With the number of shoppers who choose to make their purchases on mobile platforms steadily rising every year, businesses these days would be remiss not to consider building a mobile app to serve their customer bases. Although building such an app aims to increase sales, many businesses might actually find themselves losing money post-launch.
Many factors can affect this sales dip, but the members of Young Entrepreneur Council have narrowed down their top 11 reasons why you might not be seeing the ROI you’d hoped for after building your mobile app. Below, they explain what you can do to turn the situation around for the better.
11 Ways Your Mobile App Could Hurt Your Sales
- It’s buggy and slow.
- The UX design is bad.
- Customers can’t find your app.
- It doesn’t provide enough value.
- The photos aren’t loading.
- The menu is difficult to navigate.
- It lacks security.
- The checkout process is poorly designed.
- You don't have the right analytics in place.
- You aren't promoting incentives.
- It doesn’t serve a purpose.
1. It’s Buggy and Slow
Mobile apps with bugs or slow load times can cause consumers to go elsewhere, costing you sales. My suggestion is to test the app on every single platform and device to ensure the app works seamlessly. This testing will help improve conversions. —Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC
2. The UX Design Is Bad
Bad user experience design could be costing you sales in your app. When you decide to create an app, don’t cut corners when it comes to UX. If your app isn’t intuitive to your users, you’ll lose sales. Invest in a good UX designer from the start of the project to to save yourself from having to go back and redesign parts of your app. —Brian David Crane, Spread Great Ideas
3. Customers Can’t Find Your App
Millions of mobile apps exist today. So, chances are that you’re not making sales because no one knows about your app. If your customers find your app only by searching for it by name, then you know you need to market it better. Create marketing campaigns that tell users how your app solves their problems. You may need to create ads, but the expense is worth it if you build your brand. —Blair Williams, MemberPress
4. It Doesn’t Provide Enough Value
The most common reason why a company’s app fails is that it simply doesn't have enough value to justify its usage. If you want customers to use your app, give them a reason to want to. You need unique features they can’t get elsewhere, exclusive content, deals and something that motivates them to use the app regularly. Learn what your customers need in such an application and build around that. —Salvador Ordorica, The Spanish Group LLC
5. The Photos Aren’t Loading
E-commerce revolves around customer trust. They need to see what your products look like. Apps without photos have less of a chance of earning sales compared to those that include photos, videos and engaging content. The customer must be able to see everything in the app. Have the team constantly check on the app and make sure that everything works. —Daisy Jing, Banish
6. The Menu Is Difficult to Navigate
Your mobile app could hurt your sales if your menu is difficult to navigate. Your menu has the most popular pages on your site, like your About, Contact, Shop, Blog and more. If it’s difficult to access or find, you’ll see mobile users drop like flies. Ensure that your mobile app provides a positive experience for users and makes it easy for them to stay there. —Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
7. It Lacks Security
Lack of security can be one major reason why your mobile app loses sales. If you know that your app has issues, fix it by using secure coding techniques, using SSL and by making SSL verification mandatory. Make secure login and re-authentication for important actions a must. You can also use additional layers of encryption to avoid broken cryptography. —Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
8. The Checkout Process Is Poorly Designed
Having an optimized payment process is vital to keep your sales rate up. There are so many lost sales because apps add extra steps in order to buy something. They also don’t save the right information or they may fail to process a payment for no good reason. Prioritize your checkout processes and use a reliable payment gateway to ensure that people can buy things smoothly. —Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
9. You Don’t Have the Right Analytics in Place
More often than not, you lose sales because you don’t have the right analytics in place or the systems necessary to act on the data from those analytics. When companies or products don’t have proper tracking and analytics integrated, they miss opportunities for improvement and don’t seeing the pain points users are having with the app. —Ryan D Matzner, Fueled
10. You Aren’t Promoting Incentives
Your application could hurt your sales if you don’t regularly promote exclusive offers and content through it. In other words, if people see a carbon copy of your website, they might get frustrated that they went through all the trouble to download your app from the store. I suggest adding incentives regularly to keep your mobile app customers engaged and happy. —John Brackett, Smash Balloon LLC
11. It Doesn’t Serve a Purpose
You might lose sales for your business if your mobile app doesn’t serve a distinct purpose. If it exists just for users to click a few buttons and not really get anywhere, you’re guaranteed to have a failed app. Your mobile app must be easy to use and simplify otherwise annoying processes. If it’s a hassle to use, customers won’t bother, and you could lose a lot of sales. —Jared Atchison, WPForm
