Browser Notification Statistics 2024 | 27 Interesting Facts

Ever encountered a browser notification before? It’s that small floating window that pops up when a website is loaded and asks to allow receiving notifications in the future.

Browser notifications come in a variety of sizes, designs, and content. It invites a website visitor’s approval to get future prompts about a company’s newest offering, alerts, and other updates. It notifies the subscribed visitor of these updates even if the website or browser is closed.

Startups benefit most from browser notifications on their website. It connects quickly to customers–current and potential–and results in higher engagement.

Here are 27 interesting facts about browser notifications I’ve collated for startups and website owners. Hopefully, this helps in understanding the great opportunity of using this marketing tool.

1. There was a 50% decrease in desktop browser notification subscribers in 2023.

Gravitec conducted a survey involving 50 million global subscribers to browser notifications. They found out that there was a decline in global browser notifications desktop subscribers from 2018 (25%) to 2023 (12.5%) by 50%.

This was due to the shift of online users to mobile devices for their computing and daily needs. This is seen in the increase of global browser notifications mobile subscribers by 16.67% in five years. Mobile subscribers of browser notifications were recorded at 75% in 2018 before it became 87.5% in 2023.

In gist, one can say that mobile devices were used approximately by 90% of all subscribers to opt-in to browser or push notifications. The remaining 10% used desktop devices to subscribe to browser notifications.

2. Europe had the highest reaction rate for browser notifications at 8.5%.

By region, Europe registered the highest reaction rate for browser notifications at 8.5% in 2023. This is immediately followed by Asia with 8%.

Africa and Oceania both have a reaction rate of 7.7% with North America close behind at 7%. South America was recorded with a 6.9% reaction rate for the same period.

Browser notifications recorded the highest engagement on Android at an average of 11.15%.

In terms of platform time, data show that Android phones generated the highest engagement for browser notifications in the top two regions in the world. Europe showed an 11.4% engagement from browser notification subscribers using Android phones. While iOS users in Europe had an engagement rate of 5.5%.

Asian Android phone users registered a 10.9% browser notifications engagement. There was a 5.1% of browser notification engagements from iOS users in Asia.

3. Burger King experienced a 10.04% CTR through browser notifications.

Burger King launched an online campaign using browser notifications subscribers in 2022. The renowned burger brand used 11 banners on its website to target a wide range of users through behavior.

The campaign resulted in 25% more clickthroughs and a 10.04 %clickthrough rate. Use Insider said this is 66.7% higher than the industry average of 6.7%

4. Global acceptance for browser notifications registered at 16.7% in 2021.

Data from Frizbit show that 40.7% of browser notifications were denied or rejected in 2021. While 23.8% of browser notifications were dismissed and 18.7% were ignored.

Despite this, 16.7% of browser notifications worldwide were accepted. Companies with accepted browser notifications experienced a 36x return on ad spend in 2021. This translates to €0.02 ($0.0218) cost per session only.

5. Desktop browser notifications were almost 2x dismissed compared to mobile browser notifications.

In 2021, global desktop browser notifications registered a 33.7% dismissal. This is almost twice higher than mobile browser notifications, which only registered 17.7% in 2021.

Incidents of desktop browser notifications being ignored were similarly higher than their mobile counterparts at 47.5% and 1.9%, respectively.

6. Mobile browser notifications were more than 4x rejected than desktop browser notifications.

Ironically, mobile browser notifications registered a rejection or denial rate of 57.2% in 2021. This is far higher than the rejection or denial rate of desktop browser notifications at 12.3%.

Mobile browser notifications’ acceptance rate was nonetheless higher at 23.3% in comparison to desktop browser notifications’ acceptance rate of 6.4%.

7. 95% of browser notifications in the world were received by Chrome users.

According to Gravitec, Chrome dominated the global browser market share (64.8%) from March 2022 to March 2023.

Safari was second in market share with 19.5% and Microsoft Edge followed with 4.63%. While 2.57% of internet users used Samsung Internet and 2.33% used Opera.

Browser notifications at that time were received by approximately 85% internet users worldwide. This translates to 95% of all browser notification subscribers in the world were notified through Chrome.

8. The E-commerce industry had the highest usage for browser notifications in 2021 at 22.03%.

Data from Subscribers.Com show that e-commerce industries widely used browser notifications in 2021 (22.3%) for marketing purposes. This is in contrast to industries in Insurance at 8.35% and Communications (publishing, media, and blogging) at 18.79%.

The industry that hardly used browser notifications were those in the Directories and Aggregators, which registered only 2.4%. Those engaged in the Travel and Hospitality industry and the Careers and Training industry were also at the bottom at 2.61% and 2.71%, respectively.

9. Digital marketing agencies lagged behind in browser notifications usage in 2021 at 7.52%.

Digital marketing agencies ironically lagged behind when it comes to using browser notifications in their websites.

Statistics show a 7.52% market share of user notifications in 2021 were from digital marketing agencies. Software and SaaS companies used browser notifications more than marketing agencies at 7.62%.

In fairness, digital marketing agencies did better than arts, entertainment, and sports companies (6.89%) and healthcare and wellness companies (5.01%) for the same period. Companies engaged in Gaming only had a 4.8% market share of browser notifications market share.

10. Open or view rate for browser notification is 60% better than newsletters.

Online data show that using browser notifications is more effective than newsletters in reaching out to customers. The open rate for newsletters is 15% to 30%. Browser notifications show an open or view rate of 45% to 90%.

11. Adding visually-attractive content to browser notifications increases its open or view rate at an average of 28.33%.

However, open rate for browser notifications can improve by 20% when using emojis in the copy or content in 2020. Open rate for browser notifications can even increase by 40% when it is delivered according to industry-specific release times.

Adding rich formats to browser notifications further improves the open rate by 25%. While adding personalization and using advanced targeting can result to a 4x and 3x open rate, respectively, for browser notifications.

12. Return on investment from push notifications are 3,378% higher than that of a newsletter’s.

Besides higher open or view rates, browser notifications also generate better returns on investment compared to newsletters. Browser notifications generate a return on investment from 2,200% to 3,500%, which is an average of 2,278%.

The return on investment recorded for newsletters is only 122%. This shows a 2,078% to 3,378% gap to browser notification return on investment.

13. Push notifications can grow subscriptions by 300% in a span of three months.

Gravitec conducted a study in 2022 involving the effect of browser notifications on its broad client database. They discovered that the opt-in rate for browser notifications starts to peak to 300% after three months of installation.

The opt-in rate depends on the time the notifications are sent to the subscribers, which is a crucial factor. Frequency of sending notifications is another factor that may make or break the number of subscriptions a website grows and maintains.

Too much notifications may irritate subscribers while sending too infrequent notifications may make subscribers forget updates easily. The key is finding the right time and frequency.

Eventually, the growth of browser notification subscribers will plateau or decrease since the website’s frequent visitors have become part of your subscriber base.

14. The industry standard for push notifications subscription rate is an average of 10%.

According to experts, push notification subscription rate ranges from 0.5% to 15% or an average of 10%.

Smashing Magazine, on the other hand, reveals that the 2022 average opt-in rate for browser notification has increased to 12%. This is based on the range of 7% to 17%, which depending on the industry a company belongs to and the device used by visitors to their website.

The financial sector is said to have the highest opt-in rate for browser notifications according to industry. Interestingly, the highest subscription rates for browser notifications occur in July and December.

15. Browser notifications increased cart recovery conversion rates by 24%.

Samsung rolled out a browser notifications campaign to decrease cart abandonment in its website. They used a new platform for the campaign (Insider Growth Management Platform’s messaging suite).

The result was 10% higher than their expected click-through rate of 14%. In addition, the new platform generated a 24% higher browser conversion rate compared to what they experienced before.

Samsung also achieved its intent to promote its Note 9 and a 275% increase in conversion rates.

16. Tag-segmented browser notification campaigns resulted to approximately a 5% click through rate.

By campaign type, those using tags segmentation produced the highest click through rate for browser notifications at approximately 5%. The same result could be seen for browser notification campaigns using aliases (5%).

Browser notification campaigns using standard segmentation filters (e.g. by location, by browser type, etc.) generated a click through rate of roughly 3%. While the lowest click through rate (2.5%) could be seen for campaigns that was sent generically or to all browser notification subscribers.

17. In 2022, standard browser notifications campaigns generated a 30% average close rate.

Standard browser notifications—those sent to all subscribers—seem to generate lower KPIs compared to targeted ones. This could be seen not only in click through rates but also with close rates, which pertains to the number of subscribers that clicked the close button.

Browser notification campaigns that use custom tags was lower by 10% in close rate compared to standard campaigns. The close rate for browser notification standard campaigns was 30% in 2022. Those that use custom tags was only 20%.

18. Browser notifications click rate can increase by 3% through automation.

According to experts, the standard click rate of browser notifications is 12% on average. But this can go higher by 3% when the browser notification is automated, totaling a click rate of 15%.

There are other factors that can further improve the click rate such as using rich media (18%) or using targetted campaigns (30%).

The time and day of sending the notifications also varies. Automating the delivery of browser notifications based on the best time and day of delivery makes it more effective and increases click rates.

19. Browser notification campaigns outperform email marketing campaigns by 50% on the minimal.

Statistics show browser notification campaigns perform better than email marketing campaigns across KPIs.

For one, opening rates were seen to increase by 50%. Standard browser notification campaigns result in an open rate of 20%, which is far higher than the standard of 2% for email marketing campaigns.

Retention rates were recorded at 93% and click rates were seen to go as high as 700%.

These data prompted marketers to shift from email to browser notification campaigns for sending reminders and offering special promotions.

20. There is a 163% increase in the usage of emojis in browser notification messages.

As of 2020, the use of emojis in browser notification messages has increased by 163%. The reason? Emojis increase subscriber engagement to browser notifications. More people open notifications when there are emojis. They also respond better when emojis are in the messaging itself.

Thus, adding relevant emojis that convey the emotion of the sender is more attractive to browser notification subscribers. Effective emojis to use are two hearts, blue heart, hearts in love, hourglass, thumbs up, and the see no evil monkey.

21. The average open rate for browser notifications with emojis is 52.5%.

TruePush surveyed in 2021 on 1,000 browser notification subscribers. The survey showed that conversions increased by 9% when emojis were included in browser notification messages.

The survey results also revealed that adding emojis to notifications increased the open rate from 20% to 85%. This averages 52.5%.

22. Adding emojis to browser notifications increases click-through rates by an average of 7.27%.

As per the TruePush 2021 survey, the standard average clickthrough rate for browser notifications per 1,000 subscribers is 5%.

Adding an emoji to the browser notifications surprisingly increased the clickthrough rate to an average of 7.27%. TruePush saw that adding emojis increased subscriber engagement for clickthroughs from 4.94% to 9.6%.

23. Only 26% of subscribers feel positively towards browser notifications.

Statistics from Bizcognia reveal that a minority of subscribers welcome the receipt of browser notifications. 26% of browser notification subscribers appreciate being alerted to what they need. Though Notify Visitors says 50% of subscribers welcome browser notifications.

Notwithstanding, more than half of subscribers or 52.68% get irritated when receiving browser notifications. While another 49% find it distracting. Accordingly, 39.39% say they receive notifications at the wrong time and get disturbed by what they are attending to at the moment.

24. 12.5% of subscribers find browser notifications impersonal.

Sending generic broadcasts to all browser notification subscribers creates a negative impact. A negative impact can come in the form of a decrease in one’s subscriber base.

According to data, 35% of browser notification campaigns in 2021 were generic broadcasts sent to all subscribers. Bizcognia statistics show that such broadcasts affect 12.5% of subscribers who find it impersonal.

25. Generic browser notification campaigns are seen as irrelevant by 24.11% of subscribers.

Almost a quarter or 24.11% of subscribers find generic broadcasts irrelevant. While 21% of subscribers generally find browser notifications as useless or of no purpose.

In contrast, 18% of subscribers see browser notifications to be useful. These data clearly show the need to tailor-fit messages and content to subscribers to experience the best results from browser notification campaigns.

26. Browser notifications sent in the morning are preferred by 38.66% of subscribers.

Timing the delivery of browser notifications is another way to tailor-fit one’s campaign. More subscribers prefer receiving browser notifications in the morning (38.66%) than in the evening (36.69%).

This is because 21.29% of subscribers prefer to receive browser notifications while at work. Another 15.13% appreciate receiving browser notifications while commuting to work.

Data show that the best time to send browser notifications is 12pm to 1pm during daytime. As for night time, it is 7pm to 9pm. In gist, tailor-fitting the time of delivery increases subscriber reaction rates for browser notifications by 40%.

27. In 2020, 77% of browser notifications were sent during the week.

Since people worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, 77% of browser notifications were sent during the week. While 23% of browser notifications were sent during the weekend.

This data coincides with the preference of subscribers when it comes to receiving browser notifications as Ive mentioned in the previous numbers in this listing. This is not to mention the reality that a minority of people (38.38%) like receiving browser notifications on weekends.

Sources Used

• WP Beginner
• RA Motion
• Gravitec
• Subscribers.Com
• Frizbit.com
• Use Insider
• Notify Visitors
• Bizcognia
• Medium
• Smashing Magazine

FAQs:

1. How Do Browser Notifications Work?

Browser notifications are small pop-up windows that appear once a website is loaded. It asks the visitors to opt-in to receive prompts or notifications for updates. Once the visitor opts in, notifications will be received even if the website is not viewed.

Website owners need to sign up for browser notification services like TrustPulse and TruePush is needed. The notifications sent to website visitors can be scheduled and configured depending on the device used for browsing, among other customizations.

2. What are browser notifications for?

Browser notifications are a marketing tool for new products/services, sales discounts, special offers, product launches, etc. It helps increase conversion rates and revenue for website owners.

Plus, it allows those who opt-in to the notifications to be the first to know of such information, which creates a sense of belongingness and exclusivity. Thus, it is a means to build customer relationships and expand one’s customer base.

3. Are browser notifications the same as app notifications?

By function, browser notifications and app notifications are the same in that they quickly connect the company to its customers with news on them. The two types of notification differ in form such that browser notifications are sent to the browser of a person who opted in.

While an app notification appears as an alert icon on the app itself. Thus, app notifications are limited to the application a person opted in to and a browser notification is limited to the website browser the person is using.