message out. Craft very love-themed messages and send personalized notifications to customers who are most likely to engage with the offers up for grabs.

You can also tie them into a limited time offer strategy in an attempt to generate greater interest in the deals before they expire. If that is part of your plan, make sure the messaging in the notification calls out the fact that this is a limited time opportunity. Motivate customers who receive that loyalty push to want to act now!

Send Thoughtful Door Crasher Notifications

Finally, a customer appreciation announcement is a great way to tie the theme of Valentine’s Day into an overall business objective of getting more traffic to your e-retail site.

Arrange for a free gift to hand out to people on Valentine’s Day. Use a push notification to alert all qualified customers that they can receive a special Valentine’s-themed customer appreciation gift by coming to the site and redeeming the reward.

Again, this is a limited time offer that motivates people to take action. If the notification message is crafted in a way that incentivizes action on an offer, people are far more likely to engage and take advantage.