How Tao Shopping optimized user acquisition with in-app events

Challenge

During its launch phase, the Tao Shopping app encountered several challenges:

• High acquisition costs with limited impact from traditional promotional methods: Conventional advertising required significant resources, making user growth increasingly difficult.
• Challenges in precise user targeting: Identifying effective communication channels and engagement strategies to connect with local users proved to be a complex task.

Solution

To support the launch of the Tao Shopping app, the team complemented their conventional promotional efforts with a brand awareness strategy in the App Store. They identified in-app events as a great opportunity to engage with local users visiting the App Store.

In-app events allow developers to highlight special activities—such as exclusive offers, competitions, or limited-time promotions—directly within the App Store, providing users with an immersive preview experience.

Tao launched multiple in-app events to attract and engage users, achieving impressive results.

In-app event: Exclusive for new users

Tao introduced special promotions, such as instant discounts on first purchases and no-threshold coupons, to incentivize downloads and new user registrations. The event secured featurings on the App Store, significantly increasing exposure and attracting a surge of new users.

Tao Shopping In-app event Japanese App Store – November 2024

In-app event: Pet products special

To capture the interest of pet lovers, Tao designed an event featuring cute pet imagery and compelling discounts like “50 off for purchases over 199” and “half price for the second item”. The event gained multiple featurings on the Today tab, driving a significant increase in new app downloads and pet product sales.

Tao Shopping In-app event Japanese App Store – November 2024

Results

The implementation of In-app events led to remarkable improvements in app visibility and user acquisition:

• After the in-app event was featured on the Japanese App Store, Tao Shopping experienced a 10x increase in downloads, resulting in increased exposure and organic traffic
• On December 14 and December 16, the app was listed in the Top Free Apps collection.
• On December 14, as a result of the influx in downloads, the app reached the second position in the top charts of the shopping category.

Download increase in the Japanese App Store following two featurings 

By strategically leveraging in-app events, Tao Shopping App successfully optimized its user acquisition strategy, reduced marketing costs, and significantly improved conversion rates. The approach proved to be an effective, scalable method to drive engagement and growth in the highly competitive e-commerce space.