What the unread badge on your bell means for your store

The small number on your notification bell is a promise to shoppers: there is something here you haven't seen yet. Keep that promise and the bell becomes a place shoppers check. Break it with stale offers and repeated news, and the number stops meaning anything.

This guide explains exactly what the unread badge counts in Atomato, why editing a message doesn't make it new again, and how to plan your feed in the weeks before Black Friday so each real piece of news lights the badge once.

What the badge counts

The badge on the NotiFeed bell counts feed items the shopper hasn't seen yet in that browser. That includes:

• NotiFeed messages, such as sale announcements and shipping updates.
• NotiSell product recommendations, on Scale and Enterprise+.
• NotiEmail and NotiSMS signup cards, on Enterprise+.

NotiPops never add to the badge, because they show on the page rather than in the feed.

An item counts as seen once the shopper hovers over it or taps it. Opening the feed alone doesn't clear the badge. Seen items stay in the feed but stop counting. Atomato remembers this in the shopper's browser, so on another device or browser the badge shows again.

A message with a cart or Exit Intent rule joins the top of your NotiFeed messages once the shopper meets the rule, so it can arrive as new news partway through a visit.

Why editing a message doesn't re-announce it

This is easy to miss. Editing a message keeps it the same message. A shopper who has already seen it won't see it as new, even if you rewrite every word.

So when your news changes, for example when a sale reaches its last day, add a new message or a new campaign so the badge counts it again. Then remove the old message, so shoppers don't see two versions of the same news.

The flip side is useful too. If you only fix a typo or swap an image, editing in place is the right call, because you don't want the badge to light up for a change no shopper needs to know about.

Worked example: a Black Friday feed, before and after

Say you run a store on Scale and you're planning Black Friday Cyber Monday. Here is a feed that wastes the badge, and one that uses it well.

Before. One NotiFeed campaign goes live in early November with a single message, and you edit it as the sale moves along:

Black Friday is coming. 20% off everything from Friday. Button: Get ready.

On Friday you change the text to "Black Friday is live", and on Monday to "Last day". Shoppers who saw the first version never get a new badge, so the two moments that matter most arrive silently. Meanwhile the message stays up after Monday, telling shoppers about a sale that has ended.

After. You plan three short campaigns, each with its own dates on the Schedule tab:

1. Teaser, ending when the sale opens:

   Black Friday starts Friday at 9 AM. 20% off everything until Monday night. Button: Preview the sale. Link: /collections/black-friday

2. Sale is live, from the opening hour until the last morning:

   Black Friday is live. 20% off everything until Monday night. Button: Shop the sale. Link: /collections/black-friday

3. Last day, from the last morning until the sale closes:

   Last day of the sale. 20% off ends tonight. Button: Shop before midnight. Link: /collections/black-friday

Each campaign is new to every shopper, so each one lights the badge once. Each one ends on its own, so the feed never shows an expired offer. Linking the button to the sale collection rather than your home page also helps your reporting, because a click to a product, collection or search page gives the longest window for a later add to cart to count.

Set up the discount itself in Shopify first. Atomato doesn't create discount codes for NotiFeed messages, so the message text should match the offer you actually set up.

Keep the count small and the order deliberate

On Scale and Enterprise+, a campaign can hold up to six messages under Multi notifications. Six is a ceiling, not a target. A badge showing a large number on a shopper's first visit reads as clutter, and fewer messages are quicker to read.

Order matters because shoppers read from the top. Across the whole feed, signup cards come first, then NotiSell recommendations, then NotiFeed messages, newest campaign first. Within a campaign, drag a message tab by its handle to set the order. Put the message you most want read at the front.

Each message can also have its own Customer Segments and Target visitors based on settings. Keep a member offer to signed-in customers or a customer segment, so other shoppers don't open the feed to an offer they can't use. The help article on keeping your feed fresh explains these settings.

Retire messages on time

A badge only stays believable if old news leaves. Plan the exit when you publish:

• On Scale and Enterprise+, give time-bound campaigns an end date on the Schedule tab so they leave on their own. A schedule belongs to the whole campaign, so put messages that end at different times in separate campaigns. The guide to scheduling campaigns to start and stop on time covers the setup. Times follow the time zone of the computer you schedule from, so check them against your store's.
• To take a campaign down now, open it from Campaigns and click Pause campaign or End Early.
• To bring a seasonal message back next year, choose Duplicate as draft. The copy's messages count as new for shoppers, but it keeps the original's end date, so set new dates before you save.

Pause or end campaigns rather than deleting them when you want to keep their numbers. Remove deletes the campaign along with its analytics.

Check whether shoppers open what the badge announces

On Scale and Enterprise+, the How shoppers use the feed card on the Analytics page shows whether announced messages get opened. It treats each click on a NotiFeed message as an open:

• Open rate is clicks divided by impressions.
• Left unread is impressions minus clicks.
• Unique openers counts each browser's first click on each message.

Keep in mind that every message listed records an impression each time a shopper opens the feed, including ones further down the list. A message sitting low in a long feed will show plenty of impressions and few opens, which is another reason to keep the feed short. The guide to engagement metrics explains each count.

What this does not do

• Atomato has no frequency cap. The badge reflects what each browser has seen, not how often you post, so pacing is up to you.
• Seen status lives in the shopper's browser. A shopper who switches devices or clears browser data sees the badge again.
• You can't schedule a single message. A schedule belongs to the whole campaign.
• On Starter, the free plan, one NotiFeed campaign can be active, with one message, and scheduling is locked. Atomato won't save a second NotiFeed campaign, even as a draft, while one is active. To re-announce, pause the old campaign, then save the new one.
• The feed doesn't show on Shopify checkout, the thank-you page, POS or headless stores.

Next step

Open your store in a private browser window and look at the bell as a new shopper would. Count what the badge shows and ask whether each item is still true and still worth a shopper's attention. Pause anything that isn't, then map out one new message for each real moment in your Black Friday plan. Compare plans on the pricing page.

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