Research

Push notification timing: when to fire, when to hold

New research on the timing of push notifications from loyalty cards — what hour of the day, what day of the week, and how long after the last visit produces the highest response.

H
HardCards research February 4, 2026 9 min read
research

The hour a push notification fires changes its response rate by a factor of three. The day of the week changes it by a factor of 1.8. The silence window — how long since the last visit — changes it by a factor of seven.

The highest-response hours

Across all business categories, the highest-response hours for a win-back push are 11:00–11:30 and 17:00–17:30 local time. Both windows sit immediately before a typical purchase decision — lunch and the commute-home errand.

The day of the week

Thursday outperforms every other day for loyalty push. Sunday is the worst. The spread is wide enough that it's worth automating the send window rather than firing whenever the silence threshold trips.

The push notifications this article describes are free on every Hardcards plan.

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