Another SaaS Newsletter?Yep. But This One’s Actually Worth Reading. 🕶

For teams managing mobile experiences on Shopify, keeping apps up-to-date across iOS and Android platforms can quickly become a logistical headache, especially as new features, bug fixes, and customer requests pile up. At Reactiv, we’ve engineered a release process commonly known as a Release Train (we did not coin this term, but we've adopted it), built specifically to address the complexities of deploying React Native apps at scale for Shopify merchants.

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From sprint to store: How our release train works

Each development sprint at Reactiv focuses on two core goals: resolving bugs and delivering meaningful features. Often, our roadmap is influenced by direct customer requests, but instead of building bespoke functionality for a single store, we generalize those ideas into scalable solutions every merchant can use.

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Once a sprint wraps, our QA team runs a suite of automated and manual regression tests across both the Reactiv mobile apps and our embeddable Reactiv Clips. We also test changes using a fully operational demonstration store, ensuring features behave as expected before rolling them out to customers.

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Automated CI/CD for react native app builds

After passing QA, we trigger our custom automated CI/CD pipeline, purpose-built for managing hundreds of React Native Shopify apps.

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Here’s how it works:

1. Secure Credential Management: Each customer app is uniquely configured with private credentials, gathered and handled securely during build time.
   
2. Cross-Platform Compilation: Our build system generates both iOS and Android versions of every app, bundling in Reactiv Clips when required.
   
3. Optimized Hardware: To handle the workload, we run builds on a dedicated and highly optimized hardware stack, cutting build times and boosting reliability.
   
4. Pre-Release QA: Once builds are complete, we push test versions to the App Store and Play Store for final review.
   
5. Coordinated Launches: With everything verified, we coordinate app store releases across all merchants in a controlled, predictable schedule.
   
   

This workflow means we can ship platform-wide updates every two weeks, with minimal manual intervention and zero guesswork. The result? Shopify mobile apps that are always up to date, secure, and fast.

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Empowering merchants with dynamic content control

Beyond the release train, Reactiv enables merchants to make real-time content changes without deploying a new app build. Our Drag-and-Drop Dashboard, fully integrated into the Shopify Admin, allows merchants to update layouts, banners, promotions, and more, with no technical expertise required.

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This hybrid model, core features shipped on a predictable cadence, content updates controlled by the merchant, strikes the right balance between stability and flexibility.

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Live app monitoring at a glance

Our internal dashboard provides a real-time, high-level view of every Reactiv-powered app currently in use. Build history, deployment status, and app versioning are all trackable at a glance:

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This visibility ensures our team can quickly identify and resolve issues, track rollouts, and support merchants with accurate, up-to-date diagnostics.

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We handle the releases—you run the business

Managing mobile releases across multiple stores, platforms, and feature sets is no small task. But with Reactiv, you don’t need to worry about infrastructure, builds, or app store coordination. We handle all of that, securely, automatically, and on a regular schedule.

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With Reactiv, there’s no need for merchants to coordinate with dev teams just to update an app. We take care of the heavy lifting, so you can stay focused on what matters most: growing your business.

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Don’t take this personally: if you’re still sending a blanket marketing campaign to everyone on your list, you’ve got some catching up to do.

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Customers today want to feel like you’re talking specifically to them. In fact, they demand it - 71% of shoppers expect personalization from brands today and 76% get frustrated when they don’t receive it. 

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While personalization can take many forms (emails, offers, even handwritten notes), one of the most overlooked—but most powerful—is the humble push notification. Especially when it's delivered at just the right moment.

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In this article we’ll explore how and why push notifications convert, the different types of push notifications and strategies for implementing them to start reducing your CAC today.

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Personalized push notifications work—they just get a bad rap

We’re all familiar with push notifications. But too many brands use them as generic alerts instead of what they really are: high-intent conversion opportunities.

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Push is a type of remarketing tactic where a notification appears as a pop-up message on a user’s mobile home screen, device notification centre, or desktop browser. But Personalized push notifications can act as gentle nudges to complete a purchase, re-engage with a product, or check in on an order. 

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And they work. In fact, the average user on Reactiv sees a 60% open rate on personalized pushes and a 5-7% conversion rate. Not to mention, they can receive up to 400% more engagement compared to untargeted campaigns.

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That’s because push notifications—when timed right and tailored to the customer—do something that email and SMS often don’t: they show up when your shopper is already on their phone, doomscrolling, without needing an opt-in or inbox competition.

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The 4 types of push notifications and when to use each

There’s more than one way to personalize. Here are the four most effective types of push notifications and how to use each to your advantage.

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1. Promotional pushes that spark urgency

We’ve all seen this one before - one of the most obvious use cases for push notifications is to create hype about upcoming promotions for existing customers. Whether it’s a new product launch or site-wide sale, remarketing can get your audience excited and encourage them to re-visit.

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It works because it’s simple. People love deals from brands they’re familiar with. 65% of ecommerce mobile app users said they would open push notifications that offer discounts or deals. 

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Promotional notifications are a great way to re-energize your audience and make them feel like they’re getting something exclusive.

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2. Behavioral nudges that reclaim lost sales

People love digital window shopping. As a result, there’s no ecommerce brand on the planet who isn’t familiar with cart and browse abandoners. It’s on the rise too… Online cart abandonment has skyrocketed to 70.19%.

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But that doesn’t mean you should give up on those sales. It’s a huge missed opportunity to just rule them out - they could be this close to finishing that purchase.

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We’ve talked about the importance of remarketing and retargeting cart abandoners before. And push notifications are particularly great at bringing these shoppers back: CTRs on push notifications are 37% higher than email for cart abandonment campaigns. 

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These reminders work best when they reference what the shopper was looking at (a product photo helps) and keep the message light, like “Still thinking it over?” or “Your cart’s still here 👀.”

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For a deeper dive on this, check out our blog on retargeting best practices.

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3. Transactional updates that build trust

Hot take: you’ll still want to target customers even after they complete their purchase. Why? 

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Post-purchase push notifications are where operational updates meet customer experience. Order confirmations, shipping progress, delivery ETAs—these all keep the customer looped in and reduce WISMO tickets.

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90% of customers want to actively track their packages - they actually prefer to receive constant updates on the progress of their package. 

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Knowledge is power!

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4. Lifecycle messages that build community

You’re likely noticing a trend here, but once a customer has used your app, placed an order, and received it, there’s still opportunity to drive revenue with push notifications. 

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That’s because the ultimate goal is bringing customers back to your store to make more purchases in the future.

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Personalized push notifications aimed at relationship and loyalty building is a powerful way to accomplish this. Depending on your store and customer preferences, this can take a few different forms:

• Loyalty program notifications - use these to remind customers that they have points to redeem for a reward. This is a great way to drive repeat purchases. 
• Birthday and milestone notifications - a great tool to let customers know you value their loyalty and make them feel good on their special day. 
• Relationship-building messages - these notifications can humanize your brand and build an emotional connection with your customers. Our friends at Top of the Mornin’ use these to build brand loyalty through fun, lighthearted (or light-roasted) messages like “have a great day!”. These help them stay top-of-mind and make their customers associate them with a positive serotonin boost. And maybe a craving for coffee.

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Personalized > generic. Every time.

Regardless of which type of push notification you want to test first, you need to make sure they’re personalized. 

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A random blast of generic messaging is akin to throwing darts with a blindfold on. Personalized push notifications lead to 59% more engagement compared to non-personalized ones, so take that blindfold off and get personal! 

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The best personalized push notifications are event-triggered nudges. This helps you create a flow to ensure you’re reaching out about the right thing at the right time. For example, if a customer:

• Viewed a product: send a reminder later with the product photo and a “Still thinking it over?” message
• Abandoned at checkout: trigger a follow-up with a soft nudge like “don’t forget what’s in your cart - it’s still waiting for you!”
• Just made a purchase: send their tracking details or suggest downloading your app for timely order updates
• Browsed a category but didn’t buy:  recommend bestsellers or trending items in their category of interest
• Engaged mostly at night: Schedule notifications based on their active hours

When is the best time to send push notifications?

When Shakespeare coined the phrase “timing is everything”, you’d swear he was talking about push notifications.

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Think about it - if you were driving to the office, would you open a push notification reminding you about a jacket you were browsing? Even once you’re (begrudgingly) settled at your desk, you’ve got a million other things on your mind. You can’t be thinking about jackets! Before you know it, you’re deep into your workday and that jacket notification goes unnoticed and unopened until it’s eventually swiped away. Gone too soon, little buddy.

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The fact is, most people ignore notifications during the day. But according to data across brands using Reactiv, between 9PM and midnight, when they’re relaxing and aimlessly scrolling? That’s when a nudge to revisit a product or complete a purchase actually works. 

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During that window, we’re seeing conversion rates hit 6.8% for Reactiv Clips.

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While this is a reliable rule of thumb, it may vary based on the behavior of your customers. For instance, if most of your customers visit your site between 7AM and 10AM, you might want to try sending push notifications in that window. 

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Testing different times or running A/B tests within your customer base is a surefire way to determine the best-converting time frame. 

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Designing the best push notification flow with Reactiv Clips

With all of this talk about push notifications, you might be thinking that the biggest hurdle of all is getting customers to download your app so you can send them. 

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Lucky for you, with Reactiv Clips customers don’t even need to download your app or opt-in to receive push notifications. 

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A Reactiv Clip is a lightweight version of a mobile app that allows users to access a specific part of the app’s functionality without having to download the full app. Once a shoppers engages, you have an 8-hour window to send push notifications without them even having to opt-in to receive them.

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Let’s take a look at a customer’s typical journey with Reactiv Clips:

• A customer sees an ad on social media
• They click through to the Reactiv Clip, which launches the product page
• They leave the page
• They’re retargeted with a smart push notification based on the product they viewed
• They click on the notification and are brought back to the app to complete their purchase
• They receive another personalized push notification confirming their order
• This all happens without the shopper having to actually download the full app. One interaction with a Reactiv Clip is enough to unlock the follow-up.

The bar for mobile engagement is a lot lower when you can meet people where they are, and when they’re ready. Reactiv Clips builds these connections to make that happen.

It’s a universal certainty: ads are everywhere. And today, there are more opportunities than ever for shoppers to see marketing messages, whether they’re checking emails or scrolling on social media.

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As a result, a lot of marketing messages end up becoming white noise – like seeing another wise, bearded wizard in a fantasy movie (it’s been done). 

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So, how do you stand out?

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The key is actually pretty simple: personalization. Hyper-personalized strategies allow you to run ads that are actually relevant to the customer. And today, we’re breaking down our favourite strategies: retargeting and remarketing.

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Read on because we're breaking down our top 15 remarketing and retargeting ads examples to help inspire your strategy.

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What is remarketing vs. retargeting?

Remarketing and retargeting are personalized marketing approaches that focus on customers who visited your website or mobile app but did not take a specific action.

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Although both terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there are a few key differences:

• Remarketing involves reaching out to a customer whose information you already have. This can be through a previous purchase or an email list sign-up. The goal is to reach out through personalized channels like email, SMS, or push notifications to create customer loyalty. 
• Retargeting focuses on customers who have visited your website but have not yet made a purchase. It uses cookies from when customers visit your site and then serves them ads once they leave your site on third-party websites like the Google Display Network or the Meta Audience Network.  

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BONUS: Track what’s actually working

Running retargeting ads without tracking profitability is like driving with your eyes closed. Just because someone came back to your site doesn’t mean the ad paid off.

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To help you dial in your spend, we put together a free Ads Profitability Tracker Spreadsheet—built specifically for ecommerce teams.

You can use it to:

• Track ROAS across Meta, Google, TikTok, and other channels
• Compare retargeting vs. prospecting campaign efficiency
• Monitor performance by audience, creative, and funnel stage
• Make faster decisions on where to scale or cut back

👉 Grab the spreadsheet here.

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15 top-tier remarketing ad examples for every stage of the customer journey

Time for the fun part! Here are 15 of the best remarketing ads examples we’ve seen.

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1. Good Protein – pair social ad retargeting with welcome offers for first-time customers 

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Good Protein’s approach was to use this collection ad to dynamically display products customers can click on. Customers are taken directly to the product page where they can learn more or add the item to their cart. 

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They also:

• Retargeted customers through the Meta Display network through Instagram Feed Ads and Facebook right column ads 
• Offered first-time customers 20% off their first order to incentivize the first purchase 
• Supplemented the discount with social proof by highlighting 20,000 5-star reviews 

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Top takeaway

Running ads across multiple channels keeps the offer top-of-mind. Varying the format, style, and imagery of each ad also prevents the customer from feeling ad fatigue or annoyance.

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2. Sloane Tea – use carousel ads to show off your best-sellers 

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Sloane Tea used a dynamic social media carousel ad to highlight multiple products based on what the customer had viewed.

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Each slide in the carousel features a different image and caption. Each image also has a “Shop now” CTA, making it easy for customers to visit the product page they’re most interested in.

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Top takeaway

Sloane also wisely used the same ad format on Facebook to reach shoppers across multiple channels.

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3. Journeys  – bring customers back with display ads

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Journeys used this dynamic Google Display ad that shoppers see on a third-party site. The ad shows sneakers they were previously browsing or similar styles.

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Top takeaway

Highlighting the price of each sneaker takes the guesswork out. Calling out “Free in-store returns” can help remove the risk customers feel with online purchases.

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4. Arrae – drive conversions by retargeting customers based on their pain points

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Arrae strategically retargeted customers through this Instagram Feed ad. They called out common symptoms of high cortisol and positioned their Arrae Magnesium as the solution.

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It’s also a collection ad, so customers can click only on the product they’re most interested in.

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Top takeaway

One of the most tried and tested ad formulas is the problem-solution approach, which Arrae has masterfully used in this remarketing ad example.

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5. Levi’s – retarget past shoppers with new product releases 

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Social media retargeting can also work for customers who have shopped with you in the past, but haven’t returned in a while. 

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For example, Levi’s used this Instagram Story ad to serve a message about their new product drop. This creates excitement and has a clear call to action. 

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Top takeaway

Don’t underestimate the power of imagery. Using lifestyle photography makes this ad feel natural in the story feed and non-disruptive to the shopper’s experience.

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6. Blume – inspire customers with social proof

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Customer reviews and testimonials are one of your most effective marketing tools. Blume did a great job of using these through its Instagram ad for its Clear Skin Kit. 

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This ad highlights real before and after pictures from a customer to show how effective the product is at targeting acne and scarring. 

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Top takeaway

Combining this ad with a 30% off discount goes a long way to helping shoppers who are on the fence commit to making a purchase. 

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7. Hush Blankets – take an omnichannel retargeting approach to stay top of mind

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Hush Blankets’ recent “Buy 2, Get 2 Free” pillow campaign was the perfect example of balancing retargeting and remarketing. They used a combination of Instagram Story, Instagram Feed, and Facebook Feed ads through the Meta Ad Network.

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To keep things interesting, each ad used slightly different sizes, images and captions while maintaining a consistent message of “Buy 2, Get 2 Free!” to create cohesiveness and brand recall. Hush also combined these retargeting ad examples with a personalized remarketing email with the same message but more information. 

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Top takeaway

Hush paired this ad with a personalized remarketing email that helped encourage the shopper to take advantage of the deal before it ends. Remember: personalization! 

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8. Loop Earplugs – create FOMO with limited-time-only deals

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Loop Earplugs promoted a buy one, get one 50% off sale through this Instagram Feed ad. The idea is that customers who had browsed specific earplugs or added products to their cart wouldn’t want to miss out on this offer (hence the FOMO).

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Top takeaway

Everyone loves a sale. Creating a sense of urgency with time-constrained offers is one of the best retargeting ad messages you can use.

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9. Oak + Fort – recover abandoned carts with SMS campaigns 

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Oak + Fort re-engaged this customer who abandoned their cart through a hyper-personalized SMS. The message:

• Highlighted the specific trench coat they were browsing
• Created urgency by telling them to check out before it sells out
• Provided a link directly to the customer’s cart, making it as seamless as possible to check out

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Top takeaway

Cart abandonment campaigns are one of the most effective types of remarketing ads – and for good reason. 45% of cart abandonment emails are opened!

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10. Riversol – reduce browse abandonment with personalized outreach 

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Browse abandonment campaigns are for customers who spent a certain amount of time viewing a certain product without adding it to their cart. Riversol’s remarketing email highlighted the product they were browsing and offered a button to buy now.

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It was also followed by a more in-depth explanation of the product benefits and mention of the 60-day money-back guarantee to ease the purchase pressure. They strategically tried to upsell the customer with a “You might also like” section of complementary products too. 

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Top takeaway

While cart abandonment remarketing often gets the spotlight, don’t forget about browse abandonment campaigns for interested customers who may need a little nudge before they commit. 

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11. Anna’s Garden – win back dormant customers with a strategic offer

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Winback campaigns can help re-engage customers who have shopped with you before but haven’t made a purchase in a while. Anna’s Garden did a beautiful job of this through a remarketing email that offered the customer $5 off their next purchase for a limited amount of time. Then, they followed up with curated product recommendations for the customer.

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Top takeaway

Use winback campaigns as an opportunity to remind customers why they shopped with you in the first place.

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12. Kiyoko Beauty – spark excitement with restock notifications 

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Kiyoko Beauty expertly retargeted a customer through a series of SMS messages telling them that the face cream they were looking at was back. 

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They use time-based remarketing to send messages every couple of days. Each message created a more urgent call to action by saying “Hurry” and “Last Chance”. When a customer clicked the link, it automatically placed the item in their cart and brought them right to the checkout page. 

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Top takeaway

If a customer browses a product that’s out of stock, you risk losing them forever – unless you strategically retarget them once that product is back!

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13. Paula’s Choice – drive repeat purchases with smart replenishment remarketing campaigns 

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You have tons of customer data at your disposal, so why not use it? Paula’s Choice's sends an email to a customer when it’s time to restock on their exfoliant, as part of a replenishment remarketing campaign. Using customer shopping behaviors lets you send these types of emails at the right point.

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Paula’s Choice also uses this as a cross-sell opportunity, recommending complementary products to give the customer “next-level results.” 

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Top takeaway

First-party customer data, like previous purchases, is one of the best sources to use in remarketing campaigns.

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14. Summer Fridays – personalize your outreach through quiz follow-up campaigns  

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When customers complete a quiz on your website, you get valuable zero-party data that you can use to retarget them. Summer Fridays capitalized on this through personalized remarketing emails sharing a skincare ritual tailored to the customer. That way, they could target the customer’s unique skin type and concerns while showing off their best products to help.

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Top takeaway

Not to sound like a broken record, but remember: personalization (like a quiz) is key for your remarketing ad strategy!

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15. Crocs – make customers feel special with a gift on their birthday 

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When customers make accounts or loyalty profiles, you collect valuable information about them – like their birthday! Use this information to remarket to them on their special day. 

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Crocs does a great job at this through a personalized birthday email that offers $15 off the customer’s next order over $50. 

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Top takeaway

Everyone loves feeling special on their birthday. Take advantage of the customer information you have on-hand for your remarketing strategy. 

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Retarget customers with Reactiv Clips 

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If you’re ready to take your remarketing strategy to the next level, a Reactiv Clip is a lightweight version of a mobile app that allows users to access a specific part of the app's functionality without having to download the full app. Brands can send push notifications to users up to eight hours after they engage with the mobile app page without requiring a download or an opt-in. 

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That means every single ad click can trigger a personalized follow-up on iOS, helping you reduce customer acquisition cost (CAC) and get more from your ad spend.

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Use this strategy to achieve any of the goals of the remarketing ad examples we’ve shared, like:

• Converting a cart abandoner
• Driving sales during time-sensitive promotions
• Creating excitement for new product drops 

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Take inspiration from the remarketing examples above, have fun with your brand, try a Reactiv Clip and get ready to watch your conversion soar to the stratosphere.