What Are In-App Purchases & How Can Mobile Apps Benefit from Them?
Mobile apps drive revenue figures that sometimes seem unreal. There are many ways mobile apps can make money, and one of the ways is in-app purchases. Let’s find out what these are and how they actually work.
Among many famous strategies, in-app purchases are one of the most famous and prevalent monetization strategies that make a mobile application profitable. Every smartphone user has an average of 35 mobile apps or more installed, and a lot of people buy using in-app features.
Everything you buy or order through features and functions inside an application is termed an in-app purchase. This can be anything, including goods, services, virtual items, game passes and assets, and more. It is one of the strategies that app developers and owners leverage to publish the mobile app for free and generate revenue later.
These in-app purchases can be made through various payment options. The most popular payment options for in-app purchases include debit and credit cards, digital payments, and more.
Most apps with in-app purchases are offered for free. Once the users have installed the application, they are then shown upgrade options and items that can make their app’s experience even better. This monetization strategy is especially famous in mobile games, with many of the games offering in-app purchases.
There are multiple types of in-app purchase strategies employed by multiple applications. These mobile applications often have varying requirements, and for that, they implement in-purchasing strategies that suit them the best.
Types of in-app purchases
Let’s swiftly have a look at some of the most common strategies that help mobile apps make profits throughout the year.
· Non-Renewable In-App Purchases
Non-renewable in-app purchases are the ones that you buy once but cannot be renewed until you agree to renew them. These are mostly subscriptions that you can review at the end of every tenure and can be updated manually.
All the non-renewable in-app purchases are configured for subscriptions that are expensive and charge big amounts. Most app developers in Los Angeles suggest appreneurs let users renew their subscriptions on their own after a specific period of time to avoid any financial, or banking-related issues.
· Auto-Renewable In-App Purchases
Auto-renewable in-app purchases are those that get charged at the end of every tenure without any intimation or manual request. These are the subscriptions that usually aren’t hefty and can be easily secured whenever they want to.
This type of in-app purchasing excludes the need for manual intervention, and one can easily continue with auto-renewable payments any time they want.
· Non-Consumable In-App Purchases
Non-consumable in-app purchases are the ones that the user can buy once and use for the rest of the time. These can include any guns and cars that users can buy in a game virtually and continue to use in the future.
These items cannot be consumed and are only bought once. This strategy has a vast implementation, especially in the mobile gaming sector. It helps in driving significant revenue for the application and encourages users to spend.
· Consumable In-App Purchases
Consumable in-app purchases are those that are provided to the users after some time because these usually end. This can be of multiple types. For example, these can be any loyalty points in an ecommerce application, or these can be an energy recharge in a gaming app.
Once a user pays for the item, they can continue to use it until it ends or gets consumed. Consumable in-app purchases are getting increasingly popular in many types of applications around the globe. However, the most famous application is mobile games.
Factors to consider when leveraging in-app purchases
There are certain things to be done when implementing in-app purchases in your mobile application. These can negatively or positively impact the whole scenario, and that is why you need to be careful about these. Let’s quickly have a look at some of the most important factors that must not be missed.
· Don’t Be Salesy
There is absolutely no doubt that mobile apps can generate significant revenue through in-app purchases. However, mobile applications don’t have to be too pushy on sales. Sales just have to happen in a subtle manner.
Whenever you act salesy, the users may feel frustrated or burdened, and that is why you must never overlook this fact. Make sales but never force your users to go for in-app purchases. Never make in-app purchases necessary.
· Keep UI Exquisite
Another aspect that must be kept flawless throughout the implementation of in-app purchases is the exquisiteness of the user interface. Users do want to go for purchases but never at the stake of the poor user interface. The way you implement this process in your app can be highly important.
The user interface and user experience of the mobile application hold a special place in the success of mobile applications. Note that implementing in-app purchases is more than implementing a feature or two. So, adding them can substantially affect your budget. We recommend appreneurs opt for mobile app development in Dallas to manage within their planned cost of app development.
· Be Completely Relevant
Another main factor that plays an important role in seamlessly implementing in-app purchases is relevancy. All the items put on purchase have to be completely relevant. For example, you cannot sell cakes and confectionaries to the players of a car racing game.
Similarly, if you don’t have a specifically targeted audience, you can offer items that are common among all and that everyone might buy. Then, through research and a data-driven approach, you can devise your strategy to improve your in-app sales.
Wrapping Up
Of many monetization strategies available for mobile apps, in-app purchases are just one model that’s helping modern apps yield better financial benefits than planned.
