Push Notifications vs Email: All You Need to Know

You already send emails. Every ecommerce brand does. The question is whether push notifications add something email can't, or whether they're just a noisier version of the same thing.

Email and push serve fundamentally different purposes in how they reach your customers, what they can say, and when they're most effective. Many brands send emails but not push notifications; and that means a gap in your marketing stack.

This article breaks down the real differences, backed by benchmarks, so you can figure out where each channel fits in your stack.

What Are Push Notifications?

Push notifications are short messages sent from a mobile app directly to a user's device. They show up on the lock screen, in the notification center, and as banners, even when the app isn't open.

They're delivered through Apple Push Notification Service (APNs) on iOS and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) on Android. Users opt in through a system-level permission prompt managed by Apple or Google, and they can turn notifications off at any time from their phone's settings.

The key business distinction: push notifications cost nothing to send. No per-message fee, no platform-based pricing tiers for send volume, no carrier involvement. The marginal cost of your 100,000th push notification is the same as your first: zero.

What Is Email Marketing?

Email is the most established digital marketing channel. You collect an address, send messages to an inbox, and the recipient opens them when they choose to. It supports full HTML layouts, images, video embeds, long-form copy, and interactive elements.

The reach is effectively universal. Anyone with an email address is reachable, which means your potential audience is your entire customer and prospect list, not just app users. Platforms like Klaviyo, Omnisend, and Mailchimp have made email automation, segmentation, and personalization accessible to brands of any size.

Email also has the strongest ROI track record of any marketing channel. Industry benchmarks consistently put email ROI in the range of $36 to $44 returned for every $1 spent, which is why it remains the backbone of most ecommerce retention strategies.

Push Notifications vs Email: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Here's how the two channels compare across the dimensions that matter most.

The table gives you the overview. Here's the context behind each dimension.

Cost and ROI

Email marketing costs very little per message, typically fractions of a cent depending on your email service provider and list size. The ROI is well-documented: roughly $36-44 returned for every $1 spent, making email the single highest-ROI marketing channel for most ecommerce brands.

Push notifications cost nothing per message. Zero. No platform fees based on send volume, no per-notification billing. The investment is in building the app itself. After that, whether you send 1,000 or 100,000 notifications, the marginal cost doesn't change.

Email wins on proven ROI because the channel is mature, attribution is well-established, and the volume is massive. Push wins on per-message efficiency. 

According to Omnisend's 2025 ecommerce report, push generates 15% of attributed ecommerce revenue from just 3% of total message volume, while email generates 67% from 88% of sends. 

Email drives more total dollars. Push drives more dollars per message.

Reach and Audience

Email reaches anyone with an email address. That's your full customer list, prospects who signed up for updates, leads from ads, and anyone who's ever bought from you. 

No app needed, no device requirements.

Push notifications only reach people with your app installed who've opted in to notifications. 

That's a smaller audience. But it's a concentrated one: app users tend to have higher average order values, higher repeat purchase rates, and higher lifetime value than your general customer base.

This isn't a flaw in push; it's a feature. Email is your broad-reach channel. Push is your channel for the customers who matter most.

Open Rates and Engagement

Email open rates for ecommerce average around 30-40% depending on the source, though these numbers have been less reliable since Apple Mail Privacy Protection started auto-loading tracking pixels in 2021. Click-through rates run around 2-3%.

Push notification "open rates" are reported differently across sources. Airship's analysis of 50 billion notifications found reaction rates of 10.7% on Android and 4.9% on iOS across all industries. 

But this understates the visibility: every push notification appears on the user's lock screen. Whether they tap it is a separate question from whether they see it. There's no spam folder, no promotions tab, no algorithmic sorting.

Where push really outperforms email is in automated, behavior-triggered messages. Abandoned cart push notifications, browse abandonment alerts, and back-in-stock triggers convert at 22.9% according to Omnisend's 2025 data. That's roughly 3-4x the conversion rate of automated email flows.

Content Format

This is where email has an unmatched advantage. Email supports full HTML layouts, product grids, embedded videos, long-form storytelling, interactive elements, and branded design. 

If you need to explain something in detail, showcase a collection, or tell a story, email is the format.

Push notifications are short by nature: typically 40-120 characters of text, sometimes with an image and 1-2 action buttons. 

They can include deep links that open specific screens inside your app (a product page, a cart, an account screen), but the notification itself is a prompt, not a destination.

Think of it this way: email is the brochure. Push is the tap on the shoulder.

Deliverability

Push notifications bypass spam filters entirely. They're delivered directly to the device through Apple's and Google's native infrastructure, with delivery rates above 95% on native apps. 

If a user has opted in and their device is connected to the internet, the notification arrives.

Email has a deliverability problem. Industry estimates put inbox placement rates at roughly 80%, meaning about 1 in 5 emails never reaches the primary inbox. 

Between spam filters, promotions tabs, and aggressive filtering by providers like Gmail and Outlook, a significant chunk of your emails are competing just to be seen.

This isn't a reason to abandon email. It's a reason to understand that the "30% open rate" already accounts for messages that made it through. 

Push's 95%+ delivery rate means your message gets in front of the user more reliably, even if fewer users interact with it.

Frequency and Timing

Email is more forgiving on frequency. Daily emails are standard practice for many ecommerce brands, and weekly newsletters are the norm. 

Users are accustomed to commercial email and tend to tolerate higher volume, especially when content is relevant.

Push notifications need more restraint. 64% of users may stop using an app that sends more than 5 per week. Our research finds that most brands send between 2-5 push notifications per week; though there’s a wide range in best practices, depending on the brand and the vertical. 

When Should You Use Email?

Email is the best channel for scenarios that need reach, depth, or permanence:

• Newsletters and content marketing. Product stories, brand updates, educational content. Email is the format for anything that benefits from design and detail.
• Welcome and onboarding sequences. Introducing new customers to your brand, setting expectations, building a relationship over multiple touchpoints.
• Product launches and collections. Showcasing new arrivals with product photography, descriptions, and multiple CTAs.
• Transactional messages. Order confirmations, shipping updates, receipts. These are expected via email and serve as permanent records.
• Win-back campaigns. Re-engaging lapsed customers with longer-form messaging that can explain what's new and why they should come back.
• Broad-reach promotions. When you need to reach your full list, including customers who don't have your app.

When Should You Use Push Notifications?

Push notifications are best when immediacy, precision, and cost matter:

• Abandoned cart recovery. A push notification lands on the lock screen minutes after a customer leaves their cart. It costs nothing to send and can recover up to 20% of abandoned carts. At scale, this single use case can justify the cost of an app.
• Flash sales and time-sensitive offers. Push is instant. When you have a 24-hour sale or limited inventory, push gets the message in front of your best customers within seconds, with a deep link directly to the product.
• Re-engagement. Users who have your app but haven't opened it recently. A well-timed, personalized push can bring them back into a native shopping experience where conversion rates are higher than mobile web.
• Back-in-stock and price drop alerts. These behavior-triggered notifications reach customers at peak intent. They're among the highest-converting ecommerce message types, with CTR as high as 8-10%.
• Loyalty and rewards. Points updates, tier milestones, exclusive app-only offers. High-frequency, high-relevance messages that would be expensive via SMS and risk getting buried in email.

Why the Best Brands Use Both

Email and push aren't interchangeable. They differ in format, audience, timing, and what they're good at. That's exactly what makes them complementary.

Email gives you reach and depth. You can talk to your entire list, tell detailed stories, and send frequently without wearing out your welcome. 

It's your foundational channel, and its proven ROI means you should never stop investing in it.

Push gives you precision and immediacy. You're talking to a smaller group (app users), but it's your highest-value segment. Every message is free, every message is seen, and behavior-triggered push notifications convert at roughly 3-4x the rate of equivalent email automations.

Here's what that should look like in your marketing stack:

• Email for nurture, push for conversion. Build the relationship through email content. When a high-value customer abandons their cart or a wishlist item drops in price, push is the nudge that closes the sale.
• Email for broad campaigns, push for your VIPs. A new collection launch goes to your full email list. The flash sale or early-access notification goes to your app users via push.
• Email for the long game, push for the moment. A weekly newsletter keeps your brand in mind. A push notification timed to a customer's browsing behavior catches them when intent is highest.

Brands running both channels in an omnichannel setup consistently outperform those relying on email alone. Omnisend's 2025 data shows push notification volume grew 55% year-over-year, the fastest of any direct messaging channel, as more brands recognize what it adds to the mix.

How to Add Push Notifications to Your Marketing Stack

Native push notifications require a mobile app. Web push exists, but opt-in rates are much lower and iOS support is still limited. 

If you want push as a real channel, not a workaround, you need a native app on the App Store and Google Play.

That doesn't mean rebuilding your ecommerce site from scratch. 

MobiLoud turns your existing website into a native iOS and Android app, complete with push notification support. Everything your customers already use (your storefront, checkout, loyalty program, integrations) carries over to your app. No separate codebase, no duplicate content management.

If you want to see what that looks like for your store, book a free strategy call and we’ll go over everything. We've built over 2,000 apps over the last 10+ years, so we’re uniquely positioned to show you what you can gain by launching an app.

As many of our customers attest to: push notifications are the reason to launch an app.

If you want to explore this for your brand, get in touch and we’ll explain how to make it happen.