Ten Years of The App Store: 85% of Fortune 500 Retailers Now Have Apps
Today, four in five Fortune 500 retailers are in the Apple App Store. That’s a major change since 2008, when the only available shopping app was eBay and the prominent social network was MySpace.
There were less than 5,000 apps when the App Store launched in 2008. Today, there are more than two million iPhone apps available — a 40 thousand percent increase over 10 years. Due to the overwhelming adoption of retail apps, Apple even introduced a shopping category in 2015.
Ahead of the App Store’s 10th birthday, retail app platform Branding Brand conducted a study to identify the Fortune 500 e-retailers with apps and the most popular in-app capabilities.
The full matrix of findings is available here.
Fortune 500 retailers don’t get caught up in trending technology.
Although voice search, AR, and VR make for attention-grabbing headlines, Fortune 500 retailers are immune to their buzz. Voice search was only incorporated in 20% of these mobile shopping apps, AR was found in 12%, and none included VR.
Instead of chasing these trends, top retailers are nailing the basic app capabilities that shoppers have come to expect. All offer the ability to create an account. In addition, filter and sort functionality is standard in 96% of retailer apps, followed by geolocation in 88%.
They think about in-store mobile moments.
Retailers are helping shoppers help themselves. Within five years, Forrester estimates that $1.4 trillion of offline sales will be influenced by mobile. 72% of retailer apps offer product scanning and 64% help shoppers find products in stores. A rising self-service offering was in-store mode, which was included in 24% of retailer apps. Shoppers can also read reviews in 80% of retailer apps, replacing the need to talk to an associate.
Top retailers are designing for continuous engagement.
Retailers are designing apps to keep shoppers hooked. They update their apps multiple times per month to improve performance and add functionality — making those red bubbles appear on home screen app icons to lure in shoppers.
In these apps, 88% of retailers incorporate infinite scrolling instead of pagination for a shopping experience with no endpoint — similar to the addictive scrolling capabilities on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.
These brands do it better where most miss the mark.
Shockingly, many retail giants missed some low-hanging fruit along the way while launching their mobile apps, like Apple Pay and in-app deals. Here are some that do it right.
- The option to reorder a product is offered by only 20% of retail apps. Return shoppers can visit Amazon and see items they’ve recently purchased, and buy again quickly. Amazon also offers Dash Buttons for this purpose.
- App-exclusive deals were only offered by 24% of retail apps. Macy’s gives 25% off first app order and advertises it in their App Store Preview.
- In-app rewards and loyalty was only offered by 40% of retail apps. Kohl’s helps shoppers stay loyal by showing a progress bar for points leading to their next deal.
- The majority of retailers (68%) offer in-app feedback. Walmart’s feedback button at the bottom of its home page helps limit shoppers from taking usability concerns to the App Store, which might lower app ratings overall.
- Only 16% of retailers offer seamless checkout with Apple Pay. GameStop shoppers can purchase directly from the product page using Apple Pay, and Macy’s offers the mobile payment in the cart.
Retailers looking to copy the success of these Fortune 500 brands should understand why every retailer needs a mobile shopping app and how to start building an app strategy.
For details about the report and methodology, contact Alison Judge.
About Branding Brand
Branding Brand is the retail industry’s leading omnichannel commerce platform, powering mobile apps, sites, and in-store shopping experiences for over 200 enterprise brands. In addition to being named a Gartner “Cool Vendor” of apps, the Company is also the Forrester Wave Leader in “Mobile Commerce and Engagement Platforms.”
