What are the crucial factors for app success?

Mobile is connected to more than 70% of transactions and is today a primary channel or at least on the way to becoming so.

Learn how to create a successful commerce app.

There are multiple considerations you need to make when your company wants to unleash the potential a mobile app has to create value for your customers, revenue and commerce experience.

Ask Ullerup, Director of Group Strategy and Innovation at IMPACT, has played an important role in the nemlig.com app process.

Based on his experience within commerce apps, he has listed some of the strategic considerations you need to make in order to create a successful app.

1. Have a clear value proposition

Mobile users require instant gratification. So tuning in on the value you bring to users in a mobile context is key.

Which user goals, pains, and extra gratifications are you targeting? And why?

You need to know your target audience, and you need to zoom in on creating value for that group – otherwise, why should they download and use your app? And keep on using it?

focus on a key concept

Keep your eyes on the prize and focus on a key concept with targeted features that creates real user value.

Design thinking and testing are of utmost importance in the mobile space along with a design and development process which repeatedly targets a build-measure-learn cycle, hereby making the value proposition razor sharp.

With this, users return to the app, take it to heart, and reward you with increased revenue.

2. Make it work – every time

Customers’ forgiveness toward subpar performance and high loading time on apps are almost non-existent.

Unless you clearly optimise key performance parameters, you will see your visitors’ attention span fall more rapidly on apps than at any other touchpoint.

What can you do?

This translates directly into demanding a high standard for your technical performance and a UX and UI design which brings users the right content and features at the right time and in the right context.

Compared to optimising across browsers on web, this is not trivial in an app.

Your app has to work both on Android and iOS under different design guidelines and navigation principles with different availability of features and different devices.

Cross-platform or not?

Sometimes, taking a cross-platform approach can make sense, but you have to evaluate carefully. Only experts with deep app experience can guide you on making the right choice.

Making an app that does not work because of incorrect choices being made will catapult your users off the app.

This is not a project endeavor, but requires a product mindset to design and engineer it correctly, as well as nailing marketing and producing content.

3. Create a marketing and data strategy

A new channel calls for a dedicated channel strategy. Gone are the days of “do we need an app?”.

With mobile being connected to more than 70% of transactions, it is today a primary channel or at least on its way to becoming so across industries.

An app needs to be cared for at least on par with your web. This goes for updating and keeping it fresh, as well as marketing reminders for your users to visit. How are you going to promote it, and what role will it play in your overall promotion strategy?

Get the users onboard

As an omnichannel retailer, your stores and website are natural and obvious places to promote your app.

And with new features as AppClips on iOS that arrived with iOS 14, app usage can be triggered more efficiently than ever from websites, maps, messages, via Bluetooth, NFC, QR codes or the brand new AppClip code.

Once the users are on board, it is time to engage in a push message strategy and in-app promotions in a way that gratifies your users – encouraging them to engage and re-engage with your app, hereby frequenting your business.

Data, data, data

An app is a great opportunity to collect data on user behaviour. The mobile provides a new context with new parameters which can be utilised to make the app experience and offerings more contextually relevant.

You need to follow and learn from your customers when they use your app. This allows you to become even better and even more relevant in the future regarding promotions and features.

Understand your customers

‘One size fits all’ doesn’t apply for your app content – it needs to target the individual user.

You need to show your customers that you understand them by showing personal recommendations, creating user-profiles, and nurturing loyalty programs with personalised offers. This brings value into the mobile-relevant context.

It is in many ways a use-measure-learn cycle that must feed contextually valuable usage data into your build-measure-learn-cycle.