Table of Content
Executive summary
Survey responses from 500 US mobile app shoppers tell a clear story: App users are the most valuable customers a retail brand can win, and the brands that win the peak acquire them early and keep them engaged through it. Our research shows that:
- The customers brands acquire through their mobile app are among the most valuable
- Mobile user acquisition is one of the best ways of capturing market share from competitors and the start of the relationship
- An install starts the relationship. App shoppers buy weekly, so re-engagement is where the base pays out
- The ideal time to start building a mobile user base for the holiday surge is early fall
Brands and agencies that build an in-app audience by the end of Q3 and retarget it into the holiday peak are able to win on conversion, loyalty, and cost.
The time to prepare is early fall, not in a reactive Q4 sprint.
Meet the experts
The perspectives in this report come from the experts driving growth at some of the most ambitious brands in mobile commerce. We thank every contributor for sharing what's working.
Methodology
Install cost seasonality figures are drawn from published mobile user acquisition benchmarks and are not part of this survey.
PART 1
Why In-App? Why Now?
Key insights from 500 US mobile app shoppers.
Not all customers are created equal, and the data is clear: the ones brands acquire through their mobile app are among the most valuable they can win.
Once brands acquire them, shoppers default to their mobile app over any other channel. When it comes to mobile web or in-app, seven in ten respondents said they buy in the app over the mobile site. Over half open a brand's own app before they search anywhere else. Among these shoppers, brand and retailer apps now edge out Amazon as the primary purchase channel.
Brands that spend on installs win these shoppers. Nearly three quarters installed a retailer's app because an ad asked. Two in three left one retailer for another over a better app. Once they are in, they stay reachable: most engage with loyalty programs in the app, and four in five will trade preferences for value.
Most importantly, shoppers make holiday purchase decisions early: More than half respond to holiday ads as soon as early fall, giving early movers a decided advantage.
Most mobile customers default to buying through your app
Ask a shopper how a purchase starts, and half of them name the same place: your app. 52% open the brand's own app first, which is nearly three times the number who start with a search engine, and five times the number who open Amazon.
The journey you spend media dollars shaping does not begin on a results page. It begins on a home screen. If your brand is not there, the journey starts somewhere you do not control.
Key Takeaway
If they have a brand’s app, customers are more likely to open it to make a purchase than any other channel.
Post install, mobile shoppers prefer apps over websites
Put an app and a mobile site side by side for a shopper and it’s not even close: 71% prefer to buy in the app while just 19% would choose the mobile website.
The app wins because it’s faster, it remembers them, and it removes the steps that kill conversion. Give shoppers the choice and they tell you where the sale should happen.
Key Takeaway
Shoppers make more purchases in-app than on mobile web.
Tip
When shoppers buy weekly, re-engagement is a matter of days. Most retail calendars are still built by the quarter, so a buyer who's back in market on day seven hears nothing until the next campaign goes out. Worth checking what yours assumes before Q4.
Most mobile app shoppers make weekly purchases
App-based shopping is not an occasional behavior for mobile users. 60% of mobile app shoppers buy at least weekly. 88% buy at least a few times a month.
That cadence should set your re-engagement clock. Retailers that wait weeks or even a full quarter to re-engage a buyer could be missing out on a sale that would have happened after seven days.
Match your cadence to the shopper's real cycle and retargeting campaigns become a top revenue lever.
Key Takeaway
Retention and retargeting campaigns map naturally and effectively to organic customer purchasing habits.
From RZR
Re-engagement works when it runs on the shopper's cycle, not the fiscal quarter.
Mobile users are more likely to purchase through your app than Amazon
Among mobile app shoppers, branded apps edge out Amazon as the primary purchase channel 40% to 38%.
For every brand that has written off direct because "everyone buys on the marketplace," it’s time to reconsider your strategy.
Your app is the one channel where the marketplace does not set the rules, take the margin, or own the customer. Invest appropriately.
Key Takeaway
Your app can win the primary-channel battle, and it’s the only channel where you keep the margin and the customer.
Better mobile apps capture market share
App quality is not a UX nicety. It is a market-share lever. Two in three shoppers have picked one retailer over another because its app was better.
Read from the other side, that means that a competitor with a faster, smoother app, as well as a well-tuned UA campaign, could be actively taking customers you already paid to acquire.
That means strong mobile UA isn’t just about growth: It’s table-stakes for defending your customer base.
Key Takeaway
Quality apps paired with effective campaigns are major market share movers.
Website UX friction costs revenue
Every second of mobile web friction has a price. 66% of shoppers have abandoned a purchase because a mobile site was slow or hard to use.
In mobile commerce, purchase journeys are short.
The name of the game for every retail brand is getting to payment as quickly as possible. The app exists to delete the friction: stored payment, stored address, one thumb to checkout.
Key Takeaway
Two out of three shoppers will abandon a purchase over a slow or clunky mobile web experience.
Three out of four mobile app shoppers come from ads
The app audience you want does not appear on its own, but you can build it, and in-app advertising is a proven, repeatable way to do it. According to survey results, 73% of shoppers have downloaded a retailer's app because of an ad.
The insight is simple but crucial: Install campaigns work. One craft rule from the field: put the offer in the creative itself. If there is a coupon code, it belongs in the ad and not behind a click.
Key Takeaway
Three out of four mobile app shoppers have installed an app because of an ad they saw.
Mobile app shoppers are most likely to convert on in-app ads
Well over half (57%) of all mobile app shoppers say that they’re most likely to take action on ads appearing inside mobile apps, including social media.
Attention may be multi-surface, but survey results make a strong argument for planning for a journey that starts in-app and finishes in-app.
Mobile campaigns can drive any desired outcome, not just installs, including: saving, carting, and wish-listing.
Key Takeaway
Shoppers report in-app ads are the most effective way of getting them to take action.
Mobile apps capture cross-screen interest
A product catches a shopper's eye on TV, and the phone comes out. What happens next is the whole game: 34% search in a browser, 30% open the brand's app, 14% scan a QR code.
The browser-first crowd is telling you something specific: some may already have the app and still search, but most of them likely don’t yet. That is not a lost impression, it’s a retargeting assignment. Follow the TV or streaming exposure with an install ad and connect the two screens to grow your base.
Key Takeaway
Retarget TV and streaming exposure with an install ad to create a second touchpoint that closes the loop.
From RZR
The TV moment and the install belong to the same campaign.
Mobile apps are where loyalty happens
Customer loyalty has a new home, and it’s your mobile app.
72% of shoppers in a retail loyalty program manage it mainly in the app and not by email or card. QSR historically led this shift and retail is following quickly.
This is also where two teams that rarely talk need each other. Growth fills the loyalty program; lifecycle works the audience growth built. Inside most brands those teams do not share a roadmap, and the app is where their goals converge. Connecting the two is a unique opportunity for growth and lifecycle marketers to deliver outsized results.
Key Takeaway
The majority of loyalty activations are taking place in your mobile app.
Mobile app shoppers volunteer data for value
Mobile app shoppers are highly open to value exchange mechanics: 79% of app shoppers are willing to share their preferences and purchase history in return for better deals and a smoother experience. Give them real value, and they will tell you what they want.
Note: This is willingness to share shopping preferences inside an app the shopper chose to install. It is not a claim about ATT, IDFA, or regulatory opt-in claim.
Key Takeaway
Four out of five mobile app shoppers will share their preferences and purchase history for better deals.
Speed, savings, and rewards pull purchases into your app
Only 3% of shoppers say nothing could make them buy direct instead of on a marketplace. Everyone else named a price: lower prices (66%), free or faster shipping (61%), loyalty rewards (50%), exclusive products (36%), easy returns (29%).
Marketplace apathy is real and many brands simply do not want to fight Amazon. But according to mobile app shoppers, they’re more than open to going direct. Price, shipping, and loyalty are the levers.
Key Takeaway
Offer more compelling incentives to draw customers into your app and away from major marketplaces.
Mobile holiday shopping starts in early fall
Ask shoppers when holiday advertising starts shaping what they buy, and the answer lands well before Black Friday. 76% of mobile app shoppers said that ads had started shaping their purchasing decisions by November.
A plan that starts spending at Black Friday and Cyber Monday week (BFCM) is bidding on decisions made six weeks earlier in the most expensive auction of the year. The brands that win the peak are already in-feed starting in September.
Key Takeaway
The window to start shaping demand opens in September, and marketers should plan accordingly.
Mobile customers prefer retail brand apps for holiday shopping
When the biggest shopping days of the year arrive, retail brand apps are the top choice for holiday shopping at 35%, ahead of mobile websites (24%) and marketplace apps (23%).
The peak pays out through the app, but only for brands who have already made their way onto the shopper's home screen.
You cannot install your way into BFCM in Q4. Establish your base early so that you can drive results when it counts.
Key Takeaway
Retail brand apps can lead the biggest shopping days of the year as long as you establish connections early.
SECTION 2
The Mobile Holiday Shopper Playbook
You cannot acquire and convert a cold user on Black Friday.
Successful brands win the holiday shopping peak before it starts. More than half of shoppers respond to holiday advertising by early fall, and the peak pays out through the app. The brands that win November are already on the home screen in September.
Proactivity wins the holidays: build the base before Q4 install costs climb, prioritize loyalty, and convert it at peak demand. Better still: The base you build does not expire in December. It is a more loyal, higher-engaging customer base that outlasts Q4.
PLAYBOOK · STEP 1
Build your base early
Mobile app shoppers are worth more
Looking at the 390 app shoppers that reported shopping primarily on either retail brand apps or marketplaces, responses showed that app-first shoppers are more engaged, more loyal, and easier to reach.
They open the brand's app first (78% vs 41%), run their loyalty in-app (84% vs 65%), prefer retail brand apps on the biggest sale days (56% vs 24%), and keep push notifications on (88% vs 73%).
Reachability is what makes the base worth building. Someone who has already installed and already bought is the most likely person to buy again, and three in five of them are back in-market inside a week.
Every install you win in September is a shopper who behaves exactly as you’d hope by November: making purchases weekly, and predisposed to buy direct at the peak.
Key Takeaway
An installed app user is a structurally more valuable customer, and budgets should reflect it.
Mobile beauty and fashion app shoppers lead the shift
Beauty and fashion shoppers are more willing to trade preferences for value, respond to holiday ads earlier, switch for a better app experience, and use retail brand apps at BFCM.
It’s a unique opportunity for growth marketers in those verticals to double-down and derive even greater returns over the holidays.
Key Takeaway
Beauty and fashion brands stand to gain the most from investing in-app.
PLAYBOOK · STEP 2
Funnel to loyalty
An install is the start of the relationship, not the end of it. The base you built in the late summer only pays off if those users come back, and loyalty is what brings them. Convert installs into members now, while the base is fresh, and you reach the peak with an audience that is loyal, understood, and yours.
PLAYBOOK · STEP 3
Sequence the calendar
to October 31
to November 25
to November 30
SECTION 3
Your Q4 Pre-Flight Checklist
Every item to complete before the end of Q3.
Take it with you
Every item above on one page, built to print, share, and work through with your team.
Before the window closes
Every item above is something you can start before the end of Q3. We can help with both halves: acquiring your base while install costs are still low, and pricing what you stand to lose from the users you already have.
Get in touch today or request a demo to see how RZR can grow your app.
Get in touchAbout RZR
RZR is the performance platform for brands that treat acquisition and retention as one system. Our models score, predict, and act across user acquisition, retargeting, and CTV. With four owned-and-operated data centers that process 6M+ queries per second, RZR turns signals into strategy and impressions into impact.
Trusted by brands across gaming, consumer, food and beverage, retail, and entertainment. Built on over a decade of performance data and backed by AI and ML experts and industry veterans across offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Tel Aviv, Bangalore, Beijing, Manila, and Seoul, RZR delivers retention-led growth intelligence: faster, sharper, and built for performance at scale.
