App Benchmarking is the process of measuring your app in comparison to other apps in your industry. This allows you to get a general idea of how your app measures up to its competition. Let’s be honest, it's what your users are doing everyday. If your app doesn’t meet the standard, your users will see no reason to continue with your digital product or service. App benchmarking allows you to be one step ahead in this process to be ready to make loyal users.
Pablo Picasso stated, “Good artists copy, but great artists steal.” The same can apply to the design of your app. Copying other apps is okay, but innovating the foundation that your competition has built by making it yours and by making it better is something great. This process starts by getting ideas.
Identifying what could make you stand out, is your strong-suit. As you are browsing around other apps, you will notice certain functions or features that are missing or are not being used often. This gives you the opportunity to create a niche to your app that could meet a need on the market.
Benchmarking helps you see your app objectively and have a realistic view of its potential. Comparing quality is essential to find out your app’s capacity of success. If you see that the apps of your competition have extremely high quality UX, UI, graphics, and features, it’s crucial that yours meet up these standards as well.
Benchmarking a wide range of apps will give you the best insight. You can gain information from benchmarking apps similar to yours, apps that are the best in your industry, and apps that are slightly different from yours.
Ex: ease of use, UI, performance, loading times, features available, customer support, personalization ability, capability to work offline, ability to search, social media integration, ads, localization ability, design, creativity, and price.
Each area should be rated on a scale from 1 - 5. Quantitative data is essential in app benchmarking because it is the only way to objectively compare data. You can also add qualitative data of examples and the overall feel to enhance your quantitative data if you wish.
Seeing the final ranking of your app in comparison to the others, puts your app into perspective for each area that you studied. You will then be able to identify the gaps in your app’s performance and integrate these new-found improvements into your app.
After App Benchmarking, you will be more informed and multiply your chances of success.