As the number of mobile apps continue to grow, it's becoming increasingly important to find ways to keep users engaged and active. According to SIMFORM the average person has 40 apps on their phone and spends 89% of their time on 18 of them.
Considering that there are currently 2 million apps on the Apple App Store and 2.7 million on the Google Play Store, it's essential to make sure that you have a good strategy in place to make sure your app stands out and keeps users coming back.
At Venn Apps we have successfully launched and scaled apps for many leading Shopify merchants such as Motel Rocks and Club L. Both of these apps regularly feature in the top 100 shopping apps within the UK and have thousands of reviews with an average rating of 4.8.
We have decided to share our knowledge and have compiled 10 tips for increasing mobile app downloads and user activity:
1. Optimise your Shopify mobile app for search
Optimising your app for search will help potential customers find your app on the app store. To optimise your app for search, use relevant keywords in your app's title, sub-title, and description. Check out this article from Apple about optimising your app for search.
2. Request app reviews from happy customers
The more positive reviews you have and the higher your rating, the higher the app will appear in the app store rankings. We believe that the best time to ask a customer for a review is post-purchase. This will avoid interrupting the purchase flow and a customer is more likely to be in a good mood and leave a positive review after they have just made a purchase.
3. Promote your Shopify mobile app via email
Your existing customers are the most likely people to download and use your app. How often have you downloaded an app for a one off-purchase? Most people will only download an app if they are a regular customer and intend to shop at the store more than once.
Email is a great way to promote your app and connect with your existing customer base. Furthermore, if you set-up an integration with an ESP such as Klaviyo, you can segment your users according to app usage. This will allow you to target customers who have still not downloaded the app with email marketing campaigns. You can also set-up automated emails to be sent to users who make a purchase via the website, reminding them that you have an app.
4. Promote your Shopify mobile app via social media
Another great way to connect with your existing customer base is via social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tiktok offer a free platform for promoting your app to existing customers.
5. Advertise your Shopify mobile app
Both traditional advertising and online advertising are great ways to promote your app to users. If you're on a tight budget you can get creative with this, for example adding QR codes to the inside of your packaging with a link to the app store listing.
6. Add an app banner to your Shopify website
You have invested in an app because it provides a much better user experience than a mobile website. As such, it's fundamental that you direct all of your mobile customers towards the app. The best way to do this is to add an app banner that pops-up whenever a customer visits your mobile website. The banner serves as a reminder that you have an app and will prompt customers who visit your mobile website to open the app if they already have it installed on their device or download it if they don't.
7. Set-up universal linking on your Shopify website
If you want to go one step further, you can set-up universal linking on your website. This means that whenever a customer with the app clicks on a link to your website from a mobile device, they will automatically be redirected to the app instead of the website.
8. Send push notifications regularly
Push notifications are the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal and allow you to engage regularly with your most loyal customers. They are free to send and 10x more likely to be read vs. emails. We recommend sending push notifications to promote new products, collections, and articles. You can also set-up automated abandoned cart and back-in-stock notifications which will help increase your conversion rates.
9. Incentivise app downloads with discount codes
App exclusive discount codes are a great way to incentivise users to download and use your app. Who doesn't love a discount?
10. Incentivise app downloads with app-exclusive products
Making products and collections available exclusively on the app or releasing them on the app prior to the website is another great way to incentivise users to download and use your app.