The intensely competitive app explosion is great for consumers, but for marketers it means finding ways to rise above the pack.
175B in 2017
60% increase from 2015
258B by 2022
45% increase from 2017
6M+ Today
In October 2017:
50K new apps in App Store
150K+ new apps in Google Play
Source: App Annie
The majority of app users access 20 or fewer apps per month
The top 10 most-used apps account for nearly all time spent with apps
Source: TechCrunch, Aug 2017
Source: Imagine: Forces of Change report, June 2018
How am I driving utility for the consumer and enabling loyalty?
What strategies can I use to ensure users find my app?
In Q1 2018, there were 150 million U.S. shopping app downloads, up 35% year over year. Shopping app visits have grown 70% over the past two years.
Use apps to give users easy access to special offers, rewards and loyalty programs. Target merged its Target app and its Cartwheel app, focused on deals, into one in 2017. At the time, Cartwheel was more popular, with 40 million downloads.
“Each session is an opportunity to purchase and deepen customer loyalty; traditional retailers need to focus on cultivating engagement in sessions per user to increase their top line.”
— App Annie’s 2017 Retrospective: A Monumental Year for the App Economy
They compete with each other and food delivery services like GrubHub. Eighty percent of customers maintain loyalty to one food delivery platform. According to App Annie, four of the top ten food and drink apps in the U.S. are restaurant aggregators.
Use technology to make it easy for customers to place orders. At Panera, digital, including kiosks, accounts for 29%, or $1.2 billion of its sales.
“ … if a location lets [next generation customers] place an order, they’ll come back 6% more often and spend 20% more each time. Seventy percent said they look for apps that deliver personalized offers and convey the sense that the restaurant knows them.”
– Deloitte 2016 Restaurant of the Future report
As with restaurant apps, consumers are more likely to use apps that aggregate major brands, rather than apps from individual brands.
Offer promotions, at the right time and place, especially during summer.
Share of drivers who look for deals at gas stations on trips.
Increase in navigations to fuel and convenience stores in July/August compared with January/February.
Source: Anonymized Waze user data
Marketers’ Dilemma:
Lack of visibility for their apps, and often for their store locations.
The Big Idea:
Custom App Integrations: 1 (App) + 1 (App) = 3
How They Work:
By building deep integrations with apps that consumers consider indispensable, partners build experiences that heighten loyalty, utility and visibility.
Using custom app integration:
A retailer like Target could integrate with Pampers Rewards, since Target app users are at least 8x more likely to also use the Pampers app.
A restaurant like Panera could partner with audio fitness app Aaptiv on its iPhone app, since Panera users are 11x more likely to use the fitness app.
A fuel and convenience chain like Sheetz could integrate payments or offers with PNC’s Virtual wallet because Sheetz app users are 13x more likely to also use the PNC app.
Source: App Annie
Domino’s:
Pizza chain builds ordering integration with Slack, Google Home, Alexa, and more.
Spotify:
The music streaming service has built app integrations with Nike+, Starbucks, and Waze.
Waze has been building custom app integrations with marketers that draw on its location-based capabilities and scale to bring value and visibility to partners.
Two examples stand out as best-in-class integrations on Waze:
November 2017
To better help drivers in need by integrating services such as in-app emergency calls and paid roadside assistance.
The service, which is not limited to current Allstate customers, connects Wazers to Allstate’s Good Hands Rescue® service. They simply pay-per-use without any membership fees or policy.
Roadside Assistance >
March 2017
To allow DD Perks members to orderand navigate to their nearest store using Waze.
Order Ahead >
The app universe is cluttered. Consumers spend time with the apps that provide the most value and utility to them.
Custom app integrations heighten the overall app experience, benefiting both marketers and consumers.
Want to know more about custom app integrations and solutions to drive more to store?
Contact [email protected]
