The Power of the App

In a May 2015 survey by Google, results showed that 1 in 2 people use Apps to help make a purchase decision! This is great news for app designers.

As we know, all of us depend on our mobile devices for just about everything, not just simple communication but for reviews, information, price comparisons, accessing bank accounts and purchasing.   These days there is an App for just about anything we want to do and when it comes to business you can no longer ignore the Power of the App and how it can influence purchasing decisions.

Google teamed up with Ipsos MediaCT to carry out some research on how consumers acquire and use apps. A total of 8,470 respondents age 18–64 completed one of eight vertical specific online surveys focusing on smartphone app discovery, acquisition, usage, and abandonment.

Apps are now a way of life for many people and the main reason for usage is to make life easier. However the Google survey also revealed that most installed apps are not used daily so in order to get maximum benefit from any App you need to keep users interested, giving them a reason to re-engage time and again.

To do this you need to build an App that is attractive – has a purpose – to get people on board in the first place and is both engaging and relevant to then keep them on board.

When creating or updating your mobile strategy, look at your current and potential customer touchpoints. Where would your customers want to engage with your business, where in the customer purchase lifecycle, can you add value with your App? What can you offer that would help engage your customers on a more regular basis that might ultimately lead to purchase of your products or services.

As an app development agency, we must approach each project individually to ask our client’s the right questions. The App needs to do more that just replicate your website, it needs to make life easier – be that helping customers save time, money or easing their frustration. And it needs to be current and regularly encouraging engagement. Incentives, such as discounts, can be used to re-engage usage, also bonus information or exclusive offers found only via the App.

Another great way to encourage engagement is to offer a way of tracking information, for example calorie intake, miles run or electricity used per item/day etc. This will ensure users come back to the App time after time.

An App can also provide the user with instant gratification by streamlining the buying process, offering immediate access to say a take away meal. Apps such as Hungry House and JustEat are particularly high profile at the moment. By tracking location, retail outlets can offer instant discounts at their outlet in close proximity to the mobile user thus encouraging them to step in-store and look at highlighted special offers.

Wish Digital are experts in App development and can help tailor an App that is very relevant and suitable for your business. If you have any questions, please give us a call at any time and we’ll be happy to help.