Push Notifications and Recent Purchases
Notifications Shoppers Chose to Get, and a Recent Purchases Note Built Only From Real Orders
Two quiet ways to bring shoppers back and reassure new ones. Shoppers who choose to can get your news as a notification on their phone or computer, and your store can show, honestly, that people are buying, using only real orders.
- In every plan
- Free for 14 days
Kosha is a demo store on Mercayo. Its products, orders and customers are sample data.
In short
What It Does
This page covers two features that are off until you switch them on.
Push Notifications to Shoppers
With Notifications to shoppers on (and your store's app switched on under Pixels, Cookies and App), your store can ask shoppers whether they want its notifications. It asks only through its own small note, never with the browser's question first:
Get Offers from Your Store New arrivals, restocks and offers, as a notification on this device. You can stop them any time from the notification, from Cookie Choices or in your browser's settings. ALLOW · NOT NOW
Only ALLOW opens the browser's own question, and only a yes there subscribes that browser. The note is careful about when it appears:
- only from the visit's third page (you choose 1 to 20), so a shopper sees your store before being asked;
- never on the bag, checkout, account, order tracking or policy pages;
- never while the cookie banner or the install note is up;
- once a visit at most, and not again for a month after NOT NOW.
Marketing → Push Notifications is where you send them:
| Part | What It Does |
|---|---|
| At a glance | Subscribed Browsers, Joined in 30 Days, Stopped in 30 Days, and Sent Today against your daily limit |
| New Notification | A Title (up to 60 characters), a Text (up to 180) and the page it Opens, which must be a live page of your store |
| Preview | How it looks on a phone, as you type |
| SEND | Asks first, naming how many browsers it goes to, because a notification cannot be taken back |
| Sent | Every notification with how many it went To, how many Arrived and how many were Opened |
A shopper can stop in one tap: the notification's own Stop These button (where the browser shows buttons), the Notifications row in Cookie Choices on that device, or the browser's settings. The next send finds a stopped browser gone and counts it under Stopped.
The Recent Purchases Popup
With Recent purchases popup on, a small note appears in a corner of your store now and then, for example:
Someone in Pune bought Leather Wallet Case 2 hours ago
It is built only from your store's real orders of the last 7 days (you choose 1 to 30): orders that are confirmed, shipped, delivered or closed, never cancelled or unpaid ones, and never sample orders on a store that sells for real. Each note shows the delivery city, the order's first product (if it is still on sale) and how long ago. It never shows a name, an address, a PIN code or an amount.
- Nothing shows until your store has three such orders, and an order appears only 10 minutes after it was placed.
- One note at a time, for six seconds, then a pause (25 seconds unless you change it), at most 3 in a visit.
- It sits in the corner your chat and other floating buttons leave free, above the product page's sticky bar.
- It stays away from the bag, checkout, account, order tracking and policy pages, and never shows while a dialog, the cookie banner or another note is open. Closing it ends it for the visit.
- It shows on computers and tablets; switch on Also on phones to show it there too.
For your store
Why It Matters
Push notifications reach a shopper who has already said "yes, tell me". There is no per-message cost, as there is for text messages, and no inbox to get lost in, as there is for email. They suit short, timely news: a restock of a sold-out bestseller, a festive sale starting tonight, a new collection. Because the store asks politely, after a shopper has seen a few pages, and stopping is one tap, the people who stay subscribed are the people who want to hear from you.
The daily limit (2 a day unless you change it, at most 10) protects your list from yourself: shoppers who get too many notifications stop all of them.
The recent purchases popup answers a question every new shopper has about an unfamiliar store: "Does anyone actually buy here?" Many sales-popup tools answer it with invented orders and made-up names. Mercayo's never does. Every note is a real order of your store, which is why it waits for three orders before it shows anything, and why it shows a city and a product rather than a person. If your store is new, it stays quiet until there is something true to say.
Both features are built not to cost you speed. The popup loads only after the page has settled, in the shopper's browser, so the cached page every shopper gets stays the same and fast,, and the notification note loads in the browser too.
Step by step
How It Works
Switch On Your Store's App
Notifications to shoppers come from your store's app, so first switch it on under Pixels, Cookies and App. See your store as an app.
Turn On Notifications to Shoppers
In Marketing → Push Notifications, switch on Notifications to shoppers, and choose Ask from page and Notifications a day if the defaults do not suit you.
Let Shoppers Say Yes
Your store's note asks from the chosen page of a visit. The counts at the top of Push Notifications show how many browsers joined and stopped.
Write and Send a Notification
Under New Notification, write a title and a short text, choose the page it opens, check the preview and press SEND. Confirm with SEND NOW.
See How It Did
The Sent list shows how many browsers each notification went to, how many it reached and how many shoppers opened it.
Switch On Recent Purchases
In Settings → Online Store → Recent Purchases Popup, switch on Recent purchases popup and set the days, the pause between notes, notes in a visit and whether phones see it.
Your shoppers
What Your Shoppers See
A shopper sees your store's own note asking about notifications, at most once a visit and never during checkout. If they allow it, your notifications arrive on that phone or computer like a message and open the page you chose. They can stop with one tap from the notification, from Cookie Choices, or in the browser's settings. On an iPhone, notifications from a website work only after the shopper adds your store to the home screen (Apple's rule). The recent purchases note is a small card they can close, which never names another shopper.
Settings
Settings You Control
Each one is in your admin. A new store starts with the value shown.
Mercayo
Mercayo's Controls
Mercayo can set any of these settings for a store from its console, and Mercayo's value then wins over the store's. Mercayo sends notifications from its own servers, encrypted for each browser, and only to the browser makers' push services. A subscription keeps the exact words the shopper saw when they said yes, the page and the time, so consent can always be shown. Each store's subscribers are kept apart by the database. A notification that cannot be delivered within three days is dropped. Demo stores record a notification as not sent and send nothing, and their sample browsers and notifications are marked Sample.
Limits today
Good to Know Before You Start
- Notifications go to browsers, not to people: a shopper who allowed them on a phone does not get them on a laptop.
- A notification is a title, a text and a link: no picture and no extra buttons.
- Every notification goes to every subscribed browser, when you send it; there are no segments or scheduling for notifications.
- Order updates (shipped, delivered) are sent by email and WhatsApp, not as notifications.
- The recent purchases popup shows nothing until your store has three real orders in the chosen days.
- The popup shows each order's first product only, and only if it is still on sale.
Questions
About Push Notifications and Recent Purchases
Are the recent purchases real?
Yes. Every note is a real order of your store from the chosen days, confirmed or further along. Nothing is ever invented, and sample orders never show on a store that sells for real.
Does the popup show shoppers' names?
No. It shows the delivery city, a product and how long ago, never a name, an address, a PIN code or an amount.
Why does my new store show no recent purchases?
The popup waits until there are three real orders in the chosen days, and each order appears only 10 minutes after it was placed.
Who gets my push notifications?
Only browsers whose shopper pressed ALLOW on your store's note and then said yes to the browser's own question.
Do notifications cost anything to send?
No per-message cost. They are limited only by your daily limit.
Can a shopper stop notifications?
Yes, in one tap: Stop These on the notification, the Notifications row in Cookie Choices, or the browser's settings.
Does the popup slow my store down?
No. It loads after the page has settled, in the shopper's browser, so the page itself is the same fast cached page.
Can I send a notification from a demo store to test it?
A demo store records the notification in its Sent list as not sent, and sends nothing. On your own store it goes to your subscribers.
Related
Related Features
- Installable StoreShoppers add your store to their phone's home screen with your name, colours and icon, and see a friendly page instead of an error when offline.
- Subscribers, Popups and Floating ButtonsA sign-up popup with sensible rules, a footer band, double opt-in with consent kept, a subscribers list with CSV, and floating WhatsApp buttons.
- Installable AdminInstall the admin like an app and get push alerts on each device for new orders, failed deliveries and returns, plus a chime for new orders.
- Back in Stock and Pre-OrdersShoppers ask to be told when a sold-out item returns and get one message when it does; pre-orders sell with a ship-by date; your team hears when stock runs low.
More in Marketing and Reviews: Product Reviews · Questions and Answers · Abandoned Bag Reminders · Subscribers, Popups and Floating Buttons · Cross-Sell Rows · Back in Stock and Pre-Orders · Product Feeds
Try It on Your Own Store
Every feature is in every plan, free for 14 days.