DevChat: Developer Gymondo shares how they used Amazon Fire TV to grow their app internationally
The Gymondo home workouts app combines personalized workout programs and healthy recipes based on your dietary needs to support your wellness goals. We sat down with the developer to learn more about why it was important to them to publish it on Amazon Fire TV.
Why have you initially decided to bring the Gymondo app to Fire TV?
When we launched Gymondo on Fire TV in 2016, we noticed few apps at the time that provided a well-rounded fitness service to customers. We saw an opportunity to fill that gap. Fire TV had started to become very popular in Germany and we observed a lot of product visibility and awareness rising with customers in Germany. We also acknowledged from our own research that customers were demanding more workout options on TV, and that they perceive TV as the most convenient device to consume online fitness content. That naturally lent itself to the opportunity of leveraging Fire TV in our distribution strategy, and also offered a valuable opportunity to offer another avenue for existing customers to access our content, and to acquire new users.
What are some of the key successes you have observed since launching the app on Fire TV?
There have been a number of success stories on Fire TV since launching our app. Some of the most noteworthy ones we would like to highlight:
- Number of users opening the app have quadrupled (Q1 2019 vs. Q1 2020).
- Significant increase in overall download numbers of the app.
- 20% increase in number of 5star ratings on Amazon (May 2020).
- Number of new registrations increased by 50% YOY (2018 vs. 2019), transforming strategy from retention to acquisition.
- Through Fire TV we were able to increase our international footprint in new international markets outside of Germany which include: Great Britain, USA, Canada Australia, Spain, France and Italy.
What makes your app unique in driving value for Fire TV customers?
We provide a native application that is designed to be used on TV, and it respects the UI and UX guidelines in order to offer a rich and seamless user experience. In addition the app is providing a highly personalized fitness experience in all stages of the user journey; from onboarding, surfacing recommendations, to creating a customized fitness profile.
Particularly during the current time, with more people spending time indoors, we are pleased that that our content offered people an efficient and easy to access work out experience at home and that customers are able to explore new and exciting fitness routines for themselves and their family members.
Which Fire TV engagement drivers / features have you implemented, or are you currently working on? And why?
We have integrated the In-App Purchasing (IAP) Amazon API that allows our app to present, process, and fulfill purchases of digital content and subscriptions within the Gymondo app. It has made our subscription management and conversion easier to our users, and overall allows for a smoother payment flow. In the past, we benefited from the release of a trial period. For the future, we are looking into implementing strike-through pricing.
We also use the Recommended By Your Apps Row, so it represents an opportunity for us to push content (not intrusive) and make it visible to any user who has the app installed on the home screen of the Fire TV device. This helps us to acquire and engage more users that did not register or convert by displaying free content regularly (recipes, workout of the day etc). It also allows engaged users to perform quick actions (e.g. play the next workout).
Getting started with Amazon Appstore
Amazon offers several tools and documents to get you started. You can test your existing APK within minutes to help you understand potentially required adaptations (if any). The Developer Portal also offers a variety of extensive documents to help you implement Amazon specific services, such as Reccomendations By Your Apps row or the In-App Purchasing API.
