The app ecosystem is growing at an unprecedented rate. That brings higher levels of competition & more demand from app users to provide a stellar customer experience. Users expect well-performing apps or games with new features released frequently which accurately reflect their needs.
According to Statistica, there were 218 billion app downloads in 2020, a massive jump from 140 billion in 2016. A similar story with revenues earned from the app stores: global spending reached $112 billion in 2020 for the first half of 2021.
This analysis draws on external, original, internal data & analyzes the state of apps online reputation across categories & stores.
- But how much time & resource have
companies put into ratings & reviews?
- How effective are their review
management processes?
- What may be tarnishing their online reputation and
encouraging negative reviews?
How can these issues be remedied?
1.
Users who leave reviews on the
App Store are more critical — with an average rating by review at 3.4 — than
those on the Play Store, with a 4.1 average.
2.
Entertainment is the
worst-rated category on average on the App Store. Due to regular screen
glitches & bugs, an unpopular removal of a favorite TV or movie, or advert
fatigue.
3.
Shopping apps are lacking in
review management across both stores. With evidence from our data, they have
the lowest response rate recorded at 4% and take about a week to respond.
4.
Some categories will have a
chunk of reviews influenced by extraneous variable situations out of their
control & nothing to do with the app itself. But they aren't performing
sufficient damage control through customer support.
5. Gaming has satisfied users who
leave high star ratings, but most reviews are missed without responses. It
indicates a disconnect between developers & users, which reflects the
infamous high churn rates of the industry.
6.
Auto & Vehicles is the
worst-rated category on average for the Google Play Store. But apps in this
category get quite a lot of reviews on average, which could mean that users are
trying to point out what's causing their dissatisfaction.
7.
Finance is a highly competitive
category, with fintech & banking burgeoning on the mobile market. There are
many new players as well as migrating enterprises in the finance category and
they don't yet have the market reach of other more well-established app
categories. But as it grows, so too will the competition and the fight for
users attention get more fierce
8. There is a huge difference
between News and Magazines & Newspapers in terms of ratings on the App
Store. This could be due to ideological fanatics or fake news bots flaming news
apps in the review section.
9. Only 1 out of 10 reviews get a response on the Play Store.
Our research only consists of data on the top charts (the top-50 apps in H1 2020) in the U.S. market. Some insights may change in the future when we provide new research on other regions or the global market.
Response rates & how long it takes to get back to users across the app stores
According to app follow data, apps on the App Store have a response rate of 22%, more than double that of Google Play, at 10%. This is most likely because apps on Google Play Store often get many more reviews than their App Store counterparts.
From app follow data, it seems that
companies aren't doing enough to provide effective support or build trusting
relationships with customers. This should a concern for user acquisition &
retention, since:
- 94% of consumers go through reviews & ratings before deciding about a good or service
- 70% of Apple users first read at least one app review before installing an app
- Companies that provide customer support to their users have a 30% higher retention rate than those which don't.
How does review management differ across the board in Google Play?
·
The four categories with the
lowest average ratings by reviews:
o Entertainment: 3.5
o Lifestyle: 3.4
o Dating: 3.5
o Food & Drink: 3.5
·
The four categories with the
highest average ratings by reviews:
o Events: 4.6
o Video Players: 4.4
o Beauty: 4.5
o Shopping: 4.4
·
The four categories with the
highest average ratings by stars:
o Parenting: 4.7
o Events: 4.6
o Shopping: 4.6
o Beauty: 4.5
·
The four categories with the
lowest average ratings by stars:
o Libraries and Demo: 3.3
o Auto & Vehicles: 3.4
o Lifestyle: 4.0
o Dating: 4.0
·
The four categories with the
highest average response rate:
o Sports: 42%
o Comics: 37%
o Medical: 37%
o Lifestyle: 35%
·
The four categories with the
lowest average response rate:
o Gaming (All): 8%
o Video Players: 9%
o Shopping: 13%
o Family (All): 16%
·
The four categories that are
the quickest to respond to reviews on average (by days):
o Events: 0.3 days
o Entertainment: 0.4 days
o Video Players: 0.4 days
o Photography: 0.4 days
·
The four categories that are
the slowest to respond to review on average (by days):
o Libraries & Demos: 2.8 days
o Comics: 2.6 days
o Gaming (All): 2.1 days
o House & Home: 2.0 days
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