It’s been an exciting year for mobile applications, as the COVID-19 epidemic has resulted in extraordinary growth across a wide range of verticals and industries. Fintech applications were already seeing a substantial increase in popularity in most countries, and their popularity has increased even more this year as economies and user habits change to accommodate lockdowns and social distance limitations.
The latest Mobile Finance Report, published in collaboration with mobile market intelligence specialists Apptopia, delves into the realm of mobile fintech, examining global and important regional trends across banking, payment, and investing applications. As well as best practices for finance apps and insights from finance industry professionals across a variety of countries, the study includes an extensive examination of finance app performance and how the epidemic has pushed digital banking adoption. The report is available for purchase here.
More and More People Use Finance Apps
Financial services firms must adapt to give customers more via their applications, according to a recent article from Mobile Marketer, which discussed the report’s results on mobile banking. To cope with the health issue, several financial institutions and investment firms either closed temporary locations or mandated that staff work from home. Meanwhile, many of their clients opted to remain at home to avoid face-to-face interaction. Because of these abrupt shifts in behavior, mobile banking applications are becoming more essential.
Investing apps saw a significant rise in activity in 2020, with an adoption of 88 percent and surpassed casual and hyper-casual games, according to the report. One of the main reasons behind this is that the popularity of mobile trading has increased significantly, as people stayed at homes and were seeking additional ways to make money. Furthermore, when lockdowns went into place and customers switched to their banking and payment applications more often, the cost of recruiting these new users dropped by 77% between February and May (a cost that had been increasing before 2020).
In addition to downloads and use statistics, time spent in-app is also on the rise in the personal financial ecosystem. More time spent within the app indicates that users are more interested in tracking their wealth growth and investments, as well as learning about new financial services that may aid in long-term capital gains. This is good news.
There has been a 63% rise in the amount of time people spend on personal financial applications each week, making it the most popular time of the epidemic. Even when compared to sectors like retail and e-commerce applications (65 minutes), entertainment apps (67 minutes), and music apps (70 minutes), these figures hold up (80 minutes).
Aside from people’s newfound interest in improving financial results, a greater amount of time spent in-app may be traced back to the rise in smartphone use among captive audiences during the pandemic, which increased by 10 minutes per day. There has been a 102% rise in the average use duration among Gen Z and millenials, according to research.
While it is undeniable that the pandemic was a driving force behind the uptake of personal financial applications, this change in behavior and attitude had been developing for many years prior to the outbreak. As the number of people using digital tools to monitor their spending, manage their money and increase their assets grows, the potential for growth in the personal finance sector seems limitless.
Targeting the Users
If consumers don’t stay around and keep using the applications, gaining a large number of them is of little value to fintech firms. In his piece on retention rates, Ian Kar, a financial sector thought leader and publisher of the industry magazine Fintech Today, looked at data from Adjust’s study.
In the latter stages of fintech businesses, customer loyalty is becoming an important measure. A company’s lengthy yet high payback over time balances historically growing acquisition costs such that these firms are profitable per-user over time due to sticky customers staying on the platform for years and increasing their engagement over time. Making a banking app that people want to use for years is a difficult aspect of the problem to tackle.
In all fintech sub-verticals, consumers’ preferences are shifting toward mobile devices, and businesses are responding by expanding their product lines to include new features and services that eliminate the need for in-person contacts. Fintech is a sector to keep an eye on because of the rise in digital usage and the possibility of unexplored markets.
Building client trust is the most critical step in the development of a personal financial app. Why should a user select your personal financial services over the many others on the market? Customer confidence in your brand has a lot to do with things like the simplicity of use and an overall smooth experience.
Personal finance brands may now build trust in a variety of methods, including via brand perception campaigns and the generation of social proof, such as through client testimonials, referral programs, or word-of-mouth from influential individuals in the industry. It doesn’t matter what you do, always keep in mind that running ads to build your brand’s trustworthiness isn’t enough.