Smartphone App Sales Success - Has The Market Peaked?
Hi, Everyone...
Just a quick (?) post today to answer the title question.
In one word - NO!
But I DID want to add to that one word answer just a bit...
This is a 'success post' because I was able to make new significant sales based on what I have learned here at Wealthy Affiliate and elsewhere...I think telling you about it will help you...
The title and subject of this post may be a bit off the focus here at Wealthy Affiliate (affiliate marketing) you are thinking, but truly you will understand why it IS related by the time you read to the bottom of my tale...Bear with me!
It starts with my venture into online marketing, affiliate and otherwise...
Smartphone apps have been intertwined with my other online businesses (to include affiliate marketing) to now, nothing of note, but suddenly they have reared out of the mass of other tasks on my plate demanding more of my attention...
Believe me! This is Bigly! : )
First, some background...
Smartphone Apps and M-Commerce
Online purchases using smartphones has continued to increase, and is projected to increase to the point that people will be using their phones for almost half of all online purchases over the next three years...
Some are calling this phenomena 'M-Commerce', which I see being a sub-niche of e-Commerce...
Why should we care?
We all know that E-commerce sales have risen massively in recent years (i.e. Amazon), but the true riches may lie in M-Commerce as it continues to become more popular.
Technological advances making it easier for people to shop on their phones are happening at breakneck speed.
Here is what that means in statistics...
Overall, total sales of M-Commerce will almost match PC based online sales in the next three years as depicted in the following graph...
Do you see the trendline?
"It is clear to me that the rapid growth of mobile purchases is a trend and a market segment that you simply cannot ignore, and now is the perfect time to build out the mobile side of your business, whether you are an affiliate promoting products, selling products using drop shipping, or are selling your own products or services..."
(NOTE: Quote by Dave Sweney on 30 July 2017 from Dubai)
Looking at the growth of total online sales over the next three years, it is apparent that the most significant portion of that growth is coming from mobile purchases, NOT the traditional (?) e-Commerce websites.
Indeed it appears that the e-Commerce sales level out, so the saturation point may have been reached for the most part. More and more store owners are going to be competing for the available sales and are going up against the big guys like Amazon, eBay, and similar...
Not so with m-Commerce...Things are set for it to grow by a factor of three at least over the next three years! Competition is wide open, the opportunity is there to grab your portion of the coming growth, right now!
BUT...
The problems with m-Commerce...
The mobile shopping experience has been a nightmare for many would-be buyers...
Many just stop trying after a few bad experiences...
As late as the second quarter of 2015, U.S. adults were spending 59% of their time on the smartphone, but only 15% of their online spending dollars came through mobile purchases.
Small screen size, sites not being mobile optimized, payment issues, all were factors in this low spending figure. Completing purchases using the phone used to be too much work and painful.
Due to spotty wifi or LTE networks, speed has also been a problem. Even though mobile users can shop on the go, which is convenient, slow networks means more headaches.
Lastly as with PC purchases in earlier days, there still has been a gap in trust for transactions with payment information entered on a phone.
But...The solutions are here...Things are changing...
Many changes support the expected growth of m-Commerce...
(1) LARGER VIEWING SCREENS. Smartphones have gotten bigger screens, and as some in the comment section have mentioned, there are new tools that allow for people such as myself to view what is on the screen over TVs or monitors and laser keyboard tools...
(2) RESPONSIVE WEBSITES AND ADS. Websites have become responsive (ideal for mobile viewing). It used to be so annoying to have to scroll back and forth or up and down to see a complete webpage. No more...
(3) SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM UPGRADES. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest have introduced "buy buttons", letting would be shoppers purchase without leaving their platform, convenient and it works...
(4) CHECKOUT. One-click checkout has been added by many online merchants. Enter your payment information once, and never have to do it again. What is not to like about this feature? I use it extensively with Chrome for all my frequently visited websites. Nice!
(5) FASTER INTERNET ACCESS SPEEDS FOR MOBILE. This is definitely a big change in many locations. It used to be that you could not watch video or live streams without repeated delays due to the download speed, but most providers offer a decent to excellent speed these days.
What About Smartphone Apps supporting m-Commerce?
I have read in various places that the market may have peaked for Apps, the growth has certainly slowed. But this does not mean the market is dead by any means...
In fact, especially for m-Commerce, many apps are now being designed to interface with the social platforms and the websites of merchants to provide a wider swath of visibility across the internet.
This is where my success story comes into play and you can understand the need for the background information I added above...
My Personal Experience With Smartphone Apps
(1) SMARTPHONE APP ORDER. I just received an order for 40 smartphone apps. I offered a quantity discount of $100 an app. The order total is $16,000 USD. Twenty Apple apps and 20 Android apps at $400 each is not a bad order! This has my attention!
(2) E-COMMERCE APP INTEGRATION. We are building this feature into our partner program for e-Commerce because we KNOW the trend is more mobile purchases over the next three years.
Our partners will be able to build a store app either from their website or from their Facebook fan page and that app will mimic what is on the other site. Once they partner with us, we will get them set up and assist to make everything function.
This integrated package is something that no other e-commerce platform offers that I know of...Most certainly an online marketer can piece together a program using a tool here, a tool there, but with us they can do it all in one place (sound familar to WA?).
(3) ONE STEP CHECKOUT PLUS MORE WITH OUR APPS. All of our stores have the one time registration for payment and fast one-step checkout thereafter and this feature will be in the Apps as well.
The apps we build can support Facebook fan page builds or website store builds, but customers will be able to buy directly.from the app...As Facebook is doing, keeping them on the app platform is ideal and less painful/quicker...
Think about this...
Essentially what you end up with is 3 sites (a store, a Facebook fan page, and the app) that are constantly all updated and together offer more ways for customers to access what you are selling. Your internet footprint is bigger...
Using the app, customers do not have to type in a website address or go to Facebook. There is another tool we use that syncs all three constantly, so the customer sees what is currently available from any of the three sites live.
Another advantage to this is that you can use the app to send push notifications (which almost 100% of people sent will see on their smartphones), which have a MUCH higher open rate versus email.
In these days of mass mailing and so many businesses competing for attention, this is a great way to make sure your messages are getting seen.
Lastly, all sites to include the Apps offer secure checkout for customers and use the recognized and trusted payment platform (PayPal). This might be inconvenient for us as we grow and transaction totals increase...
I have heard of horror stories of money being frozen or requirements for fenced amounts in your account...For now it works well for us and for customers. We are looking at alternatives, but at the moment, what we have works.
NOTE: This is a 'good feeling' story in total and is a strong point of difference for us to compare what we offer versus what others offer as we build out our partner program and the support platform. I would even go so far as to call this 'cutting edge' stuff (we have several other tools in our toolbox too hehe). Is this a perfect 'elevator speech? Not perfect, but it is a good one...
(4) CREATING NEW USES FOR APPS. There are other innovative uses of Apps. I have another local client in Dubai that we are building a website, a Facebook fan page and Android/Apple Apps (2) to offer direct immediate delivery when ordering via the App.
This is a very interesting business model, by the way, he is going to count on delivery charges being the main profit driver (people will pay more for direct and immediate delivery)...
He has a fleet of little motercycles with boxes and drivers ready to fly anywhere in Dubai at a moments notice. His niche is very tight. He is a muso (musician), has two music shops here in Dubai, regularly teaches students in the area, and knows fellow musicians throughout MENA and elsewhere globally.
It is noteworthy that he has seen what marketers are doing in other niches and based on what they are having success with, carved out a potential new niche for himself that currently does not exist.
Here is the background for his upcoming business described above...
There is a company here in Dubai that offer flash sales using Facebook and a smartphone app with many 1aed items and have mimimum order size (cost). Delivery takes place within a couple of days, and there is a delivery charge on top of the item cost.
In talking to the drivers, it seems that although the margin is VERY small for the items sold (they sell lots of cheap stuff), they are making about 30 aed for each delivery. The delivery logistics include their own staff/vehicles (motercycles) and the drivers make maybe 1000 aed a month (less than $300) so their costs are low.
By offering lots of flash sales, throughout the day, using facebook ads, and their low prices, they are delivering over 1000 orders a day - their profits on delivery charges after expenses amount to 25,000 aed a day (in US dollars that is about 7,000 USD!)...
Over a month, that is 210,000 USD in profits. THAT is a business!
This is why my friend is going into this business...The model works - it is proving itself every day.
Exciting stuff, this one...This guy is always coming up with new ideas...
(5) ALMOST PASSIVE INCOME. Residual income is another positive outcome from the smartphone Apps world. For the examples I use above, ALL have the potential for putting a monthly maintenance fee in place.
Right now we have not determined the price point for this, but we know it is coming. This mostly passive income will require hiring one person to maintain all accounts - let's see what the right charge for this service might be...
For our partner program, we will eat the costs on the corporate level I think, just as an added service we provide with the others. For apps we maintain that are not associated with our partner program we will charge the costs plus a small profit, and any remaining costs will be apportioned and come from our partner program income...
So as you can see, I have had mostly positive experiences with smartphone apps and it does not feel like the market is saturated...In a word, I have had 'success'.
: )
Conclusion
I could provide more examples, but I think you get the point. Do you see how one opportunity leads to the next, and the next, and so on?
It brings home to me the following point:
"The path to success is possible online in many ways, smartphone apps being one such way. Such activities may dovetail nicely with your other online activity (i,e, affiliate marketing).You have to think outside the box (I am not talking about the boxes on those motercycles my friend has for deliveries haha)!"
(Note: Quote from Dave Sweney, 30 July from Dubai)
Bottom Line: The market for smartphone apps has NOT peaked, it is up to innovators to make new uses for the Apps and tap into the potential that present themselves with the App platforms, as we are doing...
Anyway...
What do you think? What have been your experiences with smartphone apps? Are they a waste of time? Do you use them and which ones and for what? I am sure there are 1000s of ideas that need to be fleshed out!
One last question...
Are you planning for more mobile users as you build your online business? The shift to mobile and social platform time internet users practice means that unless you are, you are missing out on a MAJOR slice of the internet pie, likely missing out on traffic, leads, and conversions...
Loving this online marketing stuff, I hope you are as well!
Have a great day, and remember, I believe in ALL of you!
Cheers!
Dave : )
Recent Comments
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Yes I was amazed that the folks I hired in PH had no laptop, but seem to do everything they need to just with the smartphone. They seem to have adapted because that is the cheapest way to stay online without too much cost.
The internet speed is not the greatest though with the plans they have...We took care of this by getting a landline for them and a faster internet speed (not the fastest, but enough that that we can do video calls, share screens and etc. with no lagging)...
It sounds like I just need to adapt - Carson mentioned the laser keyboard tool, which would be necessary for me to really use the smartphone for a lot of serious work, and I also can hook up the screen to my Smart TV, so even that problem is solved...
Good to hear that you are able to do everything with the smartphone...The folks in PH are also using it for some of the tasks I have for them weekly, social activitiy being one...
Cheers!
Dave : )
Really enjoyed the post as always Dave ...just doing some research on how to make better use of online technology on our smartphones and found some pretty cool laser projection paired keyboards to use on I phone or smartphons. Makes it a lot more efficient than typing with your thumb only!!!! ATB Carson 1
Thanks for the kind words Carson...It is amazing how things have changed and how they continue to change.
It is imperative that we keep up and sometimes like with the case of the keyboard tool you can make the smartphone as useful as a laptop!
I will be looking into that one. As a backup, it would come in handy. For almost everything, I try to build in a Plan B...This may be one for me!
Cheers and thanks for the good tip!
Dave : )
I agree...It has become a must have tool...Probably the thing I ue mine for the least is calls (huh?)! These days I use Skype/WhatsApp/WeChat for calls (at little or no cost)...Laptops for many people, especially younger folks, seems to be so...yesterday!
I use my smartphone for a lot of my WA work. As many members have reminded us, make sure the themes used for your website is mobile friendly. Smartphones are here to stay...until they get replaced with something better!
Have a great weekend,
Debbie
Hi, Debbie...I find the smartphone screen is too small for me to do a lot of serious work like writing, editing, video editing, or even answering emails...I still use it to view videos and documents...Apparently a lot of people do use it for their work though...The people we have brought in are used to that size screen, and they still are doing some of the assigned tasks with it...I do not care as long as the work gets done hehe...Cheers! Dave : )
I use the iPhone 6plus and the screen is a bit bigger..but right..however the work gets done is perfect
Yes for my workers in PH I try not to dictate the how, but I'm pretty clear on the what (deliverable)...I do not even care how long it takes...If they can get the work done in half the time alloted, the time and win is theirs...
This works well with the set up...They are 4 hours ahead, the conditions are unique, I know how long a task should take...
Give them some leeway, provide the resources they need, do not tell them what to use to do things, then have high expectations, and generally people will try to meet them...
interesting stuff, all. I still don't have a smartphone, but I do understand the draw of this device as almost everyone else has one.
Yes Mickey, I really had not paid too much attention to the app side of mobile online marketing. I bought a set of licenses quite a while ago, and had used a couple, but nothing exciting...
I have a friend who has built a business around mobile ads and desktop traditional ads (he places native and other type ads on websites located in the MENA region)...
We were talking about what I am doing with the new app licenses I bought to support Facebook pages converted to mobile apps, and the synergies that would bring about for marketing (i.e. push notifications, always live updates with the fan page, etc.)...
That is when he hit me for the 40 app order. Apparently they are very aware of the trends in the market and are aggressively moving to stay ahead of the competition, apps being one such way...
The smartphones are replacing laptops or desktops for many. The people that are working for me in PH only had smartphones in use prior to starting, we had to purchase laptops and an internet service (they were using a mobile connection) . They did nothing online outside of using their smartphone...
Anyway, this app sale was a good experience, and even after costing out time and license fee, that 40 app order is going leave a big profit for us..That is real cash too, not an in kind exchange!
Have a great day!
Dave : )
Indeed I believe this to be the case...This business does take you in some directions you never considered...I have done consult work, advising, new for me projects, and throughout put in a lot of effort...I enjoy this stuff though, so it is not really work in the traditional sense of the word...Kind fo fun watching others have those aha moments too btw!
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well said and thanks for this great post
Thanks Phil, I enjoyed putting this together! Cheers! Dave : )