The brands driving the most repeat purchases aren't using more channels. They're orchestrating email, SMS, and push at exactly the right moment.

Brands gain an average of $29 in additional revenue for every new customer they engage through a strong owned-channel strategy. In today's landscape where acquisition costs continue to rise, smart brands are maximizing value by focusing on retention and engagement. 

The most effective tools? Your owned channels—email, SMS, and push notifications.

Used strategically, this trio can help you build loyalty, reduce churn, and drive high-margin revenue. But most brands don’t have a channel problem—they have a timing and targeting problem.

The key isn’t “email vs. SMS vs. push.” The real unlock is orchestration—knowing when to choose email, text, or push to drive customers back for that crucial second, third, or tenth purchase. 

Push is more than just a backup channel—it's often your strongest retention and revenue driver. With a 92% open rate and six times higher conversions than other channels, push notifications are the true powerhouse in channel orchestration. 

But success comes down to strategy. Let’s talk about when to choose push, email, or SMS.

Key takeaways 

• Play to each channel’s strength: Understand what email, SMS, and push do best (and where they fall short) so you can use them with intention.
• Orchestrate, don’t overlap: Learn how leading brands coordinate all three channels to drive retention without overwhelming customers.
• Unlock hidden ROI with push: See why push is often the most overlooked tool in the stack and how it can deliver the highest retention and revenue impact when paired with SMS and email.

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Why SMS and mobile apps are the loyalty power duo

Both SMS and push are immediacy channels, but they create repeat purchases in different ways:

• SMS is the sprinter. With Attentive benchmarks showing open rates of up to 98%, SMS is behavior-based, personal, and highly effective. It’s perfect for urgent messages, loyalty perks, and delivering important information that customers will want to save and revisit, like exclusive discount codes or real-time shipping updates.
  
  
• Push is the spark. With Tapcart benchmarks showing +63% conversion, +35% LTV, and open rates up to 92%, push is behavior-based, personal, and cost-free to send. It’s perfect for loyalty perks, product drops, and instant nudges.
  

Together, they form a repeat-purchase cycle. With Tapcart powering the app experience and Attentive delivering AI-powered push, brands can turn every SMS reminder and push alert into a coordinated, personalized journey that deepens loyalty.

SMS drives awareness and urgency, push converts it in real time and reinforces the behavior of coming back to the app. Over time, this pairing creates a habit loop where customers know if they want early access, rewards, or exclusives—they’ll find them in the app and get reminded in their texts.

The role of email in the mix

Email isn’t out of the picture—it’s the backbone channel that supports SMS and push.

The strength comes when email isn’t siloed, but works in lockstep with SMS and push. With all three channels in the same platform, marketers can reuse journeys and segments instead of rebuilding them from scratch.

Email is perfect for long-form content—onboarding, product care, newsletters, loyalty program introductions. And while inbox fatigue is real, the channel still drives consistent engagement—ecommerce brands see average open rates around 31% in 2025, with overall email open rates hitting 42% across industries. 

That means nearly half of subscribers are still paying attention to the inbox, making it an essential set-up channel for downstream conversions on SMS and push.

Orchestrating your channels 

Here’s how we like to think about orchestrating the channels: Each one plays a distinct role in moving the customer from awareness to action. Start broad with email, build urgency with SMS, and close the loop with push.

1. Email teaser builds anticipation (“Coming soon…”)
2. SMS reminder sparks urgency (“Don’t miss this drop”)
3. Push notification drives instant action (“It’s live!”)

This simple sequence shows how owned channels can work together, delivering the right message at the right moment.

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Channel cheat sheet

​​When coordinated in Attentive, these channels activate customer data across push, SMS, and email, making every message smarter and more personalized over time.

Quick take

• Email = Your long-form storytelling channel— a content stronghold
• SMS = Your conversion sprinter—great for urgency
• Push = Your retention powerhouse—free, personal, and driven by loyalty

Push delivers immediacy at scale—perfect for moments of urgency like, “early access starts now” or “final hours”. And because notifications live inside the app, they become an ongoing touchpoint that customers can revisit anytime.

Andrew Shields, Senior Product Manager at Attentive 

What to use when

The best brands don’t blast the same message across every channel—they orchestrate email, SMS, and push with intent. Here’s how top DTC teams align channels to the moment.

When brands offer app-only benefits—think early access to new drops or exclusive member perks—they're not just driving downloads. They're building the foundation for effective push notification engagement.

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Why push is the underrated channel in your stack

Push notifications are often the quiet hero of the owned-channel mix. While email and SMS have long been the go-to tools for marketers, push brings a different kind of value: immediacy at scale.

Here’s why push deserves more attention:

• Cost-free reach: Unlike channels that scale with spend, push messages are free to send.
• Native to your brand: Delivered inside your app, they feel seamless and on-brand.
• Behavior-driven: Easily segmented and personalized based on real customer actions.
• Loyalty builder: When paired with exclusives or post-purchase flows, push creates repeat engagement.

The key isn’t choosing push instead of email or SMS—it’s recognizing how it completes the picture. Used alongside storytelling in email and the persistence of SMS, push becomes the real-time spark that turns intent into action.

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The real strategy—orchestrate, don’t overlap

Top-performing brands don’t blast the same message on every channel—they sequence and stack for maximum impact.

Example play:

• Send a launch teaser via email
• Drop the collection via push
• Remind top VIPs via SMS

This sequencing increases engagement and decreases opt-outs. It turns a one-off promotion into a retention rhythm that keeps customers primed for the next purchase.

Orchestrating channels like this increases engagement and decreases opt-outs. As detailed in the Mobile App Marketing Guide, Tapcart brands use this rhythm to drive sustained app growth and reduce message fatigue across other platforms.

A journey-based timeline or layered flow that follows a customer from first engagement through retention. The three channels (email, SMS, push) appear as separate, branded "tracks" that activate at different points, depending on the scenario.

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Bottom line: right channel, right time, real retention

You don’t need more tools—you just need better timing and targeting.

With Tapcart powering the mobile app and Attentive unifying push, SMS, and email with AI-powered personalization, brands can stop paying for attention and start earning it with coordinated journeys that build loyalty beyond the first sale.

Want to learn more? Get a 15 minute walkthrough from Tapcart to see how leading brands are turning push, SMS, and email into a retention engine. Or request a demo with Attentive. 

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