Five major ASO challenges for ecommerce apps in 2021

Shopping apps are slowly monopolizing the online retail world. Studies show that over 85% shoppers prefer mobile apps over mobile websites for purchasing a product. This preference for shopping apps is now bringing more companies towards starting their own app.

This movement towards app development naturally brings up the question of promoting mobile apps.

No one can say app marketing is easy. Even app store optimization (ASO), supposedly the easiest form of app promotion, is slowly becoming a complicated process.

You still have to find a way to promote your app despite the general difficulty of mobile app marketing. ASO is often the first place app marketers start their journey. You can get organic downloads for your shopping apps if you do your ASO work well.

This piece covers five key ASO challenges you should prepare your ecommerce app for in 2021.

#1 - Localization

Localization is no longer a trendy fad anymore. Businesses are looking beyond their conventional target prospects and trying to create a more global user base.

Targeting a new audience in a different part of the world naturally mandates a host of changes. Let’s assume your shopping app targets users in the United States. At some point, you decide to expand your audience to Mexico.

You cannot simply make your app listing visible in Mexico to suddenly grow app downloads there. You need to create a seperate custom listing for Mexican users, preferably writing content in Spanish.

The role of app localization in ASO is slowly growing. Marketers conduct separate ASO audits and select new keywords for a different country. These audits are also important for understanding the behaviour of prospects in a new country.

As you scale your app, managing multiple app listings optimized for different regions will become difficult. This is the ultimate challenge localization will bring to app store optimization. Even other facets of a mobile app, such as development, design, and marketing will be influenced heavily by localization.

#2 - Identifying search intent

Search intent is a common part of keyword analysis in SEO. It plays an important role in ASO as well.

Firstly, what is search intent?

Let’s assume you build a pharmacy app using a WooCommerce Android app builder without coding. You are looking for keywords to optimize your app listing. You come across two keywords - ‘buy meds online’ and ‘how to buy meds online’.

Both these keywords may seem relevant to your app, but the intent behind them is different. Someone searching ‘buy meds online’ is probably already about your app or the specific service you can provide. Such a prospect is closer to the lower end of the marketing funnel and can be converted easily.

Someone searching ‘how to buy meds online’ is not a high information prospect. Even if you manage to rank first for this keyword, there is a good chance many users will still not download your app. These prospects still have to go through some level of awareness before they are ready to download your app.

The first keyword is thus naturally more valuable from an ASO perspective. Identifying search intent can thus help you choose keywords more accurately. Look at the apps ranking for a popular keyword and checkout details like click-through rate and conversion. This will help you get a good idea of the search intent behind a keyword.

#3 - Managing ratings and reviews

Shopping apps always have to deal with prickly customers who get ready to post a bad review at the smallest of hiccups. As your app grows and starts fulfilling more orders, you will run into a greater number of logistical problems.

This is one part of growing an ecommerce business that you have to deal with.

If you run your business well, you will find solutions to dealing with a greater number of orders. In the meantime, it is untenable to have unhappy customers tank your app ratings.

One of the main ASO challenges you have to deal with is managing your app ratings and reviews. Unhappy customers are a reality you have to accept. The following steps explain how you can deal with this problem on a practical level-

● Make happy customers give you a rating. This is the best way to increase the overall rating of your app. This will offset any bad ratings your unhappy customers give you. Create mechanisms within your app to direct more satisfied customers to your app store page for the purpose of giving a rating and review.   




● Deal with unhappy customers internally. Create a robust customer support system that is designed to resolve any problems customers face. Fast resolution of customer problems will naturally lead to a decline in bad app ratings and reviews.

#4 - Dealing with lower download velocity

The new iOS 14 update has made it difficult for companies to run personalized app install campaigns. Paid downloads contribute a great deal to the user base of an average mobile app. The new update now reduces the potency of paid install campaigns. In other words, you can no longer get the download velocity you need to rank well on important keywords.

What is the solution? This challenge can be negated by acquiring users from other channels.

Use your organic website traffic and direct incoming visitors to your app listing. Try to get featured on popular websites and forums in your niche to reach out to early adopters. These tactics will help you acquire app downloads and offset the fall in paid app downloads.

#5 - More competitors

Tools like AppMySite have opened up the ecommerce app market. Anyone can start a shopping app by going from WordPress to app with an app builder for Android and iOS.

An open field always means more competitors. One big ASO challenge your ecommerce app will face is competing with many other shopping apps. You will have to do more to set yourself apart in your niche and beat the competition.

Simply following basic ASO guidelines will not be enough. You will have to constantly track your app listing KPIs to ensure it is tuned to perform optimally.

More competition will also force you to pursue other app marketing channels. ASO cannot be your only source of app downloads. You will have to identify other channels to bring users to your app.

In conclusion

Developing ecommerce apps has never been easier. Free Android & iOS app makers like AppMySite enable users to create their own shopping apps in minutes.

Dealing with other challenges related to app marketing and ASO however still loom large. This piece offers insights into five ASO challenges for shopping apps in 2021. 

On the ground, you will naturally have to face many more challenges. The points made here should nevertheless prepare you for the biggest ASO obstacles in the coming months. 

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Created on Jan 29th 2021 04:21. Viewed 499 times.

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