Email open rates average 20%. SMS open rates are around 98%—but the cost adds up fast, and customers opt out the moment they feel overloaded. Social media reach is at an all-time low as platforms throttle organic content.
Then there's push notifications: free to send, delivered instantly, and opened at a rate of 60–70% when personalized. For Square merchants with a branded mobile app, push notifications are the single most powerful marketing tool available.
Here's how leading Square merchants are using them—and how you can too.
Why Push Notifications Work So Well for Food Ordering
The psychology is simple. Your app is already on your customer's phone. When they get a push notification, it appears on their lock screen with your brand's icon. At 11:30am when someone is thinking "what's for lunch?"—your notification saying "☕ Today only: Buy one, get one cold brew" arrives at exactly the right moment.
With Orda, Square merchants send push notifications directly from their marketing dashboard to all opted-in app users—for free, unlimited.
5 Push Notification Strategies That Actually Work
1. The Lunchtime Trigger
Set up an automated notification that goes out at 11:15am every weekday. Keep it simple: your most popular item, a one-line offer, and a one-tap link to order.
Example: "🌮 Lunch rush starts in 45 min. Order now, skip the line. Chicken tacos today—$9.99"
Result: Orda merchants consistently see a 30–40% spike in pre-orders on days they send a lunchtime notification compared to days they don't. That's new revenue from customers who were already going to eat somewhere.
2. The Win-Back Campaign
Haven't seen a customer in 14 days? Orda's automated marketing fires a win-back notification automatically, personalized with the customer's name.
Example: "We miss you, Sarah 😊 Here's 15% off your next order—just for coming back."
This runs on autopilot. You set it up once and Orda handles it using customer data synced from Square. The average win-back rate for Orda merchants is 20–30% of lapsed customers—people who simply forgot about you, not people who left for a reason.
3. The New Item Launch
Just added a seasonal special? A push notification is the fastest way to announce it to your entire customer base.
Unlike Instagram—where only 3–5% of your followers see an organic post—push notifications reach 100% of your opted-in app users. Every single one.
Example: "🍓 New! Strawberry Matcha Latte is here. First 50 orders get a free upgrade to large."
4. The Weather Trigger
This is an advanced play that high-performing Orda merchants love. Set up a warm-drink promotion to fire automatically when local temperatures drop below a set threshold.
Example: "❄️ It's 28°F outside. Stay warm with our new maple oat latte. Pre-order now."
Contextual notifications—ones that feel like they understand your customer's situation—convert at 2–3x the rate of generic promotions. The effort to set it up once pays off every cold day of the year.
5. The Loyalty Milestone Nudge
When a customer is one order away from earning their next reward, a timely push notification drives them across the finish line.
Example: "You're just 1 order away from a free drink! Order before Sunday to claim your reward ☕"
Orda syncs directly with Square Loyalty to trigger these automatically. No manual tracking, no spreadsheets.
Measuring What Works
Orda's marketing dashboard shows exactly which notifications drove orders, at what conversion rate, and what the average order value was for each campaign. You'll quickly learn:
- Which time of day your customers respond best
- What offer types drive the highest click-to-order rate
- Which customer segments are most valuable—and most at risk of lapsing
This data feeds back into your Square analytics, giving you a complete picture of customer behavior across in-store, online, and app channels.
Building Your Push Notification Playbook
Start simple. If you already have an Orda app, set up one automated notification this week: the win-back campaign. Use a 10–14 day trigger with a 10–15% discount. Let it run for 30 days and measure how many customers it recovers.
Then add the lunchtime trigger. Then the loyalty milestone nudge. Each campaign compounds—you're building a system that runs on autopilot while you focus on running your business.
If you don't have an Orda app yet, sign up today. Push notification marketing is included with every Orda plan, alongside your branded Square ordering app.
Your competitors are already doing this. The only question is whether you're the one sending the notification at 11:15am—or the one losing the sale to it.
