PushOwl is a marketing automation platform designed for Shopify merchants, helping over 40,000 brands re-engage customers through web push notifications and on-site pop-ups. PushOwl ensures campaigns are lightning-fast, visually engaging, and conversion-ready.
From rich hero images in push notifications to dynamic pop-ups and prebuilt templates to the JavaScript SDK that loads on each storefront, ImageKit powers the seamless delivery and optimization of over 100 million images each month, keeping PushOwl fast, scalable, and reliable across devices and storefronts.
Key stats:
"With ImageKit handling media delivery, we've served 90–100 million images monthly at scale. Plus, with the integrated CDN, our JavaScript SDK loads quickly globally, keeping Pushowl among the fastest-loading apps on any Shopify storefront."
- Akash Mishra, Head of Engineering, PushOwl
The Challenge: Scaling image-rich campaigns without compromising performance
As PushOwl grew to support over 40,000 Shopify merchants and send more than 100 million notifications every month, new technical challenges emerged that directly impacted both user experience and merchant conversions.
- Performance at scale: Every notification includes a hero image that must load instantly and adapt to various devices. At such high volumes, even a slight delay in image delivery could degrade the customer experience and negatively impact click-through rates.
- Storefront speed: Unlike many behavioral tracking tools that slow down sites, PushOwl's SDK had to remain lightweight. If pop-ups or event tracking scripts introduced any lag, storefront performance and conversion rates would suffer, something merchants would notice immediately.
- Device-specific image handling: Push notifications render differently on Windows, macOS, and mobile devices. Each platform requires unique dimensions and aspect ratios, making it complex and resource-intensive to create and manage multiple image versions manually at scale.
- Dynamic configurations and cache management: Each store runs unique JSON configurations that define customer behaviors and campaign triggers, which must be served globally with minimal latency. PushOwl needed a CDN-backed solution that could deliver store-specific configurations instantly while automating cache control for faster iteration.
ImageKit features used
To meet these challenges, PushOwl integrated ImageKit into its core infrastructure, enabling seamless optimization and delivery of both static and dynamic content at scale.
- Global CDN for notifications and configurations:
PushOwl uses ImageKit's built-in AWS CloudFront CDN to deliver both notification images and per-store configuration files. These JSON configurations define behavioral tracking and campaign triggers for over 40,000 merchants. With ImageKit, assets load instantly worldwide, ensuring push campaigns execute reliably without slowing down storefronts. - Real-time image resizing via URL Transformations:
PushOwl relies on ImageKit's URL-based transformation parameters to transform the same image into different aspect ratios, such as horizontal banners for desktop, vertical banners for mobile, and square banners for Windows. This eliminates the need to store multiple image variants, improves development experience, and ensures that push notifications render flawlessly on all platforms.
- Seamless integration with S3 and Shopify for image processing:
Notification images come from two sources: assets uploaded to PushOwl's S3 storage via their platform or product images pulled directly from Shopify storefronts using their web URLs. ImageKit's native S3 integration and web proxy support enable these images to be optimized and transformed in real-time without re-hosting. This provides PushOwl with all the performance benefits of ImageKit, with no infrastructure changes required.
Key results
- Lightning-fast campaigns at scale: Over 100M images optimized and delivered monthly, with instant hero image loads maintaining high CTRs.
- Reliable performance across 40,000+ stores: Store-specific configurations are delivered globally via CDN, ensuring fast SDK loads and accurate tracking.
- Better conversions through visuals: Image-rich pop-ups consistently outperform text-only ones; ImageKit ensures creatives load instantly without trade-offs.
- Simpler developer workflows: URL transformations and web proxy support eliminate the need for asset duplication or custom image processing solutions, freeing up engineering time.
What's next?
As PushOwl expands its capabilities beyond push notifications into email marketing and creative A/B testing, visual content will be more critical in driving campaign performance. The team is exploring opportunities to:
- Dynamic banners with campaign-specific messaging
- Real-time coupon codes rendered on notification images
- Lightweight video assets for richer in-app banners
- Automated image generation using AI with ImageKit
With personalization becoming a key differentiator in e-commerce, PushOwl views ImageKit as a vital enabler in its next phase of growth.
Conclusion
For PushOwl, performance isn't optional; it's the foundation of customer engagement. With ImageKit, they've built an image delivery pipeline that:
- Keeps Shopify storefronts lightning-fast while loading their SDK
- Handles 100M+ image notifications monthly, tailored for each device
As PushOwl expands into new campaign formats, ImageKit remains a trusted partner, ensuring speed, scalability, and reliability never fall behind its growth.