- The Retention Edge by MobiLoud
- Posts
- Your retention stack has a gap
Last week I introduced push notifications as one of the best channels in ecommerce, simply from an economics standpoint: push is one of the cheapest, highest-visibility channels you have access to. If you missed it, read it here.
This week, I want to zoom out.
Because push doesn't exist in a vacuum. You’re doing email, you’re doing SMS. These are direct, high-ROI retention channels.
And there’s two common, and largely off-base, takes regarding push and how it sits in your retention stack.
I have email and SMS already. Push notifications aren’t giving me anything I don’t already have.
Is push supposed to replace email and SMS in my stack?
It’s similar to the case for mobile apps.
A mobile app isn’t meant to replace your website. It’s also not just covering ground your website already covers. It’s a more accessible and convenient channel for the top 10-20% of your customers.
Push is similar. It’s a direct line to your best customers. And it’s a complement to email and SMS, not a replacement.
Here’s the full breakdown of how you can use these channels together to built a bulletproof retention stack.
Three channels, three jobs
Here's the simplest way to frame it:
Email is your workhorse. It carries the heaviest load, has the widest reach. It’s flexible, low-cost, and there’s basically no risk of overusing it. Every brand should be using email.
SMS is your conversion trigger. It's urgent, it's immediate, and it works best when you need action now. It’s also expensive (1-5 cents per message adds up fast), and it's intimate enough that overuse will get you unsubscribed in a hurry.
Push is your always-on presence. It sits between the two. More visible than email, less intrusive than SMS. Zero cost per send. There’s less reach, because you’re only getting in front of app user. But because it reaches your app users (your most engaged segment), it's consistently talking to the people most likely to buy again.
Each channel fills a role. Remove one and you've got a gap.
How they actually play together
These three channels aren’t siloed channels, either. You can (and should - it’s simple enough, particularly when you can use Klaviyo for all three) to use email, SMS and push together in the same campaigns.
Let’s walk through a few scenarios.
Scenario 1: New product drop
Email (Day -3): Teaser campaign to your full list. "Something's coming Thursday." Build anticipation.
SMS (Day 0, morning): "It's live. Early access for VIPs. Link here." Drive immediate traffic from your highest-intent SMS subscribers.
Push (Day 0, afternoon): Notification to app users. "The new collection just dropped. Tap to shop." Catches anyone who missed the email or SMS, plus gives your app users their own moment.
Push (Day 2): Follow-up. "Selling fast. Your favorites are still in stock." Zero cost, keeps the momentum going.
No single channel could do all of that. Email builds the anticipation. SMS creates the urgency. Push sustains the visibility.
Scenario 2: Abandoned cart
Push (15 min): "You left something behind. Tap to finish checkout." Immediate, free, hits the lock screen.
Email (1 hour): Full cart recovery email with product images, reviews, the whole treatment.
SMS (6 hours): "Still thinking about it? Here's free shipping." Reserved for higher-value carts where the SMS cost is justified.
Push (24 hours): "Last chance, your cart expires tomorrow."
The push is doing the first and last touch. It's instant, it's free, and it bookends the recovery sequence. Email does the heavy lifting in the middle. SMS is the surgical strike for high-value opportunities.
Scenario 3: Staying top of mind (between purchases)
This is where push really earns its keep.
Your emails go out regularly, but don’t always get seen.
Your SMS, maybe once a week at most (unless you want unsubscribes).
But push? You can send 3-5 notifications a week without burning out your audience. Quick tips. "Back in stock" alerts. Content your customers might care about. New arrivals. Community moments. And all of them get seen.
It's not that any single notification is going to change the game. It's the cumulative effect of your brand showing up consistently on their phone, in a space where the only other things competing for attention are texts from friends and app notifications they actually use.
Email can't do that at that frequency without fatigue. SMS definitely can't. Push can.
The audience layer
The biggest part? Each channel reaches a different slice of your audience.
Email: Broadest reach. You can get in front of anyone who gave you their email.
SMS: Narrower. People who opted in to texts (smaller list, higher intent).
Push: Narrowest, but most engaged. These are people who installed your app. They've made the biggest commitment.
Some customers respond better to email. Some live in their SMS inbox. Some are app-first.
If you're only using one or two channels, you're systematically missing the customers who prefer the channel you're not using. And you're not giving your best customers (app users) the channel that reaches them most effectively.
The takeaway
The biggest takeaway, above everything: you should be investing more in retention.
Acquisition is expensive, and it’s a treadmill. It only keeps going as long as you keep paying, and as long as the cost stays manageable.
Retention channels like email, SMS and push are so much more profitable, more sustainable.
And your current retention stack probably has room to grow.
Brands that use email, SMS and push together, in a smart way, have a leg up over their competitors. They’re getting more repeat customers, they’re making more profit, and they’re able to reinvest that profit to put more money into acquisition.
Your retention stack is the thing that makes everything else run smoothly.
And the best part? A lot of what you do with push is automated.
Next week I’ll explain why the highest-performing push notifications you'll ever send are the ones you set up once and never touch again.
The Smarter Way to Launch An App
You don’t need six figures too build an app anymore. MobiLoud turns your existing site into a mobile app, in 30 days, with minimal lift.
The best part? It takes very little ongoing work to manage, since your website and app are fully in sync.
You get the ROI of push notifications, amplified because the overhead of your app is so much less.
If you've been thinking about an app but haven't pulled the trigger, this series might give you the push (pun intended) you need.
Go to our site to get a free preview of your app or DM me on LinkedIn to learn more about how it works.
On the Pod
After a couple of weeks off, we’re back with a new episode of the Retention Edge podcast.
On this episode I was joined by Lauren Livak Gilbert, Executive Director of the Digital Shelf Institute, for a deep dive into AI commerce.
This is probably the most important topic right now for any online brand. I had a blast talking about how consumer habits are changing, and what to do about it.
Check it out below: (also make sure to go ahead and subscribe to our new channel, dedicated to podcast episodes & clips)
Quick Hits
As of April 2, Shopify merchants on Basic, Grow, and Advanced plans can now access native B2B features at no extra cost: company profiles, up to three custom catalogs, volume pricing, payment terms, and ACH payments. Previously this was Plus-only territory. If you're already getting wholesale inquiries, this removes one of the bigger barriers to serving them through your existing Shopify setup. Worth exploring as a revenue diversification play.
Starting July 1, the EU will impose a fixed customs duty on every low-value ecommerce parcel from outside the bloc, ending the duty-free treatment for items under €150. Fashion, beauty, accessories, and most consumer goods are directly affected. If you're a DTC brand selling cross-border into Europe, landed costs just went up. Another reason to focus on repeat customers and higher AOV, not just volume.
Klaviyo rolled out RCS (Rich Communication Services) for all users, in partnership with Google. RCS lets you send branded, interactive messages with carousels, buttons, and rich media, all inside your customer's native texting app. It auto-falls back to SMS when RCS isn't supported. POPFLEX reported 23% higher revenue and 136% higher conversion rates with RCS compared to standard SMS. If you're already running SMS through Klaviyo, this is essentially a free upgrade to a more engaging format. Worth turning on.
Beyond RCS, Klaviyo's Q1 updates are a clear signal of where retention marketing is heading. Composer, their new AI campaign builder, generates complete campaigns (subject lines, copy, audience, send logic) from a simple prompt. Next Best Product recommendations now work across SMS, push, and WhatsApp, not just email. Personalized Send Time optimization is live, and a new Audience Optimization feature automatically excludes profiles likely to unsubscribe before you hit send. The trend is obvious: one platform, every channel, all personalized.
Meta's Q1 2025 CPMs hit $10.88, up 19.2% year-over-year, and the trend hasn't slowed. Ad costs jumped 14% against only a 6% increase in impressions. Cost per lead is up 21%. If you're funding growth primarily through paid acquisition, the math gets worse every quarter. It's another argument for investing more in the channels that don't charge you per impression: email, SMS, and push.
That’s all for now.
If you have any thoughts on what we discussed here, or anything else (in general) you’d like me to cover related to retention, CX and growth, just hit reply and let me know.
Until next week,
Pietro and The Retention Edge Team
PS: go to our website to get a preview of your app for free, or shoot me a DM on LinkedIn to talk about it.