Consumers can often seem fairly fickle in terms of the apps they use regularly, but U.S. retention actually improved last year to where 42 percent came back to an app 11 or more times, according to new numbers Localytics. The company's most recent study also looked at the number of people who abandoned an app after the first try.
In other findings from the firm's report:
- While U.S. retention went up by 3 percent, user abandonment rates remained at 19 percent, the same as last year.
- On a global level, app retention rates have fallen to 34 percent from 39 percent in 2014. Even worse, a quarter of consumers worldwide abandon their apps right away, up from 20 percent.
- China stood out as a particularly challenging market, where retention fell to 18 percent from 27 percent. Thirty-seven percent of Chinese mobile users abandon their apps immediately.
- Those little reminders on your home screen may be working: Localytics found that 50 percent of users in North America who receive push notifications from an app come back to it.
"The hard work and time spent optimizing their apps and personalizing their marketing through tools like push messaging is making an impact," Localytics said. "Further focus on key tactics like the onboarding experience, optimizing for global audiences and encouraging push notification opt-in should continue to move the needle forward to a place where over half of all downloads become active users."
As always, developers should bear in mind that Localytics is in the push messaging business as well as marketing analytics.
On the other hand, there are some interesting observations in the study that are worth thinking about for developers who are considering expanding into foreign markets. China, according to Localytics, may be influenced by the domination of a few giants like WeChat, while average session lengths tend to be a lot different than what we experience in North America.
In the U.S., at least, the ongoing challenge of discoverability may be at least partially offset by a growing number of consumers who give an app a chance once they actually decide to install it.
For more:
- see the full report here
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