Get Your mCommerce App Ready For This Holiday Season
There was something different from the time I headed into work today – I couldn’t place my finger on it. It was only when I went to my favorite coffee shop, smelled the aroma of cinnamon spice coffee and saw the red speckled coffee cups that I realized the holidays were here. Suddenly, an anxious holiday-induced chill came over my body.
The holiday season might be a sense of relief to many people, but for the rest of us who are in the field of online stores, it’s one of the most daunting times. The server overload, site and app crash, products not delivered on time, customer issues… And the list goes on and on. The holiday season for us is anything BUT a holiday.
In 2014, online holiday spending accounted for $102 billion and it’s projected to grow by at least 2% this year. Almost half the transactions took place through mobile devices, making your mCommerce app the prime area consumers will be looking at this year. So, to make it all easy for you, we’re giving you our Holiday Season Preparation Checklist before the shoppers bring in their holiday shopping list.
NOTE: If you need to make any changes to your mCommerce app, now is the time to do it. Contact our mobile app developers today so we can get everything squared ASAP.
Analyze Last Year’s Data
Being an online entrepreneur, you will understand the power of data, much better than I can explain. Your mobile app is no different from your eCommerce site – In fact, your app will, more than likely, attract more traffic during the peak holiday season. Do a thorough analysis of your 2014 traffic report and understand the user behavioral pattern. You can estimate the growth and also guess, to an extent, the amount of people who will be interested in your mCommerce app this year.
Load Test – To Understand Your App’s Ultimate Threshold Limit
There are numerous online testing tools that help load test your app. Show no mercy and put your app through a rigorous testing session. Now that you understand your app better, if it’s not capable of handling the load, then you have to try and optimize your app to perform better under stress. App optimization is a tedious task, but it’s extremely important to make your app usage experience better. If your app crashes, your customers won’t/can’t buy your products.
App Load Time – It Begins and Ends There
Load speed determines app success, whether we like it or not. The fact that 68% of users expect the app load time to be less than 6 seconds proves that it’s one of the major deciding factor. It’s not unlikely, but we do tend to go a wee-bit overboard on holiday themes and marketing promos, increasing the app load time drastically. It’s important to optimize the app and bring down the app size to improve load time and app engagement.
End-User Testing – Get Into Your Customer’s Shoes
User testing is essential to understand how users utilize your app. Letting a 3rd party users perform a complete audit will make you understand your own app from the customer’s point of view. Even making the smallest of changes will create all the difference needed for a better app engagement.
Make Use Of Power Of Push Notification
Push notifications can either become an ally or an enemy, and it all depends on how you use them. There are certain apps that send frequent notifications. Due to such lazy marketing efforts, users get annoyed and shut off the notifications or, even worse, uninstall an app. To reap the benefits of push notifications, use them minimally and target at the right time. For example, customers are more willing to receive promotional messages late in the evening when they are officially done for the day.
Also, a push notification doesn’t have to be “sellie” – It can be as simple as spreading joyful message, ensuring a better engagement rate when you do send out more “sellie” notifications.
A Promotional Calendar
Since holiday season has begun, it’s necessary to set a calendar targeting the important dates. Try to even out the crowd by running a promotional campaign for a longer period of time. Share your promotional calendar well in advance to prepare your shoppers.
Bring In The Holiday Spirit
It’s not just for amusement that retail stores decorate for the holiday season- It’s been proven to increase sales. Consumers tend to spend more when they are in the holiday mood, so set the right mood for customers to interact better with your mCommerce app.
Spread The Joy Of Holidays – With Customer-Oriented Offers
Get a greater conversion rate by sending user-specific coupon codes for the product the users search most for. Even just a targeted mailer with offering free delivery will create a sense of loyalty and an assured ROI for all your marketing efforts. Make use of the effective data collected over the period of time to improve sales.
Make Use Of Social Media And Retargeted Marketing
Social media lets you deliver visual messages to your customers. Create well crafted promotional images and videos and share with your customers that have downloaded your app. Social media is an indispensable tool for your marketing calendar, it lets you reach out to all users efficiently. Also, re-targeted marketing is a great tool to increase your visibility and get back your user’s who might be looking at other options.
Stock Up Else Lose’Em
Your inventory is the main reason for the customer to visit your mCommerce app during the peak season. It’s advisable to do inventory forecast and stock up on your best selling products, but in the unfortunate event when some products do run out of stock, it’s essential you redirect users to similar products that have similar features and ratings.
Backup Resources Always Comes In Handy
Increased sales mean increased work load. Hire a few temp and part timers to ensure a smooth work flow. This will also reduce the stress on your existing workforce who would love to spend time with their family as well. Create a better work environment for a profitable business.
The holiday season can be tedious, but it’s also the most profitable one. Being prepared helps you tackle all unexpected issues you might come across. Create a holiday campaign calendar, get social and engage better with your mCommerce mobile apps. Your mobile app testing is extremely essential as if your app crashes or load time increases, you might as well bid goodbye to your users, forever.
Want us to audit your app or optimize it better? Get in touch with us… Pronto!
