Expansion and developments in the real estate industry has propelled the growth of Home Decor market, that is projected to reach $664 billion by 2020.
The increasing cost of raw materials, wider range of products and designs over a global scale, the affordability of designer products on e-stores along with customer-preferences to eco-friendly products, are some of the driving factors boosting the home decor industry.
This provides a wonderful opportunity to all the home decor websites for pumping up their sales. But for that – you need to first grow your site traffic or user base.
Stats have shown that approximately one-third of the customers tend to come back, if they are satisfied with your services and get value for their time. This means that apart from attracting new customers, you would also need to focus on engaging your existing customers.
Push notifications are one of the most effective communication channels for customer retention. The little messages sent in real time are capable of getting instant reactions from the customers- from wherever they are and whichever device they use.
Home decor sites can use push notifications effectively to notify their users about the updates within their product range, or the availability of any unique decor accessory, and other schemes & offers, that can help them to generate more sales.
The Ultimate Guide To Push Notifications For Home Décor Websites
Let’s see how push notifications can be used to bring the customer back to your home decor sites-
Build Your Subscribers’ List
Usually when a new visitor comes to a site, a small box prompts them to click on either Allow or Deny – receiving the push notifications.
You can send a welcome message once the user accepts to receive the push notifications.
You could also add value to your welcome messages by offering a discount coupon for their very first order. And at the same time, encourage the users to give their email addresses.
This will help you to build your customer base that you will be targeting later – to boost your sales.
Segment And Target
We know that the key to successful e commerce marketing is through personalisation. And marketing for Home Decor sites isn’t any different either, as you got to bank more on personal experiences than actual products.
So start off by analysing the online behaviour of your subscribers and create different segments of your target audience. You could segment on the basis of their searches, the products they are interested in, their buying patterns or even demographic.
Segmentation helps you to send relevant suggestions to the right group.
For instance, if a person is interested in ‘window and door curtains’, there’s no sense sending him an alert about your best wardrobes.
Advertise A Sale
Shoppers are always looking out for the best deals, and they absolutely LOVE sales!
Sending a push alert announcing a sale or your special offer is one of the best ways to pull the customers back to your site.
Also, people don’t like to miss out on an opportunity. If something is scarce, they want it all the more. You can leverage on this by creating an urgency factor in your messages. Make your sales time-bound. Put something like ‘Flash Sale – Only For 12 Hours’, or ‘Offer Valid For 3 Days’ etc .
This will encourage the users to take an action as soon as possible.
At the same time, it is pretty annoying when you get excited about an offer but realise that it is no longer valid. So make sure to specify the time duration of your push notifications within the settings, so as to automatically avoid sending obsolete messages to your customers.
Use Impactful Content
Don’t test the patience of your subscribers by writing vague messages. Create crisp and meaningful content that is clearly understood by them.
Make an impact by inserting strong words with proper punctuations. For instance – ‘Limited Offer!’, ‘Valid only for…’, ‘Hurry!‘, ‘Don’t Miss Out!’, will rush the subscribers to take the required action!
Include call-to-action (CTA) buttons like ‘Buy Now’, ‘Shop Now’, ‘Add to Cart’, ‘Add to Wishlist’, ‘Show All Offers’ in your notifications.
CTA buttons can help the potential customers land directly on the intended product offer page, where they can straight away purchase the product without any further searches.
The whole idea is to make it super easy for the customer to know what needs to be done.
Also, restrict the character length of your messages and their titles, so that your notifications don’t get chopped off across different devices.
Wherever possible, make use of emojis to replace the words to shorten the overall text, while still maintaining the clarity of the message.
Emojis not only add a fun element to your alert but also boost up the click rate by almost 85 percent!
Charm Using Images
Images are essentially the most important element for all home decor sites. They are appealing and provide great aesthetic pleasure. They help the users to have a clear understanding of how their own homes will appear once they opt for that product.
You can include beautiful images of your furniture, fabric etc. in your push notifications. You can either go for the usual thumbnails or insert larger images for higher user engagement.
Check Your Timing and Frequency
‘When exactly’ should you connect with your subscribers is extremely important for generating a maximum response.
People usually don’t react during the early hours of the day or evenings. These are the times when they are either rushing to office or getting busy with their chores.
Target when the users are more relaxed and mentally prepared to take an action.
The ideal time is either mid-morning, or late afternoons when most people are bored and need something exciting, or may be late evenings when they are totally free to browse before hitting the bed.
Avoid sending messages in the night, and keep an eye on the time zones for your global subscribers.
Another important factor is the frequency of your notifications. Sending too many alerts can annoy your subscribers and lead them to unsubscribe from your site. At the same time, sending too little will make it hard for them to remember you – when they really want to shop.
You can figure out both the timings and frequency by tracking the click rates as well as the bounce rates of your notifications. Try A/B testing and see what works best for you.