How to Succeed with your Ecommerce Mobile Apps
Your eCommerce mobile app can set the cash bells ringing, if you can use it to engage with your customers in intelligent ways. This has, in fact, been the success mantra of many innovative brands. These brands have customized their mobile apps to connect with customers in ways that make every engagement interesting and rewarding. Two such brands are Starbucks and McDonalds.
How They Did It
The Starbucks mobile app is the most-used digital payment app in America. The app has helped the brand clock nearly 5 million mobile coffee buys a week. The app lets customers pay with their iPhone, refill their Starbucks loyalty accounts, win free coffee every time they meet the grade, or avail discounts for coffee or food.
To enhance the engagement levels, Starbucks even delivers digital goodies like free iTunes songs or e-books in the inbuilt inbox of its apps. With a gamified approach, Starbucks has transformed coffee breaks into an affair which customers eagerly look forward to.
Not to be left behind, MacDonald’s has been using its McD app, in equally interesting ways. The app sends customers exciting offers which they can redeem with their phones at company outlets. And the best part is that diners can make their pick. They can specify the kind of deals they would wish to have such as $1 Hot ’n Spicy McChicken sandwich or buy-one-get-one free breakfast sandwich.
The Lesson Learnt
The one thing common to these two approaches is one-to-one selling experience that is personalized. Innovative brands are constantly reinventing their strategy to refine the next generation of customer experience and deliver enhanced personalized touch points both in store and online.
To make the most of eCommerce mobile apps, it is important for businesses to incorporate retail fundamentals like: optimizing customer interactions over mobile devices, building brand loyalty, and creating one-of-a-kind customer experiences to increase engagement.
All these together should offer increased value to your customer. Remember, your customers are in the habit of using the easiest option. They would not give up the easy option for something new, unless it promises extra value. If your app offers 10% more value than your website on mobile, your customers have nothing to choose between. Such an app would hardly make a difference to your business. On the contrary, if your eCommerce mobile app provides 50% more value, then you are destined for more success.