April 21st, 2025 at 08:41 am
Building an e-commerce app is one thing. Turning it into your brand’s growth engine? That’s a completely different game — and one most brands don’t realise they’re playing until it’s too late.
At Nordstone, we’ve worked with dozens of e-commerce founders who were full of excitement on launch day, watching download numbers roll in like confetti at a grand opening. But a few weeks later? The buzz wears off, the numbers plateau, and the app quietly slips into the background of your customers’ phones — forgotten.
Why does this happen? Because without the right data, you’re not learning. You’re just hoping. And in business, hope isn’t a strategy.
So if you’ve just launched — or are about to — this is your heads-up. There are three specific data points you need to be tracking from day one to move beyond a “pretty” app and start building a reliable revenue-generating machine.
Let’s dig in.
Activation Event: The Moment Interest Turns Into Intent
The first real action your users take is like the first step in any relationship — it sets the tone for everything that follows.
In the world of e-commerce apps, the Activation Event is the moment a user moves from passive to active. Maybe they signed up. Maybe they added something to a cart. Maybe they scrolled through your products and hit that all-important “heart” icon to save a favourite.
Whatever the action, this is the clearest early signal that someone is more than just curious. They’re serious.
Why does this matter? Because users who hit this milestone are far more likely to buy, return, and tell others about your brand. If your onboarding isn’t guiding people to this action within their first interaction, you’re missing out on a golden window where their attention is fresh.
Smart brands track this religiously and tweak their user flow until reaching that action feels natural, seamless, and almost unavoidable.
Retention Anchor: Your Customer’s Reason to Return
Getting people through the front door is half the battle. The other half? Giving them a reason to come back.
That’s what a Retention Anchor does.
It’s that moment in the user journey when your app crosses from “nice-to-have” to “can’t-do-without.” And for e-commerce businesses, this could be a wide range of things, including:
- Personalized alerts for price drops.
- Notifications about new stock for saved favourites.
- Weekly or daily “New In” collections.
- Loyalty programs that reward repeat purchases.
When you identify and strengthen your retention anchor, you turn casual shoppers into loyal customers. The key is to understand which of these moments hook your users, and to make them as easy to access (and hard to ignore) as possible.
Retention isn’t luck. It’s a strategy — and the brands that master this are the ones that survive and scale.
Feature Usage: What’s Driving Revenue vs. What’s Just Dead Weight
Here’s something app designers don’t always want to admit: most features in most apps are underused.
That search filter you spent weeks perfecting?
That “refer a friend” button in your footer?
That fancy AR try-on tool?
Unless you’re actively tracking feature usage, you have no real clue whether those features are driving sales or just taking up space.
The more you understand what features users actually engage with, the more you can fine-tune your app to highlight what matters — and strip away the rest.
It’s about focusing your energy on what’s working, not what’s simply “there.” The cleaner and more relevant your app feels to users, the easier it is for them to buy, re-buy, and recommend.
Why All This Matters: Beyond Vanity Metrics
Sure, downloads look great on a pitch deck. But the brands that grow — the ones that scale and stick — understand that installs don’t pay the bills.
Real growth happens when you:
✔ Get users past the activation stage.
✔ Reinforce a habit-forming retention loop.
✔ Prioritize features that convert.
It’s this trio that turns a mobile app from a marketing accessory into a business asset. It’s not guesswork. It’s science.
Real-World Growth Starts With Real Data
Every app tells a story. The question is: do you know what yours is saying?
At Nordstone, we don’t believe in launching apps and walking away. We partner with founders to ensure their e-commerce apps are constantly learning from user behaviour — so you can improve, refine, and scale faster.
Whether you’re designing your first app or optimising an existing one, the brands that take data seriously from day one are the ones that dominate their market.
The good news? You don’t need a team of data scientists to do this. You just need to start with the right mindset and the right questions — and that starts with the three data points we’ve just covered.
Watch This Idea in Action
If you’d prefer the short and sharp version of this, I’ve got you covered. I broke this exact idea down into a 30-second video:
Why E-Commerce Founders Choose Nordstone
At Nordstone, we’ve built e-commerce apps for brands at every stage — from ambitious start-ups to scale-ups backed by serious venture capital.
And every successful app we’ve delivered has followed the same formula:
✔ Understand the Activation Event.
✔ Strengthen the Retention Anchor.
✔ Optimise Feature Usage.
When you know these three metrics, you’re not building apps based on instinct. You’re building them based on data. And data leads to growth — predictable, measurable growth.
Let’s Build Your App for Growth, Not Just Looks
If you want your e-commerce app to do more than sit on your customers’ phones — if you want it to drive real, reliable business growth — let’s talk.
