A mobile app in an omnichannel model is not a copy of the website on a smaller screen. Its purpose is not to duplicate functions that web services already provide, but to offer the customer a distinct value of its own. It is for the sake of that value that a person installs the app and keeps coming back to it — and the company gains a channel it did not have before.
Why a brand needs an app of its own
When a company already has a website, an online store and a customer account area, the temptation to build "the same thing, only in an app" is very strong. But omnichannel logic works differently: every channel has to add something of its own. If the app repeats the website, the user has no reason to keep it on their smartphone.
At the same time, the company gains its own, entirely tangible benefits from having customers use a mobile app:
- collecting user data to build outstanding personal offers;
- the chance to save money on expensive SMS and email campaigns by replacing them with free push notifications;
- a first line of support;
- securing loyalty and customer success;
- PR for the brand.
What a Mobile App is for in an omnichannel paradigm
When an app is planned as part of an omnichannel system rather than as a standalone image project, it acquires two strategic goals.
Replace expensive communication channels
In the long run, the share of customers using the Mobile App has to become high — high enough for the app to fully replace the expensive communication channels, email and SMS, for them.
Collect data for personal offers
It makes sense to collect and use customer data intelligently in order to build outstanding personal offers on top of it. The killer offer nobody can turn down is the eternal dream of marketing departments, and it is now becoming reality.
User value is the most important ingredient
This is the part of the work that cannot be delegated to technology. Coming up with the value, identifying it, packaging it properly and offering it to the user in the form of a mobile app is no easy task.
There is no universal answer here: what is genuinely valuable to a customer depends heavily on the specifics of a particular industry. A mechanic that works beautifully in footwear retail may turn out to be meaningless for a bank or a service company — and the other way round. That is why value is always formulated as a hypothesis tied to a specific business and to the specific behaviour of its buyers.
A value idea: a pedometer that turns steps into points
Let us show an example of a user-value hypothesis using the development of a mobile app for footwear retail.
The logic of the hypothesis is simple and at the same time lands precisely on the specifics of the industry: a person buys shoes and walks in them — and that very walking becomes the source of bonuses. The company's product and the customer's everyday behaviour end up in a single scenario, and the loyalty programme stops being passive.
Technical details: which systems the app integrates with
To get the Mobile App working, it had to be integrated with the company's information systems. Without these three connections the scenario does not come together: the app would know neither who it is dealing with nor what that person has bought.
| System | Role in how the app works |
|---|---|
| Loyalty programme | Became the basis for identifying the customer. The mobile app uses the same data for identification as the bonus cards do. |
| Order processing system | Once the user is identified, the list of purchased footwear is requested and kept continuously up to date. |
| Website | Needed for behaviour analysis and for building and presenting personal offers to the customer. |
Strategy: six steps that deliver the value
The strategy behind the Mobile App is to deliver user value. Broken down into steps, it turns into a sequential scenario: from the first launch to the moment when both sides get their benefit.
- Identifying the user. The user downloads the app and uses the same data for identification that already exists for the bonus cards. A barcode scanner can be used.
- Retrieving the user's purchase list. Once identified, the user sees in the app every pair of shoes bought across the INTERTOP chain — this list comes from the order processing system.
- The user counts the steps they take. The user grants permission to start the process of counting, day by day, the number of steps taken in INTERTOP footwear. A pair has to be chosen from the list of previous purchases.
- Converting steps into points. The next day the system converts the steps into points. Additional conditions can be introduced — for example, a required daily minimum, or a requirement to reach a step total within a limited time window (a month, a week).
- The user spends the points they have earned. The points earned can be used for purchases under the same rules as the main bonus points.
- The company puts the advantages to use. Personalised offers are generated for the buyer periodically. The app informs them about order processing, marketing activity and promotional activity. Expensive channels — SMS and email marketing — are replaced with cheaper push notifications.
What the company gets out of it
The scenario is arranged so that the company's benefit is not bolted on as a separate block but arises inside the user value. A person counts steps for the sake of points — and at that very moment the company receives data on real behaviour, an up-to-date purchase list and a direct line to the customer's smartphone.
Push notifications play no decorative role here. They cover three tasks at once — informing customers about order processing, marketing activity and promotional activity — and they do it instead of channels where the company pays for every single message.
The essentials about an app in an omnichannel model
- The app does not duplicate web services — it offers the customer a distinct value of its own.
- User value is the most important ingredient, and it always depends on the specifics of the industry.
- Without integration with the loyalty programme, the order processing system and the website, the scenario does not work.
- A high share of app users is the condition under which expensive communication channels can be replaced.
- The data the app collects is raw material for personal offers, not an end in itself.
