Does Your App Experience Check All the Boxes?

She also discussed privacy and protection of users. To encourage consumers to download and consistently use your app, it’s imperative to prioritise their privacy, particularly when requesting permission for personal data collection, she added.

Full interview:

What aspects of the interface and performance – from UX design to workflows – most impact the customer’s perception of user-friendliness of an app?

Nine out of ten (91%) businesses offer their customers mobile apps, with ‘Customer acquisition’ and ‘Customer retention and loyalty’ being the top two reasons behind this strong focus on mobile applications. But just offering an app isn’t enough — if your business doesn’t provide its customer the convenience of a slick, easy to use app, it will only be a matter of time before they move to a competitor that does. And our data shows that the UAE has a 56% app install rate — higher than in mature markets such as the US and UK (where these rates are 47% and 48% respectively). Brands are therefore fighting an uphill battle in getting consumers to use the app and keeping them engaged. However, this is essential as it is what eventually converts into revenue and long-term retained users. 

When it comes to app performance, speed is one of the most important aspects. Consumers need to be able to get to their desired action as quickly and frictionlessly as possible. Here, one of the overlooked aspects is the hosting service — the short-term savings with a cheap option will be quickly rendered meaningless in the long run. A cheap, slow back-end will lead to cheap, slow app performance, with the result that users will simply abandon the app. A quality server is required for a quality app.

Force closes and failures are another surefire way to turn users away. To prevent and manage app failure, you need to collect and understand data — for example, how often the app is failing, how many users it’s affecting and where in the user journey it is happening. App store reviews can also help with highlighting any frustrations from consumers with the app experience.

It’s also important to consider the app experience before users even get on the app i.e. optimising the customer journey from other channels to the app. Optimise the web-to-app journey such that content is placed on the web browser and sends the user directly to the app store or to the relevant page in the app using deferred deeplinking. This enables marketers to create better onboarding experiences which are intimately linked to better conversion rates, and a more seamless journey for consumers.

When competitors are just a click away, personalisation becomes a key part of building brand loyalty. What type of personalisation tends to resonate best with consumers?

Personalisation is a key factor in retaining loyalty on ecommerce apps, as it enhances the user experience by tailoring content and recommendations to individual preferences. Some key strategies that resonate best with consumers include personalised product suggestions with recommended products based on user browsing history, purchase history, and preferences. This can also extend to a customised homepage, providing users with a personalised homepage with preferred categories, brands, or products.  Providing special discounts or promotions to celebrate users’ birthdays or anniversaries with the brand also resonate well and offer added value to the user. By incorporating these personalised elements into the ecommerce app experience, businesses can create a more engaging and relevant environment for users, ultimately increasing customer loyalty and satisfaction.

In an increasingly privacy-centric world, how can mobile marketers strike that fine balance between personalisation and privacy?

Recognising the privacy and protection of users is paramount. Similarly, if you want consumers to download your app, much less use it loyally, you must be in a position to assure them of their privacy, especially if you need them to agree to personal data gathering. One way to do this is through data centralisation which makes it possible to then encrypt data to the same standard as the app code, thereby protecting your organisation and end-users from any slip-ups that may have occurred during development. Offer personalisation in a way that is both useful and relevant to the end consumer, and in order to increase consent rates, ensure that you clearly communicate the reason for any data collection and usage policies and allow users to choose the level of personalisation they are comfortable with.

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