In-App Engagement Statistics & Tips for Food & Drinks Apps

In the early 2000s, the idea of food and drink apps may be frowned at, but today the story is different, especially with the emergence of the COVID-10 pandemic. Now, food and drink apps are not just popular but also lucrative.

The issue now isn’t about the market for food and drink apps but retaining the engagement of the users of food and drink apps.

Statistics from Google Data show that searches for branded restaurant apps that enable things like reservations, tracking orders, and discounts have grown by 120% year-over-year. This means that people are frequently in search of apps in the food and drink niche.

This is also evident in the Google data that shows that searches for “grocery,” “pharmacy,” and “photo” apps related to specific retailers have grown 140% year-over-year.

The users of food and drink apps are unique, so it is pertinent to understand their behavior to ensure the success and growth of your app. Feedbacks from the customers are useful to know the performance of your food and drink app. However, it is more efficient to take statistics from industry benchmarks to increase in-app engagement of your food and drink app.

So, in this article, we’ll share relevant statistics from industry benchmarks as well as tips that would help you increase in-app engagement of your food and drink app.

Industry Benchmarks

Industry benchmarks represent the majority of customers in a niche, which makes statistics from it more valuable than feedback from vocal customers who care to drop feedback on your app. It is the largest possible base of your customers from which you can get truly actionable and comprehensive feedback to increase your food and drink apps in-app engagement.

Industry benchmark statistics covering mobile customer sentiment, mobile retention and loyalty, and app ratings and reviews are data you want to pay attention to.

1.Mobile Customer Sentiment

Data from Apptentive shows that the average Food and Drink app’s New or Repeat Fans for 2020 stands at 56% for iOS and 61% for Android. This falls slightly below the general average of 58% for iOS and 65% for Android. For New or Repeat Risks, the stat stands at 34% for both iOS and Android, and this is higher than the general average of 32% for iOS and 28% for Android. Fans Shifted to Risks data is 5% for iOS and 2% for Android, close to the general average of 5% for iOS 3% for Android. Risks Shifted to Fans data meet the general average, however. The general average is 5% for iOS and 3% for Android.

The key takeaway from the mobile customer sentiment statistics is that you have to do so much to encourage customer love and brand loyalty. This is because the food and drink category is highly competitive – there’s always another food delivery app waiting to cart away with your customer once your app fails to engage them.

2. Mobile Retention and Loyalty

On retention of customers in food and drink apps, 37% of new customers were retained in 2020 against the general average of 43%.

Source: Apptentive 2020 Mobile App Engagement Benchmark Report

A major reason for the lower retention rate is the fierce competition in the food and drink category. You would need to employ incentives like flash deals to lure customers into placing repeat orders. But this kind of in-app engagement is only effective in the short-term.

3. App Ratings and Reviews

Ratings and reviews go a long way to show how the customers are engaging with the app. The industry benchmark for food and drink apps reveals that 78% of the average iOS Food and Drink app’s ratings were five-stars while 7% were one-star. On the other hand, Android apps in the same category had 56% of their ratings as five-stars and 23% as one-star.

On the side of reviews, iOS apps in the Food and Drink category had an average of 1,841 reviews, while Android apps had an average of 10,413. This shows that food and drink apps are more transactional than apps in other categories. Customers in the food and drink apps are quick to notice small in-app changes than customers in other apps.

Tips for In-App Engagement

The statistics above call for action. To increase engagement, you can take into consideration the following tips:

#1. Improve Customer Loyalty

Customer loyalty improves retention rate, and it is as essential in the mobile world as it is for brick-and-mortar businesses. Reward programs are a sure way to increase customer retention, which is why the Starbucks app allows users to order ahead and skip the line. This gives the customer a sense of exclusivity and superiority, making them repeat orders with the app.

#2. Offer In-App Coupons

Coupons never go out of fashion, especially for quick-service restaurants (QSRs). To drive sales, providing discounts is very helpful. Coupons work the same way, creating scarcity and a sense of urgency that makes the customer purchase more at a certain time. McDonald’s incorporated this in their mobile app when they provided free French fries on Fridays to customers who ordered food items of at least $1 through the mobile app. This offer was limited to the first 50 people.

#3. Improve Customer Experience

The key to increasing in-app engagement of food and drink apps is the user experience. You have to ensure that your app not only works seamlessly but constantly updates with the latest innovation in the mobile ordering system. Jimmy John’s is an example to emulate. They keep the expectations of their customers the same across all channels such that the order you make through the mobile app gets to you at the same time interval it takes other channels. Plus, the quality of their food is always the same!

With Storyly, you can create personalized stories for your users. Delivering a seamless, personalized customer experience with relevant messaging and offerings is critical for improving customer experience. Contact us to learn more about Storyly.

#4. Focus to Get Five-Star Ratings & Feedback from Users

It is not easy to maintain five-star ratings for food and drinks apps because of the category’s competitive nature. Customers can quickly switch to another app with better offerings and drop you a low rating or negative review. So, you must listen deeply to grieving customers and solve their problems before they leave a negative comment. This also says that you continuously improve your app and services to give you a competitive edge over others.

To sum up, it is more efficient to take statistics from industry benchmarks to increase your food and drink app’s in-app engagement. In this article, we shared relevant statistics from industry benchmarks and tips that would help you increase in-app engagement of your food and drink app. To learn more about app engagement, you can read “App Engagement Guide“.

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