How push notifications work
Pushes are not delivered from the sender’s server to the device directly but through the operating
system’s infrastructure: APNs for iOS and FCM for Android. The delivery chain:
- The app registers with APNs or FCM and receives a push token — the unique address of the device.
- The token is passed to the app’s backend and stored.
- To send, the backend passes the token and the payload to APNs or FCM.
- The OS infrastructure delivers the notification to the device, even with the app closed.
Your backend → APNs/FCM → iOS/Android OS → the device screen
Important: with no notification permission, delivery is impossible. iOS requires explicit
consent at the first request, as does Android 13 and later. Obtaining permission later is
substantially harder, which makes the moment and the context of the first request critical.
Types of push
| Type | Description | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Text plus the app icon | Order status, system alerts |
| Rich push | Text plus an image plus buttons | Promotions, product recommendations |
| Silent push | Background delivery, nothing displayed | Content sync, prefetch |
| Transactional | Fired by an event in real time | Payment confirmation, status change |
Push in e-commerce
The scenarios that work best:
- Abandoned cart — a reminder one to three hours after an add with no order.
- Price drop — a notification about a discount on a wishlisted or recently viewed item.
- Return to the session — a trigger after a long absence with a personal product offer.
- Order status — real-time tracking. The transactional type with the highest opt-in and
click-through. - Flash sales and promotions — broadcast, but segmented by interest and geography.
Metrics and common errors
Metrics: opt-in rate, delivery rate, click-through, campaign conversion rate and opt-out rate
over a period.
Common errors:
- Sending the same push to the whole base — without segmentation, click-through falls and
opt-outs rise. - No cooldown — daily pushes end with the person disabling permissions.
- Ignoring time zones — a push at 3 a.m. local time guarantees irritation.
- Not testing copy — the wording of a call to action can move click-through by a factor of two
or three.