Driving 20% More Purchases Than Mobile Web

Quidco, the UK's number one cashback website and app, has run a very successful business for years. However, on mobile devices, it hasn't always been able to provide rewards for some of the leading brands. To solve this challenge, two years ago, Button and Quidco partnered to advance beyond the mobile web, and begin to tap into the app economy–the fastest growing category of consumer spending. Flash forward to March 2017, Quidco updated its business strategy to not only be mobile-first, but ensure apps are a top strategic priority. It's no surprise given almost half of UK ecommerce transactions take place on mobile devices. Quidco was faced with an opportunity and a challenge–they were finally ready expand their mobile commerce offerings and open up mobile app rewards to their 7 million members, but how? Luckily, Button was there to help.

With one simple integration, Quidco was able to unlock millions in new mobile commerce revenue. Button's technology stack handles the end-to-end partnership, including accurate app store attribution, a full loyalty & cash back publishing and reconciliation system, and zero-miss affiliation technology. Most recently announcing Purchase Path which was built to give affiliate publishers a simple, scalable integration for their existing links to optimize their mobile experiences. Button was the obvious choice to enable Quidco's mobile commerce program— as we held ourselves to the same instant feedback, high customer service standard that they do.

Apps Users are the Most Important

The average user spends 16x more time on the top apps than they do on the top mobile websites, which contributes to the fact that the app economy is the fastest growing component of the digital world (70% year-over-year, opposed to mobile webs' 40% growth rate.) Since apps are by default on the device with payment credentials after download, it's no surprise that users are more apt to spend more time and more money. For retail in general, Criteo has found that app users generate:


As we'll see with Quidco, these numbers get even better when you truly make an investment to focus on app users.

A Journey to Success in Apps

Despite the massive opportunity of app users, they are not easy to acquire–especially in the affiliate channel. Affiliate links historically didn't work in mobile–with broken pixels and limited app tracking capabilities. As a result, industry averages experienced up to 40% of orders lost, so although Quidco recognized a need to focus on app users, there were technology roadblocks.

Recently, Button announced Purchase Path, which was built to give affiliate publishers a simple integration for their existing links to optimize their mobile experiences— giving their users the best path to purchase every time and driving increases in revenue. Purchase Path, reliably and quickly, gives publishers with mobile traffic the best performing mobile solution in affiliate— and no heavy lifting is required of publishers. With one simple integration Button optimizes links and user flows with more than 50 of the world's largest retailers ensuring commissions are paid, traffic converts, and a near-zero missed order rate.

Quidco was quick to take advantage of this. After implementing Purchase Path and optimizing for app users, Quidco drove 8x more in consumer spending on the Button platform versus their old integrations.


Results to Date:

Since doubling down on mobile app users, Quidco has not only seen a significant spending and revenue jump, but when comparing app to mobile web:

Quidco App Performance Compared to Mobile Web

Experiment Proves Incrementality

Quidco wanted to see if their most loyal members used the app, or if using the app made users more loyal. Since Button makes it easy to do A/B experiments and has incrementality testing as a dedicated service, we set out to do just that. By examining users whose first click was from the app and compare the behavior to users who have never made a click from the app, you begin to develop a better understanding of the value of app users.

It turns out, an investment in app users is worth it— in fact, users who exclusively used Quidco online showed a 20% increase in purchases after downloading the app, proving that it is in fact the app which makes users more loyal.

Not only do app users transact more frequently, but the basket sizes are also higher:


The numbers don't lie— Quidco's decision to focus on apps, powered by Button's Purchase Path, has paid off driving millions in incremental GMV.

What does the future hold?

With Purchase Path as a scalable mobile solution, Quidco will continue to expand its partnerships with leading mobile merchants and continue testing for app optimizations. Button's Growing Marketplace allows publisher partners like Quidco to easily enable dozens of new merchants and earn even more revenue.

Would you like to capture the share you are missing of the billions of dollars of mobile app purchases? Check out our website, then email Button's Director of Partnerships, Rob Berrisford, Rob@usebutton.com to learn more!