What mobile apps can I give to an online store and a retail company in general? Figures in the studio ...!

When developing applications for retail companies, we constantly encounter objections from customers (or why “we do not need this”) and have already accumulated some knowledge base, which I want to share. I will try to build an article with answers to the most popular objections - it turned out 9 points, for which I will give answers in the article below (with some figures), showing that it is impossible to underestimate the possibilities of applications for the retail business. Consciously I will not give figures in the article, how many smartphones are sold in Russia, etc. - this trend is obvious and probably interesting to discuss what return the company should expect. I will emphasize that we will discuss only the segment of retail trade in physical goods (clothing, shoes, consumer electronics, children's products, food, etc.). So:

1. We have a mobile site and this is enough to work with a mobile audience!
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No doubt, this is a very strong argument, so I brought it to the very beginning. Usually they argue in the following way: a consumer from a mobile phone enters the site and can place an order, look at the assortment, read news, promotions, etc. in a fairly comfortable mobile browser interface. It's true. The mobile site solves the main task - to quickly obtain information through an adapted interface (here we are more likely talking about smartphones, because on tablets and a regular site opens well). But the site differs significantly from a mobile application. To begin with, each online store has its loyal customers. Even if the store is small, there are people who like the service and the range, and they make purchases regularly. And it is for such buyers that mobile applications can be very convenient. I emphasize, may be, and should not be. Although I am an adept of applications, in no case do I think that an application can replace a site (regular and mobile) in the near future (at least in Russia).

Recently I saw an interesting thesis that soon the mobile phone screen will become the most expensive place on Earth, because Many companies are trying to get there in the form of a mobile application and, more importantly, not just to get there, but to gain a foothold (stay). On average, according to studies, a person places about 26 mobile applications (worldwide), although, of course, he does not use all of them equally often. By the way, in 2010 (according to analytics from the website www.statista.com ), about 40 million people actively used mobile applications, in 2014 this figure rose to 214 million in the world! And while not observed rate of decline of this indicator. We are engaged in applications for online stores, we observe this trend in Russia - a year ago, our service was less in demand.

Returning to the question - having entrenched itself on the mobile phone screen through the application, the company gets a very serious opportunity to interact with the consumer - through push notifications. I understand that many will object, they say push - is like sms / email spam. Yes, this is the case, but perhaps there is one significant difference - push is simply enough to turn off if the company starts to abuse it. In addition, the mobile site often lags behind the functionality of the company's main site, acting as an interactive business card. And mobile applications, which also may not be as functional, can act either by replacing it or, better, by adding it. Yes, in order for an online store to get the most out of it, it’s optimal if the mobile site and the application work. Moreover, the experience of one of our clients showed that when a simple mobile site on which a mobile application was advertised, the number of installations of the latter grew by about 20% (I assume that the advertisement of the application became more noticeable on the phone screen). In my reasoning there is one “but” - there is a cost of both creating applications and supporting them. And the return on the application for a very small online store may simply not pay back the costs.

2. We want to make a responsive website and it will be displayed well on all mobile devices.

It should be noted that the adaptive site is more difficult to do and then maintain (and this is more important) than just the mobile version of the site, although from the point of view of the final client there is not much difference. At the same time, the arguments above remain valid - it is better to have both an adaptive site (in fact, several versions of the site for different devices), and an application to achieve the maximum result.

3. Through mobile applications no one buys and will not buy.

This is not exactly the right objection. The time has already passed when mobile applications of online stores were viewed as a kind of curiosity. Now it is a stable channel for receiving orders, although, of course, it is still lagging behind the usual website. I do not undertake to predict how soon sales through mobile applications will “catch up” with the site, but, given the consistently high sales of smartphones in Russia, this will definitely have a positive effect. Our observations at least prove this.

I will try on the figures to show that applications can give orders and a lot. But first, I’ll note that it takes some time to get orders from applications (our experience: 3-5 months) for which the audience (installations) will accumulate. This is a significant difference between the application and the site - the quantity should translate into quality, and for applications this thesis is true. Companies should make efforts to promote applications, posting information on the website, on social networks, etc. (all channels are free, believe me - their potential is more than enough). The more installations, the more orders. And for a little less than 2 years of applications of some of our clients, I have not yet witnessed stagnation (saturation) on orders with them - there is a steady, steady growth.

Below I gave an example of daily orders in September 2014 for the fashion segment (retail network, the company name is not given here and below). Applications are promoted only on their website in the form of banners and links in the footer. By the way, I observe that in the medium and large retail networks, the e-commerce department is separated from the retail store management structure and, therefore, advertising the presence of applications in the stores themselves is not always easy and fast, although the return will be enormous. This client is characterized by a low average check. In a day, the company receives about 350 new application installations on all platforms, and the number of active daily users is about 1200 (active are new + old, in fact, those who launched the application).



I want to note that sometimes we see some errors in Google Analytics for mobile in the E-commerce block due to regular improvements in the Google Analytics SDK and if we do not update the version of the SDK when updating the client application, the system starts to distort the data. Therefore, in the article I cite figures for orders from our database (all the data that we keep completely anonymous) is 100% accurate. The result above was achieved through 13,883 application launches across all platforms (new users and returnees). A total of 390 orders were made. You can calculate the conversion (= 2.8%). Further it (conversion) can be improved by optimizing the interface, improving the content, etc. (including push notifications). By the way, push notifications, according to our customers, give a short-term increase in turnover of up to three times (for 2-3 days).

Of course, the average check quite strongly influences the final result. An example of another client in the same segment (fashion) is a clear confirmation of this. Although in this example the number of orders is slightly higher, which ultimately leads to a doubling of the amount of orders received from mobile applications. Yes, I missed - in both examples there are versions of the iPhone / iPad / Android.



For this company, 690 orders were formed by 18,286 applications on all platforms in September 2014, which gives a conversion of 3.77%. I emphasize that 18,286 is not the total number of installations, but the number of launches over a period on all platforms. Again - this client promotes mobile applications exclusively on its website.

The reader may note that these are companies that have chain stores and, therefore, their brand awareness is high and people are willing to put applications. I will try to prove the opposite. Online store of goods for children and teenagers, including clothes, shoes, etc. There are no retail stores, site traffic is somewhere around 9,000 visitors per day. Applications work exactly one year, versions of iPhone / iPad / Android. I’ll say right away - the numbers are honest, no tricks. Why so good with the volume of orders? The year of operation of the applications gives a tangible mass of installations, which is then converted into orders. Moreover, what is attractive is that the client spent this year 0 rubles (zero) on promotion - only information on the site, on social networks, in mailing lists, etc.



Again, it can be noted that the above results for business segments that, let's say, are attractive to the user of mobile applications (clothes, shoes, products for children, etc.). And what about the other segments? I will not give you home delivery of food, so that it is pleasant not to be surprised with numbers, I note that the results there are even better than those listed above, but for the home appliances and electronics segment - see below.



I deliberately in this article do not delve into detailed analytics on various indicators of the use of applications for online stores. I leave it on the topic of a new article, where it will be possible to more thoughtfully deal with different coefficients. And there are a lot of them for retail mobile applications, especially in comparison with the site indicators.

4. The functionality of mobile applications is very far behind the site and there will be no sense from them.

Good argument. Indeed, applications "catch up" site functionality. From our experience - most companies launch the first versions, functional enough for work. Then, as the audience is recruited and orders are received from the applications, lists of improvements appear, which actually bring the applications to the standards adopted for a good selling site (reviews, ratings, feedback, etc.). Here there is another question - rarely when a customer is 100% sure of the result for his business and by launching a simpler solution, he reduces his risks (financial, temporary)

5. We have a very specific audience that will not install mobile apps.

I have never met such people (of course, this does not mean that there are none). As mentioned, a retail company may be very small and the return on applications may not cover the cost of maintenance, but it is hard for me to imagine the b2c segment, where the audience is so specific that it categorically refuses to use mobile applications. After all, in the end, this is retail sales - and, therefore, buyers are ordinary people who are not alien to new technologies.

6. Applications are not enough to do, they need to be further promoted, but there are no budgets for this.

Allow for Stanislavsky - "I do not believe!". Each company already has working mechanisms for finding new and retaining old (loyal) customers. Here you need to add a few phrases to these mechanisms that applications are now available. Someone will say that this is too general a response - but this is true! Is there a website on the Internet? Post information on it. There is a large group in social networks - the references there will give the installation. Is there one store with an entrance on the street? - it is full of places where you can place the simplest advertising applications (the cost of printing - a penny).

7. We have a very small business and there is no chance to “cling” to the client’s phone.

This argument is perhaps the most difficult to challenge, among others. I will say this - any store can make itself a mobile application and it will have settings, because every business has its loyal customers who make regular purchases. But here it is worth noting that the creation and support of applications is worth certain funds and investments (even the minimum one-time) will pay off for quite some time for a small online store. I do not undertake to assess how large the project should be, so that the founders' fathers will think about the applications, you can probably estimate the allocated budgets for advertising.

8. Mobile applications will work well only for those online stores that have delivery.

Not at all. We have customers - network companies that do not have delivery to the address. For them, applications are an additional communication channel with consumers, plus a wishlist, where a person can add the product they like and continue to show it in the store to save their time and, which is more valuable for business, staff time (and this, in turn, can allow not to hire extra employees).

9. Turnover just “spills” from the site to the applications and in the amount we will not get more revenue, and the costs will increase.

Very often we encounter such an objection, especially among experienced people in the e-commerce part. For quite a long time I tried to find numbers that could visually confirm the opposite, but I could not. The fact is that we need to take a period when the client did not have mobile applications, then we made them and compare them. But there are still a lot of other factors affecting the turnover. But let's try. Take the turnover of one of the clients in September 2013 from the site (the applications have not worked yet). And September 2014, when the applications are already working quite well. And look at the figure - orders in money from the company's website. Compare these two periods.

Orders from the site in September 2013:



Orders from the site in September 2014:



Compare, as you can see quite difficult. The numbers differ significantly. I understand, someone can say that the sales channel through the Internet has simply grown. Therefore, I mentioned earlier that giving a completely reliable comparison is problematic, since there is a constant development. Well, the next schedule is orders only through applications. Obviously, applications as a source of income are definitely inferior to the site, there is nothing surprising in this. But if we say that they give an additional 15-20% to orders from the site - well, this is great! And absolutely for sure, they do not overtighten the whole turn from one channel to another.

Orders from mobile applications (iPhone / iPad / Android) in September 2014:



Of course, some customers stopped ordering through the site and switched to mobile apps. But they continue to make orders, see the company’s logo (icon) on their phone (tablet) regularly (a good brand promotion channel is worth noting) and the company can actively interact with them through push notifications. You can look at the percentage of new and returning users of the site in September 2013 (new 45.21%, 54.79% returned) and compare with September 2014 (new 40.98%, return 59.02%). It can be seen that the numbers, although different, are not much, therefore, it is impossible to assert that all loyal users have “flowed” into applications. Separately, I note that mobile applications are characterized by a very large percentage of returning users - up to 95%, which once again underlines the thesis - “mobile applications are a good tool for loyal customers.”

In conclusion, I note that orders from applications is an important, but not the only method of using the capabilities of mobile devices. We are witnessing an active growth of interest in iBeacon technology and personal mechanisms of interaction with the consumer (scenarios for using this technology can be found in our previous article on Habré). If the reader is interested in the history of our company - how we were looking for an investor and from scratch we launched a mobile application development company in 2013, refer to the publication on this resource via this link .

ps You can follow the life of our company in a more “live” mode via twitter or through my facebook account.