eCommerce mobile Apps are the most used applications in the smart phones one carry. Every website is now associated with a mobile app in order to widen the customer and consumer base. But as research says,
75%+ of the mobile apps are used only once and then dejected which means most of the consumer applications are installed, tried, used once and then deleted.
So, increasing loyalty is the clever approach and an intelligent process including analytic, notifications and incentives but everyone can not develop an application like Amazon or next eBay.
The top niche e-commerce websites have understood the need of developing and incorporating mobile commerce in their field of marketing and selling. The use of mobile apps have allowed a greater penetration in the society and thus widening the customer limit across the globe which was half done by the loyalty cards. But the use of mobile apps for more selling has seen a new involvement in the markets. Mobile applications in many ways serve the customers and provide them with more trustworthy loyalty programs to attract their targeted and non-targeted audiences to their website or app. In short, it is acting as loyalty card. Mobile apps and loyalty cards cannot be distinguished as both engage the developers to try to work on methods that draw attention of common crowd, who are more attracted to offers and discounts.
The retail stores in the form of websites and applications have already providing special offers and features in which they retain customers. An immense improvement is seen in their sale structure after initially including various features and offers. Mobile commerce comes with apps and working as loyalty cards. The only thing segregating them is the name and form.
This is the time where brand needs to be loyal with customer instead of customers so people who have download and installed the app, expect of being rewarded for their investment. So, developed apps are attracting their customers with discounts for confirming future buying of the products and this purpose has served well with the use of mobile applications which was the primary job of loyalty cards.
Brands can easily keep a track of the customers who have made their previous purchase and also allow the customers to get notified of the existing offers a number of times. It is an upgraded version of loyalty cards that often used to loose track. The need of carrying loyalty cards in wallets has eradicated for the good, and the use of mobile apps have helped the people to replace cards with applications. Mobile apps and loyalty cards serve the same purposes which are of offering discounts.
Every person carrying a smart phone means carrying a small computer in the pockets, used at least 100 times a day for all the basic needs. All of the requiring needs are met well with the development of the mobile applications and thus solving all the issues one can face. Booking a cab, ordering food or buying groceries all can be met by the use of mobile apps and this is where one tests the loyalty of the customer. If the services offered by the mobile apps are satisfying enough, then using that mobile app for multiple numbers of times is not unusual but at the same time the limits have widened. Wide spectra of growing number of mobile apps have allowed the customers to gain access to different apps at the same time in order to judge their choices and gain justification for their choices as well if the services are not good, it means loss of a customer thus losing a business amount. On the other hand, mobile apps also look similar to loyalty cards in many ways. As for example if a mobile user has a particular mobile app in their home screen, it is inevitable that he/she will use that mobile app for taking that service like booking a flight ticket or buying an electronic gadget.
Using mobile channel is the new technique, restaurant operators are taking the help of mobile channels in order to evaluate and gradually increase their customer base offering a highest order customer satisfaction. The recent studies have shown the consumers who order on their smart phones happen to spend a more amount than placing the order in the store. In addition to the convenience of being at home, mobile apps also allows easy menu navigation, increases sell opportunities by stated offers.
These are the ways how utilization of a mobile app is in many ways similar to having loyalty cards but the process is hard. Staying on the home screen for too long in a way of loyalty is hard. The maximum part of the population of the mobile apps, are used and tried once and then uninstalled or deleted within a week at most. So in a way this practice is a waste of time and money. Mobile app gains a great amount of new users with its popularity and launch but these users often do not convert themselves into potential valuable customers.
Turning mobile apps as a way of loyalty program is advantageous in many ways but like every other thing the other side of the coin is hard to endure and thus a great deal of loss for the potential future good business. One should understand that mobile apps does drive customer loyalty and to keep it that way in the near future the extensive developments and improvements are required on a periodic basis.
