Since the pandemic, people have preferred to shop online, leading to a surge in e-commerce businesses. Most e-commerce businesses are now launching their online store's mobile app to provide a customer-focused experience. This is because it is easy, convenient, and time-saving.
Now store's mobile apps in Thailand have online banking and contactless payment options, among other possibilities. Due to these advancements, Thailand's e-commerce has seen an increase of 240% in online spending through mobile applications. As mobile apps bring more profits to e-commerce store owners, your business app must be unique, providing an exceptional experience to your customers.
Therefore, the best way to determine whether your mobile is user-friendly or not is by conducting A/B testing.
Build you online store with Zaapi!
What Is A/B Testing?
A/B testing, also called split testing, is randomized experimentation and a part of user experience research methodology. During A/B testing, two different versions of a web page or an app are shown to visitors. For example, you design two different versions of a mobile app, and some customers use the first version while others use the second version for a specified period. Both versions' business metrics are compared at the end of the experiment to determine which one drives more successful results.
This way, you design your user-friendly mobile app to attract attention and boost sales.
The Importance of A/B Testing for Mobile App Design
A/B testing is vital for multiple reasons such as customer retention, increased sales, and better customer experience. It helps business owners elevate the shopping experience of their customers. Even if you already have a mobile app for your online store, you should still test the app version to check if it is preferable for customers or not. As every store is launching a mobile app with new and advanced versions, your mobile version loses its appeal because it is old and outdated. Therefore, to ensure your customers don't switch to your competitor's mobile app, you need to conduct A/B testing for a minimum of one week.
The Benefits of A/B Testing for Mobile App Design
One of the reasons A/B testing is essential for mobile app designing in 2022 is because it has various benefits. Please have a look at them for yourself.
Boost Sales
Thailand is the home of almost 37 million online shoppers, and every online shopper spends an average of 243.17 US dollars annually. It is a challenge to entice these people and turn them into your store's loyal customers. If your mobile application is not compatible with audience needs, you lose customers, automatically lowering your sales rates. However, experimenting with A/B testing helps you choose the right screen layouts that boost conversions. Sometimes, changing a phrase or a button color is responsible for pushing sales numbers on the rise.
Analyze Useful Engagement Metrics
In addition to learning which features are user-friendly, you can also figure out your store's peak hours. It is easier to find which messages or notifications from your mobile app have a higher click-through rate with metrics and analytics. Then you make it the focus of your campaign and bring more customers to your store.
Elevate User Experience
User experience is the backbone of shopping. It doesn't matter if you have a retail store or an online store. You have to provide top class experience to your customers that they return to your store. However, it is impossible to find what your customers want without experimenting. A/B testing helps you determine what part of your mobile app is not appealing to your customer. This way, you can change them according to your customers' liking and keep them attached to your platform.
Make Better Upgrades
You need to upgrade your mobile app to keep it free of bugs and glitches. Moreover, you need to introduce new features overtime to stay on top of your competitors. Before finalizing app upgrades, conduct A/B testing. Then implement those upgrades in your online store's mobile application. Create two versions of every update to determine which one creates better audience engagement and conversion rates.
Understand User's Point of View
As a business owner or a mobile app developer, putting yourself in the users' shoes can be challenging. Due to this reason, some app developers don't design user-friendly apps. However, A/B testing allows you to envision your customer's thoughts and experience from your online store application. When you develop your app from users' point of view, you have a high chance of creating a user-friendly mobile app.
Learn Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior shows people's motivations and reasons behind making a purchase. It illustrates which emotions and needs fuel the buying behavior in the target population. Every target population has different consumer behavior, and it is essential to learn that to ensure your store makes high profits. You design the mobile app according to your existing and potential customers' consumer behavior.
For example, the products that your customers are more attracted to are placed on the main page of your app. So, whenever your customers open the app, this part acts as the beacon, leading them to buy your products.
No Waste of Resources
If you are a startup, small business, or your company is in the initial years, you cannot afford to waste any resources. Especially since the pandemic, up to 20,000 small and medium-sized businesses have closed. Moreover, now Bank of Thailand has also placed many loan restrictions, which means it is challenging to procure financial aid if you run low on resources.
A/B testing ensures that you don't use your resources on the things that yield low or no results. You can implement changes step by step to check whether they are better for your conversion rates or not. This way, you only stick with the beneficial changes for your business and use resources for them.
Achieve Business Objectives
Your store's mobile app is essential in reaching your business objectives. However, it should be designed to retain customers by providing them with a good experience. When customers have a good shopping experience with your mobile application, they are more likely to return, crucial to acquiring business objectives.
Types of A/B Testing for Mobile Apps
There are two types of A/B testing for mobile applications. Even though they both operate on the same principle of comparing two different variables, they are used for various purposes.
- In-App A/B Testing
Mobile developers use in-app A/B testing to track how an app's UX and UI changes impact the metrics and overall app performance. The main features of this type of A/B testing are app session time, app engagement level, customer retention rate, customer time spent on the app, and loan-to-value (LTV) assessment.
These metrics are derived from specific parts and features of your app. Therefore, you can pinpoint which features and buttons are good to keep for the long term and which ones should be changed.
- A/B Testing for Marketing Campaigns
This A/B testing type mainly focuses on driving successful results from marketing campaigns. App marketers use this type of A/B testing to optimize conversion rates, drive new installations, and successfully retarget customers. You can also launch marketing campaigns through the mobile app by sending push notifications and flash sales only live on the mobile app store.
Using this A/B testing type, you can find out which ads and push notifications are better for acquiring long-term customers and convince your customers to return to your store.
The Correct Way of Conducting A/B Testing
A/B testing is an experiment that means you need to follow all the steps carefully and correctly. Otherwise, your results will not be consistent and reliable. Therefore, you need to follow all the steps respectively, and those steps are:
Develop A Hypothesis
Research and analyze the already available data on the changes you want to implement. Then create a hypothesis according to the research. Creating a hypothesis is vital as you won't test different variables without it. Moreover, it is impossible to know the connection between two variables without this theory.
Aims
Create a checklist of all the things you want to learn from the A/B testing. For example, your target audience and app feature you are testing. Additionally, plan whether you will implement the changes if you do or do not achieve the desired results.
Select Audience
Decide the target audience of your A/B testing. This must be based on the target audience of your e-commerce store. Only target people interested in buying your products or in need of your product.
Analysis
Choose which analysis you will apply to interpret the collected data. After you have the results, use them to learn whether your hypothesis is proven or not.
Implement Changes
To avoid inconclusive results, keep an eye on the metrics during the experiment and change the things that are not bringing the desired result. If you have the desired results, implement them and expose them to a bigger audience. If you don't have conclusive results, use the collected data to update your hypothesis and repeat the test.
Wrapping Up
Mobile apps for e-commerce stores are necessary to keep your customers on your platform. However, multiple elements ensure if your customers are having a good experience with your mobile app or not. If you want to check this, A/B testing is the right choice as it helps you determine which feature of your app are successful and which needs to change.
If you don't have a mobile app for your e-commerce store, connect with Zaapi to build your own website and reach out to your customers.
