According to eMarketer, the number of people around the world accessing the internet using smartphones reached 2.39 billion in 2017. These mobile users are spending hours each day on their phones, completing tasks, and consuming media in a highly customized environment of apps they have chosen to download and regularly interact with.
Brands are trying to win a coveted piece of their customers’ limited storage space with their own native apps. As more and more shoppers choose to make purchases on their mobile devices, meeting the customer expectation that “mobile equals personalized” becomes more and more crucial.
App Personalization Provides More Value to Mobile Users
Many brands recognize that their own mobile offerings lack in delivering the app personalization their customers want. In order to earn that initial download, remain useful and relevant, and avoid deletion, a commerce app must provide a unique, personalized experience that’s not available through the browser-based eCommerce site. In other words, if your app is just a repackaged, downloadable version of your mobile site, customers probably won’t see the value, and it will be among the first apps to go when “Not Enough Storage” notifications start popping up.
The key to keeping your app and brand at the top of your customer’s mind is to provide targeted, personalized information like product suggestions and notifications about their recent orders, in a tailored-for-mobile environment.
Native apps also provide a great opportunity to use location-based targeting to add another layer of personalization to your customer experience and drive nearby traffic to your brick-and-mortar locations. Give app users the ability to customize which notifications they receive, and they’ll get exactly what they want from your brand’s mobile experience without feeling stalked or bombarded.
Where to Start with App Personalization?
A great place for your brand to start on its path to app personalization is to learn what your customers are actually doing when they open your app. In other words, you need to be tracking user behavior. Once you have a good understanding of how customers are using your app, you can identify opportunities to improve and personalize their experience.
As user data is collected, your “user profiles” will get smarter, and personalized content can be served on a 1:1 basis using machine learning/AI. The more data collected, the better the experience for the customer, as you can deliver things like product recommendations and targeted promotions. It also gives you the ability to understand who’s loyal and more likely to come back to buy more.
This all feeds into the customer lifetime value to deliver better, more personalized experiences.
To learn about other trends affecting commerce this year, download our guide below.
