We hear about this problem often - you sent a campaign but aren’t getting as many impressions as the number of subscribers you have. This isn’t a glitch - delivery rates are usually less than 100% for push notifications. This problem is usually caused by your subscriber. Here’s why:
1. Uninstalled Browser
If your subscriber uninstalls the browser that they used to subscribe to your store, they will stop receiving notifications. A subscriber gives your store permission to send push notifications through the browser, which means the browser controls the push notification subscription for the subscriber. When the browser is uninstalled, your push notifications cannot be delivered.
2. Closed Browser
Push notifications are sent to your subscriber's screens. They can be sent even when the browser is closed because their browsers run in the background. However, on some devices, this is not possible. These devices will receive notifications only if the browser remains open. When your subscriber opens their browser again, your notification will be delivered. Please refer to the table below for Browser / OS combination where the push notification will be received when the browser is closed
Browser | Android | Windows | macOS |
Chrome | received | received | not received |
Firefox | received | received | not received |
Safari | N/A | N/A | received |
Opera | received | received | not received |
Edge | received | received | not received |
3. Expired Notification
If you have set an end date and time for your campaign by using the ‘Do a Flash Sale’ feature, the subscribers whose devices come online after the expiry time, won't receive your notification. Often, the subscriber’s device might not be connected to the internet or they might disable background app activity. Due to this, they won’t receive the notification.
Note: By default, notifications expire after 28 days.
4. Disabled background app activity on mobiles
Your subscriber can manually stop background app activity or switch on low power mode on their phones to save battery. This disables all background processes, and this doesn't allow the phone to receive push notifications.
5. Erased Site Data
The browser saves data from the subscriber's device, and this enables push notification delivery. If the history, cache, or site data is cleared, the subscriber's preference to subscribe to your notifications is forgotten. This is a common reason for low delivery rates.
After clearing their site data, if subscribers visit your store again, PushOwl resyncs the data and makes them an active subscriber. After this, they will be able to receive your notifications. It's just like uninstalling an app and not receiving any notifications from them until you install the app again.