In-app purchases has become a major trend among consumers. In fact, 74% say they use mobile applications with the intention of making a purchase. Mobile purchases also accounted for 44% of e-commerce revenues in 2023.
Therefore, creating your mobile application is a way of differentiating from your competitors and attracting an audience that buys via a smartphone. But this new acquisition and loyalty channel means that you need to adapt the shopping journey and offer a unique experience, different from the web and retail.
In this article, we present some practical advice and inspiring examples of how to boost your in-app sales.
What is in-app purchasing?
As the name suggests, in-app purchases are transactions carried out via an e-commerce application In the early days of mobile technology, the majority of these transactions were purchases of :
- features (such as new filters for a photo editing application);
- or consumables in a mobile video game (such as extra lives or accessories to boost your avatar’s powers).
But with the ever-increasing use of mobile shopping, brands have started to develop their own shopping applications. In-app purchasing offers many advantages for e-commerce companies.
By encouraging consumers to download a dedicated application, they create a much closer relationship with their audience. But above all, it’s an excellent way of creating a much more immersive bubble. With a web browser, it’s much easier for customers to leave the shop, for example to compare the brand’s offer with that of competitors.
How in-app competitions can influence users’ purchasing behaviour
Whether in retail, on the web or in mobile marketing, gamification offers brands a range of tools for capturing the attention and retaining the loyalty of consumers. Brands that want to boost in-app purchases can use the mechanics specific to the world of games at every stage of the customer journey.
To boost app downloads and drive buyers to the app
The first challenge for brands looking to boost their in-app sales is simply to increase the number of downloads. This can be achieved through a number of different strategies. App-Store Optimization (or ASO), involves optimizing content so that the application is promoted on the dedicated shops (Play Store, App Store, etc.).
Also, brands can offer attractive benefits to their prospects or customers to encourage them to buy in app. For example, downloading the app will entitle them to a discount voucher on their purchase, a selection of exclusive products or lower delivery charges than on the e-commerce shop.
Marketing competitions are also a way of raising awareness of your application and encourage its audience to download it. A winning instant (such as a Wheel of fortune) can enable the brand to encourage its customers to make their first in-app purchase. The prize will take the form of a voucher that can be used on the app.
Building customer loyalty in app
Once the application has been downloaded, the next step is to encourage users to make their first in-app order. As we’ve seen, offering a discount after each new download, which can be used on the mobile purchase, is already a good conversion driver.
But the brand can target other relevant triggers to convince user. These might include the first product selected or a shopping basket abandonment.
For each of these pre-determined actions, the company can send an in-app message or SMS that redirects to a marketing game encouraging the customer to validate their order in exchange for benefits (discount, access to the VIP club, etc.)
Playable marketing is also effective in retaining new in-app buyers. It allows a game to be shared directly in the application’s purchase path, without any redirection. This is a crucial factor in boosting brand sales. In fact, a study shows that mobile users make 37% more purchases than other customers (e-commerce and retail).
Competitions with a purchase obligation or reserved for loyalty programme members are a good way of encouraging repeat orders. By activating the reward circuit, gamification mechanisms make shoppers want to continue consuming in order to reap new and ever more attractive benefits.
Tips and examples for boosting in-app purchases through gamification
We have seen that playable marketing is a strategy for increasing sales. To achieve its objectives, the brand can draw on the best practices of companies that have succeeded in optimise their mobile marketing.
Using transactional data to personalise the in-app shopping experience
As with any sales channel, personalisation is a key driver of conversion and loyalty for brands. They need to adapt their purchasing path from the behavioural and transactional data they have on their customers. With this information, they can make targeted recommendations, present more relevant content.
Supermarket giant Lidl has understood this well, and has integrated it into its in-app strategy. The Lidl Plus application enables the company to centralise customer purchasing data. Users can find their receipts, making it easier to monitor their budget. The brand is boosting its in-app purchases by offering discount coupons based on the consumption habits of each customer.
Lidl is going a step further by using this customer data to personalise the gaming experience. Based on in-store purchases, users can access tailored games and rewards. As a result, the application has over 5 million active users and records millions of games played every week.
Offer games with an obligation to buy or accessible based on a volume of points
Playable marketing is a good way of building customer loyalty, whatever the channel used. With the aim of increasing its re-purchase rate, the brand can make its experiences accessible only to customers who have already made an in-app purchase. Or for the ones that have accumulated a certain number of loyalty points.
This is the strategy adopted by Coca Cola for its mobile application. To be eligible for attractive prizes (such as tickets to a football match), mobile customers must have accumulated 100 loyalty points.
The same goes for FuzzTea, which launched a competition with an obligation to buy. To take part, the brand’s customers had to enter the code shown on their receipt.
Conclusion
Gamification is an effective way of influencing consumer behaviour in a fun and subtle way. Your brand can use this lever to boost the number of downloads of its application and its volume of in-app sales. Find out how Adictiz can help you gamify your in-app journey.
