Shopify Push Notifications: Web Push Apps, Uses and Limits
Shopify push notifications for your store’s visitors come from an app: the app shows a browser prompt asking to “allow notifications”, and shoppers who accept get alerts such as an abandoned cart reminder, a back-in-stock message or a price drop on their screen, even when your site is closed. Shopify’s own channels are email, SMS and WhatsApp in Shopify Messaging, plus order updates in the Shop app. On iPhone, web push only reaches shoppers who have added your site to their Home Screen.
Sources, read on October 23, 2026: WebKit’s announcement of web push on iOS and iPadOS, the Shopify Help Center on order tracking in the Shop app, and the App Store listings named below.
How web push works on a Shopify store
- You install a web push app and switch on its app embed in the theme editor, which loads its script on your storefront.
- The shopper sees a permission prompt. The browser asks whether your site may send notifications. If your app allows it, show your own message first (“Get an alert when this is back in stock”) and trigger the browser prompt only after the shopper says yes.
- The shopper becomes a subscriber in that browser on that device. No email or phone number is needed, which is why push is easy to opt into and why it cannot be moved to another channel later.
- The app sends notifications from automations (cart, stock, price) or from campaigns you write.
On iPhone, the rules are stricter. WebKit’s announcement of February 16, 2023, says Apple added web push in iOS and iPadOS 16.4 for web apps added to the Home Screen, and the permission has to be asked “in response to direct user interaction”, such as tapping a subscribe button. A shopper browsing your store in Safari on an iPhone, without adding it to the Home Screen, cannot subscribe. If most of your mobile traffic is iPhone, a large part of your mobile visitors is out of reach for web push, and email or SMS reach them better.
Push notifications worth sending
| Message | Trigger | Automated? | Why shoppers keep allowing it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back in stock | A sold-out variant they asked about is restocked | Yes | They asked for it |
| Abandoned cart | Cart left without checkout | Yes | Short reminder of something they chose |
| Price drop | A viewed product gets cheaper | Yes | Clear value |
| Shipping update | Order shipped or delivered | Yes, if the app supports it | Useful, not promotional |
| Flash sale | You start a short sale | Campaign | Fine a few times a year |
| “New arrivals” every week | Calendar | Campaign | The fastest way to train people to block you |
Push is short: a title, a line of text and an image. Keep promotions rare. Shoppers can revoke the permission in their browser at any time, and once they block your site the browser stops showing your prompt.
On “Shopify sale notification”: some people search for this meaning the “someone in Berlin just bought…” popups (a social-proof app), others mean order notifications to the merchant. Order notifications to you and your staff are set in Shopify itself, under Settings > Notifications; neither of those is web push.
Push notification apps for Shopify
When we checked the listings on October 23, 2026, two web push apps showed “This app is not currently available on the Shopify App Store”: Brevo PushOwl and Notification AI. Roundups that list them are out of date. One that was available:
| App | Type | Free plan | Paid plans | Priced by | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firepush: SMS & Web Push | Web push and SMS | 500 web pushes included | Basic $13/month (10,000 web pushes); Pro $49/month (25,000) | Web pushes sent per month | 4.8 (198 reviews) |
Search the Shopify App Store for “web push” for current options, and check each listing for three things: the pricing unit (pushes sent, subscribers or impressions), whether the app supports the iOS Home Screen flow, and the date of the most recent reviews. Mobile app builders, which create a separate shopping app with its own push, are a different product; our guide to mobile app shoppers compares an app with a mobile site.
Push, email, SMS or the Shop app?
| Channel | Consent | Reach on iPhone | Cost | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Web push | Browser permission, no contact details | Only Home Screen web apps | Per push or subscriber, low | Stock and price alerts for browsers who will not give an email |
| Email marketing consent | Full | Shopify Messaging: 10,000 emails a month free | Most campaigns and automations | |
| SMS | SMS marketing consent | Full | Per message | Time-sensitive messages, sparingly |
| Shop app | Shopper uses Shop | Full, in the Shop app | Free | Order tracking: status updates, push for shipping milestones, live map |
We would put email first, then the Shop app for tracking, then SMS or push for specific alerts. Our guides to Shopify marketing automation and abandoned cart recovery cover the email side. Every channel guide is listed in the running a store hub.
Where push programs go wrong
The usual failure is a browser prompt on the first page view, before the shopper has any reason to accept; tie it to an action such as “notify me when back in stock” instead. The second is sending the same message by email, SMS and push within an hour, when one channel per message is enough, and campaigns with no frequency cap come close behind. And check each app’s listing before you pick it from a roundup, since some of the listed apps are gone.
Frequently asked questions
Does Shopify have push notifications? Shopify sends push notifications about orders through the Shop app, where customers get alerts for shipping milestones. Browser push notifications to your store’s visitors are added with a web push app from the Shopify App Store.
Do web push notifications work on iPhone? They work only for sites the shopper has added to the Home Screen. Apple added web push in iOS and iPadOS 16.4 for Home Screen web apps, and the permission must be requested after the user taps something. Shoppers browsing in Safari without adding the site cannot subscribe.
What is a Shopify sale notification? The term is used for two things: popups that show recent purchases to visitors as social proof, which come from apps, and order notifications to the store owner, which you set under Settings > Notifications in Shopify.