This month in the world of app commerce – January
Now the chaos of the holiday season is over we can take a look at how the demand for app commerce is changing with this month’s industry insights.
Mobile addiction continues to grow
We’ve known for a while that our obsession with smartphones is a little unhealthy, 53% of us are guilty of ‘media multi-tasking’ once a week and consuming media across multiple screens on average for 7 hours a day. In the US, smartphone users check their phones on average 47 times a day and 85% use a smartphone whilst talking to family.
Ecommerce has had a massive impact on shopping behaviour and the convenience of shopping from home has made ecommerce the powerhouse it is today. Similarly, we’re seeing mobile exert a similar revolutionary impact on the way we shop online, with 68% of traffic and 50% of transactions being driven by mobile on Christmas Day.
The current demand for retail apps
The demand for purchasing on websites is declining, 92% of visitors to retail websites do not have the intent to purchase. On the other hand, the pressure for retailers to make the jump to native shopping apps is growing, Flurry found a 54% growth in usage of apps in the shopping category in 2017.
Utilising smartphone functionality
We’ve established there’s a growing demand for retail apps, but what are consumers demanding of them? One report has found that 80% of consumers claim that app speed is vital and 56% want personalised in-app content and this grows when considering younger demographics. Efficient apps aren’t all consumers are demanding, apps have the unique advantage of utilising smartphone functionality and the interest in technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) and QR code scanning can actually drive the demand for retail apps.
AR as a feature in retail apps is actually the best example of the use of this technology at the moment. AR can be used in a variety of shopping categories and is successfully being used by retailers in the homeware and beauty sectors. Early adopters include big names in the retail sphere such as Amazon, Sephora and IKEA. Another app feature that could push the demand for retail apps is the revival of QR codes. Although QR promotions previously fizzled out, it’s estimated that 1.3 billion QR codes coupons were redeemed last year and 5.3 billion are predicted to be redeemed in 2022. This is largely due to the fact that Apple now includes a built-in QR code scanner in their mobile devices.
App commerce certainly looks set to continue to make its mark in 2018!
For more information about apps vs mobile websites, be sure to download our ebook ‘Mobile apps vs mobile websites, do you need both?’
Reported by Samantha Rigg
