Business in crisis, not takeoff? Google reveals secrets of winning apps

Millions of people around the world are incorporating apps into their routines. Whether it’s shopping for comfortable pants to work from home, managing your monthly budget, or exercising, apps are becoming increasingly integrated into everyday life.

The importance of offering users a truly engaging, reliable and consistent experience cannot be underestimated. That’s why Google and researchers from the consulting firm MTM have developed a new model for companies to create a “winning application”, which can go with the user through the various stages of the purchase journey:

The first step is to raise awareness and get users to download an app to make it an essential part of their daily routines. Also, you have to connect to them all the way through, or you run the risk of disconnecting and uninstalling the app.

The ultimate goal is to bring people to the “embed” stage, or embed the app into their lives. People who reach that point have such an emotional connection to the app that they feel like “they don’t know what they would do without it.” So they are likely to be daily and active users, invest time and money in the app, and recommend it to friends and family.

But finding people there is not easy. Also, your needs and expectations for applications differ depending on the industry. Our research with MTM includes a roadmap for all digital marketers looking to overcharge their apps, and provides best practices for those working in retail, food, fintech, and health and fitness:

Retail: make connections with buyers

Retail shopping experiences are no longer limited to physical locations. Vendors now have the opportunity to strengthen relationships with their customers from anywhere and anytime. As shopping habits change, so do expectations for digital apps and retail services.

Our research shows that the following features are crucial to building an app that users love:

1. Offering discounts: they can encourage downloads and encourage reconnection.
2. Focus on navigation to help people find the goods they need through a simple intuitive sorting system that saves your search filters.
3. Use personalized suggestions and offers that meet customer needs and interests.
4. Provide support functions that enable people to engage with and resolve issues.

“Developing an attractive application in retail is much more than providing an enriching experience”, says Vijay Ram, CTO for mobile apps at online fashion brand Asos. “An app needs to foster an emotional connection with users to drive loyalty and revenue. One way to attract people and improve conversions and retention is to focus on friendly shipping that shows the best categories, styles and prices.

“The browsing experience should be based on personalized motivational suggestions that show a deep understanding of the user. This could be as simple as offering a segmented tour, or creating a customer-tailored home screen. Searching in the retail app is a strong signal of a buying intent – a personalized search will greatly shorten the path from product discovery to conversion. ” Ram finishes.

Apps are powerful tools for creating connections between retailers and their customers. Using these practices you can strengthen those relationships and ensure that more users integrate the app into their lives.

Delivery apps offer much more than food. In addition to enjoying the convenience, users have the opportunity to reward themselves and share the joy of eating with loved ones.

Research shows what people expect and appreciate from apps like:

• Ability to browse and explore before registering an account.
• Solid customer service and troubleshooting assistance.
• Seamless command line experience, showing instant status updates.
• Daily or weekly routine programming that facilitates order repetition and expected programming.

Fintech: double click on the need for trust and transparency

Offering users a secure, reliable and transparent cash application is crucial for financial service providers. People do not want fintech apps to be just a negotiation tool – they are looking for a reliable digital partner who will help them achieve their financial goals.

“The IS fintechs they were born out of an intrusion – how we earn trust now is very different from how banks did it 20 years ago, but it’s a vital part of the customer’s journey, ”explains Lars Trunin, Head of Product at Wise , a European money transfer company.

“Transparency is at the heart of everything we do, and is a vital part of building customer confidence. However, there is still a lack of transparency in the industry: there are hidden fees and customers are still being overcharged, ”says Trunin.

Following our research, we highlight the following critical actions for fintech applications:

• Easy and secure registration and verification process.
• Biometric identification for fast and reliable access.
• One touch transactions and transfers.
• Immediate verification and confirmation of transactions.

Health and wellness: encouraging users to succeed

In recent years, health and fitness activities have increased far beyond traditional gyms. Today, people can enjoy a training session, therapy or meditation anywhere, anytime, with all the necessary tools, techniques and advice just by contacting them.

Our research shows that the most important features for building a winning health and fitness app are:

• Encourage users to achieve their goals by showing their progress.
• Avoid losing clients by helping them achieve new goals once they have reached the initial ones.
• Provide social features that keep users engaged.
• Update and improve your content regularly.

People often approach health and well-being as a long-term personal journey: to nurture it, they seek an alliance to join them. To be a reliable partner, you need to be there at the right time to find out and to get started easily. Follow the recommendations for your industry and embark on a non-stop journey to a successful app.

With Ben Wood and Katja Strelcova for Google