In today’s omnichannel landscape, mobile apps have become a crucial element for businesses. Serving as a personalized marketing channel, they allow you to send unlimited push notifications to a dedicated audience, and are optimized to maximize sales conversions on mobile devices.
But why does your Shopify store need a mobile app?
Mobile apps play a pivotal role in enhancing various aspects of your Shopify sales strategy, including reach, engagement, conversion, and customer retention. Plobal Apps, a Shopify Plus certified mobile app builder, can empower your store to achieve consistent revenue growth month after month.
The power of push notifications
One of the key advantages of having a mobile app is the ability to reach your audience directly. Many Shopify brands struggle to capture their audience’s attention due to the saturated nature of traditional marketing channels. Relying solely on third-party advertisers like Facebook and Instagram can be costly and unpredictable. Plobal Apps offers an affordable alternative by leveraging push notifications. These notifications are free, guarantee high visibility, and stand out on your customers’ mobile home screens. Studies show that mobile app users who receive push notifications at least once a day have 820% higher app retention than users who don’t. By using push notifications, you can increase repeat purchase rates and reduce dependence on algorithm-driven exposure.
Premium experience leading to higher conversions
Plobal Apps helps your brand achieve higher conversion rates compared to your mobile website. With a mobile app, you can provide a seamless shopping experience with features like one-click checkout, and engaging content such as videos, lookbooks, tutorials, and more. By eliminating friction and enhancing accessibility, a mobile app creates a premium experience that converts browsers into loyal customers. Investing in customer experience is essential, as Shopify highlights in their strategies for 2023.
Increase customer engagement
Engaging with your customers is another critical aspect of driving sales and building brand loyalty. A mobile app allows you to connect with your audience through personalized content that resonates with them. Whether it’s announcing flash sales, exclusive promotions, or showcasing new products, push notifications help you remain top of mind and foster a sense of shared values. According to a survey by Shopify and Accenture, 52% of global shoppers are more likely to purchase from companies with shared values. By focusing on customer retention and lifetime value, you can build a community that keeps customers coming back.
Improve customer retention
According to the Modern Customer Retention Guide by Braze, most companies are sustained by following a longstanding principle known as the 80/20 rule, in which about 20% of customers (usually the most loyal ones), generate about 80% of business. For some brands with an even more loyal cohort of followers, the ratio can be as high as 90/10.
Every day, we see new customer retention strategies, but with the domination of mobile devices and mcommerce, one of the most effective ways is to increase customer retention with a mobile app. By remaining top of mind and occupying prime real estate on your customers’ devices, you can foster loyalty and encourage repeat purchases. The seamless integration of your brand identity and values within the app enhances the overall shopping experience, ultimately increasing customer lifetime value.
Plobal Apps and Bailey’s Blossoms – Customer Success Story
Plobal Apps has seen phenomenal success with Shopify Plus merchants. One such merchant is Bailey’s Blossoms – which started out as a brand to sell unique hair accessories. Soon, the lifestyle brand soon grew into clothing and accessories as well, making almost $10M dollars worth of sales a year.
The challenge of turning mobile site visitors into customers
As the brand established a name for themselves in the kids’ fashion industry, they started to notice a number of shoppers visiting their store from mobile devices. But getting these visitors to interact with the brand or nudge them to make a purchase became difficult. Bailey’s Blossoms saw a mobile site conversion rate of only 2.48%
As compared to their desktop site experience, mobile visitors found it difficult to interact with the online store.
Adapting to AppCommerce to increase mobile conversions with Plobal Apps
As time progressed and expectations of the shopping experience on mobile grew, the lifestyle brand started to look into creating a mobile app for its shoppers.
Developing mobile apps for both iOS and Android users would take the brand anywhere from six months to more than a year. In addition, it would also require the brand to commit more resources towards app development and a team to maintain the app. Being on Shopify, Bailey’s Blossoms started to look for an alternative that could get them started quicker.
This is when the brand discovered Plobal Apps. In addition to making mobile shopping easier for their customers, Bailey’s Blossoms also wanted to secure their audience from social media changes. An app would ensure that the brand had access to its customers at all times and could communicate with them without fear about the changes of social media algorithms.
Result: 162,301 app installs in 6 months; USD 2,000,000+ total app revenue
The next step was to be able to notify visitors from Bailey’s Blossoms that they could now shop using their mobile app. To be able to do this, the following strategies were put to work:
- Setting up an announcement bar to link to the mobile app
- Adding a link to the mobile app on the pop-up
- Link to the mobile apps in the email header and footer (newsletters)
- Social media banners
With the above strategies, Bailey’s Blossoms was able to notify all of their new store visitors, subscribers and existing customers about their mobile app and redirect the traffic to their app listing. This led to the brand organically getting 99,000+ app installs in 6 months.
Result: 3.5% increase in repeat purchases from the mobile app
According to Buildfire’s statistics for 2023, conversion rates from mobile apps are three times higher than mobile sites. But to be able to do so, a brand needs to proactively communicate with its app users.
With automated push notifications, Bailey’s Blossoms was able to keep its app users engaged. Sending timely alerts for ongoing discounts and sales, abandoned cart reminders and product recommendations, the brand was able to drive 3.5% repeat purchases from their mobile apps in just six months.
Result: 105% increase in average order value (AOV)
With the ease of mobile shopping, enhanced experience and an increased number of app sessions, Bailey’s Blossoms also saw an increase in their average order value. Their mobile shoppers got more comfortable exploring more products, leading them to buy more from the brand.
With personalized recommendations displayed during every app session, the lifestyle brand was also able to draw their users’ attention to new arrivals, exclusive products and more.
If you’re interested in exploring the benefits of a mobile app for your Shopify brand, Plobal Apps offers a free trial. Visit us in the Shopify App Store or connect with our experts for a personalized walkthrough. Start leveraging the power of mobile apps to boost your sales and take your Shopify store to new heights.
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